Our Understanding & Opinions towards the prejudice issue
After reviewing researches and analyzing the examples from online platforms, it seems that some of the locals like to judge so-called "Fake ABC" through their differences in fashion style and the accent used when compared with so-called "local Hongkongers".
Likely, anti-"Fake ABC" users constructed the social identity of "Fake ABC" by positioning themselves as supporting local ideas. The emphasized their hatred towards the American brands. Arguably, it constructs the in-group behaviour and the out-group behaviour socially. Possibly, the "anti-Fake ABC" enlarge the differences based on their inconsistent fashion outfit and the accent, but ignore the similarities they share in other areas.
The "Fake ABC" actually arouse the debate on what does it mean by Hong Kong Identity? What is the criteria of being seen as a local but not a "Fake ABC"?
Adopting concepts from previous scholarly works, we can make connections to the implications of language prejudice against out-group members in online discourse. By constructing the discriminatory term “fake ABC”, people perform social positioning, social categorization and address social identity. Such behaviour is closely related to people’s perception towards their Hong Kong identity as well as the local socio-historical context.
Social positioning
The process of social positioning is closely related to the definition of self and others based on personal preference as well as ideologies. Participants observe salient features, take a favorable stance, interact with the “alike” and alienate the “different”. In our case, social positioning refers to the taking the stance as “authentic local Hongkongers” and differentiating from the “fake ABC” image. Applying to what we have found in Bocholtz and Hall’s research (2005), through constructing this discriminatory term and attaching negative connotations with it, people form a sense of belonging in in-group interaction. By highlighting and condemning physical and linguistic characteristics of the discussion target in online comments, people first position themselves as right while the other wrong. This attempt can be observed in their linguistic features such as the indexicality (in-group as “I” or “we” and out-group as “they”) (Bocholtz and Hall, 2005 ) as well frequent use of contrast (“real” vs. “fake”). To reinforce the difference, people attach further negative association on the “fake ABCs”, insults and attacks them as being “pride” and “pretentious”. This is how social positioning is demonstrated in the discussion.
Social identity
Firstly, the social identity of "fake ABC" and "locals" may be able to reflect users' social and cultural beliefs on local ideology. Aspects of an individual’s self-image can be derived from social positioning, to which he perceives himself as belonging and a target as outsider (Bocholtz and Hall, 2005).
Example 1
"其實我諗呢篇文既主旨並唔係話ABC係原罪
而係話 做人做到咁虛偽 咁厭惡自己既真實身份"
(Actually I think the important point is not to condemn ABC, but to say "fake ABC" are so pretentious and they hate their real identity )
From the above examples, it may be argued that the self-image of the user reflects that the "real identity" should be reflecting the local style instead of foreign in terms of language and appearance. He project ABC as "fake" by positioning them as "hating their real identity." This may relate to Ma's (2005) suggestion on stigmatizing foreigners as out-groups and reinforce that in-group (local Hong Kongers) should discriminate the out-group.
Social identity is also linked to the concept of authenticity. In our focused situation, discriminating out-group image and speech patterns signals one’s identity and position. Here, the target of prejudice are those who do not match the image of an “authentic” local. The term “fake ABC” is highly attached with negative connotation: the word “fake” suggest inauthenticity. Some users over-generalizes that "Kong girls like to speak in pretentious foreign accents" or "Hong Kong women nowadays are all ridiculous", while some users try to prevent the over-generalization by saying that they are not "fake" as they do acquire features as they grow up. It is clear that such social identity constructed is not a stable concept and is constantly under debate.
Social categorisation
Stangor (2000) suggests that one would categorize people practicing certain behaviours or sharing certain identical physical appearances into a group. In this case, internet users tend to categorise people performing the aforementioned salient features as "Fake ABC", including a particular type of hair and dressing styles which are different from most local Hong Kong people. Soon, "Fake ABC" has been developed into an agreed-upon concept or image shared by internet users which is obviously a stereotype. For instance, Christy Lai, an active Instagram user, is categorised as "Fake ABC" because of her Westernised fashion style and the way she acts. However, the term has arguably constitutes prejudiced, disapproved phrase manipulated by internet users in order to negatively refer to others as pretentious, arrogant and "stand-out", even though someone may not intended to comb the so-called Fake ABC-hair style or to put on clothes patronised from Abercrombie & Fitch and Hollister Co.
Criteria of being seen as a local
The salient criteria of being seen as a local is to speak Cantonese in Hong Kong code-mixing style (Chen, 2008). "Fake ABC" is suggested to have a tendency to code-mix Cantonese with some "lazy", "weird" features from English. It is often commented that "Fake ABC" pretended that their first language is English by demonstrating "less fluent" and "accurate" Cantonese. This feature of "Fake ABC" Cantonese is therefore diluted from the criteria of being a local Chinese, which most "local" Hongkonger do not come in line with this "uniqueness". Secondly, if ABC who tends to use more English instead of Cantonese in their speech, they will be regarded as "more ABC" because they can demonstrate the unique linguistic features or accents as native English speakers do. This feature, arguably again differentiate locals and ABC because it is believed that general Hongkonger cannot speak English like native speakers.
Moreover, girls who dressed fully in American brands may also be regarded as “Fake ABC”, given that they do not speak naturally like native speakers. They may be seen as "locals who wanted to be ABC and feel that they are actually different from the locals because I have more foreign friends". All these shallow features to determine if one is an authentic ABC, “Fake ABC” or locals are ambivalent since we observed that no particular line could be drawn to put people into boxes. Local identity is dynamic and changeable, it takes time to build up a community of self-awareness. With the widespread of illustration and discussions among Facebook and various forums, we would say that the identity issue of being a “local” Hongkonger is again controversial.
Suggestions for improving the current situation
Before one judges others as a "Fake ABC", one should look into the reasons why others prefer other non-local styles. Superficial evidence should not be seen as a reliable evidence to judge one's personality/ identity. Thus, understanding is crucial before we make some subjective judgments on others when they do not look similar to us.
Second, it is also suggested that respecting the diversity is important on this issue. We may not totally please with one's appearance and ideas, respecting the diversity in our social is important, as different people could have different characters. We are not supposed to be the same as others.
Suggestion for further exploration on the issue of "Fake ABC"
Although we made an attempt to conduct a research on the issue of "Fake ABC", we still have some limitations in conducting the research in a broader horizons. It is suggested that the interviews could be conducted for the sake of understanding the perspective from the so-called "Fake ABC", their opinion should be not ignored. They may want to have a say in this hot debate. Second, it is also hoped that more research could be done on the relationship between the "Fake ABC" and the local identity.