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75.6% of land comprising Hong Kong remains undeveloped according to the special administrative region's planning department. In turn, Hong Kong's constricted real estate, now estimated to be the world's costliest, has created eye-popping living arrangements historically and contemporarily. Denizens' colorful reputation and imagination for flouting city ordinances, zoning laws, and spatial management stand emblematic of tenacious self-sufficiency and a free-spirited brand of runaway capitalist initiative. Why is this conspicuous trademark of Hong Kong's societal fabric very much alive in the 21st Century? Why does this matter in a rapidly urbanizing world witnessing the ascension of mega-urban centers alongside ever-widening socioeconomic chasms? This paper intends to illuminate the peculiar origins and longevity of the KowloonWalled City, an urban monolith of notoriety and autonomy that blossomed in a semi-legal grey zone unencumbered under British protectorate rule for nearly a century. Parallels will connect the linear trajectory between Kowloon's hardnosed living to today's comparable Chungking Mansions and the hundreds of thousands of cage homes appearing in all corners of the city. This paper aims to answer why these residential paradoxes continue to function with efficiency and relevancy, posing solutions for indigent housing while exacerbating the stigma of social and economic ostracism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Gender norms, roles and relations differentially affect women, men, and non-binary individuals' vulnerability to disease. Outbreak response measures also have immediate and long-term gendered effects. However, gender-based analysis of outbreaks and responses is limited by lack of data and little integration of feminist analysis within global health scholarship. Recognising these barriers, this paper applies a gender matrix methodology, grounded in feminist political economy approaches, to evaluate the gendered effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and response in four case studies: China, Hong Kong, Canada, and the UK. Through a rapid scoping of documentation of the gendered effects of the outbreak, it applies the matrix framework to analyse findings, identifying common themes across the case studies: financial discrimination, crisis in care, and unequal risks and secondary effects. Results point to transnational structural conditions which put women on the front lines of the pandemic at work and at home while denying them health, economic and personal security – effects that are exacerbated where racism and other forms of discrimination intersect with gender inequities. Given that women and people living at the intersections of multiple inequities are made additionally vulnerable by pandemic responses, intersectional feminist responses should be prioritised at the beginning of any crises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Britain's colonial cities benefitted greatly from town planning practices that originated in the mother country. Hong Kong, one of many British colonial cities, grew from a small fishing village to an international metropolis. Urban development in the colony from 1841 to 1941 was continuous and systematic but ended abruptly with the Japanese invasion in World War II. The period was marked by rapid urban growth which brought with it many problems for the colonial management. This paper reviews the urban history of Hong Kong over the 100-year period from 1841 and explores the development motives of the colonial administration. The colonial government appointed British professionals for specialized roles and their services were apparent in significant milestones in the city's town planning and construction. The paper highlights the contributions of a few significant personnel: A.T. Gordon, C.G. Cleverly, Osbert Chadwick, David J. Owen and Wilfred H. Owen. By describing the works of these British colonial professionals, the authors hope to illustrate their impact on the development of Hong Kong, linking history to the present and filling gaps in the study of Hong Kong's early town planning. Both archive research and on-site study were employed in the preparation of this paper which is expected to complement other studies of colonial city planning in Asia and Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper considers recent company law reform proposals in Hong Kong in relation to the ratification of breaches of directors' duties, and also makes suggestions for further reform. In the course of this discussion, comparisons will be made with the corresponding position under the UK Companies Act 2006. Finally, several wider observations in relation to the consequences of codification of common law principles and the divergence between English and Hong Kong company law will be offered. The aim is to suggest directions for future reform in the important but somewhat inaccessible area of ratification of breaches of directors' duties. While this paper seeks to consider these issues in the light of Hong Kong, the discussion would be of interest to those from other common law jurisdictions who are examining the issue of ratification or looking with interest at the recent United Kingdom company law reform efforts and considering whether to adopt them locally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Collaborating with universities in Hong Kong, Finland, the United Kingdom and Australia the research project outlined in this paper takes up one of the key initial findings related to the importance of children's online spaces away from school. The project brings together complementary strengths from each partner nation to assist our mutual need to understand the worlds of our young “netizens” - the new public citizens of cyberspace. Differing in social and cultural context, each setting is recognised as a strong contributor to understanding the competencies of young people's digital expertise. We work from the shared view that the arrival of Web 2.0 and 3.0 social networking tools is educationally challenging and demands futuristic thinking for sustainable education and social connectivity globally. Our research aim is to use a common research design to discover how young people are behaving in the new online spaces; what guides their decision-making; and