Abstract
Inspired by Schneider's (2007) innovative Dynamic Model, this paper traces the rise of English-knowing bilingualism in Hong Kong by analysing the authorship of 1,379 letters published in the city's leading English-language newspapers since the early 1840s. The evidence points to three main phases in the evolution of this community: 1840s–1910s, 1920s–1970s, 1980s–present. In the first phase, the bilingual segment of the Chinese community was apparently microscopic or, in the words of a colonial official, ‘infinitesimal’. The second and third phases may be characterised as periods of spreading minority and majority bilingualism respectively.
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