Culture of Hong Kong

Identification. Hong Kong means "fragrant harbor." Once administered by the United Kingdom, it has been known since 1997 as the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Many residents do not identify with either Britain or China. The generation born and raised in Hong Kong from 1949 to 1979 (when China was isolated) has a much more local identity than do their parents.

Location and Geography. The total area is 425 square miles (1,097 square kilometers). Hong Kong Island is only ten square miles. Only 15 percent of the area is built up, while 67 percent consists of grassland, scrub, and woods. Forty percent of the territory is designated as recreational parks, largely hills and mountains.

Demography. The population was 6,805,600 in 1998. At the end of World War II, the population was only about 600,000; it swelled with refugees when the Communist Party won the civil war in China in 1949. Both fertility and infant mortality are low, and life expectancy is the seventh highest in the world. Hong Kong is one of the world's most crowded cities. The proportion of the population born in Hong Kong is about 60 percent, but among those under age 15, the proportion is about 88 percent.

Linguistic Affiliation. Cantonese is spoken in 89 percent of households. Other languages include Fukienese (2 percent), Hakka (1 percent), Mandarin or Putonghua (1 percent), Chiu Chau (1 percent), Shanghainese (less than 1 percent), and Sze Yap. English is spoken as the primary language at home by 3 percent of the population. Thirty-eight percent of the population claims the ability to speak English, and 25 percent claims to speak Mandarin (or Putonghua), the national language of China. In the colonial period, English was used in business and the courts. Chinese was added as a second official language in 1974 in response to anti-colonial riots. This Chinese was Cantonese, not Mandarin (or Putonghua) which is the official in the mainland, Taiwan, and Singapore. The Cantonese spoken in Hong Kong is similar to that used in Guangzhou (Canton), but the accent and some vocabulary are slightly different.

Hong Kong uses the traditional complex Chinese characters, while mainland China and Singapore have adopted simplified characters. Since the 1970s, popular magazines and newspapers have taken to writing using many new characters to represent the Cantonese spoken locally.

Symbolism. Hong Kong prides itself on being "the gateway to China" and the place "where East meets West." In tourist brochures, a junk is used to capture the idea of a traditional port, although by 1990 there was only one junk left. The Star Ferry, which until 1972 was the only way to cross the harbor, is also a common symbol of the city. The skyline of the harbor, with skyscrapers and Victoria Peak, is a famous view.

Many symbols are in flux. Holidays related to Britain and local events have been replaced with Chinese holidays such as 1 July, celebrating the restoration of Hong Kong to Chinese rule in 1997, and 1 October, commemorating the founding of the PRC in 1949. A newly created "Buddha's Birthday" in May has replaced Queen's Birthday in June. The Hong Kong flag is now considered a regional flag that must fly lower than the PRC national flag. It is pinkish red with a stylized bauhinia flower in white in the center.

Hong Kong

H ISTORY AND E THNIC R ELATIONS

Emergence of the Nation. Hong Kong was claimed by Great Britain in three steps: Hong Kong island was handed over to Britain by China "in perpetuity" in 1842 after the Opium War, the peninsula of Kowloon was ceded in 1860, and the New Territories were leased to the United Kingdom for ninety-nine years in 1898. The PRC never accepted these "Unequal Treaties," which it viewed as products of imperialism. The end of the lease to the New Territories led to the return of the entire territory to China. Under the Sino-British Joint Declaration signed in 1984, Hong Kong is to be ruled "with a high degree of autonomy" until 2047. The guiding principle is "one country, two systems," meaning that the territory can keep its distinctive lifestyle and economic system for fifty years, by which time Hong Kong and China are expected to be more alike.

The population is descended primarily from long-term urban residents, the aboriginal Chinese population of the New Territories, and the refugees who fled China. These refugees were a source of cheap and willing labor.

The key to Hong Kong's emergence was its status as a free port at the edge of China, but the emergence of a national identity dates to the early 1970s, when a generation of young people born and raised in Hong Kong came of age. Before the victory of the Chinese Communists in 1949, Hong Kong had no border with China; it was a British-administered city with a constant flow of people in and out. From 1949 to the late 1970s, there was little movement across the border. After twenty years of division from mainland China, people identified with the locality rather than the nation. Popular songs began to focus on the territory as home. Hong Kong was also different from the rest of China in its use of English. Once Chinese immigrants began coming in the 1980s, local residents felt superior to and more sophisticated than their mainland brethren.