what, if any, common values appear to emerge when results between countries are compared. Locally derived knowledge gained from samples of 12-year-olds will be subjected to cross-cultural comparisons and validation. In doing so, we make some assumptions about the homogenising process that shared global networks may be fostering. Bringing together these contributions will strengthen the decision-making process and provide new knowledge about meaning making, agency and citizenship for the twenty-first-century e-democracy. This paper reports on the conceptual process underlying the research and the research design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing upon a project on British transnational education (TNE) programmes offered in Hong Kong, this paper interrogates the capacity development impact of TNE on the students, the Hong Kong Government and the programme providers. It addresses the questions: ‘What capacity is being developed in TNE operations?’ and ‘For whom?’ Our findings reveal multiple capacities at play. As TNE has been traded between British and Hong Kong universities and facilitated by the Hong Kong Government'slaissez-fairedoctrine, as a commodity in the neoliberal trade-in-education regime, students' interests are often sidelined. This paper calls for a critical reflection on this TNE model. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper adds to a relatively new line of research investigating inadvertent transformations of urban colonial space generated by collective trauma. To the now classic iterative, and racial dynamics of Neild's ‘accommodation’ in the development of Madras,1 and of Yeoh's ‘contesting’ of the built environment in Singapore2—specifically in the tugging and pulling between local and colonial influences within the spatial discourse of colonial port cities—needs to be added that of single or multiple-event collective trauma. Such trauma, perceived as brought upon by unexpected external causes, might consolidate, perhaps accelerate, or even sever a previous sequence of spatial negotiation, particularly if that sequence was politically vulnerable or immature. The paper is a focused account of such an occurrence: the small-scale yet intensely traumatic events of Hong Kong Island while still in its colonial infancy in 1843, the year of the ‘Hongkong Fever’. It argues that a new conception of malaria—considered then a miasma—now linked both to location and construction, led to the first reactive, yet decisive, reconfiguring of a previously improvised urban colonization process, consequently salvaging Hong Kong's position within a wider imperial context. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The aim of this paper is to investigate the contagion across real estate markets of four countries: Hong Kong, China, U.S. and U.K., during the financial tsunami in 2008. We use the Forbes-Rigobon test, the coskewness test and the cokurtosis test. We propose a new cokurtosis test constructed by extending the method of constructing the coskewness test to further higher order moments. It can show additional channels of contagion that other tests fail to show, and hence can provide more information on the direction of contagion, and reflect a more complete picture of the contagion pattern. The coskewness and cokurtosis tests show that contagion exists between the four countries, and the contagion effect is stronger between Hong Kong and China, and between U.S. and U.K. This provides clues for investors on how to diversify their investment to reduce their risk. This paper bridges the gap that previous works on contagion across real estate markets give mixed results, and gives a first insight into the contagion pattern of global real estate markets during the financial tsunami. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the changing concepts of leadership in early childhood education (ECE) in England and Hong Kong during a period of significant education reform. We seek to illustrate the interplay between the impact of the policy agenda and the emerging quality leadership perspectives found in the theoretical literature, by first considering the recent education reform context in both England and Hong Kong, before examining the importance of leadership for quality provision given the constraints and drivers of policy expectation. The paper explores transformational, distributed and authentic models of leadership in the ‘New Leadership’ paradigm and uses these constructions to examine the developing problems and opportunities for quality leadership as expected by the current policy reform agenda and understood by the practitioners. In conclusion, we raise questions about the interplay between policy agendas and the development of theoretical models of leadership for ECE in England and Hong Kong. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Toilet is one of the most important constructed environments for human beings. However, as commented by the United Nations, whether this important space for sanitation is accessible for all is a critical issue for modern society. In recent years, to promote and implement equal opportunity, accessible public toilet has become a more common facility in modern cities. More countries and individual cities have also established their specific ordinances, regulations, codes of practice and guidelines for accessible public toilets. However, whether the quality of accessible public toilets meets the needs and preferences of users with different capabilities is still a question. Disregarding its success in economic development, Hong Kong is a city that is constantly being criticised by local residents and visitors alike about the quality of its public toilets. Persons with disabilities also always complain about the unavailability and inaccessibility of public toilets. A study on accessible public toilets has been conducted in Hong Kong since 2009. The study aims to review and then improve the quality of accessible public toilets. One of the key areas of the study is to compare the legislation of standards for accessible public toilets in different places. Through a review of the legislation of standards of accessible public toilets in the United Kingdom — a country with well-developed legislation and standards for persons with disabilities to access toilets — and then a comparison with those of Hong Kong, this paper aims to generate inspirations for the improvement of the standards of accessible public toilets and in turn to promote equal opportunity for all. