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Inglehart's theory of postmaterialism outlines the influence of intergenerational value change on social change. While the sense of security during a formative period is an essential context for postmaterialist values to be bred among the younger generation in democratic states, social protests and political instability are common in some hybrid regimes. Yet how social protests in a hybrid regime interfere in the building of postmaterialism and its association with other value has been underresearched. Based on the data collected from the seventh wave of the World Value Survey in Hong Kong in 2018 (N = 1,031), this paper investigates the role of a critical event—the Umbrella Movement in 2014—in moderating the relationship between a postmaterialist orientation and perceived quality of elections in Hong Kong. It reveals that the negative relationship between a postmaterialist orientation and perceived quality of Hong Kong's election was stronger among the people who supported and participated in the Umbrella Movement. Moreover, the moderation effect of the Umbrella Movement was stronger among young people. This paper underscores the context of socialisation in influencing both a postmaterialist orientation and intergenerational change occurring during a critical event, which sheds light on the relationship between value change and authoritarian resilience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social inclusion indicators inform policy advocacy and intervention. However, a critical piece of information is often missing: public opinion. Efforts to enhance social inclusion could backfire if they provoke opinion backlash or intergroup hostilities. In this paper, we explain the importance and nuances of inclusive attitudes and develop an easy-to-use survey instrument that tracks public opinion regarding different marginalized groups and support measures systematically. Using evidence from a representative telephone survey in Hong Kong (N = 1010), as well as a parallel online survey (N = 1000), we demonstrate the multidimensional nature of public attitudes toward social inclusion and our instrument's excellent psychometric properties and potential for use in various research settings. Although developed in the context of Hong Kong, the survey items can be decomposed and adapted to suit diverse urban societies. By highlighting the importance and complexity of public opinion, we hope to foster a more participatory approach to promoting social inclusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines media discourse of academic adversity and resilience to understand what are considered to be deterrents of academic success and what are believed to effectively counteract the deterrents and contribute to educational resilience. Data are drawn on discourse analysis of media coverage in Hong Kong of the success stories of students at risk after the release of university entrance examination results. In Hong Kong's extremely competitive education system, only about 20% of secondary students are admitted to university degree programs. Hong Kong uses a centralized and uniform public examination as the only criterion of university entrance screening, reinforcing an examination-dominated culture. Success in public examination is equated with success in intellectual advancement or even in life. Underprivileged students are often described to be "losing at the starting line," implying that they are doomed to failure right at the start. Every year after the announcement of the public examination results, success stories of students who have beaten the odds receive significant news coverage for days. This paper discusses how educational resilience experiences are represented in the mass media, how the students concerned articulate their situations, and the implications of such media discourse on academic resilience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In-work poverty is a growing problem in many developed economies. In Hong Kong, there were 200,700 working poor households in 2016, and approximately half of the total poor population in Hong Kong was living in those working poor households. A growing body of literature has examined the problem of the working poor, but most studies have used relative income as a measure of poverty. In this paper, we adopt the material deprivation approach for assessing the poverty situation of in-work poverty households in Hong Kong. We have interviewed 3565 workers in Hong Kong during a survey conduct in 2016. We compare the results of the material deprivation approach with those of the income poverty approach and evaluate the adequacy of the official income poverty line in gauging the situation of in-work poverty. Our findings reinforce existing studies indicating that deprivation offers an important complement to the income poverty line in poverty analysis. Our results show that there is a moderate overlap between workers identified as poor by the deprivation approach and by the income poverty line. And these two groups of workers have very different profiles. The results provide important policy implications for alleviating poverty among the working poor in Hong Kong. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Great Gatsby curve shows societies with higher levels of economic inequality to exhibit lower levels of intergenerational mobility, with such mobility influenced by educational opportunities. Hong Kong features one of the world's largest degrees of economic inequality, but has also witnessed a substantial expansion in tertiary education in the past two decades. This paper investigates the change in intergenerational earnings mobility and returns to education in Hong Kong over time. Data were drawn from the 1996, 2006 and 2016 Hong Kong Population By-Censuses. Instrumental variables regression was performed to estimate the change in the average level of such mobility, and instrumental variables quantile regression to estimate the change in the non-linear pattern of intergenerational mobility and returns to education. The findings show the average level of intergenerational mobility has been improved, with intergenerational elasticity decreasing from 0.37 in 1996 to 0.26 in 2006 and 0.23 in 2016. However, intergenerational economic transmission among high-earners remains persistently strong. Examination of the non-linear pattern shows that it is the reproduction of wealth rather than the reproduction of poverty that has led to intergenerational persistence in Hong Kong. A similar pattern was observed in 1996, 2006 and 2016. Returns to non-degree tertiary education were similar across the earnings distribution in 1996 and 2016 but more valuable for low-earners in 2006. Degree-level tertiary education is persistently more valuable for high- than low-earners, which exacerbated earnings inequality in 1996, 2006 and 2016. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the data from the Population Census of 2011 to identify the characteristics of poor ethnic minority groups in Hong Kong and the factors that are associated with child poverty among these ethnic minorities. The results show that the child poverty level varies between different ethnic groups and that ethnic minorities from developing nations are likely to have a higher poverty level. In particular, Pakistani children have the highest poverty rate among all ethnic groups. The results also show that Pakistani, Nepalese, and Mixed (Chinese and Asian) nationalities have a higher child poverty rate than that of Chinese individuals who constitute the majority of the Hong Kong population. The main reason for this is that, unlike their Chinese counterparts, some of these ethnic minority households have not benefited from their own human capital or their length of exposure in the local society in Hong Kong. And even if they have benefited, the positive impact of these factors on ethnic minority households was much weaker compared to that of Chinese households. These results suggest that ethnic minorities need to be categorized as a separate group in order to assess their specific needs, and assimilation policies, especially support on Chinese language learning, need to be an integral part of the government’s poverty reduction strategy to reduce child poverty among ethnic minorities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In-work poverty is becoming an important category of poverty in many developed economies, where labour polarization and income disparity have trapped in poverty a growing number of people, particularly low-skilled workers, despite their active participation in the labour force. In Hong Kong, the government has acknowledged the seriousness of the problem and has made the working poor one of the main target groups of its poverty reduction strategy. Existing studies have identified various individual, employment and household factors that contribute to the poverty risk of households with working members. These factors operate through three mechanisms: low earnings, the lack of other earners in the household and high living costs related to the care of dependent members in the household. The relative importance of these mechanisms varies according to the socio-economic contexts of different societies. In order to formulate an effective poverty reduction policy, it is necessary to understand which mechanisms lead to in-work poverty in a local context. In this paper, we sought to identify the characteristics of households affected by in-work poverty, and the mechanisms that lead to such poverty, by analysing a data sample from the 2011 Hong Kong Population Census. The results show that low-paid work and the absence of a second earner in the household are the two main mechanisms that lead to in-work poverty in Hong Kong. The results also show that the risk of in-work poverty differs for high- and low-skilled labour. We propose that the government should strengthen the poverty reduction strategy by countering the income disparity in the labour market and adopting an integrated approach in the formulation of policy to improve the labour participation of working-poor households. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the variation of resources and norms in society, the effects of resources and norms on the well-being of individuals are likely to change. People's age, education, family income, religiosity, voluntary organizational membership, and even protest participation can be considered resources and can maintain fits to local and global liberal norms. Specifically, local norms rest on popularity and valuation in societies. This paper studies the hypothesized effects of resources and normative fits and analyzes data collected from the World Values Survey of 2252 adults in 2005 and 2014 in Hong Kong, China. Results mostly support the resource and normative fit hypotheses. Age, family income, and active voluntary organizational membership are more salutary in 2014 than in 2005. By contrast, education and religious affiliation became less salutary in 2014 than in 2005. In support of the normative fit hypothesis but against the resource hypothesis, protest participation appeared to diminish well-being. Results present implications for enhancing well-being by fostering resources and normative fits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study of the relationship between mental health and social inclusion has generated much interest among social services providers, policy makers, and academics (Huxley et al. in Life Day 12(3):33-35. doi:, ). This paper reports the subjective experience of social inclusion in various key life domains of 168 Chinese mental health services users in Hong Kong collected through a non-probability sample survey. A Chinese version of the Social and Communities Opportunities Profile (i.e. SCOPE-C) employing the same methodology as an earlier UK study was employed in the study. Face-to-face individual interviews were conducted between October 2013 and February 2014. Results indicated that participants perceived an average level of opportunities to participate