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The problems surrounding the loss and illegal trafficking of Chinese cultural heritage have intensified in recent times due to an increasing demand for Chinese cultural heritage and huge profits to be gained in the art market. While the Chinese mainland government has taken active measures to protect cultural heritage and combat the illegal trafficking of cultural heritage, two special administrative regions of China, Hong Kong and Macao, have not only failed to take similar measures, but have also functioned as key transit locations for the illicit trafficking of Chinese cultural heritage over the past three decades. This paper provides a comparative analysis of the laws related to cultural heritage between the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong and Macao. This paper argues that, while differences exist in these places, these differences should not be an obstacle to taking an integrated approach to cultural heritage in the region. There is a practical need for an integrated approach given the shared initiative of heritage protection and art market regulation. This paper argues that an integrated approach to cultural heritage is possible and should be pursued. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sinophobia (anti-Chinese sentiment) has become normalised and increasingly acceptable in Hong Kong in recent decades. Such Sinophobia intersects with aims of protecting what is local in the society, as seen in Hong Kong news media. This paper first explores the concept of Sinophobia. It then provides a background on Sinophobia in Hong Kong, explaining the tensions between the identities of Hong Kong/HongKongers and Mainland China/Mainland Chinese. After elaborating on the role of media and the nature of local media in Hong Kong, this paper examines Sinophobic, stereotypical and quasi-racist discourse in three major Hong Kong news sources. While respecting Hong Kong heritage is a valuable goal, the Sinophobia accompanying some such aims can be seen to fuel hatred among people. In this context, encouraging a more inclusive and reflective discourse is warranted to work against the pitfalls of Sinophobia as a particular form of xenophobia in Hong Kong. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper draws on 'diaspora at home', a concept that encapsulates the unique dynamics between Hong Kong and mainland China, as an analytical tool to explore the cross-border experiences of 23 Hong Kong students at 11 universities in mainland China. It empirically ascertains how the made and imposed claims and identifications of these Hong Kong students resulted in inclusion and exclusion as their interactions with their mainland peers and institutions deepened. Specifically, it highlights how their 'diaspora at home' status offered exclusive access to privileged higher education opportunities, preferential treatments and opportunities for upward social mobility. Meanwhile, such a status also resulted in an overwhelming sense of political liability as they unwittingly became 'political tokens' and suspected political subjects amid the increasingly tense political atmosphere between mainland China and Hong Kong. This paper pinpoints the relevance of class and politics in understanding how diasporic groups engage with higher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The existence of an uncovered liability has historically benefited foreign banks and lead currencies. Using the case of China's efforts to fund its foreign exchange needs by exploiting loopholes in the international financial architecture, the paper examines whether using state-owned settlement banks as a means of intermediating a specialised 'non-deliverable' financial asset in offshore markets can substitute the institutional and technical prerequisites that developing economies typically lack. The findings show that while offshore money markets can reduce US dollar dependency in areas such as trade invoicing that do not depend on currency delivery, increasing the offshore holdings of RMB is more challenging. The reasons for this are to be found in the way the governance, geographic and credit generating limitations of state settlement banks reinforce the constraints imposed by the uncovered liability problem. The findings distinguish the historical evolution of the RMB's offshore use from other offshore markets and reinforce the impossibility of separating issues related to trade infrastructures from those related to the structure of the international financial system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article aims to shed light on the little-known history of the Hong Kong City Hall Museum. Housed in the old City Hall between 1869 and 1933, the museum was intended as a place of entertainment and education for the residents of the British colony, including Chinese people. Dedicated to research and seeking the dissemination of knowledge through scientific displays of natural history specimens and artefacts, it was to be an emblem of Hong Kong's modernity and embody a certain degree of 'civilization'. However, the City Hall Museum never lived up to the expectations it initially had raised, and its collections remained disappointing and inconsistent. This failure was perceived as a stigma for the colony. This paper intends to offer an understanding of why this institution, during its more than sixty years of existence, failed to gather sufficient organisation and resources to support itself and ended up disappearing from memory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the representations of Africans and African cultures in Hong Kong media and the political, social, and cultural significance in shaping the socioeconomic wellbeing of Africans in the city. With the rising population of Africans in Hong Kong and the evolving nature of Africa-China relations, Africa and its cultures have become more prominent across Hong Kong's media. Representations of the African continent in Chinese medium newspapers in the city help define the local understanding of African peoples and cultures. By analysing the construction of "African-ness" in these representations, this article shows that African cultures are constantly portrayed in relation to those of Hong Kong. It is by studying the absences and presences of "African-ness" that it can be shown that Africa is often narrated as the subordinate of the local. Significantly, this hierarchical