Bilingualism in Hong Kong

Hong Kong is an officially bilingual territory. Under the Article 9 of the Hong Kong Basic Law and the Official Languages Ordinance, "English and Chinese" are, of equal status, the official languages of the territory. However, it is not specified which variety of "Chinese" is referred to. While Mandarin written in simplified Chinese characters is used as the standard language in mainland China, Cantonese in traditional Chinese characters is the de facto standard in Hong Kong.

Cantonese, the language of Canton (now called Guangdong) and other parts of southern China became an official language of Hong Kong when the Chinese population of the colony grew. Hong Kong's population reached 6.99 million in 2006, of which approximately 95% are of Chinese descent, the majority of which was Cantonese, Hakka, and Teochew.

Hong Kong became a crown colony of the United Kingdom in 1840, and was established as a free port to serve as an entrepôt of the British Empire. The government officials and businessmen from Britain spoke English. The British administration in Hong Kong continued to use English as an official language, but added Chinese (Cantonese) as another official language in 1974.

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