Since the handover in July 1997, there have been few changes. None of the place names with colonial connotations have been changed, though the word "royal" has been dropped from names. Textbooks have stopped referring to China as a foreign country, and the flag of the "Republic of China" (Taiwan) can no longer be flown in public.

National Identity. Hong Kong sees itself as a modern city and is proud of its state-of-the-art airport and subway system. It has its own style of life, currency (the Hong Kong dollar), and economic and legal systems. Hong Kong is still governed by common law, and judges wear robes and wigs as they do in Britain. Other continuing legacies of British rule include the rule of law, open government, civil and press freedoms, and high professional standards.

Ethnic Relations. Ethnicity and nationality (citizenship) do not overlap. In 1996, 90 percent of the population had some form of Hong Kong Chinese nationality: 59 percent had British nationality overseas, and 31 percent had Chinese nationality with the right to live in Hong Kong. In 1997, Hong Kong began issuing its own passports.

The population is predominantly Cantonese Chinese from the counties of the Pearl River Delta and Guangzhou. A small minority are of Shanghainese, Hokkien (southern Fujian), and Boat People ("Tanka") descent. The younger generation tends to ignore these origins.

Only a small percentage of people claim long descent in the territory, and most live in New Territories villages. The British allowed these villages to follow traditional law. Inheritance of land was exclusively through the male line. Forty-five percent of residents have close relatives living permanently abroad, and about two-thirds have relatives in mainland China.

"New immigrants" are defined as persons who have arrived since the 1980s. Those who adapt quickly can pass as locals; the term "new immigrant" is used to refer to those whose accent, low educational level, lack of skills, and manners are considered typical of mainland China. The term thus combines place of origin with class and education. Many immigrants who arrived in the 1970s and 1980s became brokers and entrepreneurs who invested and worked in factories that moved to China in the 1990s.

Eurasians were a recognized ethnic category until the mid-twentieth century, but have largely disappeared as an ethnic group. Eurasians are considered Chinese if they speak Cantonese or Westerners if they have received a Western education.

Hong Kong is cosmopolitan and multicultural and had a foreign population of 485,760 in 1998, including large groups from the Philippines, Indonesia, the United States, Canada, Thailand, the United Kingdom, India, Australia, Japan, and Nepal. Most persons from the Philippines are female "domestic helpers" who have special visas that prevent them from becoming residents. Professionals who live in the territory for seven years can become permanent residents. Many British, American, and Canadian citizens are ethnic Hong Kong Chinese who have returned to work after receiving citizenship.

U RBANISM ,A RCHITECTURE, AND THE U SE OF S PACE

The Peak, the area at the top reaches of Victoria Peak, has expensive estates; the higher up the mountain the estate, the higher one's relative rank in business and government. Before World War II, Chinese had to live lower down the hill, mostly in the crowded areas at sea level. After the war, the inflow of refugees from China forced many families to share quarters and live in squatter huts. In 1953, the government began to build public housing, in part because of the realization that the refugees would not go back to the mainland and to allow developers to build on squatter-occupied land. Land reclamation along Kowloon and the north of the island has added significantly to urban space.

Homes are tiny, and bunk beds for families living in single rooms are common. Sidewalks and shopping areas are dense with people. Bumping into others is not uncommon and normally is not acknowledged.

The New Territories include new towns with hundreds of thousands of residents living in high-rise apartment blocks, but there still are villages in which nearly all the residents are descendants of a single male ancestor.

Hong Kong has not preserved much colonial architecture. Colonial history is reflected in road names, a few English place names, and structures such as the Legislative Council Building and Government House. The Anglican Saint John's Cathedral, with its neo-gothic style, is also a reminder of the past. Most older buildings have been replaced with modern structures, although a few colonial-era monuments remain. Notable modern buildings include the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank building, the Bank of China building, and the Hong Kong Exhibition Centre.

F OOD AND E CONOMY

Food in Daily Life. There is a wide variety of ethnic foods, including Italian, Japanese, French, and American. Most people, however, eat Cantonese-style Chinese food. Soups are especially important in most meals. A typical Cantonese food is dim sum, also known as yam chah, which is small snacks cooked in bamboo steamers. This meal is served seven days a week, and family members and friends often meet over tea on the weekend. Residents prefer to buy seafood live and meat freshly butchered. Hong Kong has one of the highest per capita consumption rates of fast food in the world, and students buy snacks such as potato chips, fried rice crackers, and prawn crackers from school snack shops.

