Male/Male Sex in Hong Kong: Privacy,Please?

In August 2005, the age of consent for male/male sexual activity in Hong Kong was held to be arbitrarily and discriminatorily targeting gay men and thus in violation of an individual’s right to privacy and his right of equality on the basis of sexual orientation. While the decision has since been affirmed on appeal, it has been argued that judicial recourse to equality rights where privacy rights would have sufficed for the provisions to be struck down was a misguided, if not mistaken, effort that merely reinforced the stereotype that gay men are “hypersexualized” and was a setback for the gay rights movement in Hong Kong. This article examines whether the argument is a well-founded one and discusses the implications of confining a man’s right to have consensual sex with another man to his privacy rights alone.

Stonewalling through Schizophrenia: An Anti-Gay Rights Culture in Hong Kong?

With its British colonial legacy and Chinese make-up, Hong Kong provides a stimulating stadium and lens through which to examine the validity of the use of “culture” in arguing against homosexuality and the development and protection of the rights of sexual minorities. After a brief account on the legal developments in Hong Kong on homosexuality, this article examines how the argument that Hong Kong has an inherently anti-gay rights culture, which simultaneously emphasizes Confucianism and Christianity, and which the government then uses to stonewall the development and protection of the rights of sexual minorities, merely illuminates an underlying schizophrenia as to what that culture actually is. In the process of my diagnosis, I will also discuss whether Confucianism and Christianity indeed oppose homosexuality and sexual minority rights.

Brief report: Publications from mainland China,Hong Kong,and Taiwan in behavioral journals 1980–2021

Research involving international research communities has been advocated in the field of behavior analysis (Dymond et al., 2000; Martin et al., 2016). The purpose of the present study was to report the status of behavioral research in mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, in terms of number of publications, types of research, and frequency of collaboration with international researchers. Fifteen behavioral journals were selected from the list by Cooper et al. (2020). These were searched by hand to find publications conducted in or authored by researchers from mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan dating from each journal's inception to December 2021. The earliest publication we found appeared in 1980 in The Psychological Record. Over the following four decades (1980–1989; 1990–1999; 2000–2009; 2010–2021), the number of publications per decade increased dramatically and continues in recent years to rise. Publications include research reports, review papers, and conceptual articles, with the majority being basic research reports published in Behavioral Processes. Approximately half the publications involve collaboration with international researchers, mostly in North America. Implications for behavioral research, practice, and policy in mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan are discussed.     

Sense of Community in Hong Kong: Relations with Community-Level Characteristics and Residents’ Well-Being

Sense of community (SOC) has been one of the most studied topics in community psychology. However, no empirical study to date has investigated SOC in Hong Kong and its relations with community characteristics and residents’ psychological well-being. A representative sample of 941 Hong Kong Chinese based on a randomized household survey was conducted in all 18 districts in Hong Kong. Results of hierarchical linear modeling indicated that SOC was not associated with sociodemographic indicators on both the individual-level (i.e., gender, age, family income, education level, type of residence, and area-to-capita ratio of residence) and the community-level (i.e., proportion of individuals with tertiary education, median family income, ownership of residence, population density, and resident stability). SOC was negatively related to daily hassles and positively with social support and quality of life. Conceptualization of SOC in Hong Kong was discussed.     

The Eysenckian personality structure: a Giant Three or Big Five model in Hong Kong?

In the last decade, the area of personality measurement has been dominated by three major systems: the Eysenckian Giant Three, the Cattellian sixteen factors and the Big Five. While many of the Cattellian second-stratum factors have been shown to fit the Big Five system, can the factors measured by the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire also be described by the five-factor model? The study reported in this article was designed to determine whether the dimensions measured by a revised Chinese version of the Junior Eysenck Personality Questionnaire would, in a Hong Kong population, replicate the Giant Three or the Big Five and whether there is evidence to support the suggested dual nature of the Extraversion dimension and the Lie scale in this Cantonese-speaking group. A four-factor solution indicated that the data did not support the notion of a Giant Three model plus a Lie scale and lacks clarity. A five-factor solution produced factors that can clearly be labelled Neuroticism, Conscientiousness, Sociability, Excitement-Seeking and Agreeableness. Sociability, focusing on meeting people and Excitement-Seeking, which consists of Impulsivity and Liveliness, derive from items in Eysencks Extraversion dimension. The Openness factor of the Big Five system is absent in this population.     

Eternal Mothers or Flexible Housewives? Middle-aged Chinese Married Women in Hong Kong

How do Hong Kong Chinese women position themselves in relation to this stigmatized social category of “si-nai” (middle aged-housewives) and the prevailing norms and values regarding women’s roles? The case of middle-aged, married women in Hong Kong provides empirical support for an alternative understanding of the identity of adult woman and helps to problematize conceptualizations of women’s identity as centered on their mother roles. The narratives of these twenty-six women show the fluidity of their roles as mothers (and wives). These roles change with reference to social context, life circumstances, and life course. Many middle-aged women have tried to resist becoming “mad housewives” and have learnt to be “flexible housewives” by actively decentering their role as mothers.     

