Body,dress and cultural exclusion: Experiences of Pakistani women in ‘global’ Hong Kong

Underneath a veneer of racial harmony and acceptance, racial discrimination is widespread at many different levels of life in Hong Kong, the so-called ‘global city’. For decades, some minority communities have lived with subtle but institutionalized and cultural discrimination permeating their existence. In recent years, social exclusion has been one of the important themes in policy debates in Hong Kong. It is increasingly recognized that there is a close relation between ‘ethnicity’ and ‘social exclusion’. According to our research on the life situation of the South Asian minority in Hong Kong, experiences of exclusion are common. This paper focuses on investigating dress as a form of cultural exclusion among Pakistani women in Hong Kong and how mainstream society constrains the bodies of its members through dress.     

Social policy in Hong Kong: From British colony to Special Administrative Region of China

This paper discusses the preservation and change of social policy in Hong Kong in the process of its development from a British colony to a Special Administrative Region of China (SAR). It is argued by the authors that the role and strategy of the colonial government in social policy and social welfare seem to have been largely preserved by the new SAR government which advocates for a new vision for social development. It is also argued that without a democratic mandate, the SAR government continues to rely on stimulating economic output as a primary means to gain legitimation, while social policy and social welfare remain to be subordinated to economic growth. Traditional Chinese values continue to be upheld by the SAR government not only as a means to contain social welfare cost, but also as an instrument to strengthen social control. What is different between the colonial and the SAR regimes is perhaps the increasingly strategic position of Hong Kong as a window of China to the global economy.     

THE HI/STORIES OF HONG KONG

This paper examines the formation of modernity in three colonialist epics of Hong Kong and the recent historical and fictional works that aim to rewrite the history of the ‘local’. Adopting a challenge-response structure, the paper argues that the colonialist epics construct a monolithic discourse of modernity-as-progress via the amnesia of conflicts, tensions, and processes of domination and negotiation in the rural and everyday space of colonial Hong Kong. It is stressed that to piece together the above anomalies is not an attempt to restore a pre-given ‘native’ to but rather an endeavour to examine how the ‘local’ as divergent historical agents shaped and has been shaped by the political, social, and economic environment of Hong Kong and the larger world outside. This can be called a model of dialectics composed of an internal dialectic and a dialectic of articulation. In this regard, with the benefit of the rapprochement of history and anthropology and a non-linear view of history, this paper is a historical bricolage of the anomalous history of Hong Kong, aiming to destabilize the Hong Kong historical grand narrative. Through rethinking the impact of the colonial experience, this paper hopes to liberate alterity and diversity in historical interpretations and imaginations.     

Organizing Self-Help Groups for Empowerment and Social Change

Abstract

Empirical research has shown that self-help groups are not purely about individual change and intra-personal empowerment, but also about policy change and collective empowerment. In North America and Europe, such groups have been in the forefront of social change, and self-help represents a new political potential. However, findings of this study of self-help groups in Hong Kong indicate that social change has never been their common objective. In addition, members of the Hong Kong groups feel unable to impact social policies that affect their lives, despite wanting to do so. It is contended in this paper that this feeling of powerlessness among members might be related to the nature, size and length of existence of the self-help groups. It is further argued that self-help groups should form coalitions and seek professional assistance in order to effect social change and to strengthen and broaden their power base.     

Unlocking the racialized and gendered educational experiences of South Asian females in Hong Kong: the case study of Pakistani girls

Educating South Asians with different language and cultural backgrounds and integrating them into mainstream society have been a challenge for the educational system of Hong Kong. This study documents the educational experiences of a group of Pakistani girls in the contexts of home, community, and school in Hong Kong. Using ethnographic methods, data collection is based on interviews evoking their life stories. These stories recount how Pakistani girls attempt to negotiate with traditional customs, religion and mainstream stereotypes and to construct racialized and gendered schooling experiences. This study highlights the importance of mainstream engagement in regard to critical learning about cultural and linguistic diversity. It is claimed that minorities have an active role as agents in social transformation and change in achieving racial and gender equality, in this case for the most disadvantaged minority females, within the asymmetrical power relationships between local Chinese and South Asian minorities in Hong Kong.     

