The roles of human capital and social capital in the economic integration of new arrivals from Mainland China to Hong Kong

Although it has been hypothesized in the literature that both human capital and social capital are important for the economic performance of new immigrants, few studies have examined these relationships empirically, especially in understudied populations such as Chinese populations. This study simultaneously examines the roles of human capital and social capital in the economic integration of new arrivals from Mainland China to Hong Kong, using a random sample of immigrants. In the early stage of immigration (less than 6 months after arrival), we find little support for the presumed positive effects of both human capital and social capital on employment status among new arrivals in Hong Kong. Follow-up studies are underway to investigate the dynamic relationship between social capital and economic integration in this group of new arrivals, and whether social capital, especially friendship networks, plays a more important role in the economic integration of new immigrants 1 or 2 years after arrival.     

城市经济圈发展助推区域一体化——兼论南沙新区与港澳的经济合作

根据区域一体化理论,结合新时期广东省在推进珠三角一体化中,建立和发展广佛肇、深莞惠和珠中江三个经济圈的实践,分析了区域经济一体化对区域整体发展的新意义、地位和作用,讨论了珠江三角洲通过建设和发展若干个以经济发展为核心的现代都市圈,对于新时期加强与港澳经济合作,促进区域经济一体化的更好发展颇具深远的意义和作用。     

Transforming into the new era: public relations industry in Hong Kong and China

The public relations industry as one of the key industries in Hong Kong has metamorphosed into a new phase after the resumption of sovereignty to China. Based on in-depth interviews with eight experienced corporate communication practitioners from multi-national and sizeable local corporations in Hong Kong and China, the study traces the recent development of public relations and/or corporate communication (hereafter PR/CC) highlighting issues of role and function, language and communication strategy, and ethics and professionalism.     

The representation of North Korean national image in national newspapers in the United States

This study examines how two major U.S. newspapers (The New York Times and The Washington Post) represented North Korea's national image during the two-year period (from 2001 to 2002). According to the findings, The New York Times and Washington Post showed a similar trend in their portrayal of North Korea. An anti-North Korea frame dominated the news coverage of North Korea in both newspapers. Furthermore, this study reveals that most news articles related to North Korea were classified into negative images instead of positive images.     

Discursive opportunity structures in post-handover Hong Kong localism: the China factor and beyond

The discourses of localism have been redefining the political spectrum, cultural practices, and identity politics of Hong Kong. A growing body of literature considers how China’s domination has fueled the rise of localism in Hong Kong. Drawing on the content and textual analyses of news media and other empirical evidence, this article scrutinizes the opportunity structure in post-handover Hong Kong to show that it facilitates the formation of localist discourses. It situates the localism of Hong Kong as the response to the social changes and China’s encroachment on the city in the post-handover years. Specifically, it focuses on the emergence of progressive localism prior to the recent deterioration of the China–Hong Kong relationship, the radicalization of social movements, and the continuing effects of critical post-handover events in Hong Kong. The study re-conceptualizes the localism of Hong Kong from the central–peripheral tension arising from China’s hegemony to the dynamic discursive formation of an evolving post-colonial city.     

The extent of family and school social capital promoting positive subjective well-being among primary school children in Shenzhen, China

This study aimed to examine, first, the extent to which variations in family and school social capital can be explained by child's differing socioeconomic and demographic background and school characteristics; and second, the extent to which family and school social capital in combination might be associated with variations in child subjective well-being in Shenzhen, China. This study was a cross-sectional survey design, using stratified random sampling. A total of 1306 sixth-grade primary school children and their parents were drawn from 16 schools, and a self-administered questionnaire was used. The results suggested that gender difference, the only child status at home and hukou status had impacts on family and school social capital accrued among primary school children in Shenzhen. There were also links between child's perception of connectedness to their parents, peers, and teachers, and their positive child subjective well-being.     

