The Public's Changing Perceptions of the Condition of Social Welfare in Hong Kong: Lessons for Social Development

In the aftermath of the Asian financial crisis, the Hong Kong government introduced welfare reforms to ease the pressure from fiscal challenges and swelling welfare rolls; at the same time, to maintain its development credentials, it made an effort to adhere to its colonial tradition on the provision of welfare. The government adopted various strategies to garner popular support for promoting economic development as the primary goal and for promoting social harmony under the concept of ‘helping people to help themselves’. This article examines Hong Kong people's changing perceptions of the condition of social welfare in the past decade. Using a multidimensional developmental welfare approach and data from two opinion surveys conducted in 1997 and 2008, the study finds that Hong Kong people expressed a relatively high level of satisfaction about their own lives, but varying degrees of reservation about the problem of poverty, government provision of social welfare, and opportunities for social mobility. As a result of the sectorally unbalanced welfare reforms, which are biased against the disadvantaged, some of these perceptions have become more negative in recent years. Socially vulnerable people, especially the lower classes, are now more critical of the condition of social welfare, and such feelings seem to be intensifying. It is thus suggested that special attention to the issue of class should be paid in social development programmes to ensure social equality and social justice.     

香港、澳门回归日报纸头条标题的创作特色

香港、澳门回归,举世瞩目,引发世纪传媒大战。本文就两次回归交接仪式 的新闻报道为考察对象,分析了国内２７家报纸回归日当天头条新闻的标题,探讨重大新闻 标题制作应如何出新求异的问题。     

近20年来台港澳及海外华文文学研究述评──以历届学术年会及其论文集为例

台港澳及海外华文文学研究自２０世纪８０年代初在中国大陆兴起以来,至今 已有近２０年的历史。本文以历届学术年会及其论文集为主要依据,具体考察了这一学科从 “台港文学”到“台港澳暨海外华文文学”到“世界华文文学”概念的确立,从初始的作家 作品研究到各种题材／体裁的多向拓展,从传统、单调的研究方法到研究方法研究观念的不 断更新的历史发展过程。     

One Government,Multiple Systems: Hong Kong Public Administration in Transition

This study addresses the impact of a transformative political event—the reversion of sovereign authority—on the policy-making roles of public organizations and public administrators in Hong Kong. With the transfer of sovereignty, the environment of public administration in Hong Kong became increasingly politicized. Civil servants now encounter pressures and conflicting demands from Beijing, from pro-democracy forces, from the Chief Executive, from members of the Legislative Council, and from the business community. Although the public bureaucracy retains its policy-making preeminence, its authority no longer is unquestioned and unchecked. The Central Government exerts hidden influence. Members of the Legislative Council are striving to become respected players in the policy-formulation process. The Chief Executive aims to introduce means of ensuring heightened bureaucratic responsiveness. The result has been a fragmented and volatile political-administrative environment. In the ongoing transition from colonial to reunited polity, the Special Administrative Region's one government is composed of competing systems of governance superimposed uncomfortably and inconclusively upon one another. The most probable governance outcome, at least until the possible popular election of a Chief Executive and Legislative Council on a competitive political-party basis in 2007, is for fragmentation, role conflict, and interest-accommodation to continue to characterize the policy-making process in the SAR.     

论洪大容的哲学思想和文化意识——以《医山问答》为中心

洪大容作为朝鲜北学派思想与文化的先驱者,他的<医山问答>等作品集中反映了其哲学思想、文化意识的深度与特征.他的地动说理论和宇宙时空无限性理论是在西方科学扣哲学思想尚未介绍到朝鲜的情况下提出的,它们不仅影响了朝鲜,也影响了一些中国文人,他的"华夷一也"的文化意识直接影响了朝鲜北学派的文化活动.     

Overlooked insights from mobility instances? Reconsider our understanding of mobility processes

Drawing on some selected cases from a qualitative mobility study, I seek to make use of their insights to reconsider our current understanding of mobility processes derived from studies adopting a snapshot approach. My data demonstrate that viewed in a life-time perspective the relationship between father's career mobility and son's career mobility and thus inter-generational mobility, especially in relation to the self-employed, is much more complicated than researchers have expected, and that emotion could play a part in processes that generate mobility. These cases, however statistically unrepresentative or even exceptional, still serve to urge us researchers to re-conceptualise processes that link career mobility and inter-generational mobility and to explore the emotive aspect of class and mobility.     

大蒙古国时期的济南张氏

济南张氏是大蒙古国及元朝初年重要汉人世侯之一。在蒙古侵金过程中,保一方平安。在蒙古灭金之役中,也尽量保全百姓性命。张荣、张宏祖孙对蒙廷甚为忠诚,出色完成蒙廷规定的六项义务。济南张氏与其它典型的汉人世侯有同样的政府建制与军队建制。张氏在济南恢复封建经济、重建封建社会秩序等方面的政绩,值得肯定。忽必烈罢黜世侯后,济南张氏逐渐式微。     

焦竑著述考略

晚明学者焦竑一生勤于著述,所撰诸书遍及经、史、子、集,然因清廷禁毁,散佚较多,流布不广,今存者仅有十余部,是研究焦竑学术的重要史料。     

论汤亭亭小说《中国佬》中的文化悖论

美国华裔作家汤亭亭的作品中常常表现出明显的中国情结,她的小说《中国佬》就是例证。这部小说的主人公在实现“美国梦”后产生的空幻感印证了当代华裔文学叙述中的文化悖论现象,即身份认同的困惑和生存状态的悖反现象。     

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.