What contributes to ethnic minorities’ identification with Hong Kong? The cases of South Asian and Filipino youth

ABSTRACT

The context of Hong Kong has not always been favourable for the integration of ethnic minorities, who face various difficulties in education, employment, and daily life. Research, however, has shown that many minorities, particularly the youth, have developed a fair sense of belonging to the city. To explore this puzzle, this study conducted semi-structured interviews with 20 South Asian and Filipino youth and identified four main factors that may be associated with their local identification. They are (1) experiencing less discrimination, (2) achieving a higher level of sociocultural adaptation, (3) having an inclusive conception of Hong Kong identity, and (4) claiming to have received more social benefits. The findings suggest that the context of Hong Kong is not entirely detrimental for ethnic minorities to develop a local identification. Ethnic minorities themselves are also active agents in the construction of identity. Theoretical and policy implications of the findings are discussed.     

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 historical trajectory and diaspora of Hong Kong immigrants in Africa

Using Diaspora as a theoretical framework, this article investigates the historical trajectory of Hong Kong immigrant access to Africa, the evolution of their diaspora as well as living strategies. Based on data collected from 10 Hong Kong immigrants during 2018-2019 in Africa, and assessment of some historical materials such as Sino-Africa political relationships, its change trajectory, trade record, and personnel exchanges, the results demonstrate that the different Hong Kong political system might lead to the entrepreneurial resource obtains and the evolution trends of the diaspora of Hong Kong immigrants. Since the 1980s, the increase of re-export trade volume between Mainland China and Hong Kong had strengthened the trade volume between Hong Kong and Africa with the development of the Sino-Africa relationship. It illustrates that the trade relations between Hong Kong and Africa have been increasingly influenced by the re-export trade between Hong Kong and mainland China. Meanwhile, the Hong Kong immigrants in Africa have gradually been showing a trend of integration with new Chinese immigrants in Africa, which navigated their identities constantly i.e., Hong Kong diaspora, Chinese ethnic group and British citizenship (overseas), while their daily life was inclined towards cosmopolitan trends.     

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.     

Employer Policy and Practice Toward Older Workers in Hong Kong: The Role of Shifting Intergenerational Dynamics

Many governments are seeking to encourage the extension of working lives to counteract potential labor market shortages that might result from population aging. Nevertheless, research shows that older workers continue to face a range of barriers to their labor market participation. However, this research has not tended to take a holistic view of the factors shaping employer policy and practice or acknowledge that older workers’ experiences are embedded within broader social structures and age dynamics. This article reports on exploratory qualitative research undertaken in Hong Kong. It demonstrates how employer policy and practice toward older workers are shaped by intergenerational dynamics and by the social responsibility that employers feel toward different generations. It is argued that in order to more fully understand employer policy and practice toward older workers, an approach that acknowledges the social context and position of different age groups is required.     

What is ethnic in an ethnic economy?

This article examines critically the relationship between ethnicity and entrepreneurship in the sociology of immigrant economies. It argues that what is ethnic in an ethnic economy has often been confusingly conceptualised and that several factors now call for re-assessing the ethnic nature of immigrants' business activities. On the basis of a review of recent research, three such factors are outlined: the porosity of ethnic boundaries to cross-group business interactions; the diversity within immigrant economies in terms of status, gender, class and generation; and the political and institutional context in which immigrant economies take place. The conclusion stresses the need for multiple explanations of how and why immigrants become entrepreneurs, which take into account not only the meso-level constituted by ethnicity and social capital, but also micro-individual factors and macro-institutional settings.     

