This study examines the relationship between media use and gender stereotyping in Hong Kong, where Western liberal thoughts meet Chinese traditional and patriarchal norms. Although mainstream media studies center on the general impact of television on sex-role stereotyping, this study distinguishes the formal use of television for information from the informal use for entertainment, the latter of which is often neglected, but the impact is far more encompassing. A baseline survey on gender equality commissioned by the Hong Kong Government with 2,020 successful face-to-face interviews was conducted and the sample was of the Equal Probability of Selection Method (EPSEM) type provided by the Census and Statistics Department. The participants are all Chinese from all class strata (51.5% below HK$10,000; 39.4% between HK$10,000 and HK$24,999; and 19.1% above HK$25,000 with US$1 HK$7.8). The BSRI measurement was modified to gauge the gender-role stereotype. The results show that despite influence by Western culture, gender stereotyping of the public in Hong Kong still exists. In particular, the self-reported functional television for entertainment (rather than for information) as well as exposure to entertainment programs on television have reinforced the female stereotypes, and females have a lower cultural awareness toward male stereotypes. 相似文献
We use data from the 2016 China Labor-force Dynamics Survey (CLDS) to examine the relationship between happiness and consumption expenditure of rural farmers in China. A two-stage residual inclusion approach is applied to tackle the potential endogeneity issue of happiness. The empirical results show that a higher level of happiness is associated with an increase in consumption expenditure in general. Further analysis reveals that higher levels of happiness are positively and significantly associated with higher expenditures on basic living goods, education and gifts. We also find that both household income and access to the Internet boost happiness and increase consumption expenditure. Happiness plays a larger role in improving the consumption expenditure of rural households compared with their urban counterparts. Our findings may suggest that improving rural income via income diversification strategies and investing in rural information and communication technology infrastructures would encourage rural farmers’ happiness, promote the upgrading of rural consumption and boost sustainable economic growth.
