Life Here Is Bittersweet: Hong Kong Students’ Identity Paradox During Their Pursuit of Tertiary Education in the Greater Bay Area

Given the geographic advantage and the prospective socio-economic and political context, Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (Greater Bay Area, GBA) has recently developed into a hub of higher education for attracting Hong Kong students to study in Mainland universities under the Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education (DSE) Admission Scheme. Through in-depth interviews with twenty-three Hong Kong students studying at three top universities in Guang Zhou, we found in this research that Hong Kong students faced an identity paradox when studying at Mainland higher education. On the one hand, they realize that in the eyes of mainland students, Hong Kong’s identity represents "poor academic performance but enjoys political preferential treatment". On the other hand, for their own benefit and to survive in the fierce competition between Hong Kong and the Mainland, Hong Kong students are willing to enjoy the special political status of Hong Kong people in their studies and employment. Even facing strong competition from Mainland students, they hope to have more other "preferential treatment" based on their existing advantages. Policy and practical implications are discussed in this paper.