Food Customs at Ceremonial Occasions. Eating out banquet-style is a common form of entertainment, especially for businesspeople. Banquets differ from everyday meals in that most dishes are meat or fish, and starch is only served at the end of the meal. Alcohol normally accompanies a banquet; beer and brandy are popular drinks, and grape wine has grown rapidly in popularity.

Some holidays and ceremonial occasions are associated with certain kinds of food. Lunar New Year's Eve features chicken, roast pork, and fruit; at the Dragon Boat Festival, people eat rice dumplings wrapped in lotus leaves; and the Mid-Autumn Festival is associated with moon cakes, pomelo, and persimmons. Meals when the family reunites, including New Year's Eve, often include rice flour balls in sweet soup. Birthday banquets for older people include a bowl of long noodles symbolizing long life, and eggs dyed red traditionally are given out at the celebration of a baby's first month.

Basic Economy. Nearly all food comes from mainland China and overseas, as less than 1 percent of the population engages in farming or fishing. The economy has grown rapidly; the real growth of the median household income from 1986 to 1996 was 51 percent.

In 1996, 11 percent of workers are in manufacturing, 67 percent in service industries, 11 percent in transport and communications, 9 percent in construction, and less than one percent in agriculture.

The economy is nearly completely open to the world economy. Most products have no tariffs; only automobiles, petroleum, and alcohol have high import tariffs. Taxes are low. There are no value-added or sales taxes, and less than half of the working population earns enough to pay income tax, which has a minimum rate of 15 percent.

Land Tenure and Property. The government earns enormous revenues from land auctions because it is the owner as well as the principal leaseholder of all land. Once acquired from the government at auctions, land leases can be transferred through private deals, subject to a stamp duty. In 1998, 34 percent of the population lived in public rental housing and 12 percent lived in government-subsidized sale flats.

Commercial Activities. Hong Kong has always been primarily a trade and shipping center, but a sizable amount of light industry has developed. Textile and clothing, toys, and electronics were among the first products manufactured for export in the territory. In the early 1980s, factories began to move across the border into mainland China, and Hong Kong has been transformed into a service center.

Major Industries. Most industry produces for export, such as textiles and clothing, electronic products, watches and clocks, jewelry, gold and silverware, printed matter, plastic products, metals, toys and dolls, and electrical appliances. Hong Kong also is one of the world's leading financial centers.

Much of the economy, though free and competitive externally, is dominated internally by a few large companies. A handful of real estate development companies build the vast majority of new housing and office space, two companies control nearly all the supermarkets, and exclusive importers-distributors of products such as automobiles and compact discs dominate the market.

Trade. Hong Kong, with no natural resources other than a deepwater port, was the world's eighth largest trading economy in 1997. Its port is one of the world's busiest for container throughput, and the airport was the world's busiest in terms of international cargo. The leading trading partners in 1998 were mainland China, the United States, Japan, Taiwan, and Singapore. Textiles and clothing are the major exports but most are made in China and pass through the territory for quality control, packaging, and distribution. Major imports include electronics and consumer goods, raw materials, semimanufactured goods, and machinery. Many are exported for processing in mainland Chinese factories.

S OCIAL S TRATIFICATION

Classes and Castes. The gap between rich and poor is extremely large in a territory with a capitalist economy and minimal government interference. Economic inequality is increasing, although from 1986 to 1996 all groups had real growth in income. The only caste-like group is the Boat People. This occupational group of fisherfolk was traditionally marginalized and ritually humiliated. Most have now moved onto land and melted in with the rest of the population. A disproportionate number of the members of the political and economic elite are of Shanghainese descent.

Skyscrapers along Aberdeen Harbour accommodate the high population density.

Symbols of Social Stratification. Membership in elite clubs is a mark of status. Designer fashions and gold and diamond jewelry are popular among all classes, but only the very wealthy can afford the latest styles. Ownership of an automobile is another sign of wealth. Habits such as not standing in line, spitting, and wearing "mainlander" clothes mark a person as a new immigrant and low on the social scale. Chinese who speak only Mandarin or speak Cantonese with a Guangzhou accent are also déclassé. Tanned or dark skin is also viewed negatively, suggesting a working-class origin.