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By the nineteenth century, with the advance of British colonial activities, British corporate laws had been transplanted to maritime Asia with varying degrees of vigour. In British Hong Kong, these laws often clashed with native customs. Through a reconstruction of the legal disputes found in urban Hong Kong, this paper discusses how British and Chinese business traditions interacted with each other during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Before assessing the historical implications and consequences of these legal decisions, this paper will also explore whether the Chinese institution of tong is compatible with British law in urban Hong Kong. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a research paper on the implementation of Public Private Partnership (PPP) projects. It states that the study involves a questionnaire survey in Hong Kong, China, Australia and Great Britain to investigate the reasons for implementing PPP projects. It mentions that respondents were required to rate the importance of nine identified reasons for PPP project implementation. It notes that the study aims to obtain public's interest to understand the government approach in implementing PPP projects. Moreover, the respondents' rankings showed that Great Britain centered on financial elements of PPP projects while Australia and Hong Kong were more linked to overall performance.

As a former colony, Hong Kong's education system has been powerfully influenced by ideas from the West. However, these influences have been mediated by a number of factors of contingency - the most important of which is culture - which shapes implementation, particularly of what counts as successful practice. The aim of this paper is to trace the interpretation and implementation of key ideas about school leadership and to offer some analytical projections into the future based on current trajectories. It explores three broad sets of constraints on the development of leadership practice: the features of the Hong Kong school system, the influence of a Confucian cultural tradition, and the process oriented nature of the professional practice of effective school leadership. The paper concludes by offering an analysis of how this dynamic process view of leadership can be used to understand current attempts to build a school-based approach to educational leadership. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to study the similarities of the normative ideas underpinning the welfare-to-work measures for young people in Hong Kong and the UK. These normative ideas include the two respective Governments' views on their ideal model of the relationship between individual and society, and Etzioni's and Confucian ideas on how people's attempts to fulfill social obligations can reduce moral deficits. It is believed that the study of these issues contributes to the examination of the ethnocentric bias in the analysis of social welfare and different ways that non- Western governments organize social welfare in response to foreign ideas. Design/methodology/approach - The paper starts by discussing the ethnocentric bias in the study of social welfare. Then it examines the similarities of the normative ideas of the welfare-to- work measures for young people in Hong Kong and the UK, and discusses how the examination of these similarities helps us understand the ethnocentric bias in the analysis of social welfare. Findings - The paper shows the ethnocentric bias arising from over-emphasizing the differences between the ways in which social welfare is organized in Western societies and non-Western societies, and the ethnocentric bias arising from taking for granted that people in non-Western societies passively accept the dominance of Western models in shaping the development of their social welfare system, even if it appears that Western ideas share many similarities to their indigenous ideas. Originality/value - The paper shows different types of ethnocentric bias in the analysis of social welfare and different possible ways that non-Western governments could organize social welfare in response to foreign ideas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to describe the Hong Kong (HK) school curriculum, especially the general curriculum for civic education and other social subjects, in relation to the political events of the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration, the 1989 Tiananmen Square Incident, and the return of HK's sovereignty from the United Kingdom (UK) to the People's Republic of China (PRC) in 1997. This paper will argue that since 1984, the school curriculum of HK has been marked by tensions brought about by political cultures shaped by the UK and the PRC, the bureaucratic mechanisms of which are used to make sure that those curriculum contents that are judged to be politically correct are taught in school. Over the last two decades the school curriculum has been depicted as being shaped by the emergence of the nation-state and the transfer of sovereignty. Granted that political and national education forms part of the school culture, the question of how to shape students to be patriotic through the curriculum will continue to be contentious. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents an empirical analysis of implementation of electronic data interchange (EDI) in Hong Kong, China. EDI is a term used to describe the technology by which business documents such as orders, invoices, shipping contracts, and so on are transmitted electronically. It is estimated that EDI is growing at a rate of 200 per cent per annum, with the Great Britain accounting for approximately 70 per cent of all European activity. As organizations gain greater experience with EDI, the more far-sighted users have realized that significant benefits are to be gained through the integration of related functions across organizational boundaries. It is not the replacement of paper-based communications by electronic media that provides the major strategic advantages of EDI. Rather, it is the associated changes in operation within and between organizations made possible by EDI link. This focus on achieving integration across organizational functions and between organizations is what distinguishes EDI from other forms of electronic transaction and is what makes it an effective strategic application at organizational, national and international levels.