in various life domains. Despite this, they were satisfied in general with the level of opportunities in these domains. Contradictory to Chan et al. (Soc Indic Res 119(1):121-137, )'s findings, participation did not often encounter discrimination in their daily life. Their perceived general health was between average and good. The overall social inclusion, average satisfaction with opportunities, and average perceived opportunities had significant positive correlation with one another. These three SCOPE-C variables were positively correlated with respondents' physical health, but not mental health. These findings are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates how the SCMP, the China Daily-and western-based newspapers cover protests in Hong Kong in an effort to identify changes in journalistic practices between 1998 and 2020. It combines natural language processing (NLP) with a qualitative investigation of a novel corpus of newspaper articles spanning 22 years. It enlists topic modeling to contrast the treatment of protests in Hong Kong diachronically and across news sources. Through comparison of lexical frequency and lexical usage it showcases preferences and discrepancies in the use of protest-relevant keywords in the newspapers' articles. Embedding neighborhood comparisons strengthens our understanding of how words are used differently between the SCMP, the China Daily and western-based newspapers, and also how the context of protest-related keywords may differ across news sources over time. Finally, computational sentiment analysis measures the tone and connotations of articles. The article fills a gap in the literature on Hong Kong media and its methodology broadens the application of NLP techniques to the social sciences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are ongoing debates regarding the causes of social movements in recent decades in Hong Kong. Whether economic frustration or political discontent promotes Hong Kong residents' non-institutional political participation (NiPP) remains an unanswered but important question. This study is an investigation of how perceived relative deprivation, democratic values, and attitudes toward Mainland China may influence Hong Kong residents' participation in collective action. The analysis of a random sampling survey in 2017 (N = 919) showed that 35.4% of the respondents had participated in protests, strikes, or online collective actions. Young, single and male respondents, and those with higher education levels and incomes were more likely to engage in NiPP. Our results reveal a mixed impact of relative deprivation on NiPP: while perceived unfairness contributed to NiPP, perceived social status was positively associated with NiPP. In contrast, perceived mobility had no significant effect on NiPP. Moreover, respondents scoring higher in democratic values were more likely to participate in non-institutional political movements. However, the attitude toward Mainland China, serving as a system-justification mechanism, affected the possibility of collective actions and moderated the effect of democratic values. These empirical findings offer nuance to understandings of the social and political turbulence in Hong Kong. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The International Social Survey Programme National Identity Module has been widely applied at sovereign state level, contributing to a large body of comparative literature on state identity conception. However, comparative identity survey studies at the territorial autonomy level, where the conception of sub-state identities is often highly contentious, remain rare. This study fills this research gap by testing the sources and consequences of sub-state identity conception in the context of territorial autonomies, using Hong Kong as the testing site. The results indicate that the Hongkonger identity is closely tied to cultural and political identity markers, with such a cultural-political identity conception significant in predicting people's aspiration for Hong Kong's autonomy. Fostering comparative identity survey studies beyond sovereign states, this study generates a new set of hypotheses to be further tested across territorial autonomies worldwide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While both life satisfaction and participation in protest occupying public or private places are crucial, their relationships are uncharted and uncertain. Nevertheless, conflict theory suggests that conflict over sociopolitical class interests triggered by protest participation is dissatisfying (Freelon et al. 2018; E. Liu 2010). In examining this possibility, this study conducted a random-sample telephone survey of 1,075 Chinese adult residents. The survey measured every adult's participation in occupying protests in various places in the past month and satisfaction with life in the recent week. The study estimated effects with and without control for the endogeneity between occupying protest participation and life satisfaction. Results revealed that the participation attenuated life satisfaction but not vice versa. Moreover, the attenuation was greater when the adult was married or had more adults in the household, higher income, or education. These results imply sustaining life satisfaction with the prevention of occupying protest participation and particularly its conflict within and without the household. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A focus group study involving concept mapping was conducted in September 2012 to investigate how the concept of social inclusion was understood by Hong Kong residents. It was a replication of an earlier UK study. Seven groups involving 61 participants (38 females; 23 males) were interviewed, including non-professional workers at a Non-government Organisation service, senior centre users, a mixed group of community residents, people with severe mental illness, professional social service providers, communication studies students, and social work students. Data analysis using Nvivo 10 and systematic thematic analysis identified six major themes including: (1) material resources and wealth, (2) work, (3) social (dis)harmony and diversity, (4) discrimination, (5) communication, and (6) participation in activities. An overall final model of Social Inclusion for Hong Kong based on concept maps for all seven groups is presented. The results will inform the conceptualisation and development of a Chinese-language measure of social inclusion (SCOPE-C) based on translation and cultural adaption of the Social and Community Opportunities Profile (SCOPE) developed in UK. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The cost of crime to the public, as a public concern, requires an estimation pertinent to the context, considering substantial contextual variation. Meanwhile, the estimation needs to address issues about feasibility and validity. To address the issues, the present study exemplifies the estimation with both official accounting and tripartite willingness-to-pay approaches. The tripartite approach combines the cost components of rehabilitation, criminal justice and prevention due to crime. This approach relied on telephone surveys of 1321 adult residents among the public and 91 professionals dealing with crime in the Chinese metropolis of Hong Kong. Results showed that the public crime cost estimates were $8343 from accounting and US$7466 and US$11,786 from the surveys of public and professionals respectively. The public's estimate was significantly predictable by background characteristics, as expected from economic theory. These results imply the feasibility and validity of the estimation approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In contrast to the economic approach that dominates poverty research, a subjective approach that asks respondents to evaluate their own poverty status offers an insider's perspective on poverty. However, most studies investigating the factors associated with subjective poverty in high-income societies have failed to disentangle those factors' effects on subjective poverty from their effects on economic poverty, and most were conducted in Europe. Using data from the two-wave (2015–2017) Hong Kong Panel Survey for Poverty Alleviation (N = 840), this study examined the extent to which the effects on subjective poverty of eight socio-demographic factors (e.g. gender, age, residence status, marital status, educational attainment, employment status, housing status, and self-rated health) are mediated through the dynamics of economic poverty using logistic regression and mediation analysis. The results of logistic regression showed educational attainment, housing status, and self-rated health to be significantly associated with subjective poverty. Mediation analysis revealed that the effects of secondary education and living in public or private rental housing on subjective poverty are not mediated through the dynamics of economic poverty and that only 20.40% of self-rated poor health's effect is mediated. Our findings thus suggest that solving economic poverty alone is insufficient to tackle the issue of subjective poverty in Hong Kong. Several policy initiatives, including improving the career prospects of the secondary-educated, enhancing the mobility outcomes of public rental tenants, and reducing the rent-to-income ratio of private rental tenants, could contribute to alleviating subjective poverty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multidimensional poverty in urban cities has become an increasing global concern. Income poverty, deprivation, social exclusion and subjective poverty have been commonly used as measurements for poverty. However, the path relationship among these various dimensions has been ignored. This study aims to fill this research gap by focusing on the impact on subjective poverty. A random sample survey of 1979 adult participants in Hong Kong was used for the analysis. Structural equation modelling was applied in studying the path relationship among the monetary, material, social and subjective dimensions of poverty. Subjective poverty was predicted through a mediated model, with deprivation and social exclusion as the mediators. The result of this structural equation modelling indicated that the impact of income on subjective poverty was partially mediated by the material and social dimensions of poverty. In an age group comparison analysis, deprivation showed a larger influence on the elderly group, whilst social exclusion had a larger mediating effect on the younger group. The implication of these results and limitations are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study is the first attempt to examine poverty transitions and their correlates in Hong Kong, which has a high poverty rate despite being one of the world's wealthiest societies. By classifying the respondents into pre-transfer non-poor, non-transfer poor, post-transfer non-poor and post-transfer poor, factors that were associated with the probability of moving out of (into) poverty due to the receipt (absence) of social welfare transfers were identified. The examination of poverty transitions with consideration for social welfare transfers has important implications on development of effective policies for poverty alleviation. Two types of factors were included: social stratification factors and life-course events. We draw data from the 2015 and 2017 Hong Kong Panel Survey for Poverty Alleviation. Binary and multinomial logistic regressions were used to examine factors associated with poverty transitions. The results showed that employment factors (number of employed household members and increased employment ratio) were the only factors that help people move out of poverty. Demographic factors (number of children in the household and increased dependency ratio) increased the risk of falling into post-transfer poor. Immigrants were more likely to transit from post-transfer poor to non-transfer poor. More policy efforts should be devoted to helping the working poor and single parent households, and to reducing stigma against immigrants