P OLITICAL L IFE

Government. In an executive-led government, the chief executive has replaced the British governor of the colonial period. The chief executive is selected by an electoral assembly picked by China, and is assisted by an executive council whose members tend to be leading industrialists. A Legislative Council (Legco) approves executive decisions, although its members can introduce bills and investigate the administration. Only a third of the members are elected by districts; the others are representatives of

The majority of unmarried women in Hong Kong are part of the labor force.

occupational groups or are appointed. The Legco represents the people but has little power.

Hong Kong has a free and very competitive press. The press and public demonstrations have been important in pressuring the government, as has call-in talk radio.

Hong Kong residents are said to be politically apathetic. The executive-led government and strong bureaucracy left little room for public participation. However, voting rates have risen dramatically, and the slogan "Hong Kong people ruling Hong Kong" has been effective and popular.

Social Problems and Control. The crime rate is very low, and there is little vandalism. The most common violent crime is common assault; nonviolent crimes include shoplifting and burglary. Corruption is relatively rare, partly as a result of the Independent Commission Against Corruption established in 1974. Hong Kong has been unable to stamp out the smuggling of narcotics, intellectual piracy of software, and organized crime. Overall, residents have confidence in the police and court system. Maintenance of the common law system and the independence of the judiciary is guaranteed by the Basic Law.

Military Activity. The police force is staffed by local Chinese and some remaining British officers. A small military force from mainland China is stationed in Hong Kong, but Chinese soldiers are not allowed to be in uniform on the street.

S OCIAL W ELFARE AND C HANGE P ROGRAMS

Spending on social welfare has been rising rapidly, including Comprehensive Social Security Assistance for families that cannot meet their basic needs in food, clothes, and rent. There is a Social Security Allowance for the severely disabled, services for the elderly, and community services. The government passes funds to private organizations that provide services and monitors their effectiveness. Government subsidies are used for the elderly, rehabilitation of the disabled, family and child welfare services, youth services, community services, and services for offenders.

N ONGOVERNMENTAL O RGANIZATIONS AND O THER A SSOCIATIONS

Nongovernmental organizations are important because the government prides itself on nonintervention. Among the charitable associations are Po Leung Kuk (a Chinese benevolent association that ran an orphanage and provided paupers' funerals and now runs schools and hospitals), the Tung Wah Group of Hospitals, the Community Chest, and the Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust. There are associations of missionary origin such as the YMCA, YWCA, and Caritas and chapters of international organizations such as the Red Cross, Boys' and Girls' Clubs, and Amnesty International. There are also provincial associations for people from various regions of China and surname associations.

G ENDER R OLES AND S TATUSES

Division of Labor by Gender. In 1999, 60 percent of men and 40 percent of women were in the labor force. The labor force participation rate in 1996 for married and unmarried men was 86 and 73 percent respectively; for women, it was 46 and 68 percent. The average salary of women was 87 percent that of men.

The Relative Status of Women and Men. Traditional Chinese and British societies were patriarchal, and men continue to have more power and authority than do women. In 1996, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission was established; among its first acts was ending the practice of specifically asking for men or "pretty girls" in job advertisements. Although women do housework in addition to outside employment, the availability of domestic live-in help allows many women to pursue a career.

M ARRIAGE ,F AMILY, AND K INSHIP

Marriage. Polygamy was allowed until 1971. In 1996, 34 percent of men and 29 percent of women age 15 and over had never married. Marriage depends on becoming economically established, finding housing, and reserving auspicious days. Couples line up in advance at the marriage registry office to reserve wedding dates that are believed to be lucky. A common surname is no longer a hindrance to a marriage. Couples may marry legally first in order to get government housing and hold the customary banquet later when they are socially married. The rate of remarriage of divorced men and women is rising rapidly.

Domestic Unit. The average household size has been declining. The single unextended nuclear family is the dominant household type, accounting for 64 percent of households in 1996. Traditionally the children of divorced parents stayed with the father. The father is formally the head of the household, but more equal conjugal relations are common among younger couples.

Inheritance. All children can inherit property, but an estate typically is divided equally among sons in accordance with the traditional Chinese practice, especially if the family owns a business; a half share for each daughter is also common. In 1994 in the New Territories, lineage leaders complained about urban and colonialist meddling when the government decided to let women inherit land when the deceased had no sons and died intestate. Since the lineages are patrilineal, leaders claimed this would disperse assets and ruin the unity of the lineage.