Hong Kong’s Parents’ Views on Sex,Marriage, and Homosexuality

Sex education in schools has had a slow start in Hong Kong. Research has shown that many young people are dissatisfied with the inadequacy of existing sex education. This research used a survey to explore Hong Kong parents’ views on topics related to sex, marriage, and homosexuality, and when these topics should be taught. Altogether, 12 schools participated in the study. The results show that parents were reluctant to have schools discuss love and courtship with secondary students. Parents were more willing to have their children educated about the use of contraceptives and homosexuality as early as primary school. Parents expressed serious reservations about their children developing homosexual lifestyles and entering same-sex marriages. We also found differences in parents’ views with respect to age, education attained, and religion. Findings of this study were discussed with reference to future research directions and to strengthen Hong Kong parents’ contribution to the design of sex education.     

Gender Voices in Hong Kong English Textbooks—Some Past and Current Practices

This paper seeks to investigate whether recent improvements in the status of women in Hong Kong are reflected in patterns of gender representation in Hong Kong secondary English textbooks. A comparison of ten recently published books which are currently in use with ten published in the late 1980s/early 1990s and no longer in use revealed that women appeared more frequently in the former, and that greater use was made of gender-inclusive pronouns and the neutral address title Ms. Nevertheless some writers, it was found, continue to perpetuate the stereotyped image of women as weaker than men, and as operating primarily within domestic rather than social domains. The “male-first” phenomenon and the visual under-representation of women are still prevalent in recent textbooks.     

Perceived Parental Control and Parent–Child Relational Qualities in Chinese Adolescents in Hong Kong

Chinese secondary school students (N = 3,017) were asked to respond to instruments that measure subjective evaluation of parental behavioral control (indexed by parental knowledge, expectation, monitoring, discipline, and demandingness, as well as Chinese parental control attributes), parental psychological control, and parent–child relational qualities (satisfaction with parental control, child's readiness to communicate with the parents, and perceived mutual trust). Results showed that Chinese adolescents perceived their fathers and mothers to be different in terms of the above indicators, and they suggest that the notion of “strict father, kind mother” in traditional Chinese culture has changed to “strict mother, kind father” in contemporary Chinese culture. Results also showed significant main effects of the child (boys vs. girls) and interaction effects of parents and gender of the child. Finally, parental educational levels were positively related to perceived parental control processes and parent–child relational qualities.     

Are older adults in Hong Kong “living in history” in their autobiographical memories?

Transition theory posits that autobiographical memories are organized by major life transitions, which is often supported by the Living-in-History effect that occurs when people frequently refer to public events to support their date estimates of personal events. In the present study, 52 Chinese older adults in Hong Kong recalled autobiographical events using cue-word method and justified the date estimates of the events. They also reported the most important events and assessed their impacts. Results showed that participants referred to public events only when estimating the date of 5.5% of word-cued events and reported a few public events as personally important, suggesting an absence of the Living-in-History effect. Nonetheless, word-cued events and important events accumulated around major life transitions to form a transition bump; the material change that important events brought about predicted whether the important events were used to organize autobiographical memory, thereby providing new evidence for the transition theory.     

Developing Social Entrepreneurship as an Intervention to Enhance Disadvantaged Young People’s Sense of Self-Worth and Career Competence in Hong Kong

Applied Research in Quality of Life - This is the first empirical research in Hong Kong to examine the impact of social entrepreneurship training on disadvantaged young peoples’ career...     

Who among European youth are active citizens at the EU level and why?

Abstract

The current generation of European youth is coming of age in the European Union. Compared to the generation of their parents and grandparents, this generation has been afforded new opportunities of travel and employment that transcends the borders of nations. How is this new reality experienced by youth from different European nations and from different social classes? Do younger generations feel more of a connection to their European identity, to their national identity, or to both? Such questions are addressed in the papers of this special issue, which draw data from the EU Horizon 2020 Constructing Active Citizenship with European Youth (CATCH-EyoU) project. Together these studies suggest that to address these questions we need to decompose who the youth are and what the historical context of their experience is. For example, youth from higher socio-economic status families living in post-communist or low wealth nations differ in their loyalties and commitment to the EU, compared to their counterparts. The papers in this special issue reveal important insights as well as gaps in the scholarship concerning youth active citizenship at the European level.     