system not only predetermines but also crystalizes the local understanding of Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since its initial popularization in Africa during the 1970s, Hong Kong martial arts cinema has enjoyed remarkably consistent popularity. This paper analyses some of the causes for this phenomenon by focusing on the consumption of Hong Kong martial arts cinema in South Africa during apartheid. It argues that film-watching under apartheid was jointly structured by state censorship and state-aligned monopolies controlling film distribution and exhibition. These factors facilitated the flow of Hollywood film into South Africa yet at the same time constrained black audiences. Due to a confluence of historical factors, Hong Kong martial arts film arrived in the country just as this dual system of state control via censorship and exhibition was weakening. In addition, the spectacular action and anti-hegemonic narrative in these films, can explain their popularity among black audiences who were familiar with the targeted censorship regimes, and versed in subverting the white supremacist narrative of Hollywood westerns. The paper uses a combination of political economy and film theory to historicize this moment and to understand the position of black audiences under apartheid vis-à-vis Hong Kong martial arts cinema. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The paper investigates the puzzling phenomenon of why Hong Kong citizens have much lower support for increasing spending on social assistance when all other welfare programs have been favored by local residents. With a random sampling survey, we find that citizens' support towards raising the requirement of immigration is negatively correlated with their support for social assistance (the CSSA scheme). This study highlights that the perception of "who benefits" will influence citizens' support for welfare spending. The Hong Kong story enriches the debate about the impact of citizens' attitudes towards immigration on welfare spending against a backdrop of deglobalization and anti-immigration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores whether any of the traditional aspects of Chinese culture discussed in the marketing and cross-cultural literature still apply to today's generation of Chinese students in the seemingly westernized location of Hong Kong. It finds that most of the traditional cultural beliefs are still endorsed although Hong Kong students also felt that they were quite independent, individual and creative -within the framework of respecting traditional values. The paper then discusses (on the basis of presenting the same set of students with the findings of this part of the research) how foreign universities might adapt their courses and programs to meet the cultural needs of Hong Kong students. It was found that universities need to adopt a delicate balance between respecting traditional Chinese values and concepts, and encompassing more westernized beliefs and attitudes which enable the students to learn in an environment which enables them to express their creativity and individualism, within a fundamentally quite conservative cultural environment. The value of the research is that it will help foreign universities position their programs and courses for this quite complex and subtle market. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

While much media and scholarly attention has been paid to the growing tension between Hong Kong people and Indonesian foreign domestic workers, the underlying reasons of cultural difference are largely ignored as an explanation for the challenges Indonesian domestic workers face in Hong Kong. Most often, Islam is one of the primary cultural differences that Hong Kong people overlook. This paper begins with an overview of the significance of Indonesian Muslim foreign domestic workers in Hong Kong society and the domestic sphere. Then, the paper suggests that the Indonesian Muslim domestic helpers have been politically weak, struggling and accommodating to the mainstream Chinese culture. Generally speaking, Indonesian Muslim domestic workers in Hong Kong have been powerless under the global labor market and the local socio-cultural forces of Chinese society. Nevertheless, there has been an emerging visibility of Islam through their re-assertion of Islamic piety in Hong Kong everyday life via, for example, veiling, practicing daily prayer, and seeking to follow ahalaldiet. Visibility, however, does not mean accommodation and understanding. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The regenerative design framework aims to ‘engage a broader range of possibilities by moving beyond the immediate building and site boundaries’. It implies that the environmental performance of buildings requires a revised definition so that it considers not only the building itself, but also its contribution beyond its own boundary, i.e. neighbourhoods. In high-density cities, outdoor spaces are culturally considered as the extension of one’s living spaces. The environmental performance of neighbourhoods is particularly important to the health and wellbeing of urban inhabitants. This paper aims to define the environmental performance of neighbourhoods in high-density urban context based on the experience acquired in previous studies in Hong Kong over the last 15 years. These studies cover a wide range of environmental issues including urban climate, outdoor thermal comfort, and daylighting design in high-density cities. Subsequent development of the assessment tools for environmental performance of neighbourhoods in Hong Kong is also presented. The framework of stakeholder engagement, as an integral part of the neighbourhood assessment tool, is discussed. This paper highlights the distinctive features of the environmental performance of neighbourhoods in high-density urban context and how it influences the professional practices in Hong Kong. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Hong Kong’s open and law-abiding society, applying the political principle of “one country, two systems” presents a challenge to the Chinese government, particularly regarding its efforts to control media ownership. Focusing on the structure of media ownership in Hong Kong, this paper describes the ways in which the Internet – especially social media – has empowered activists and alternative media by providing a means of avoiding censorship and social control. This paper also describes the Chinese government’s use of political power and capital to censor and shape the media landscape in Hong Kong in order to dampen public interest in politics and influence public opinion. Finally, this paper attempts to identify potential solutions to this problem. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Copyright of Area Development & Policy is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Area Development & Policy is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Research on Hong Kong lawyers has so far focused on their internal differences and the rise of cause lawyering. Not much has been done on their role in promoting political liberalism. This paper fills a gap by reviewing the history of lawyers’ political activism before and after Hong Kong’s sovereignty shifted from a liberal-colonial to an authoritarian regime in 1997. It argues, first, that Hong Kong’s post-colonial constitutionalized politics and prolonged democratic deficit have given the legal complex—which includes lawyers and also increasingly legal academics—a key role in its pro-democracy movement, and second, critical political junctures have driven activist lawyers to use various means, from electoral politics to civil disobedience, to defend the rule of law and Hong Kong’s tortuous democratization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the historical process of Hong Kong-China national unification through a crisis-transformation framework. This paper argues that the Chinese unification process between Hong Kong and mainland China is not a smooth process. Instead, it has gone through at least four crises during the 1980s and the 1990s. The institution framework for unification - the so-called 'One Country, Two Systems' policy - emerged out of the first crisis of negotiation in the early 1980s, and this policy has been hotly contested and transformed during the various crises over the past three decades. Previous studies on Hong Kong-China unification tends to focus solely on the political and legal aspects. However, this paper shows that unification needs to be symmetrical on all aspects (legal, political, economic and socio-cultural) in order to make it work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper was written in Hong Kong during a protest movement that shows no signs of ending anytime soon. It coincided with a military lockdown of Kashmir that followed the abrogation of key Articles of the Indian Constitution guaranteeing administrative autonomy to the region. There is little to suggest any similarity between Hong Kong and Kashmir. Nevertheless, as the continuing agitations in both regions make any resolution along available theories of political science increasingly impossible, their coincidence opens new questions around Empire, Nation, Colonialism and indeed Modernity. We explore the resurgence of a very modern empire, stretching from Central to North East Asia. Although effectively a Sino-British co-production (as the One Belt One Road project shows in its tacit reiteration of older British demarcations of regional boundaries), empire splits into two genealogies. One is precisely colonial, the other more amorphously despotic. This divide now determines the modernist pedigree of today's nationalisms and provides ethical justifications for extreme state action. As an old imperial divide reinvents itself as a bipolar global order, Kashmir and Hong Kong require conceptual relocating within larger geographies if we are to take seriously the demands of militant protest to force the question beyond the totalitarian nation-state. Both protests are viewed within a growing crisis of the nation-form as they invoke, but also exceed, the languages of conventional politics, moving into a domain variously named apocalypse, endgame and catastrophe. As distinctions grow between rational politics and the experimental "frontline," history itself hangs in the balance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores how notions of race, ethnicity, and blood are mobilized in educational texts in Hong Kong. It elaborates how civic identity is racialized as part of a nationalist education operating beneath the surface of expressed commitments to global citizenship, human rights, etc., in curriculum and textbooks. Many have commented on how cultural and ethnic ties are prioritized over political principles as bases for civic education in Asian societies. These cultural/ethnic bases should be critically examined, however, as they imply racial/ethnic exclusions. Examining how race, ethnicity, and blood are used to justify cultural framings of civic identity leads to questions about how education can be used to unify some, while alienating others from a sense of belonging and community. I argue that racialization of Hong Kong civic identity is not a happy solution for all members of society, and for more inclusive visions of identity in education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hong Kong is characterized by very low fertility. However, over a period from 2000 to 2015, both the total number of births and the sex ratio at birth (SRB) increased and then declined dramatically. We analysed the increases in a 2013 paper in this journal, where we largely ascribed them to a rapid growth in the number of 'transient' mothers from Mainland China disproportionately giving birth to boys in the territory. In 2012, policies were implemented to halt this 'maternity migration'. Here, we explore the impact of these policies, both on births and the SRB in Hong Kong. We conclude that the rises and falls in births and SRBs in Hong Kong can, indeed, be broadly ascribed to the reproductive behaviour of transient Mainland mothers. However, the role of the Hong Kong government's policy interventions is much less clearly defined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is a report on an innovative program for teaching business ethics, developed for undergraduate students, at the School of Business, Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU). The paper is an anecdotal account to make the point that in non-Western cultural contexts, figurative rather than scientific language often captures the essence of qualitative phenomena. Besides outlining the challenges that a credible and appropriate curriculum in business ethics must address in post colonial Hong Kong, and the steps that have been taken by the School of Business at HKBU to meet these challenges, the paper will underscore the importance of understanding and making explicit the cultural context(s) that have shaped local business environments and customary business practices, as a basis for effective teaching in business ethics. Hong Kong's unique strategic position in the development of a global economy rests upon the historic interplay of Western and Chinese cultures. The moral and religious values that have shaped Hong Kong's cross-cultural social environment must be regarded as a primary resource for business ethics development. As is documented in this report, HKBU's program, with its distinctive focus on the cultural context, may be of benchmark significance for the development of pedagogically effective curricula in international business ethics. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