S OCIALIZATION

Infant Care. Pregnancy leave for women is commonly ten to twelve weeks in large companies. Breast-feeding is rare. Chinese tend to indulge infants' and preschool children's demands and do not attempt to control their impulsive behavior. After age five or six, however, rigorous discipline and self-control are expected.

Child Rearing and Education. Parents value obedience, proper behavior, and the acceptance of social obligations rather than independence, spontaneity, and creativity. A "good" child is one who obeys, is quiet, and compliant. School-age children are expected to control their impulses, especially aggression. There are not many formal preschool programs for children. Grandmothers are important help in care-giving.

Education is highly valued. Preschool children are taught Chinese characters, and most schools expect children to know up to two hundred characters before they begin their formal education. Most children attend school only half a day since many schools have two sessions. All children have several hours of homework every day. There is great pressure to enter good schools, and school is very competitive, with frequent testing. Education theories such as learning through play are not widely accepted; parents believe in rote memorization and drilling. Many of the best schools are officially English-language schools, but many teachers conduct classes in Cantonese. Sports are not emphasized, in part because of the lack of space in many schools and housing areas.

Higher Education. A university education is highly valued in Hong Kong, with 34 percent of university-age students receiving a tertiary education. Eighteen percent attend school in Hong Kong, while the rest attend schools overseas. There are seven publicly-funded universities in Hong Kong, including the University of Hong Kong, Chinese University, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, City University of Hong Kong, Polytechnic University, Hong Kong Baptist University, and Lingnan University.

E TIQUETTE

Higher Education. Acquaintances greet each other with a nod or may shake hands if they stop to talk. Good-byes require a handshake only in business settings. Hierarchy is important in social settings; senior or higher ranking persons are introduced or served first. In family gatherings, older people are greeted first. Younger people are expected to greet older people by title and name. The idea of "ladies first" is sometimes used, though it is recognized as a Western notion. It is easier to break the ice by being introduced by a mutual acquaintance. It is common to use the title and family name until one is invited to use a first name. Many Chinese residents use English names for business. In business situations, it is common to exchange bilingual business cards. The cards are given and received with two hands;

Crew members prepare to race in the Dragon Boat Festival while drummers beat their drums. The Dragon Boat Festival is held annually in June in Hong Kong.

this is the proper way to accept any object, even a gift and cup of tea.

Hong Kong Chinese stand close together. They tend to be uncomfortable with body contact, though women often walk hand in hand. When standing in line or visiting museums, foreigners may mistake the smaller personal space as pushiness. Gift giving is important at visits to a home and at a first business meeting. Gifts are given wrapped and are not opened in front of the giver.

R ELIGION

Religious Beliefs. Most Chinese residents practice Chinese folk religion which is an amalgam of Taoism, Buddhism, and ancestor worship. Many individuals say they have no religion, but nearly all people have religious ceremonies at funerals. There are 540,000 Christians, and Christianity is growing among the young and university-educated. There are eighty thousand Muslims, twelve thousand Hindus, one thousand Sikhs, and one thousand Jews. There are many beliefs regarding luck and fortune. Certain numbers are considered lucky, while others are unlucky. Many people visit temples for fortune-telling, to consult gods about specific problems, and to ask for protection and good luck.

Religious Practitioners. Taoist priests officiate at village festivals, but along with Buddhist monks and nuns, their most prominent activity is conducting funeral ceremonies. Christian ministers and priests have a more prominent role for Christians because they lead congregations. Fengshui masters help businessmen in the layout of offices.

Rituals and Holy Places. Major holy places include the Wong Tai Sin Temple, the Che Kong Temple in Shatin, and the Tin Hau Temple in Joss House Bay. These temples are popular destinations for worshipers at the lunar new year. Most villages have small temples that hold annual festivals on a god's birthday, and some in the New Territories have lineage halls at which annual worship and division of pork for lineage members are held. The Po Lin Buddhist Monastery on Lantau Island is a popular site for weekend visits.

Death and the Afterlife. Funerals are conducted in traditional Chinese or Christian forms, with Buddhist monks or nuns or Taoist priest officiating at Chinese ceremonies and a priest or minister handling

Visitors to a terraced cemetery in Hong Kong place flowers on the graves of their relatives during the Qing Mong festival, which promotes ancestral worship.

