The official written languages of Hong Kong are Chinese and English, as stipulated in Article 9 of the Basic Law of Hong Kong. Cantonese and Mandarin Chinese, as well as English, are allowed as official spoken languages. Written Cantonese is used mainly in children's literature, advertising and other informal correspondence. In addition, the languages of recent immigrants from the Philippines, Indonesia and other countries are used in everyday life. The current situation of dual writing and trilingualism appeared relatively recently (after the transfer of Hong Kong to the PRC in 1998).