It was an unusual scene - angry adults and young people making loud protests, accompanied and contrasted by cute yellow dolls, in defence of ‘Pikachu’ - or the ‘Pikachu’ they have long come to identify with. Nintendo’s decision to make the Mandarin transliteration of ‘Pikachu’, pikaqiu, the official Chinese name of its beloved Pokémon character has triggered this unexpected protest. On the surface it was a trivial fight over changing the translated name from the Cantonese-sounding beigaaciu to pikaqiu; to many locals, it was a battle to preserve memories and to safeguard a dwindling culture. This paper looks at the rise of China from a translation point of view, and examines how the predominantly Cantonese-speaking former British colony has struggled to come to terms with the increasing domination of the Mandarin language, whether in the realms of politics, entertainment world, everyday life, or even childhood memories. In the fight of asserting the ‘self’, translation has bcome a powerful tool to articulate the unique Cantonese identity of Hong Kong, whether in refuting the notion that the language is just a minor dialect compared to Mandarin, or in constructing and preserving the collective memory of a more glorious and recognizable past. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given China's record of suppressing freedoms and brutalising nationalistically-distinct territories in its midst, the alarm of Hong Kong's 1997 status change from British to Chinese association was especially shrill. After more than a decade of Chinese association, some scholars remain pessimistic. Some have suggested that as if “by a thousand cuts” Hong Kong's autonomous powers will slowly succumb to full Chinese political assimilation. Others have suggested that Hong Kong's autonomy is already dead and remains vulnerable to the unilateral fiat of Chinese authorities. By contrast to these views, this paper will argue that Hong Kong is a polity whose constitutional order is defended by political entrenchment. It is a partially independent political entity which exercises constitutional powers that are robustly defended by the political-economic influence (rather than constitutional influence) which it exerts upon China's central government. As this paper will show, the fortunes of China's leaders are linked to the performance of Hong Kong's economy. And since the territory's economy rests upon the pillars of its autonomous institutions, press freedom, rule of law and civil liberties, this prevents maximalist interference from Beijing. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper describes the re-migration and adjustment of Indonesian Chinese to living in Hong Kong and their cultural belonging to Hong Kong, China, and Indonesia. Known in China as guiqiao or 'Returned Overseas Chinese', these were Chinese who re-migrated from Indonesia to mainland China in the 1950s and 1960s. By the early 1970s, many were allowed to migrate to Hong Kong. Although arriving with very little money, many have succeeded in establishing a fairly good life in Hong Kong, although there are also many who survive on low incomes. This paper discusses the experiences of the Indonesian Chinese in relation to local and transnational belonging, the perception of homelands, and the re-establishment of a Southeast Asian lifestyle in Hong Kong. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A decade after retrocession to China, Hong Kong still has limited democracy. Only half of the legislature is directly elected by the people, and the Chief Executive - the leader of Hong Kong government - is chosen by an election committee of 800 people, most of them loyal to Beijing. In December 2007, the Chinese Central Government announced that the direct election of the Chief Executive and the whole legislature may be implemented from 2017 and 2020, respectively. Still, in this paper it is suggested that real democracy in the foreseeable future is unlikely. This paper demonstrates the existence of a “power elite” of tightly knit business-state networks in Hong Kong society and argues that this constitutes a systemic barrier against further democratic development. Central to the discussion is an analysis of the formation and composition of the legislature and the relations to the elite-interlocks among influential organisations in society. Mainly based on 2006-07 data, the Elite Database which is subject to network analyses is composed of 1531 individuals holding 1854 seats from 40 listed corporations, 27 government committees, 20 non-governmental organisations, and eight universities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main concern of the present paper is to examine the adequacies of the urban poverty alleviation strategies of the Hong Kong and China governments. It has been found that the Comprehensive Social Security Allowance and the Minimum Living Standard Scheme or Dibao are the main strategies adopted by both the governments towards alleviation of urban poverty. The available data substantiates that the Comprehensive Social Security Allowance is targeted to solve immediate concrete social problems in the short term instead of solving the long-term poverty problem. More specifically, the welfare policy is designed to alleviate the political pressures and social conflicts and is a tool to avoid social confusion. On the other hand, Dibao reflects the state's general economic orientation, which has emphasized rapid growth and neglected effective redistribution measures. At best, Dibao is likely to provide short-term relief from urban poverty and inequality, rather than make a significant impact on