In November 1941 two Canadian infantry battalions arrived in the British Crown Colony of Hong Kong as reinforcements for the garrison. This deployment is considered an element of Britain's effort to deter Japanese aggression south against areas more vital, but this paper will demonstrate how other significant geopolitical issues led to this event. Canadian troops were sent to Hong Kong largely because of U.S. influence. Aimed at bolstering Chinese morale, Hong Kong's reinforcement was meant to sustain the Sino-Japanese war in order to provide indirect support to the Soviet Far East when the Red Army faced destruction in Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In debates on social change and personal life, modernity has generally been conceptualized in opposition to tradition, though some have pointed to the persistence of traditional values and practices within modern family relations. In this paper we seek to extend these debates beyond their largely Eurocentric context. Drawing on a comparative qualitative study of women and social change in Britain and Hong Kong, we argue for an understanding of the traditional and the modern that takes account of the ways in which tradition is reshaped in the context of modernity. The accounts of young adult women and their mothers in Hong Kong and Britain reveal varied interpretations of family obligations and practices in relation to normative ideals of family life in each context. We consider how configurations of family life deemed 'modern' are inflected by the differing traditions and histories of Hong Kong and British society and argue that these differences are not only cultural, but also attributable to the material conditions under which family relationships are forged and negotiated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 156 years of British colonial rule (1842-1997) finally ended when the sovereignty over Hong Kong was returned to China in 1997. Since 1980, many new policies had been introduced in Hong Kong for the purpose of smoothing the process of handover. Some of the policies were introduced out of consideration for new political circumstances. Others were launched with the hidden agenda of erasing colonial history. The implementation of Chinese as an official medium of communication in the judicial system reflects the former, whereas the change of the Chinese titles of government officials reflects the latter. Many translation issues were involved in these so-called localization policies. In this regard, the change of Chinese titles for government officials in Hong Kong is a subject worthy of study. The Chinese titles of major government officials in colonial Hong Kong were actually taken over from those of Imperial China. Therefore, they are marks of Chinese imperial history rather than British colonial history. However, for the apparent propose of erasing colonial history, these proper Chinese titles were changed to newly coined Chinese titles that are not found in Chinese history. The aim of this paper is to use the issue of translation as an example to demonstrate that in the decolonization process of Hong Kong, as in that of many other colonized countries which intended to break with their colonial past, many decolonizing policies were actually self-defeating in purpose. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper discusses the rise to academic significance of Heritage Studies, and suggests four emerging entry points for the analysis of heritage problems, these being the fields of heritage, the markets for heritage, the different levels of identity towards which heritage is intended to contribute, and the various stages in a cycle of heritage. The paper concludes by suggesting major trends in attitudes to heritage in the 21st century and with challenges concerning the management of heritage in particular sites in the United Kingdom and in Hong Kong. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper [1] reports on an ethnographic field research conducted in Beijing in 2007, with an attempt to examine the cognitive and affective orientation dimensions of a group of Hong Kong students toward the Beijing 2008 Olympics and their negotiation of national identity. In 1997, China resumed sovereignty over Hong Kong under the principle of 'One Country, Two Systems,' continuing a long history of Hong Kong people struggling with their national identity. Study tours to Mainland China had been arranged as an extension of national education, with the Beijing Olympics as the main theme. With field notes and focus groups, this study found that the tour provoked in the students an interesting mixture of pride and skepticism and also reinforced their 'insider/outsider' identity crisis. This article concludes that the debate over the use of Beijing Olympics as national education reflects an intrinsic paradox of the principle of 'One Country, Two Systems.' [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper focuses on secondary school children from Hong Kong Chinese families living in Northern Ireland, UK, and maps out their trans-cultural experiences by examining the discursive ways in which they construct their cultural Self and cultural Other. Here Bourdieu's concept of habitus is employed in conjunction with Chinese moral values in order to understand the ethnic Chinese minority children's creative constructions of trans-cultural identity, cultural perceptions and attitudes. In conclusion, implications for culturally rounded understanding of trans-cultural experience in light of habitus are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The term 'obscenity' has no universal definition. It is often ill -defined, subjective and highly dependent on the culture of the communities in question and between communities. Nevertheless, the aim of the law on obscenity is to prevent publication and distribution of materials, which are potentially harmful to its readers, viewers and audience. The purpose of this paper is three fold. Firstly, it briefly considers the law on obscenity in the United Kingdom, and in the United States. Secondly, the paper discusses and evaluates the law relating to obscenity in Hong Kong in the light of the recent publication and distribution of materials which could be argued to fall within the realm of obscenity. Finally, it considers whether the law on obscenity would ever be able to fit into an "acceptable community standard". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper briefly reviews the change in the political status of Hong Kong from a British colony to a Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China, sets out the international rights and obligations of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) as evidence of its international legal personality, and discusses whether the HKSAR can be treated as a subject of international law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper studies pension reforms in the UK, urban China and Hong Kong. It argues that these reforms share suggestions raised by the World Bank, and that these reforms are not effective in strengthening the capacity of pension schemes in giving older people a secure retirement life. To increase the effectiveness of these schemes, the three Governments should appreciate that the main purpose of the pension reforms is to provide older people with secure retirement rather than to promote investors' interests. Moreover, they should develop a social consensus on how security should be defined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a diachronic account of the careers of two generations of Chinese in Hong Kong and two generations of Chinese in Britain. It focuses on both the intra-generational and inter-generational similarities and diversities in career development of these Chinese. Using Raider and Burt's (1996) distinction between voluntary and involuntary boundaryless careers as a framework, this study concludes that the 'first-generation Chinese' in both Hong Kong and Britain were initially involuntarily bounded in their careers, but, over time, the 'first-generation Chinese' in Britain later chose to be voluntarily bounded to their careers, while the 'first-generation Chinese' in Hong Kong were pushed by macro-economic factors to experience involuntary boundarylessness. In contrast, the 'second-generation Chinese' in Britain are rather ambiguously placed, in a position voluntarily to choose bounded or boundaryless careers, while the 'second-generation Chinese' in Hong Kong are more firmly ensconced in a situation of pursuing voluntary boundaryless careers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As an international financial center, the banking industry in Hong Kong (HK) plays a significant role. Because of increasingly competitive pressure from domestic and overseas banks, HK banks must tightly control cost and improve quality and efficiency of operations in order to maintain profitability. For this purpose, quality management has emerged as an effective tool in recent years. In fact, it has been regarded as a vital strategic element for meeting the challenge of the new and intensified competition in the financial services industry (Knights & McCabe, 1996b, Managing Service Quality, 6, pp. 18-21). This paper reports the result of a survey on quality management initiatives in HK's banking industry between 1997 and 2000. The trend of changes in these years is analyzed and the results from HK are compared with those from British financial institutions reported by Wilkinson et al. (1996, Total Quality Management, 7, pp. 67-78). The results show that HK banks have gradually adopted quality initiatives and gained significant success in quality management over the past 3 years. They focused more on meeting service standard and providing prompt services while banking institutions in the UK focused more on understanding and meeting customers' needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Chinese community has made rapid socio-economic advancement Britain over the course of one generation. This paper examines the influences of culture and structure in determining the remarkable levels of attainments made by the Chinese Britain. In addition, the impacts of culture and structure in circumscribing occupational choices of the Chinese in Britain are also explored, since somewhat marring this image of success is the occupational segregation of the Chinese in the labour market. The human resource implication of this latter situation is that there exists a valuable source of qualified Chinese labour currently engaged in the ethnic niche, particularly Chinese catering industry, which could be better utilized in the wider labour market. It suggested that responsibility to address this issue reducing such 'wastage', involves efforts of three parties, namely, the Chinese themselves, careers counselors, as well organizations in Britain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on a study to examine the information systems (IS) issues perceived as important by Hong Kong (HK) business and IS managers and identity whether these differ greatly from findings in the United Kingdom (UK). In order to do so the study replicates the research study reported in 1994 in the UK by Galliers et al, compares findings and then extends the study by case study analysis. The results suggest that there are variations on perceived issues of importance which can be attributed to cultural contexts but these are less significant than the differences found between managers in different industries. The results of the case studies suggest that several firms which are highly dependent upon Information Technology (IT) have very different concerns and approaches from the "run-of-the- mill" organisations either in HK or UK. This suggests that IS strategy and issues affecting IS effectiveness vary not so much because of culture but in relation to the nature of an industry and its dependence on IT The conclusion of this study, therefore, is to suggest that rather than address problem issues identified "collectively", companies must seek to study problems related to their specific industry environment. This also implies a direction for future research studies of this nature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report on an action research study conducted by two mathematics teacher educators in the United Kingdom and Hong Kong. The project consisted of three phases, the first two taking place in our respective teacher education