Christian funerals. Because of the lack of space, Hong Kong residents have had to accept cremation instead of burial, with ashes stored in columbaria. Traditionally, Chinese people have believed in a continuing relationship with ancestors and in the reincarnation of the soul, but many now express doubt or skepticism, although they continue to follow traditional rituals.

M EDICINE AND H EALTH C ARE

There is a modern medical system with government-funded hospitals that provide inexpensive care; these hospitals offer what is called "Western medicine." People turn to Chinese (herbal) medicine, acupuncture, moxibustion (in which users place cones of burning leaves on the skin; it is used to cure rheumatism and other ailments), and other alternative treatment for illnesses and chronic problems that are not cured by modern medicine.

S ECULAR C ELEBRATIONS

Among the major holidays are New Year's Day on 1 January, the Chinese New Year in January and/or February, Ching Ming (a grave-sweeping holiday) on 5 April, Labor Day on 1 May, Buddha's birthday in mid-May, Tuen Ng (the Dragon Boat Festival) in May and/or June, SAR Establishment Day on 1 July, the Mid-Autumn Festival in September, Chinese National Day on 1 October, and Chung Yeung (another grave-sweeping holiday) in October.

T HE A RTS AND H UMANITIES

Support for the Arts. The arts have not developed as quickly as the economy, and Hong Kong is often considered a cultural desert. Financial support for the arts comes almost entirely from the government.

Literature. A few local authors write about Hong Kong identity and culture. In literature, the territory is considered a small part of Greater China. Hong Kong is famous for comic books (often with martial themes and set in a vague imperial past) that are read throughout the Chinese-speaking world.

Graphic Arts. Graphic arts are modern and range widely in style. Institutions that collect graphic arts include the Hong Kong Museum of Art (prints) and the Hong Kong Heritage Museum, Contemporary Art and Design Gallery, which has prints and a poster collection. Other exhibition venues include the government-run Visual Arts Centre and the Hong Kong Arts Centre, which holds international and local exhibitions of paintings, photography, design, and crafts.

Performance Arts. Cantopop concerts are the most popular type of performance. The Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, Hong Kong Repertory Theatre, Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra, and Hong Kong Dance Company are all government-subsidized, and are far less popular. There are also a Hong Kong Dance Company, City Contemporary Dance Company, and Hong Kong Repertory Company. In recent years, the number of small theater troupes has risen, as their alternative productions explore and reflect on Hong Kong identities. They usually are founded by local Chinese residents who are often graduates of the Academy of Performing Arts. The annual Hong Kong Arts Festival brings in dozens of performers every year in January and February. Hong Kong is also famous for its movies, which are popular among Chinese speakers worldwide.

T HE S TATE OF THE P HYSICAL AND S OCIAL S CIENCES

A major expansion of university funding in the 1990s has increased the number of tertiary students and has led to an increase in internationally recognized research at Hong Kong's universities. The three main universities University of Hong Kong, Chinese University, and the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology feature world-class facilities and faculties in many disciplines.

B IBLIOGRAPHY

Castells, Manuel, Lee Goh, and R. Yin-Wang Kwok The Shek Kip Mei Syndrome: Economic Development and Public Housing in Hong Kong and Singapore, 1990.

Chan, Selina Ching. "Politicizing Tradition: The Identity of Indigenous Inhabitants in Hong Kong." Ethnology 37(1):39–54, 1998.

Cheung, Sidney C.H., and Siumi Maria Tam. Culture and Society of Hong Kong: A Bibliography, 1999.

Constable, Nicole. Maid to Order in Hong Kong: Stories of Filipina Workers in Hong Kong, 1997.

Evans, Grant, and Maria Siu-Mi, Tam, eds. Hong Kong: The Anthropology of a Chinese Metropolis, 1997.

Hong Kong Anthropologist, annual.

Hong Kong Census and Statistics Department. 1996 Population by Census, 1997.

Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, annual.

Lang, Graeme, and Lars Ragvald. The Rise of a Refugee God: Hong Kong's Wong Tai Sin, 1993.

Lau, C. K. Hong Kong's Colonial Legacy: A Hong Kong Chinese's View of the British Heritage, 1997.

Lau, Siu-kai, and Kuan Hsin-chi. The Ethos of the Hong Kong Chinese, 1988.

Leung, Benjamin K. P. Perspectives on Hong Kong Society, 1996.

—— and Teresa Y. C. Wong, eds. 25 Years of Social and Economic Development in Hong Kong, 1994.