receiving welfare benefits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vocational status and living conditions are key factors that determine the quality of life of workers. In light of a rural-urban migration wave during the past decade, this study examined migrants’ experiences of occupational and housing inequality in major urban centers. Based on data from original household-level surveys conducted in four large cities, the study investigated the vocational and tenurial situations of different social groups. Estimates obtained using a binary logistic model indicated that apart from socioeconomic factors similar to those impacting Western societies, specific institutional factors such as the Hukou system, state-associated vocations, and residential status, were significant determinants of housing inequality. The study confirmed that there were significant disparities in the vocational status and housing conditions of urban residents and migrant workers in major Chinese cities. Along with excessive privatization of urban housing, the predominance of the Hukou urban housing system has created inequalities in employment, and in the housing market, in major Chinese urban centers, leading to housing poverty among migrant households. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite its highly developed economy and modernized outlook, Hong Kong has a surprisingly severe poverty problem, especially among the aged. While income poverty among Hong Kong’s elderly has been widely acknowledged and extensively investigated, this study examines asset poverty using survey data of 4306 Hong Kong residents aged 60 or above. To investigate the link between asset poverty and income poverty, the income-poverty threshold is taken as being half the median household income, adjusted by the square root of household size; the asset poor are defined as those whose household assets are inadequate to cover their basic needs for a period of three months. Factors associated with the asset poverty of Hong Kong’s elderly are also examined. This study provides valuable information concerning asset poverty among older adults in an Asian society (namely, Hong Kong) and contributes to the literature on asset poverty, in which estimates of asset poverty are available only for the general population of some Western countries. Policy implications of the findings are discussed, and an asset-building approach is recommended. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite significant improvements in education and a decline in the percentage of immigrants in elderly population, the poverty risk in old age and the actual number of impoverished elders in Hong Kong have both increased significantly over the past two decades. This study assesses the changing rates of elderly poverty in Hong Kong over the last 20 years and, by means of decomposition analysis, identifies the factors shaping their evolution. The analysis is based on the 5 % microdata samples from the 1991, 2001, and 2011 censuses covering Hong Kong residents aged 65 and above. The results show that the rate of poverty among older adults increased from 27.7 % in 1991 to 38.7 % in 2001, and then to 41.4 % in 2011. The increase was largely caused by a significant decline in the number of earners in the households with older adults, which offset the poverty-reducing effects of education and the percentage decrease of immigrants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the effects of perceived discrimination on quality of life (QOL). We used a random sample of 380 Chinese immigrants from a 1-year longitudinal secondary dataset and conducted bivariate and multivariate multiple regressions to examine the associations of QOL with perceived discrimination, sense of control, optimism, perceived social support, pre-migration planning, collective efficacy and perceived neighborhood disorder. Our results showed that perceived discrimination was significantly associated with QOL, even after a year spent in Hong Kong. Collective efficacy, perceived social support and preparation for immigration are also important factors contributing the QOL among new immigrants in Hong Kong. The findings suggest that interventions to reduce discrimination should be designed and implemented in order to improve the QOL among new immigrants in Hong Kong. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Feeling close to fellow citizens in the city is a feature of social cohesion that is worth investigation among East Asian societies for exploring societal conditions for the closeness. Because of the variation of such conditions among the societies, differentials in the closeness among the societies are possible. As the variation of societal conditions can translate into differences in personal characteristics and experiences, such differences are likely to explain differentials in the closeness. This likelihood is a focus for the present study, which surveyed 4,087 adult citizens in Hong Kong ( n = 681), South Korea ( n = 1,006), Taiwan ( n = 1,200), and Thailand ( n = 1,200). Results revealed significant differentials in the closeness among the societies, showing that it was highest in Thailand and lowest in Taiwan. Furthermore, these differentials were largely due to differences in personal and characteristics among citizens in the four societies. Among the significant predictors of the closeness, work-family conflict and the costliness of medical expense are two experiences. The two experiences, as well as other predictors, champion a conflict or social force explanation for citizens' closeness. Accordingly, conflict or social force that is incapacitating would estrange the incapacitated individual from others. The results and explanation imply that relieving work and family conflicts is relevant to lifting citizens' closeness. In conclusion, the East Asian societies manifested differentials in citizens' social cohesion, and the differentials are explicable by differentials in resources and conflicts among the societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]