In discussing the use of English in Hong Kong, some suggest that “ there is no social and cultural role for English to play among Hong Kong Chinese; it only has a role in their relations with expatriates and the outside world ” (John, 1994). However, it can be shown that this view is incorrect and outdated.

The social role of English playing in Hong Kong is a role that cannot be replaced technically. The evidence for the presence of such social role can be shown in the use of English among Hong Kong Chinese people in education, science/technology field, (especially on Internet), medical field, and of course, in the Government and legal field.

English, being one of the official languages of the Hong Kong Government (of both before and after 1997), many can easily point out that English is widely used in writing government and legal documents. However, as a student, one can also easily point out that English is also being used as an instruction medium in schools, and also widely used in Internet communication from one’s own experience.

English has been used for many years as an instruction medium in schools (especially, in senior level of secondary schools, and tertiary education), and an answering tool in public examinations. Also, it should be noted that, a majority of the teachers of the schools in Hong Kong are Chinese, whose their mother tongue is Cantonese, but not English. This is a strong evidence showing that there are many cases that English is formally used for communication between Chinese people in Hong Kong. Besides, English is also widely used outside the classroom as a way of practice for fluency among local Chinese students or among teachers and students.

English is also widely used for communicating purpose among Hong Kong Chinese on Internet through three main forms/channels, namely e-mail, discussion group, and also ICQ. It is because a large number of local Chinese people do not have any knowledge or are not familiar with Chinese Typing (Chinese Inputting Method) on computer, there is always a need to use English as a major tool of communication among local Chinese on Internet platforms.

Besides the social role, English also plays an important cultural role in Hong Kong society. English has already been part of Hong Kong’s own local culture. It acts as a culture marker that distinguish Hong Kong Culture from the culture of Mainland China and Taiwan, whose the majority are Chinese-speaking too. Different form the nature of its social role, the cultural role of English in Hong Kong is a role that can be replaced technically, but the fact is, Hong Kong Chinese are showing a tendency of keeping English as part of the component of Hong Kong local culture.

Evidences showing the cultural role that English is playing in Hong Kong include the use of English as people names, as shop/company names, as product brand names.
Although the majority of the population of Hong Kong are Chinese, it is interesting to note that a large number of local Chinese have their own English names. Also, many shops and companies in Hong Kong have their only names in English, especially, those whose the target client are the younger generation, such as boutiques (e.g., U2, Esprit), mobile phone service companies (e.g. Orange, Sunday, Extra, etc.).

Also, trace of the use English elements can easily be figured out in local popular culture, such as local produced comics, movies, TV/radio programmes. Usually, English is used intermittently with Chinese in the conversation among the characters in these movies or TV/radio programmes. Typical examples are the programmes of the Radio FM Select. The DJ of the programmes makes all the announcements, comments to the songs and some other speeches in both Chinese and English. Besides, English words or sentences are sometimes found in the lyrics of locally produced pop songs. Even in actual daily lives, English words or even sentences can be found mixed in the conversation among local Chinese.

In some extreme cases, English is used among local Chinese, not only for communication purpose, but also serve as a tool to show prestige or a higher social status or the amount of knowledge gained. This contributes one of the causes of code mixing problem in local Chinese language.

From the above examples, it can be shown that the cultural role of English in Hong Kong can be technically replaced without disturbing the smooth running of the society. But, actually, no obvious evidence is found by the moment, which the cultural role English playing in Hong Kong is going to be replaced in near future.

Although English is widely used in Hong Kong in a number of technically fields (government, legal, medical etc.) and playing an important culture role, there is a growing trend of restricting the use of English in Hong Kong society. One of the obvious trends can be noticed in education field, since the Government promotes the use of the mother tongue as the teaching medium in schools (i.e. Chinese for the majority in Hong Kong). Moreover, the Hospital Authority also holds a number of nurse classes, which Chinese is used as the teaching medium. Besides, the localization of the common law of Hong Kong is also in progress, making a large number of the law statements have their own Chinese translation, and conducting trial using Chinese becomes possible, and much more important is that the original version of Basic Law is written in Chinese. Also, as the continuous development of the economy of China, and the close relationship between China and Hong Kong, Chinese language, especially Putonghua is also much commonly used in commercial sector. Based on these evidences, it can be predicted that English may lose its leading predominant role in education, medical, legal field and commercial sector, although English will still be an important official working language in near future. It seems that Chinese will gain equal respect and status in Hong Kong society. However, since Hong Kong is an international city with a close trade linkage with many parts of the world, English will still will still keep its own status as a main tool for communication purpose between Hong Kong people and foreigners. Therefore, a fluency in English will still be highly desired in Hong Kong society.