courses and a final phase in which prospective mathematics teachers from both locations engaged in dialogue through a speculative fiction task. Our aim was to explore how our prospective mathematics teachers can be supported in becoming mathematics teachers for sustainable futures by innovating our own mathematics teacher education curricula. This study suggests that generative methods which support teachers in speculating on paths to potential futures as teachers of mathematics, can provide access to how prospective teachers negotiate issues in relation to the climate crisis and ways in which they conceive of related changes in their practices. By identifying the aspects of mathematics teaching that are viewed by the prospective teachers as contingent, and through offering tasks that support an expansion of this view, teacher educators are better placed to support the development of teaching practices needed for sustainable futures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews recent developments regarding social housing policies in Hong Kong and the UK. Underlying the analysis is the fact that, during the last 40 years or so, both countries have been major global players in financial markets and thus pursued aggressive market-driven approaches to economic development. Notwithstanding that fact, each followed a different direction regarding housing policy reforms in the period. In Hong Kong (HK), the system of public housing provision was expanded; in the UK, the system of housing provision was scaled down. The argument being developed here is that a pro-public housing approach in HK should not be seen as a threat to capitalism in any way or measure. On the contrary, land development as well as land-originated fiscal revenues is a crucial part of HKSAR government's revenues. In the UK, this is no different. The return (through various forms of privatization) of the public housing stock (Council housing) to private hands (homeowners and housing associations) meant also to enhance businesses, in particular the mortgage and real estate markets. In both cases, there were also clear political reasons that justify developments in housing policy. The idea that Council housing served as a stage in the passage from a time when housing was predominantly provided in a largely unregulated private-rental market to a time when most people became homeowners is also discussed. This was what defined the ‘modernization’ of housing in the UK. The of ‘residualization’ was adopted to discuss the UK case. One important question is to know whether Hong Kong will follow the same path of ‘modernization’ as the UK, in the future. So far, HK has resisted; public housing has been ‘resilient’, ensured by a proper repair and maintenance policy, redevelopment and production of new housing throughout the last decades. Resilience is also granted by people's recognition and attachment to public housing and low stigmatization. More importantly, public provision of housing continues to be regarded, in both countries, as a necessary development to grant quality of life and a better distribution of income, avoiding the sharpening of social and territorial segregation, gentrification and stigmatization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tin Shui Wai new town in Hong Kong, known as the "city of sadness," has been narrated by the "Tin Shui Wai Myth" that attributes its urban problems to the planning failures after the colonial government rescued the developers, including a Chinese red capital, from a market slump in the early 1980s. This myth creates misunderstandings, which confuse recent debates about new town development and regional integration with China. To debunk this myth, this article, based on archival research, analyzes the scalar politics of new town planning and explains why the government decided to purchase the land and develop it in a partnership with the developers. It sheds new light on how the regional dynamics in South China after the economic reforms prompted China and Britain to react to the new town proposal at interconnected and contested spatial scales, before the diplomatic negotiations about this British colony's future officially started. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Master and Servant Act was a law that allowed the use of penal sanction against workers for breach of contract in nineteenth century Britain. For scholars who believe that wage laborers under capitalism are free from “extra-economic” coercion, this law was an anomaly. One explanation suggests technological backwardness during the early stages of capitalism as the cause. In this paper I will challenge this account and offer an alternative explanation. As the British Empire expanded, the same law was enacted in many British colonies. If it was the process of capitalist production that rendered the Master and Servant Act necessary, this explanation should also apply to the British colonies. By focusing on Hong Kong, I show that this was not the case. Instead, I show that the use of judiciary coercion could be explained by Bourdieu's notions of doxa, habitus and field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Section 172 of the UK Companies Act 2006 is arguably one of the most controversial provisions that has been introduced into the company law of the UK. It incorporates the concept of enlightened shareholder value, together with a list of non-exhaustive factors that directors ought to take into account in promoting the success of the company. The discussion focuses on a recent review undertaken by the Hong Kong Standing Committee on Company Law Reform (SCCLR) as to whether Hong Kong should follow the UK by incorporating a similar provision to section 172 of the Companies Act 2006 in its Companies Bill. Contrary to the SCCLR recommendation, the primary conclusion drawn is that it makes commercial sense for a similar provision to be introduced in Hong Kong. A careful examination of section 172 of the Companies Act 2006 shows that it simply reflects existing law and modern business practices. Therefore, the purpose of implementing such duty on directors does no more than reinstate the practical reality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper looks at patterns of language use in Hong Kong around the time of the end of colonial rule by Britain in 1997 to identify some of the issues