上海新二元人口融合的进程与策略

当前,上海人口新二元分割的特征还很明显,城市外来人口渴望融入和认同的心态非常迫切。随着国家对城乡关系的战略调整,确实需要反思长期以来执行的对外来人口＂经济吸纳、社会排斥＂的管理政策,积极引导和吸纳外来人口融入城市。在经济社会快速发展和城市化不断深入的社会背景下,如何帮助外来人口从经济、社会、文化多层面融入当地社会,是构建和谐社会的重要议题。     

An institutional perspective of public relations practices in the Chinese cultural contexts

To respond to a recent call for a sociological turn to the promotion of institutional thought in public relations research, we propose a novel theoretical framework based on institutional work for studying PR practice in Chinese cultural contexts. Specifically, we attempted to stay away from the functional approach of examining PR outcomes, and focus on how institutional actors “navigate” the existing cultural contexts for institutionalising PR. We used triangulate methods based on 40 semi-structured interviews, participant observation and document collections. We found that PR actors do not passively respond to institutional pressures, but rather creatively and reflexively interpret and incorporate existing cultural aspects, especially guanxi and harmony, to construct and transform their PR practices. These practices offer insights into why and how guanxi, as well as other cultural factors, are integrated and legitimised in PR practice in China.     

Indonesian Chinese in Hong Kong: re-migration,re-establishment of livelihood and belonging

This paper describes the re-migration and adjustment of Indonesian Chinese to living in Hong Kong and their cultural belonging to Hong Kong, China, and Indonesia. Known in China as guiqiao or ‘Returned Overseas Chinese’, these were Chinese who re-migrated from Indonesia to mainland China in the 1950s and 1960s. By the early 1970s, many were allowed to migrate to Hong Kong. Although arriving with very little money, many have succeeded in establishing a fairly good life in Hong Kong, although there are also many who survive on low incomes. This paper discusses the experiences of the Indonesian Chinese in relation to local and transnational belonging, the perception of homelands, and the re-establishment of a Southeast Asian lifestyle in Hong Kong.     

A comparative analysis of the perception of public relations in Chinese and South Korean newspapers

The study analyzes the major newspapers of China and South Korea to explore how the journalists perceive public relations term which is equivalent to Xuan Chuan in China and Hong-Bo in South Korea. Chinese news considered the primary function of Xuan Chuan to be persuasion, whereas Korean news considered the primary functions of Hong-Bo to be public information and image (reputation) management. Xuan Chuan was more likely to be associated with the government and persuasion, whereas Hong Bo was closely associated with for-profit organizations and image management.     

The struggle for hegemony: the emergence of a counter-public sphere in post-1997 Hong Kong

The present study examines the struggle for hegemony in the public sphere by two different systems, following Hong Kong’s handover to China in 1997. It has been postulated that the new media, particularly social media, has become an important public sphere for the citizens of Hong Kong to engage in an anti-hegemonic struggle against China’s discursive encroachment into Hong Kong since 1997. Given that the public platform provided by legacy media has been bought out or coopted by China, new media has begun to serve as a subaltern public sphere to enable resisting the hegemony imposed by China. This was analyzed through a survey conducted as part of this study, which showed that people who are young, read the Apple Daily, have high expectations of local autonomy, and a high regard for press freedom are prone to using social media to obtain their social and political information. This article analyzes the implications of the emergence of a counter-China hegemonic public sphere.     

