Seeking identity: the transborder lives of mainland Chinese families with children born in Hong Kong

Between 2001 and 2013, Hong Kong regulations permitted pregnant women from mainland China to travel to Hong Kong to deliver their babies. In this article, based on 30 in‐depth interviews, I explore the transborder lives and identities of these mainland Chinese families who, motivated by cost considerations, citizenship and anticipated benefits for their children, chose to give birth to their babies in Hong Kong. In some cases, family networks providing flexible residential practices and family care, supported these transborder activities. However, the complexities of transborder life reveal the diverse ‘identifications’ within Hong Kong society and mainland families. Because neither administration totally accepts them, they are not full members of either society and so the identities they form are both plural and fragmented.     

The changing responsibilities of the state and family toward elders in Hong Kong

With a predominantly Chinese population and a cultural tradition of respecting the old, Hong Kong has long relied on the family to support its elderly members. Economic success has, however, not spared Hong Kong from encountering the same problems as other industrial societies, such as the loosening of its traditional values. This article examines the changing responsibilities of the state and the family in Hong Kong in supporting the old, and in particular, the effectiveness of the "care in community" policy, which the Hong Kong Government has adopted since the mid-1970s. The examination concludes that the responsibility must now be shared between the state and the family.     

Living Arrangements and Informal Support for the Elderly

ABSTRACT

A network of informal care and support provided by family, friends and neighbors often forms the basis for elderly care. Changes in the structure of Chinese family alter this supportive function, and changes in traditional values affect the nature of the network and support provided. This is especially so in modernized Hong Kong where the traditional role of the family and especially children's duty of care for their aged parents (“filial piety”) may be weakening. This proposition was investigated by a qualitative study involving in-depth interviews with 50 older persons in a modern new town (Tuen Mun) in Hong Kong. Living arrangements, geographical proximity and the quality of relationships between potential caregivers and the elderly affected needs for and provision of informal support. Traditional Confucian filial piety is undergoing modification, perhaps erosion, implying ongoing changes in inter-generational relations in this modernized Asian society.     

Changing needs and changing service delivery for long-term care in Hong Kong

Both the need for and delivery of long-term care in Hong Kong are shaped by the interaction of the traditional and modern. Rapid social change is affecting traditional family structures and roles in care of the elderly, resulting in increased demand for formal care, which to date has been provided mainly by way of residential care. This growth of demand will escalate with rapid population aging in coming decades. In response to this burgeoning demand, current planning is seeking to reshape the established service system and tackle problems in service delivery in ways that will address the bias towards residential care and improve quality of care.     

Injustice in family care of the Chinese elderly in Hong Kong

With increasing longevity, family care of the Chinese elderly in Hong Kong is evolving as a "caring trap" for female caregivers, especially unmarried daughters. Despite this, as Hong Kong is still a patriarchal Chinese society, most of the major decisions affecting the destiny of frail elders are made by sons or other male members of the family. The unequal gender roles, obligations, and division of caregiving responsibilities within the Chinese family and their effects on the caring relationship are discussed. Implications of this injustice based on gender regarding family care of the elderly and the possibility of its elimination are examined.     

Planning and development control through lease conditions

The Hong Kong government has pledged to deal with the imbalance between supply and demand of housing. Given the innate constraints of limited land resources in Hong Kong and the extensive and expedient control enforced through lease conditions, the Hong Kong government can alleviate the long-recognized problem of housing shortage by modifying specific development conditions. Therefore, the supply of housing units can be changed at a faster pace to satisfy the requirement of private dwellings. Other factors affecting the property market in Hong Kong include land supply, economic issues, population growth, and income growth. Many studies, for example, Hui et al. (Monograph, Department of Building and Real Estate, Hong Kong Polytechnic University and Hong Kong Government (Study of Housing Demand, Hong Kong Government Printer, Hong Kong and Study of Housing Demand Model, Hong Kong Government Printer, Hong Kong), have investigated in detail the impacts of these factors on the property market. However, little or nothing is known about the planning and development control through lease conditions. Therefore, this study particularly attempts to examine how the Hong Kong government exerts its influence in the local private residential market through changing the development conditions. These conditions will be studied separately and distinctively in order to capture their unitary effects upon the local private residential real estate market. Section 1 looks at Hong Kong's tenure system, followed by the deliberation of how planning and development control is done through lease conditions (in Section 2). 3 and 4 set out the analytical framework and report on the findings of how lease conditions affect property supply. The concluding section gives out recommendations.     