INTERFACING FEMINISM AND CULTURAL STUDIES IN HONG KONG: A CASE OF EVERYDAY LIFE POLITICS

Cultural studies, as a cultural and political re-articulation of common sense, knowledge and community practices, aims at opening up new cultural space for criticisms, reflections and action. Originating from the women' movement and later flourishing in the academy as well, feminism espouses similar aims to cultural studies. Both cultural studies and feminist/gender studies have a strong sense of intervening into everyday life politics. This paper is an attempt to discuss how feminism and cultural studies interface with each other, largely based on examples of gender-related everyday life politics taken from the feminist movement in Hong Kong. It will examine issues concerning the conflict of consumption and female subjectivities, the reconceptualization of home and housewives, and the representation of everyday life for women and history writing. It is argued that by blurring, negotiating or deconstructing the boundary or division between positions, identities and domains–such as subject and object, housewives and workers, private and public, personal and political, consumption and production–the re-articulation of knowledge about ‘victim’, ‘exploitation’, ‘home’ and ‘history’ in the feminist movement will not only provide the movement with new impetus and insight to reconsider its strategies in fighting for more cultural, social and economic space for women and other marginal groups at large in Hong Kong, but will also ‘metabolize’ the newly developed discipline of cultural studies in Hong Kong by providing a platform to strengthen the dynamic arm of cultural studies education and research. Based on her feminist and teaching experiences in Hong Kong, the author has highlighted activism and pedagogy as the two important dimensions of feminism and cultural studies in this paper.     

香港港口与城市发展

开埠之初就被定位为“自由港”的香港,是“以港兴市”的典型例子,港口的发展为香港经济的起飞和就业作出了巨大的贡献;而香港的产业发展以及与内地的区域合作,又促进了港口的繁荣,并使得香港成为国际航运中心。但目前,在金融海啸、珠三角产业转型、内地港口蓬勃发展等因素的影响下,香港港口的发展前景不容乐观。本文在回顾香港港口与城市发展关系的基础上,深入探讨了香港港口业务增长放缓的原因,并提出着力发展航运服务业,是香港航运中心转型升级、提高香港城市竞争力的重要方向。     

Ideational Origins of Modern Theories of Ethnicity: Individual Freedom vs Organizational Growth*

It is argued that sociological theories of ethnicity can be subsumed under two basic paradigms. One assumes modernity means increasing individual freedom (an assumption derived from classical liberalism) and then emphasizes the effect of that freedom on ethnicity. The other equates modernity with organizational growth, and emphasizes the effect of that growth on ethnicity in modern society. A discussion of assimilationism, pluralism, ethnic conflict theory, and ethnic mobilization theory is provided in this context.     

Revisiting individualism and collectivism: a multinational examination of pre-service teachers’ perceptions on student academic performances

This study explores how pre-service teachers in Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and the United States perceive educational diversity in relation to students’ academic achievement by means of qualitative content analysis. It takes cultural psychological perspectives to revisit the attribute reasoning embedded in individualist and collectivist orientations. Pre-service teachers in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Singapore are found to attribute academic failure of low social economic status (SES) students to personal factors, such as individual effort, intelligence, and motivation. Pre-service teachers from the United States tend to attribute academic failure of low SES students to situational factors, such as family, school, and community.     

Exploring racial identities through participatory visual and ethnographic methods: (Re)presenting the identities of ethnic minority youth in Hong Kong

There is increasing research attention to the integration of ethnic minority youth in Hong Kong. Within this attention lies an interest in how these young people make sense of their identities in relation to their schooling experiences. From a qualitative methodological viewpoint, researchers’ positionalities, including their cultural background and scholarly motivations, have implications on the ways in which they (re)present their findings. Using the axes of insider and outsider, we reflect on and compare how we have approached two studies with ethnic minority youth in Hong Kong. We discuss the potential affordances and tensions of cultural insider and outsider roles in our research to highlight the cultural dynamics in our interactions with our participants. As we advance dialogue on how researchers approach their work through their own cultural positionalities, we offer a nuanced account of the complexities surrounding the ‘making’ of ethnic minority young people’s identities in Hong Kong.     