Geographical indications, terroir, and socioeconomic and ecological sustainability: The case of tequila

In this paper, we use the case of tequila to examine the potential for geographical indications (GIs) to contribute to socioeconomic and environmental sustainability. GIs are place-based names (e.g., Champagne, Roquefort) that convey the geographical origin, as well as the cultural and historical identity, of agricultural products. The GI for tequila was established by the Mexican government in 1974, making it the oldest GI, and one of the best-recognized, outside of Europe. Here, we examine the social, economic, and ecological impacts that the agave–tequila industry has had on one community in tequila's region of origin, the town of Amatitán. We show that persistent cycles of surplus and shortage of agave and changing production relations in the agave–tequila industry have led to: (1) economic insecurity among farm households; (2) increased use of chemical inputs, at the expense of more labor-intensive cultivation practices; and (3) overall declines in fertilizer application, especially during periods in which there is a surplus of agave. We argue that the negative effects of the agave–tequila industry on the local economy and environment are due to the failure of the GI for tequila to value the ways in which the terroir of tequila's region of origin have contributed to its specific properties. We conclude by using this case to discuss more generally the relationship between the protection of place-based products (known collectively as geographical indications) and social and environmental sustainability.     

Transnational queer sociological analysis of sexual identity and civic‐political activism in Hong Kong,Taiwan and mainland China

The sociology of homosexuality lacks engagement with queer theory and postcolonialism and focuses primarily on the global metropoles, thus failing to provide a plausible account of non‐Western non‐normative sexual identities. This research adopts the author’s newly proposed transnational queer sociology to address these deficiencies. First, it critiques the Western model of sexual identity predominantly employed to elucidate non‐Western, non‐normative sexualities. It does so by examining not only the queer flows between West and non‐West but also those among and within non‐Western contexts to produce translocally shared and mutually referenced experiences. Second, the proposed approach combines sociology with queer theory by emphasizing the significant role of material, as well as discursive, analyses in shaping queer identities, desires and practices. This article employs the approach to examine young gay male identities, as revealed in 90 in‐depth interviews conducted in Hong Kong (n = 30), Taiwan (Taipei, n = 30) and mainland China (Shanghai, n = 30) between 2017 and 2019. More specifically, it highlights the interplay between the state and identity by investigating the intersection and intertwining effects of these young men’s sexual and cultural/national identities, revealing three different forms of civic‐political activism. The article both demonstrates the way in which sexuality and the state are mutually constituted and provides nuanced analysis of the heterogeneity of contemporary homosexualities in Hong Kong, Taiwan and mainland China. In applying a new sociological approach to understanding sexuality, this research joins the growing body of scholarship within sociology that is decentring the Western formation of universal knowledge.     

台港澳地区青年组织开展民众工作比较研究

青年组织是青年群体活动、成长和发展的集体,也是培育社会资本的重要平台与形式。当代政党和非政党组织的一个共性特征和普遍做法是通过青年组织开展民众工作,广泛吸纳青年社会精英,务实政党民意基础,完成政治社会化过程。通过对台港澳地区相关青年组织的考察,梳理其开展民众工作的具体理念和路径,有益于探寻青年组织深入社会、服务社会的内在规律,对我国其他地区同类型青年组织的发展起到一定的借鉴作用。     

香港战略规划要点及对上海建设卓越全球城市之借鉴

通过港澳地区调研发现,"面向未来30年的上海"发展战略研究与"香港2030+"战略规划在研究方法、规划理念、策略导向等方面存在部分趋同性.由于"香港2030+"侧重于空间规划,更多以突破城市当前和潜在发展短板为出发点,其在城市定位选择、具体策略制定等方面对"面向未来30年的上海"发展战略研究具有一定启示意义.同时,香港特区政府中央政策组、香港规划署、香港大学、澳门科技大学的专家也对上海建设卓越全球城市提出一系列建议.     

The co-evolution of gossip and friendship in workplace social networks

This study investigates the co-evolution of friendship and gossip in organizations. Two contradicting perspectives are tested. The social capital perspective predicts that friendship causes gossip between employees, defined as informal evaluative talking about absent colleagues. The evolutionary perspective reverses this causality claiming that gossiping facilitates friendship. The data comprises of three observations of a complete organizational network, allowing longitudinal social network analyses. Gossip and friendship are modeled as both explanatory and outcome networks with RSiena. Results support the evolutionary perspective in that gossip between two individuals increases the likelihood of their future friendship formation. However, individuals with disproportionately high gossip activity have fewer friends in the network, suggesting that the use of gossiping to attract friends has a limit.     