Perceived Parental Control and Parent–Child Relational Qualities in Early Adolescents In Hong Kong: Parent Gender, Child Gender and Grade Differences

This study examined parent gender, child gender and grade differences in perceived parental control and parent–adolescent relational qualities in early adolescents in Hong Kong, People’s Republic of China. Utilizing a longitudinal research design, 2,559 Chinese secondary school students responded to instruments assessing perceived parental behavioral control, parental psychological control, and parent–child relational qualities over three consecutive years. Results showed that there were parent gender and child gender differences in parental control and parent–adolescent relational qualities, but interaction effects of parent gender and child gender were also found. These findings strongly challenge the traditional Chinese cultural belief of “strict fathers, kind mothers”. Results also consistently showed that the levels of perceived parental behavioral control and parent–child relational qualities gradually declined from grades 7 to 9 in early adolescent years in the Chinese culture.     

Gender Differences in Campaign Materials and Politicians’ Professional Orientation: The Case of a Hong Kong Election

This study examines gender differences in election campaigns with a specific focus on whether professional orientation, defined as the extent to which a politician sees politics as a career with its own ladder of advancement, would suppress gender differences. This is because candidates with higher levels of professional orientation may tend to see themselves primarily as “politicians” instead of as women or men. A content analysis of 836 candidates’ campaign leaflets in a local level election in Hong Kong was conducted. The results show some differences in the extent to which women and men candidates mentioned certain issues and used certain appeals in their platforms. However, when gender differences existed, they were more pronounced among candidates with weaker professional orientation.     

Bridging Borders in the Global City: Negotiating Sameness and Difference in Hong Kong’s Skilled Immigrants from Mainland China

Immigration labor in global cities is often framed in a dichotomy of skilled and nonskilled and explained from different perspective. Based on narratives of skilled immigrants from mainland China in postcolonial Hong Kong, this study shifts the focus of attention from generalized dissimilarities between migrant groups determined by the level of skills to commonalities of experience shaped by the broader social and cultural forces of their spatial, economic and political environments. It points to the importance of ??border?? in shaping the mode of incorporation of skilled migrants to localities in global city. It shows that skilled mainland immigrants in Hong Kong are deeply embedded in an overarching xin yimin (new immigrants) discourse according to which the Hong Kong?CChina border distinguishes all mainland immigrants from Hong Kong citizens regardless of the level of skills they possess. This discourse is associated with and defined by the cultural meaning of border between Hong Kong and China produced in the colonial past and reproduced in the postcolonial present. Despite being highly educated and skilled, mainland Chinese professionals experienced countless negotiation of sameness and difference in their everyday encountering localities and making place. The stories presented here ask us to rethink the assumptions informing the analytical distinctions between skilled and non-skilled and call for ??unifying?? skilled and non-skilled migration in global cities methodologically and theoretically.     

Hong Kong’s Umbrella Movement and the promotion of deviance

ABSTRACT

As a social movement demanding universal suffrage, Hong Kong’s Umbrella Movement mobilized thousands of young protesters and fomented radical views stridently subversive of mainland China’s political interference. The social movement continues to promote further forms of deviance in the form of calling for independence. As the city and former British colony lacks the sovereignty of statehood and democracy, the movement’s non-conformity to law needs to be contextualized as a form of deviance. In contributing to the deviancy of social movements, we utilize data obtained from interviews with participants of the movement alongside those who opposed the protest to understand the East Asian cultural setting of the Umbrella Movement’s promotion of deviance.     

Validating a “spurning scale” for nurses in Hong Kong

Based on a model on spumed helpers’ reactions, a spurning scale for nurses was constructed with items to assess the extent to which practicing nurses experience recurrent rejection of their help by patients and colleagues. Three approaches were employed to examine the validity of the scale: the relationship of the spurning scores with job satisfaction and turnover scores; the relationships of the spurning scores with burnout scores; and the relationships of the spurning scores with scores indicative of stress arising from interactions with one's patients, colleagues, and supervisor. Practicing nurses in Hong Kong (N = 212) who were enrolled in a refresher program of studies responded to a questionnaire containing the variables of interest. The results offered promising evidence for the validity of the scale.     

The transition to uncertainty?: The impacts of Hong Kong 1997 on personal relationships

Despite considerable previous research into acculturation processes and family stress, we know little about how different groups of individuals or families respond to planned political changes within a culture and the impact of their expectations on their daily relationships. This study examines the appraisals of 403 Hong Kong married individuals of the forthcoming handover of Hong Kong to China, the impact of these appraisals on relationship disagreements regarding the transition, and perceived changes in their relationships. Results suggest that negative (external) locus of control and pessimistic group norms are predictors of a threatening appraisal of the transition, and that this perceived threat was a significant predictor of perceived change in the couple's relationship. Age and education had direct impacts on perception of relationship change and intradyadic disagreements about the transition. Results are discussed in the light of the complex political and economic climate in the lead-up to the handover of Hong Kong to China, as well as the broader literature on family stress, personal relationships, and social change.