poverty reduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper discusses the phenomenon of Pan-Asian production from the perspectives of the Hong Kong and Mainland Chinese cinemas, two historically separate cinemas increasingly being integrated through economic cooperation and co-production, a process also facilitated by political imperatives. As Hong Kong's film industry has declined over the past ten years and more, apparently with no hope of recovering its 'golden age' of dominance, it has turned to Pan-Asian production and distribution methods to shore up its markets while trying to gain a foothold in the vast China market. What is China's role in the phenomenon of Pan-Asian production? This paper examines the phenomenon and its characteristics through the specific examples of Chen Kaige's The Promise (2005) and Peter Chan's Perhaps Love (2005), analyzing the interrelationships between the Hong Kong cinema and its Mainland Chinese counterpart and considering the extent to which Pan-Asian production is or is not able to realize the ideal of an Asian cinematic identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Market reforms and the relaxation of rules governing inbound investment have contributed to the growth of foreign investment in Chinese real estate. Although the property sector remains one of the most tightly regulated, property developers from Greater China have enjoyed relative success in the mainland market. Conventional explanations of such investment outcomes have often drawn attention to economic complementaries and cultural proximities. By tracing the development of Hong Kong investment in China's real estate from the late 1970s to the present, this paper demonstrates the importance of considering (geo)politics at both the national and ground levels in analysing bilateral economic relations. The geopolitical prerogatives of national sovereignty structure economic interactions between the Chinese state and the Special Administrative Region, while popular politics from the ground level up interacts with state-level geopolitics to affect and change policy outcomes. The shifting dynamics demonstrate that the cultural meaning and value of foreign capital are not static or fixed but rather open to continuous re-negotiation and contestation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper utilizes the controversies in China’s Hong Kong over the non-ethnic representatives to explore the debates on naturalization and the negotiation of nationality. China disallows split loyalties and all non-ethnics must abandon the passport of their original countries in the stringent process of naturalization. Problematically, Hong Kong, a former British colony and a Special Administrative Region (SAR) of the People’s Republic of China, has less rigid requirements on citizenship, effectively disregarding a person’s ethnicity. Hong Kong citizenship then gives grounds for non-ethnics to naturalize as Chinese and represent Hong Kong in FIFA tournaments such as the World Cup as holders of Hong Kong SAR passport without an overseas nationality or citizenship. This research takes notes from the interviews with naturalized players and online discussions to explore the arguments favouring or rejecting naturalized representatives in Hong Kong against the background of its complex dynamics with mainland China under the principle of ‘One Country, Two Systems’. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Hong Kong's film industry has been living through and beyond the 1997 handover to China. Along a complicated socio-economic and cultural heritage, the city's “crisis cinema” successfully milked takeover fears for an anarchic display of showmanship. Local filmmaking conditions, popular narratives and aesthetics from that time can be identified as ingredients in a “chaotic formula” that instigated Hong Kong cinema's “Golden Age.” Unlike other film industries, which point to their disaster centres in a search or celebration of national identity, Hong Kong survived at a fragile historic juncture largely by sailing around the cliffs of political affront and resorting to metaphorical speech instead. Yet, following the handover, the film industry has retired its previous attitudes about itself and the future; it has integrated a new “China factor” and riddled cinema with contradictory statements about the “condition” of Hong Kong. System failure, madness and identity theft in crime stories appear alongside celebratory historicism, cultural allegiance and escapist spectacle, especially in Hong Kong-China co-productions. This paper follows the evolution of the crime genre along general dynamics and transformations of the formula from the 1980s, past the turbulent 1990s and into recent postcolonial Hong Kong, in which the inability to formulate a new crisis, or the resolution of the previous one, has put cinema itself into crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Small and micro businesses bear the brunt of climate change impacts in the climate-challenged economy. Vulnerability is embedded into the socio-economic trajectories of their primary decision-makers. Multiple vulnerabilities may arise if the decision-makers' socio-economic conditions are associated with climate-sensitive business characteristics. Previous research has provided little evidence on such linkages, thus losing insights into how different facets of vulnerability interact and evolve over time. This paper explores the interactions between elements of small business vulnerability and the socio-economic characteristics of their primary decision-makers. It draws on the results of a survey involving 116 owner-managers of small and micro businesses and in-depth interviews with a sub-sample. Study areas are three remote coastal communities in Hong Kong exposed to high floods. Results show that such interactions exist in multiple, non-linear ways. Socio-economic disadvantages (i.e. low education attainment, old age, low income, and female) are related to some aspects of small business vulnerability, while playing a role in mitigating or avoiding other aspects of it. The findings call for building frameworks that account for the multiple spheres in which vulnerabilities are engendered and their interactions, while allowing for complexities and feedback mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the 1980s, Hong Kong triad societies have evolved from hierarchical, pyramidal organizations to loose, compartmentalized syndicates that retain a modicum of hierarchy. Changes in triad organization and modus operandi occurred in response to stringent anti-organized crime measures enacted in Hong Kong. However, organizational evolution has facilitated triad transplantation to China and improved triads’ ability to engage in transnational crime. Triads have exploited favorable circumstances in China: prevalent corruption, rapid urbanization, and high demand for illicit goods and services. This paper includes two case studies of the Sun Yee On triad. The first examines Sun Yee On's localized activity by tracing the evolution of one Shenzhen area chapter. The second case study examines Sun Yee On's role as a supplier of methamphetamine precursor chemicals to Mexico's Sinaloa cartel. Sun Yee On exemplifies how modern triads have become hybridized, assuming attributes of both local Chinese organized crime and transnational criminal networks. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Though fashion is a significant global creative industry, it is still often regarded as wasteful and deceptive. Participant observation at a Hong Kong high fashion magazine,Stylistic(false name), was used to remap the relationships among the conflicting notions of fashion, attempting to determine which fashion theories best describe the contemporary fashion industry in Hong Kong. This paper discusses how Hong Kong's fashion media present luxury brands as fashionable and how editors, copywriters, designers, sales managers and photographers adapt those meanings. The observations are interpreted in terms of two schools of fashion theory and the exploitative and creative aspects of postmodern fashion are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Although there are several studies highlighting the best new-product development (NPD) practices of Western firms, we know very little about the NPD practices of Chinese firms. Understanding Chinese NPD practices will be helpful not only for Chinese firms to improve their NPD but also for Western firms interested in engaging in NPD in China. This paper presents a survey study highlighting major strategic, organizational, and operational aspects of the NPD practices of Chinese Hong Kong firms and identifying related challenges. It compares the results with Western NPD practices, discusses why Chinese and Western NPD practices might differ, and highlights the implications of the results for both Chinese and Western firms. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper describes the findings of a survey of public understanding of counselling in Hong Kong. The survey questions focused on experiences and preferences of counselling; perceived benefits and drawbacks of counselling; and accreditation and approachability of counsellors. The findings revealed that the majority of respondents did not know a counsellor, had not experienced counselling, and were not willing to do so. Half of the respondents were not willing to pay for a counselling session. This lack of appreciation also extended to other health and caring professions. The possible reasons for this finding are discussed. On a more positive note, respondents perceived numerous benefits of counselling, including personal assistance and support; problem solving; and helping to relieve emotional tension. Counsellors were regarded as approachable and effective. Most respondents reported that counsellors should be registered members of government-approved associations, and have undergraduate and professional training, which calls for more involvement of professional associations. Overall, our findings show that, whilst the public recognize the benefits of counselling and identify a need for it, there is limited understanding. This confirms the tough reality that the counselling profession in Hong Kong is still in an early stage of development and faces a number of challenges. The next step is to use our findings to identify opportunities and devise strategies to remedy some of these issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article narrates the development of social work practice in Hong Kong during the last more than half a century. As in other British colonies, social work was first known as a profession in Hong Kong when Western international relief organizations established offices here after the end of World War II. While social work has always been seen as a Western introduction, both overseas and locally trained social workers in Hong Kong are conscious that they are practicing in a society with a strong tradition of Chinese culture and there is also a different view towards the concept of welfare. Other than examining how social workers in Hong Kong have adapted Western developed theories to the solution of local problems in a Chinese society, this article concludes with a discussion of the influence that social workers and social work educators in Hong Kong have made on the development of social work in mainland China. 本文叙述了半个多世纪前社会工作在香港的发展。 如同在其它英国殖民地一样， 当第二次世界大战结束后西方国际援助组织在香港成立办事处， 社会工作在香港才首度被视为一个专业。 社会工作通常被看作为由西方引进的产物， 在本地或海外受训的香港社会工作者均意识到他们在社区从事社会工作时， 有着强烈的中国文化传统， 同时对福利概念有着不同的观点。 除了研究香港社会工作者如何适用西方的成熟理论， 以解决在中国社会发生的本土问题外， 本文还讨论了香港社会工作者及社会工作教育工作者如何影响中国内地社会工作的发展。 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Building Research & Information is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Prior to Hong Kong's 1997 handover to China, some political economists predicted that a regime shift from London to Beijing would result in a deterioration of Hong Kong's economic and institutional freedoms. Such predictions would seem to have proven accurate according to annual indices of international economic freedom and competitiveness. These have seen Hong Kong's previously high ranking decline. However, whether Chinese sovereignty or local Hong Kong government ineptitude is responsible for such decline is uncertain; both have been blamed for a series of incidents that have brought Hong Kong's competitiveness and economic, civil and political freedoms into question. Using data collected from 130 domestic and foreign firms in Hong Kong, this paper disentangles the degree to which the `high politics' of the city now being part of China or the `low politics' of local government action account for Hong Kong's diminished international reputation for economic freedom and competitiveness. Results for all firms suggest that both Chinese sovereignty and local government actions are equally to blame, but