Scalar politics,language ideologies,and the sociolinguistics of globalization among transnational Korean professionals in Hong Kong

This paper argues that the sociolinguistics of globalization is accompanied by a constitutive scalar politics. Based on ten interviews with Korean professionals in Hong Kong, we report that Korean migrants’ use and experience of English is characterized by competing language ideologies we identify as: Pragmatic English/Perfect English, Multilingualism/English Only, and Global Language/Local Language. Tensions within these ideologies were revealed as respondents referenced the contexts of their daily lives as intersecting sets of geographic, temporal, and social scales. We discuss how sociolinguistic relations associated with the transnational lifecourse, hybridizing identity, and racialization were imagined in ways that re‐negotiated these scales to serve the interests of the participants and provide coherence to their communicative practices. Sociolinguistic relations both reference scales and constitute them. We conclude that attending to scales and scalar politics provides a better explanatory framework for the ways the uneven linguistics markets of globalization are negotiated by transnational subjects.     

Producing Postman Pat: The popular cultural construction of idyllic rurality

This paper concerns the popular cultural representation of English rurality. It focuses upon Postman Pat, a popular cultural phenomenon which has come to be routinely cited as exemplary and iconic of contemporary imaginings of the English countryside as idyllic. The idea that Anglocentric popular culture (re)produces this sort of ‘rural idyll’ – and that these idylls are particularly laden with cultural and ideological baggage – has been well rehearsed. However, this paper considers a question which has too often been overlooked or taken for granted: how, exactly – and I mean literally, actually, in detail, in practice – does this sort of idyllic rurality come to be constructed? Through conversations with two key figures in the creation of Postman Pat, the paper begins to develop an understanding of some of the everyday, banal, nitty gritty practices, decisions and encounters which must be understood as fundamentally part of the production of (this) ‘rural idyll’.     

Micro-entrepreneurship,new media technologies,and the reproduction and reconfiguration of gender in rural China

This article explores the connections between micro-entrepreneurship, new media technologies, and gender in rural China. Based on fieldwork among diverse individuals engaged in agricultural and non-agricultural micro-entrepreneurship, I examine how uses of technology in economic production become the site for the reproduction and/or reconfiguration of gender hierarchies. Grounding my analysis in feminist and critical theories of technology, I investigate the gendered uses and discourses of new media technologies that emerge from three types of entrepreneurial spaces: physical places where micro-entrepreneurship is based on new media technologies, such as internet cafés and mobile phone shops; virtual realms where new media technologies potentially facilitate entrepreneurship, including text messaging and various websites; and virtual spaces where informal learning and sharing take place via mediated networks formed around common occupations. I argue that in the context of entrepreneurship, even among women and men who are young and have migration experience, deeply entrenched gendered power differentials produce unequal access to capital and social networks, and hence uses and understandings of technology. Although engagement with technology has opened up new spaces for economic enhancement and the rearrangement of conventional gender norms, such engagement does not overcome – indeed, in many cases reproduces – gendered power relations.     

Cross-border journeys and minority monks: the making of Buddhist places in southwest China

This article investigates the practice and social meanings of cross-border journeys of Dai minority monks, in Xishuangbanna, Southwest China. These journeys play a vital part in Theravada revivalism in this border region. In the early 1990s, the Dai monks left Xishuangbanna to pursue their Buddhist studies in Thailand, thereby experiencing Thai culture and society. I will show not only that transnational networks among the Tai peoples in the upper Mekong region have played a crucial role in this religious movement, but also that the transnational Theravada networks enable and are partly constituted by the cross-border journeys of Dai exiles and minority monks, which strengthen and enhance the Dai ability to persist, revive, and maintain their locality and cultural identity. It is these cultural practices which contribute to and formulate the making of Dai places within the power contexts of state displacement, regional trade and development in Southwest China.