Rearguard Politics: Hong Kong's Middle Class

Lui, Tai-lok

doi:10.1111/j.1746-1049.2003.tb00936.x

Cited by 27 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…While many commentators tend to believe that capitalism is a Western concept that began during the Industrial Revolution in the 19th century, others have argued that capitalism can be traced back to the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), at which time these combinations of economic and household activity emerged. Nevertheless, summarising the behaviour of Hong Kong middle-class investors, Lui (2003) suggests that: middle-class respondents show no anxiety about losing what they have worked for. And when asked whether they are worried that someone will get ahead of themselves, again about three quarters of them express no such anxiety.…”

Section: Second Wave: 'Frying London Wave' (Buyto-fry)mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In comparison to Britain (Abercrombie and Urry, 1983;Butler and Savage, 1995;Savage, 2010) and Canada's (Ley, 1996) well-defined class system based on occupation, cultural assets, consumption practices and so on, Hong Kong only began to transform into an affluent society with the emergence of the middle class in the mid-1960s as industrialisation took off (Lui, 2003). Subsequently, the notion of class in Hong Kong is largely focused on wealth alone.…”

Section: Transnational Elite and Middleclass Investment In Londonmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Looking for big ‘fry’: The motives and methods of middle-class international property investors

Atkinson

2017

Urban Studies

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Anxieties about the effects of international property investment in world cities like London have mainly focused on super-rich investors and corporate vehicles that have generated price inflation of assets and accelerated exclusion from an already expensive market. In fact, many international investors in the city's housing market are middle-class individuals, and focusing on Hong Kong as an emblematic example of such processes, we examine their motives and the products offered to them by important investment intermediaries. We find that an important rationale for these investments lies in local class-based uncertainties and existential anxieties concerning the future of Hong Kong itself. We focus on the cultural roots of these investor rationalities but also consider the role of investment intermediaries who have helped bolster confidence while shielding investors from the consequences of their aggregated market power -concerns in London over household displacement from foreign investment. We suggest that what may seem to be the predatory search to 'fry' property ( ), a Hongkonger colloquialism referring to the search for high performing investments, should also be understood as actions anchored in and generated by the habitus of the Hong Kong middle class whose lives have been moulded by historical geopolitical uncertainty and worries about its longer-term social positioning and security.

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Section: Second Wave: 'Frying London Wave' (Buyto-fry)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Transnational Elite and Middleclass Investment In Londonmentioning

confidence: 99%

Looking for big ‘fry’: The motives and methods of middle-class international property investors

Atkinson

2017

Urban Studies

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“…It led to a surge in new openings in unskilled as well as skilled middle-class 1 and non-manual positions, the former creating jobs for those with little or no education, and the latter for those with a good education. Young people from families of humble means who succeeded in schooling filled these new positions and achieved upward social mobility in the new structure (Lui, 2003;Lui & Wong, 1998). The '1992 Hong Kong Middle Class Study' found an increasing role of education in the attainment of middle-class positions between the generation born before the end of WW II and the one born after the war (Lui, 2003: 170).…”

Section: Economic Restructuringmentioning

confidence: 97%

Diversity in the Chinese Classroom in Changing Contexts

Mak

2008

Evaluation & Research in Education

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International comparisons in educational achievement and economic performance have spurred studies on the East Asian learner. In this context the cultural perspective on the Chinese learner has gained currency. This paper examines how the interaction of cultural, social and structural forces shape the changing patterns of diversity among Chinese learners. I will argue that the cultural explanation is powerful as an inter-cultural typology, where the salient features of a culture are highlighted for comparison at the system level. However, it becomes limited as one's attention shifts to daily practice, where sharp individual differences present a major challenge to teachers. It is necessary to study the Chinese learner also as an intracultural typology. A probe into possible causes of individual differences in the changing social reality supports a social explanation to complement the cultural one. Educational policy initiatives, notably mass education, reduction of streaming and additional support for students from deprived backgrounds, attempt to narrow the gap through more equitable structures. The tension between cultural and planned structural factors on one hand and social factors on the other thus exerts competing influence on Chinese learners, resulting in increasing diversity in the new social reality in the Chinese classroom.

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“…influenced by family members, friends or current events). Lui (2003) reviewed the role of the middle class in the development of socio-economic and political scenes of Hong Kong in the past few decades. His findings indicated that the middle class was frustrated about adverse effects arising from the changing socio-economic and political environments of Hong Kong after the 1997 handover.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%