Club Lunch: Hong Kong’s Post-Handover Generation: Searching for Identity in China’s Shadow

Teenage activists turned politicians, multi-millionaire super tutors, and artists fighting censorship—these are the stories of Generation HK. From radically different backgrounds yet with a common legacy, having grown up in post-handover Hong Kong, these young people have little attachment to the era of British colonial rule or today’s China. Instead, they see themselves as Hong Kongers, an identity both reinforced and threatened by the rapid expansion of Beijing’s influence. Amid great political and social uncertainty, Generation HK is trying to build a brighter future. Generation HK’s coming-of-age story reflects the bitter struggles beneath the gleaming facade of modern Hong Kong.

Ben Bland is the South China correspondent for the Financial Times and the author of Generation HK: Seeking Identity in China’s Shadow. Now based in Hong Kong, he was previously the FT correspondent in Indonesia and Vietnam. Prior to that, Ben was a business reporter for The Daily Telegraph in London, his home city. Ben studied History at the University of Cambridge and completed a Masters in Southeast Asian Studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London.