arising in that context from language contact and language shift. Two different models used in the study of multilingualism or bilingualism will be discussed -- language use reflecting function or status (diglossia) and overlapping language forms reflecting linguistic constraints (code-switching). The changes in language use and form in Hong Kong are seen to be more dynamic than traditional models of diglossia or code-switching suggest, which may partly indicate the special history of language contact in Hong Kong, but also may indicate the need for more flexible models of multilingualism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the first part of our study, we use a linear statistical technique to examine the impact of the announcement of China's decision to take back Hong Kong from the United Kingdom in 1982, the Tiananmen Square incident of 4 June 1989, the Asian financial crisis (AFC) of 1997, and the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in 2003 on Hong Kong's housing market in terms of prices. A total of 11362 residential transactions from a cluster of data for a large private-housing estate, considered to be representative of Hong Kong's private residential market, were used to test four hypotheses that evaluate the impact of shocks on property prices through the use of a hedonic price model. The influences based on the statistical findings, which satisfy the relevant goodness-of-fit tests, are (a) that the sovereignty crisis exerted immediate significant negative price effect, but property prices rebounded after a big decline when open diplomatic dialogue between the Chinese and UK governments began, (b) that the Tiananmen Square (4 June) incident had no significant price effect; (c) that the AFC caused a drastic decline in property prices; and (d) that the impact of the SARS outbreak was significantly negative for Amoy Gardens but not so for estates with fewer reported SARS cases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we study the cooperative strategies between two firms in an overseas country. In Part 1, we examine the circumstances under which foreign firms would cooperate with another foreign firm in a third country market. Drawing upon existing literature, we develop and test a set of hypotheses using a longitudinal data set from China. The types of cooperative arrangements include all the major modes of operation. In Part 2, we further investigate what types of operation and level of control exist among the cooperative arrangements between two foreign firms in China. We used a sample of 483 cooperative arrangements between two firms from Hong Kong, the U.S., Japan, Germany, or Britain. This study offers interesting insight as to why foreign firms form cooperative arrangements in an overseas country and what types of cooperative arrangements these firms prefer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The structural characteristics of the Hong Kong construction industry, most notably its elaborate system of subcontracting and the casual basis on which labour is employed, pose serious problems for safety managers. By International standards, Hong Kong's construction industry performs very badly in the area of safety. Recent work in the UK and Finland highlights the effectiveness of behavioural techniques to improve safety performance on construction sites. Work is currently under way to test technique in the Hong Kong construction setting. The structural properties of the Hong Kong construction industry have been taken into consideration and labour commitments to the group and to the organization have been identified for additional consideration in research. It is expected that these variables will intervene in the application of behavioural techniques to determine their effectiveness. This paper investigates the theoretical background to commitment at the group and organizational level and presents a site-level research model which is illustrative of the possible effects that group and organizational level commitment may be found to have on the use of behavioural techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses how since 1970, the colonial government in Hong Kong, China exercised its wide legal powers over trade union organization and activities in a benevolent manner. In Hong Kong, government regulation of trade union activities is longstanding, based on the Trade Unions Ordinance (TUO) which was originally introduced in 1948 and underwent major revisions in 1961 and 1971. TUO represents a modified "colonial" version of Great Britain labor law as it was at that time. Thus, while the TUO followed British labor law tradition by providing few rights for trade unions to organize and employees to strike, it broke sharply with the then-Great Britain principle of non-interference in trade union internal affairs. The first important aspect of Great Britain trade unions' experience of adversity with relevance for Hong Kong trade unions is the importance of the independence of the judiciary. This is not so much a survival lesson drawn from Great Britain trade unions' actions and strategies but rather a reminder that the power to interpret the legal controls a government chooses to impose on trade unions lies with the judiciary. The future for Hong Kong is uncertain. The trade unions' role in the maintenance of Hong Kong's albeit limited democracy may become a critical one after the transfer of sovereignty.