that Chinese sovereignty mediates adverse local government actions. However, results differ by firm origin, and those for domestic Hong Kong firms cast doubt on the general success of China's `one country two systems' policy and raise specific concerns about the policy's potential applicability to Taiwan. Overall, results highlight the importance of macro-political economy factors in assessing comparative international competitiveness and provide objective evidence in support of international political economy theory suggesting that a shift from liberal to more authoritarian regimes will adversely affect already affluent economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on a research project investigating the current and potential existence, implementation and levels of training in empowerment management styles in five international hotel groups in Asia. Initial findings suggest that empowerment is not going to be used as a management style in China for a long time. Reasons for this seem to be authoritarian management styles, culture, higher than average staff/customer ratios, employees who are not trusted, and an environment which discourages risk taking. However, in the East meets West culture of Hong Kong empowerment is starting to be introduced to a selection of staff in several international hotel chains. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

China is ranked as the number one maritime connected country in the world. This study attempts to analyse the characteristics of its 155 maritime trading partners. Five components of maritime connectivity have been used for the analysis. A hierarchical clustering technique is applied to group the trading partners into distinct meaningful clusters. As China's main maritime competitors within the East Asian region, the analysis is also applied to Singapore and Hong Kong. The clustering technique produces three distinct clusters for China and Singapore and two for Hong Kong. The results reveal the importance of direct maritime connectivity, with China having the highest number of trading partners with zero transhipment (including its top 15 trading partners), compared to Singapore and Hong Kong. The analysis is further extended by applying ordered logistic regression. The results show that the logistic performance index (LPI) and exports/imports have a positive and significant influence on clusters. Conclusions are drawn as to the potential for implementing strategies and policy interventions on the basis of the emergent clusters, particularly the need for Hong Kong to improve all five components of maritime connectivity in order to compete with China and Singapore. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the impact of US–China geopolitical tensions on Hong Kong as an IFC, and how Hong Kong is coping. Utilizing a dynamic IPE perspective, it details how Hong Kong officials, financial market actors and corporations have responded to the punitive US measures against Hong Kong and China in 2020 and 2021, measures that are tantamount to commercial and financial warfare on China and the city, but also that work against the interests of US corporates in Hong Kong. The analysis highlights Hong Kong's competitive resiliency as an IFC, from 2019 to early-2022, and the sources of its resiliency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to investigate the relationships between perceived discrimination, institutional trust, and settlement intention among highly educated domestic migrants by accounting for their structural (educational and economic) positions. Theoretically, this study of Hong Kong and Macao explores the integration paradox, a well-documented perspective on skilled migrants in transnational contexts, and expands it to internal migrant populations. Using respondent-driven sampling, the data include 2,951 highly educated migrants from mainland China to Hong Kong and Macao. The results indicate that a higher educational position in terms of tertiary educational attainment is associated with lower settlement intention among domestic migrants, a finding that tallies with the integration paradox. However, economic position in terms of income bolsters, rather than weakens, settlement intention. Perceived discrimination and institutional trust are evident in mediating the negative effect of tertiary educational attainment on the settlement intention of domestic migrants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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In China, a mandatory dual audit system for domestic A-share firms cross-listed on the Hong Kong stock market (i.e. AH companies) was abolished in 2010. Since then, AH companies have been allowed to choose to have a dual audit or a single audit. We find that the mandatory dual audit regime before the deregulation is associated with a lower cost of equity than voluntary dual audit after the deregulation. Furthermore, the lower cost of equity under the mandatory dual audit regime is greater in companies exposed to stronger financial constraints and with higher agency costs, and is not attenuated by alternative voluntary audits. Our results are not affected by accounting standards convergence and audit quality, and are robust to various model specifications. Our results suggest that the role of mandatory dual audit in mitigating agency costs and information asymmetry is not replaceable by voluntary dual audit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Few studies have examined how non-verbal functions are implicated in online communication and in non-Western contexts. Addressing these lacunae, this article analyzes interviews with Hong Kong youth to interrogate how likes are exchanged in online interactions within the context of guanxi. This article discovers that likes are reimagined as a digital gift of renqing representing targeted attention from specific giver-identities that generates circuits of likes exchanged between participants for tie-maintenance and tie-formation. For weak ties, lower frequency of reciprocity and sense of obligation were reported, whereas strong ties engendered reports of higher frequency of reciprocity and sense of obligation. However, across all dyadic guanxi ties, participants felt a constant renqing debt demanding repayment. As such, participants felt the need for some baseline frequency of like exchange and offended when alters neglected reciprocity altogether, yet continued giving likes for fear of