DHAKA: The number of Hong Kongers identifying themselves as ‘Chinese’ has reached a record low, after more than a month of mass pro-democracy demonstrations calling for free elections.

A poll has found, The Straits Times publishes this report on Tuesday.

Only 8.9 percent of Hong Kongers called themselves ‘Chinese’ in the survey by the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), the lowest number since the poll began in 1996.

The weeks-long mass democracy protests which have brought parts of the city to a standstill had influenced the vote, said the head of CUHK’s journalism school, which carries out the regular ‘Identity and National Identification of Hong Kong People’ survey and published its latest findings Monday.

‘Recently people have been exposed to a lot of news about political reforms, voting, elections, and people actually are feeling that part of their identity is being affected by the Chinese authorities,’ Anthony Fung told the media.

BDST: 1545 HRS, NOV 11, 2014