Mathews, Gordon. "Heunggongyahn: On the Past, Present, and Future of Hong Kong Identity." Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars 29 (3):3–13, 1997.

The Other Hong Kong Report, annual.

Salaff, Janet W. Working Daughters of Hong Kong: Filial Piety or Power in the Family? 1995.

Siu, Helen F. "Remade in Hong Kong: Weaving into the Chinese Cultural Tapestry." In Tao Tao Liu and David Faure, eds., Unity and Diversity: Local Cultures and Identities in China, 1996.

Ward, Barbara E. Through Other Eyes: An Anthropologist's View of Hong Kong, 1989.

Watson, James L. Emigration and the Chinese Lineage: The Mans in Hong Kong and London, 1975.

—J OSEPH B OSCO

Source : http://www.everyculture.com/Ge-It/Hong-Kong.html

Culture of United Kingdom

Identification. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the formal name of the sovereign state governed by Parliament in London. The term "United Kingdom" normally is understood to include Northern Ireland; the term "Great Britain" refers to the island of Britain and its constituent nations of England, Wales, and Scotland but does not include Northern Ireland. Any citizen of Great Britain may be referred to as a Briton.

Location and Geography. The land area of Great Britain is 89,000 square miles (230,500 square kilometers), with an additional 5,400 square miles (13,986 square kilometers) in Northern Ireland, giving it one of the highest population densities in the Western world. Although the country lies mostly at the latitude of Labrador in the western Atlantic, the climate is tempered by the Gulf Stream and does not have extremes of summer heat or winter cold. Except for some areas of barren upland and bog, most of the land is suitable for agriculture and has been grazed or cultivated since the Bronze Age. The natural vegetation is mixed oak woodland, but most of the terrain has been cleared for agriculture or for shipbuilding and charcoal for smelting. The earliest evidence of human settlement is at Boxgrove, Sussex, and the island may have been continuously occupied for 500,000 years.

Demography. The population is approximately 55 million: 46 million in England, 5 million in Scotland, 2.5 million in Wales, and 1.5 million in Northern Ireland.

The nation's cultural diversity has been increased by migration within the British Isles and by immigration from Europe and overseas. Until 1920, Ireland was incorporated within the United Kingdom. Movement across the Irish Sea had existed since the eighteenth century, even among Ireland's poorest people. In the nineteenth century, there was a regular pattern of seasonal migration of farm workers from Ireland to Britain. Irishmen volunteered for the Royal Navy and British Army regiments in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and saw service in all parts of the empire. A wide variety of other Irish people spent periods in Britain, which had a more highly developed economy than Ireland. From 1841 onward, the censuses of Scotland, England, and Wales have enumerated Irish-born people in every part of the country. Similarly, Scottish and Welsh people have settled in England. Most British people have ancestries that are mixtures of the four nationalities of the British Isles.

Before and after World War II, political and religious refugees and displaced persons from the Baltic countries, Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Hungary were offered shelter in Britain and remained, along with some prisoners of war. Other immigrants of European ancestry who were born in Canada, New Zealand, Australia, and South and East Africa, along with Greek and Turkish Cypriots, also settled in Britain. After the late 1940s, many of non-European overseas immigrants arrived, predominantly from the colonies, including people of Indian and African ancestry from the West Indies and Guyana; people from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh; and Chinese from Hong Kong and Singapore. The 1991 census, the first to include ethnic background, enumerated three million Britons of non-European birth or ancestry.

Linguistic Affiliation. Regional and cultural relationships are expressed in marked linguistic differences. Although the language has been modified by a gradual convergence toward "estuary English" a
United Kingdom
United Kingdom
less formal variety of southeastern speech, and educational and socioeconomic factors, it is possible to determine people's geographical origins by the way they speak. In some areas, there are significant differences in speech patterns from one city or county to its neighbor. These differences are associated with loyalties to one's place of birth or residence and for many people are important aspects of self-identity; non-English native languages are little spoken but in recent years have gained significance as cultural and political symbols. These languages include Scots Gaelic, Welsh, Cornish, and Irish (commonly referred to as the Celtic languages); there is also the Old Norse language of the Northern Isles (Orkney and especially Shetland) and the Norman French patois of the Channel Islands. In Wales, 80 percent of the people speak English as their first or only language and those who speak Welsh as their first language are bilingual. In Scotland, Gaelic is not a national symbol because it was never spoken in some parts of that country. People in the Northern Isles are bilingual in English and an unwritten creolized form of Old Norse; in the Channel Islands, the Norman French patois is nearly extinct; and in Cornwall, there are no natural speakers of Cornish, although the language has been reconstructed. In Northern Ireland, the Irish language has been reintroduced as a means of revitalizing Celtic pride among Belfast Catholics.