damaging their reputation and relationship. Thus, mianzi is reconceptualized as embedded in interpersonal evaluations of one's reputation based on how well they maintain relationships and bound up in the social interactive tendency to exchange renqing over time. These webs of meaning and exchange encircle the objective of maintaining relationships by invigorating their emotional content. Here, the non-verbality of likes deepened their ability to replicate the raw, emotive charge of renqing: stripped of the burdensome complexities of verbal communication, likes convey a simple, one-dimensional, powerful sentiment of agreement that, in participants' experiences, is useful to generating future exchanges of likes and improving online relationships enough to create relationships offline as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In December 2010, Hong Kong regulators allowed 12 mainland Chinese registered audit firms to audit companies incorporated in mainland China and listed in Hong Kong (H-shares). In this study, we examine whether access to the Hong Kong audit market improves the quality of audits conducted by these Chinese audit firms for clients listed in the mainland markets (A-shares). Using data from 2008 to 2016, we find that mainland auditors with H-share clients provide higher quality audits, as measured by more modified audit opinions, higher audit fees and less earnings management, than auditors without H-share clients. This effect is more pronounced when the auditors are non-Big 4 firms and the clients are listed only in mainland China. Further analysis shows that A-share investors react positively to the initial announcement that mainland auditors are permitted to conduct H-share audits. Overall, our findings suggest that H-share audits have a positive spillover effect on the quality of A-share audits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of China, one of the localities in the world where the process of globalisation is most advanced, in order to examine the relationship between globalisation and the risk of illicit drug problems. It considers the impact of globalisation on both the supply side and the demand side of the illicit drugs market in Hong Kong. It is argued that, historically, the trade in dependence-producing substances like tobacco and opium was central to the creation of a world market; in particular, the nineteenth-century drive to bring Southeast Asia into a system of world trade led to the production and marketing of opium on an organised commercial basis, triggering the first of the modern drug 'epidemics'. Hong Kong, ceded to the British following the first Opium War, was central to this project, and to the creation of the financial and transport infrastructure needed to support large-scale opium trading. The British promoted the consumption of opium within Hong Kong, where its sale subsidised the colonial administration, with the consequence that opium use became widespread, and the postwar attempt to make opiates illegal was resisted. On the demand side it is argued that, by weakening traditional society through the phenomenon of disembedding, globalisation both created a collective crisis of identity and a means by which this might be resolved, through self conscious participation in an internationalised consumer culture, oriented towards drug use. It is concluded that globalisation may generate a new set of risks. The impact of globalisation on psychoactive substance use, in particular, deserves further investigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When Chinese leader Xi Jinping came to power in 2012, the Chinese government adopted an anticorruption policy pledging to uproot corruption in China, and since then, an anticorruption crime film series known as the Storm films has been produced in Hong Kong and released with a progressively successful box-office performance in mainland China. The purpose of this essay is to examine the series' role as an entertainment-based pedagogical and ideological tool within the broader socio-political context of post-2012 China. I argue that through portraying corruption in Hong Kong and the idealized role model image of anticorruption law enforcement officers, this Hong Kong film series has served to create a safe distance with which the general public in mainland China could be educated about the social harms of corruption, and could be forged with an 'appropriate' legal consciousness comprising complete trust, respect, and support for both the anticorruption campaign and the law itself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Area Development & Policy is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In the global trend of democratic backsliding, Hong Kong provides an illustrative case of how democratic institutions could be degenerated by "exporting autocracy". After 1997, Hong Kong's semi-democracy has come under continuous pressure by China's extra-jurisdictional autocratic influence. When about two decades of exporting autocracy has almost made Hong Kong a semi-democratic façade, China imposed the National Security Law in June 2020 placing the last straw that breaks its semi-democracy. The case study of Hong Kong offers comparative observations about China's exporting autocracy across its surrounding jurisdictions in the Asia-Pacific region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The English language curricula in Hong Kong and mainland China place emphasis on 'culture learning'. This study seeks to examine cultural depictions in two series of primary English language textbooks published in mainland China and Hong Kong. The study adopted Kachru's three-circle model and Moran's 4P framework (referring to products, practices, perspectives and persons) to investigate the breadth and depth of cultural presentation. The findings indicate that both series encompass content on the local culture as well as on foreign cultures. While the mainland textbooks focus on British culture in the inner circle through the cultural aspects of products and persons, insufficient attention is paid to other foreign cultures and the cultural aspect of perspectives. In contrast, Hong Kong textbooks include a wider range of foreign cultures and a more balanced presentation of various cultural aspects. However, both series contain mainly static and congratulatory cultural topics, and neglect the underlying value orientations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]