After Hong Kong's return to Chinese rule, there were a number of problems over language, also in part because of reluctance to identify too closely with symbols of Beijing's cultural power. (See the article "Hong Kong Embraces the Chinese Language" in the Sep tember 1998 issue of Sinorama.) Language preference can become a serious point of social cleavage when it is connected to differences in regime or national identity.
回歸後的香港在語言上有種種糾葛（詳見一九九八年八月號光華國內版《香港重回中文懷抱》一文），也因為對北京政權的抗拒，假如國家認同未分岐，語言認同也不致發生重大爭端。