Hong Kong and China in 1997

In 1997, Hong Kong changes from a British colony to a Special Administrative Region (SAR) of China. While officially it has been agreed that the status change should not alter the economic or social conditions in the territory substantially, many people believe that residents' lives will be considerably affected. Hong Kong society has always been highly mobile and fluid in terms of migration, and it is only very recently that over half of the population have been born in the tenitory Many elderly people in Hong Kong were bom elsewhere and many Hong Kong families are fragmented, with members living in China, elsewhere in the Asia-Pacific region, North America, Australia, and Britain. The potential impact of 1997 on the lives and conditions of elderly residents is only now forming a focus of concern. This article considers what may happen in the closing years of this century and early next when the SAR emerges. There is already growing popular belief that, for financial and social reasons, some elderly people are going back to China for their retirement. However, evidence from a survey of 419 noninstitutionalized respondents found relatively few expressing a desire or willingness to retire to China. This article concludes with a discussion of why this may be so. A major reason may be that, with the increasing ease of visits between Hong Kong and China, Hong Kong elderly people might feel more comfortable with alternately living in China and Hong Kong instead of taking the bold decision of permanently living in China.     

Globalization, de-industrialization and Hong Kong's private rental sector

A number of scholars have identified a changing role for private rental housing, as it becomes a more mainstream tenure to house the insecure rich and poor alike in globalizing cities. Hong Kong is an important global city and is experiencing rising rates of social polarization associated with globalization generally, its articulation with the Chinese economy specifically and the impact of the Asian Financial Crisis in 1997. Our empirical research suggests that Hong Kong's private rental sector has responded to and articulates with the city's specific globalization trajectory. It increasingly houses the highly paid, highly skilled but relatively insecure elite and the low paid, low skilled and very insecure underclass, for whom prospects of public housing or home ownership are diminishing. Private renters are younger, more mobile and house both top-end and bottom-end ethnic minorities. The traditional role of private renting and large scale obsolete inner-city housing stock, combined with the aggressive development of up-market and highly desirable private housing estates makes the sector particularly adept at meeting the needs of Hong Kong's hour glass shaped global society. We anticipate that the size of the private rental sector will increase, albeit from a low base and that its hour-glass shape will become more pronounced.     

Chinese Migrants' Class Mobility in Hong Kong

Resources such as education and social networks are likely to contribute to migrants' upward mobility in the class hierarchy. Moreover, according to structural fit theory, the contribution tends to be contingent on age and social network size. The contingency is the major concern of the present study of mainland Chinese migrants in Hong Kong, which is somewhat different from the Chinese mainland economically, politically and even culturally. In this study, we show that the conditions for upward mobility are some human and social resources and their various combinations. Notably, schooling after arrival in Hong Kong contributed more to the upward mobility of the migrant who was younger or had a larger social network at the time of arrival in Hong Kong. Purportedly, promoting the migrant's integration with the school and local social network would prepare the migrant for upward mobility.     

WHAT MAKES THE LOCAL? A BRIEF CONSIDERATION OF THE REJUVENATION OF HONG KONG IDENTITY

This paper ascertains what makes the local and why the local is important, in the context of change in Hong Kong due to the political transition to PRC sovereignty.In doing so, I hope to pose a modest polemical challenge to cultural studies' tendency to overlook seemingly simplistic empirical information. The return of Hong Kong to China in 1997 has led to a contraction of the political sphere, as the convergence of political structures curbed the development of local identities. The label or category ‘Hong Kong people’ was then appropriated with a specific meaning for the local to resist encroachment of the national. It was true that the high intensity of dominant national discourses during the political transition created a favourable atmosphere for re-nationalization. However, as soon as the political transition was over, Hong Kongers re-adhered to their own label in their struggle for cultural autonomy.Their strong cultural affect toward various national icons during the transition quickly diminished. This multiyear discourse study (1996–1998), which utilizes social scientific methods in conjunction with cultural theories, illustrates important political and methodological impulses necessary for the formulation of a socio-political approach to cultural studies within the Hong Kong context.