Injustice in Family Care of the Chinese Elderly in Hong Kong

With increasing longevity, family care of the Chinese elderly in Hong Kong is evolving as a "caring trap" for female caregivers, especially unmarried daughters. Despite this, as Hong Kong is still a patriarchal Chinese society, most of the major decisions affecting the destiny of frail elders are made by sons or other male members of the family. The unequal gender roles, obligations, and division of caregiving responsibilities within the Chinese family and their effects on the caring relationship are discussed. Implications of this injustice based on gender regarding family care of the elderly and the possibility of its elimination are examined.     

Changing Needs and Changing Service Delivery for Long-Term Care in Hong Kong

Summary

Both the need for and delivery of long-term care in Hong Kong are shaped by the interaction of the traditional and modern. Rapid social change is affecting traditional family structures and roles in care of the elderly, resulting in increased demand for formal care, which to date has been provided mainly by way of residential care. This growth of demand will escalate with rapid population aging in coming decades. In response to this burgeoning demand, current planning is seeking to reshape the established service system and tackle problems in service delivery in ways that will address the bias towards residential care and improve quality of care.     

A portrait of homelessness.

The homeless elderly are vulnerable, silent, and fearful. Their trajectory into homelessness more often than not precludes recovery and takes them on a course toward early death or nursing home placement. Psychiatric nurses who work in community or acute care settings are in key positions to recognize elderly victims of homelessness, assess their needs, match them to services, start them on the road to recovery, and become their advocates. The definition of a homeless person as agreed on in the Report of the Federal Task Force on Homelessness and Severe Mental Illness (1992) is the one used in the Stewart B. McKinney Homeless Assistance Act (Public Law 100-77). A homeless person is someone "who lacks a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence" and whose main nighttime residence is a "supervised public or private shelter designed to provide temporary living accommodations; an institution that provides a temporary residence for individuals intended to be institutionalized; or a public or private place not designed for, or ordinarily used as, a regular sleeping accommodation for human beings." This definition, then, excludes those individuals living on the "fringes" in substandard or condemned housing, a condition that warrants attention in general and particularly among the elderly.     

Social and Psychological Barriers to Private Retirement Savings in Hong Kong

Using a phone survey conducted among Hong Kong workers, we examined the association of institutional, social, and psychological factors with engagement in both private retirement savings and the total amount of savings. Alarmingly, this study demonstrates that approximately 42% of Hong Kong workers do not save privately for their retirement. We found that age, education, number of children, support from spouse and friends, social regulation, perceived financial knowledge, and financial management capacity are associated with engagement in private retirement savings. Among those who saved, age, education, perceived financial knowledge, and financial management capacity are related to the amount of savings. Measures that could increase the social support for retirement savings as well as enhance their financial knowledge and management ability should be developed and implemented so that more workers engage in private retirement savings. A promising policy option for the Hong Kong government is to offer a tax incentive to promote additional savings for old-age income protection.     

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.     

Leaving the Parental Home: Chinese Culture in an Urban Context

Leaving the parental home is increasingly treated as an essential stepping‐stone toward adulthood in the modern world. The authors argue that this is a cultural process regulated by social norms and institutional settings that vary from place to place. Hong Kong provides an excellent scenario in which Chinese traditions coexist with rapid economic development. Rather than looking at leaving the parental home as a developmental process, Chinese tradition tends to link it with filial obligations and gender status. On the basis of life history data collected in Hong Kong, the authors establish that leaving home has neither gained substantial popularity nor become a unique life stage among Chinese; it continues to be closely associated with the marriage transition and practical considerations such as housing, childcare needs, and the availability of elderly care.     