Background: Overuse of and dependence on analgesics (including opioids and other pain medications) are major international public health problems. Objective: To identify influences on analgesic dependence among analgesic users in the general populations of different countries. Methods: Online surveys of 1,283 people with pain in the UK, USA, Australia, Germany, Egypt and China/Macau/Hong Kong. Results: Levels of analgesic overuse and dependence were highest in Egypt and lowest in China/Macau/Hong Kong. In every country except Egypt, frequency of pain and frequency of analgesic use were correlated with analgesic dependence, and scores on the Need subscale of the Pain Medication Attitudes Questionnaire (PMAQ) independently predicted analgesic dependence. In the UK, USA, Australia, and Germany, frequency of analgesic use mediated the effects of pain frequency or intensity, and Need scores mediated the effects of frequency of analgesic use. In Egypt, more recent pain, analgesic overuse, and the Emotion and Solicitude subscales of the Survey of Pain Attitudes independently predicted analgesic dependence. Conclusions: Across multiple countries, the impact of pain on analgesic dependence was mediated by frequency of analgesic use rather than overuse or abuse, and self-reported need for analgesics was the strongest independent predictor of dependence. Asking people directly about their feelings of needing analgesics could therefore identify those who could be helped to use analgesics less frequently, which should reduce their risk of dependence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Relatively little is known about the experiences of Chinese widows, especially those living outside China. This qualitative study examines the experiences of eight Chinese or Hong Kong-born widows living in the UK. Using a semistructured approach to interviewing, participants were asked about their lives before, during, and after their spousal bereavement. Five major themes emerged: (1) complexity of marital lives; (2) experiences around the time of the death including fate; (3) loneliness and isolation; (4) the challenges of practical tasks; and finally, (5) current life. The implications of the findings for social policy and practice are briefly discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Social inclusion of people with mental health issues is an aim of the World Health Organisation. Many countries have adopted that objective, including Brazil and the United Kingdom and both have focused treatment in the community. The aim of this article is to compare international results using the same inclusion instrument. Methods: The samples in this study were 225 people with mental health issues in community services in São Paulo, Brazil. Their results are compared to findings from 168 people with similar mental health issues in Hong Kong, China, and from the United Kingdom – a nationally representative sample of 212 people without mental health issues. The instrument used to measure a social inclusion called Social and Communities Opportunities Profile (SCOPE) has been validated for use in the United Kingdom, China and Brazil. Results: The results are that people with mental health issues have worse social inclusion when compared to general population. Between the people with mental health issues, the sample of São Paulo has the lowest social inclusion index but, in relation to access to the Brazilian revised mental health services, that sample has a similarly high inclusion rating to the general population of the United Kingdom. Conclusion: Findings are important to understand mental health in the community context, as well as their adversities and potentialities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: China’s future major health problem will be the management of chronic diseases – of which mental health is a major one. An instrument is needed to measure mental health inclusion outcomes for mental health services in Hong Kong and mainland China as they strive to promote a more inclusive society for their citizens and particular disadvantaged groups. Aim: To report on the analysis of structural equivalence and item differentiation in two mentally unhealthy and one healthy sample in the United Kingdom and Hong Kong. Method: The mental health sample in Hong Kong was made up of non-governmental organisation (NGO) referrals meeting the selection/exclusion criteria (being well enough to be interviewed, having a formal psychiatric diagnosis and living in the community). A similar sample in the United Kingdom meeting the same selection criteria was obtained from a community mental health organisation, equivalent to the NGOs in Hong Kong. Exploratory factor analysis and logistic regression were conducted. Results: The single-variable, self-rated ‘overall social inclusion’ differs significantly between all of the samples, in the way we would expect from previous research, with the healthy population feeling more included than the serious mental illness (SMI) groups. In the exploratory factor analysis, the first two factors explain between a third and half of the variance, and the single variable which enters into all the analyses in the first factor is having friends to visit the home. All the regression models were significant; however, in Hong Kong sample, only one-fifth of the total variance is explained. Conclusion: The structural findings imply that the social and community opportunities profile–Chinese version (SCOPE-C) gives similar results when applied to another culture. As only one-fifth of the variance of ‘overall inclusion’ was explained in the Hong Kong sample, it may be that the instrument needs to be refined using different or additional items within the structural domains of inclusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Photographs of 50 women were rated for attractiveness, health, and fertility recorded by four sets of participants—Rural-Chinese (n = 50), Chinese participants in Hong Kong (n = 50), Chinese participants living in the United Kingdom (n = 50), and participants self-identifying as “Caucasian” living in the United Kingdom. The results suggest that a polynomial function of Body Mass Index (kg/m2) is the best predictor of all three judgments in all four observer groups. In contrast, shape cues, such as the waist-to-hip ratio (WHR), seem to play a relatively small role. Shape cues do consistently account for a greater proportion of the variance in all three Chinese groups than for the Caucasian participants, implying a greater role for shape in the Chinese participants’ judgments. This result may reflect the competing pressures between the healthy range for shape and body mass in the Chinese populations versus the role of visual diet in influencing body preferences in different cultural environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on the administrative efficiency of the Hong Kong public administration and analyzes its influence over the efficiency and legality of the government decision-making. It analyzes the role of the Hong Kong Legislative Council in regulating the economic structure of the Hong Kong under its administrative law. It mentions that the sovereignty is transferred from the Great Britain to the People's Republic of China expansion of the administrative state.