Code-mixing between Cantonese and English on a daily basis is no big news in Hong Kong’s society. With both languages being the official languages, both languages are taught under the education system. Together with the colonial history, as well as the current influence under globalisation, English often appears in different aspects of Hong Kong life, from business to leisure, formal to casual.

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Young Hongkongers have always been creative on language usage with the aid of the internet. Most of these creations are inspired by news or daily life incidents. The creator would put the new expression on the internet. If other internet users find the new creation good and worth spreading, they would share it, thereby sending it viral almost instantly. Very often, these expression are products of code-mixing, for instances, a combination of Cantonese and English, a Cantonese with pronunciation similar to English or vice versa, or a direct/literal translation from English.

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“Kongish”, the new internet language, was born in a similar way. The creator is not good at English so for convenience he do Cantonese transliteration in English, which only local people understand it. People find it funny and entertaining to play with. Kongish is its value as a tool to establish and strengthen the Hong Kong identity, especially amid political turmoil. For many young Hongkonger, Kongish is like a flag claiming territory of their unique multilingual language resources. Expressing themselves with both Cantonese and English make them stand out from people from mainland China.

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(Source: http://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/article/1903452/hongkongers-mix-english-and-cantonese-new-language-kongish)