‘Ink Art’ as strategy for Hong Kong institutions

Abstract

In both their wider cultural dimensions and the institutional practices they stem from, the practices of ink art in Hong Kong manifest themselves in a variety of discourses ranging from the ‘traditionalism’ of the conservative nativists to the ‘contemporaneity’ of artists and institutions often identified as being closer to ‘Western’ culture. Even though the most influential discourse about ink art in Hong Kong has clearly been produced by official institutions, like the future museum of visual culture called M+ and the already existing Museum of Art, it has also been profoundly influenced by private associations whose influence has been far reaching. The most visible of these private associations in Hong Kong is the Ink Society, whose founding members and their affiliates and friends have played a central role in the early debate about the nature of ink art in the history of local arts. Through an analysis of a failed attempt by the Ink Society to bid for the right to manage a historical site, this paper attempts to unravel some of the ideas that support the notion of ink art in Hong Kong.     

Carer Participation: Training for People With Intellectual Disabilities in a Chinese Society

People with intellectual disabilities require training to improve independence, and carers are important partners in the process. Studies show that carers are able to motivate family members with intellectual disabilities to participate in training. In addition, family members may serve as cotrainers. To increase carers' participation, it is necessary to empower them with training techniques and develop strategies to relieve their stress. This article aims to explore the effects of carer support to enhance training quality of daily living skills for their family member with intellectual disabilities, through the use of care case studies, in the context of families living in Hong Kong. A model of multiple case studies is adopted. Three cases are analyzed to illustrate various modes of carer participation.     

Immigration Controls,Life-Course Coordination,and Livelihood Strategies: A Study of Families Living across the Mainland-Hong Kong Border

In-depth studies of families living across the mainland Chinese-Hong Kong border indicate how immigration controls can adversely affect the ability of families to synchronize members’ life-courses to provide for their own livelihoods. By disrupting family timetables, the immigration quota system that governs migration from the mainland to Hong Kong hampers the attempts of families to secure their long-term viability and arrange for inter-generational caring. Circumventing immigration laws through illegal migration is costly, and family care-givers are often forced to stay in Hong Kong without being recognized as residents. Mainland-Hong Kong families have a unique opportunity to live on one side of the border while members commute to work or study on the other side, but this strategy affects long-term social participation and is available only to families with the requisite social and economic assets. The research was supported by a grant from Oxfam Hong Kong. The Hong Kong Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace, Hong Kong Christian Action, the Industrial Relations Institute, and St. James’ Settlement made the interviews possible by helping us contact our informants. Caren Wong, Lo Kwok Wai, and Lai Yuen Mei provided competent research assistance. Chan Chu Fung was a tremendous help in our research on public policies. We must also thank our informants for agreeing to be interviewed and sharing with us personal information about their life.     

Caregiving and cost of health care for later life families

In the future, the number of families providing care for elderly relatives as well as the costs associated with health care will continue to increase. The caregiving triad—individual, family and government—will need to balance the resources to meet the needs of the elderly. Public policy changes can assist older persons and their families as they address caregiving in the later years.     

Living together again: families surviving Italian immigration policies

In this article we provide an understanding of the challenges that immigrants have to face to relocate their nuclear families abroad. We will show that immigrants are often forced to leave their dependent relatives behind for much longer than expected, and that, despite their efforts to maintain intimacy at distance, the transnational managing of remittances and care entails certain risks. Both the separation experienced and the living conditions that reunited members face in Italy can make reunification itself a very sensitive moment in the life-course of these families, since the process of adaptation to the receiving society leads relatives to reshape and renegotiate their respective family roles and responsibilities. We are going to highlight how the availability of extended ties can represent a concrete form of support for many immigrant couples and lone mothers both during the separation and in their struggle to reunite their relatives, as well as after the reunification has taken place.