Symbolism. Symbolic attachment may reinforce localism or take the form of personal commitments that extend across socioeconomic strata. Support for soccer and rugby teams became significant during the twentieth century, and teams now command fierce local loyalties as sport has come to symbolize male pride and self-image in a society where mining and manufacturing have declined. Forms of personal commitment that transcend locality include vegetarianism and environmentalism: the first is predominantly middle class and female, and the second is identified less with gender and socioeconomic status. On the fringes of society, especially among the young, there has been a significant growth in new religious movements, which include radical environmentalist cults, New Age paganism, anarchism, anticapitalist and antinuclear groups, and adopted Far Eastern and South Asian religions and belief systems, including martial arts cults. Cults based on popular music and performers engender personal commitment in culturally patterned ways.
H ISTORY AND E THNIC R ELATIONS

Emergence of the Nation. The United Kingdom was formed by Acts of Union between England and Wales (1536) and England, Wales, and Scotland (1707), uniting the three nations under a single monarchy and legislative council (Parliament in London). After 1169, the island of Ireland came under British influence, and it became a colonial dependency in 1690. The British and Irish parliaments were united in 1801. A separatist movement led to the dissolution of the Union of Great Britain and Ireland in 1920; twenty-six of Ireland's thirty-two counties became the independent Irish Free State (later the Republic of Ireland), with six of the nine counties of Ulster remaining within the United Kingdom. The present-day nation also includes the Channel Islands off the coast of France and the Isle of Man between Britain and Ireland, which are substantially self-governing. Northern Ireland and Scotland have separate legal and educational systems and issue their own currency; Wales is fully incorporated within the English legal, educational, and banking systems. Recent referendums in Scotland and Wales have resulted in the establishment of a Scottish Parliament which is still under the general jurisdiction of London but has limited local taxraising powers, and the Welsh Assembly, which does not have tax-raising powers.

The native tribes in the central and eastern parts of England were conquered by the Romans in 55 B.C.E. , and permanent Roman settlements were established in 43 B.C.E. and continued for four hundred years. The numbers of Romans were never great, but the indigenous upper classes became Romanized and spoke Latin. The principal Roman towns had baths, temples, amphitheaters, and forums and some of the roads designed to connect Roman towns are still in use. With the departure of the Romans, the British Isles were invaded by a succession of warlike peoples from the European mainland, including the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes; there were also persistent Danish raids. All migrations influenced the native Britons, as can be seen in the English language, which is an amalgam of the languages spoken by the waves of colonists. This turbulence ended with the Norman Conquest in 1066. A new line of kings attempted to extend control into the farthest reaches of Wales, Scotland, and Ireland, and struggles for supremacy between rival chieftains and princes culminated in the Magna Carta of 1215, which eventually led to the establishment of Parliament and representative democracy. A period of consensus and stability followed the accession to the throne of the Tudor king Henry VII in 1495. His successor, Henry VIII, broke with the Catholic church in Rome and declared himself the head of the Church of England. The dissolution of the monasteries and the confiscation of the property of the Roman Catholic church occurred during the Reformation, leading to challenges to the monarchy by rivals who supported Catholicism. Instability, civil unrest, and competition with other European powers over claims to overseas territory continued for much of the seventeenth century.

Commerce and manufacturing (principally the domestic woolen and Newfoundland and Boston salt-fish trades) developed rapidly, and the authority of Parliament over the monarchy was consolidated by the beginning of the eighteenth century. Capitalism existed before the Industrial Revolution, but its development was hampered by technologies limited to water power and a lack of surplus labor. During the period of the Enclosures (1740–1789),
A castle overlooks the water in Scotland. Castles dot the countryside in all parts of the United Kingdom.
A castle overlooks the water in Scotland. Castles dot the countryside in all parts of the United Kingdom.
landlords cleared the peasantry from the rural landscape to create fields enclosed by hedgerows and fences and began to derive profit from new, scientific methods of intensive agricultural production rather than relying the meager tithes and rents paid by peasant smallholders. This displaced large numbers of rural people, who were forced to emigrate to the overseas colonies or migrate to the new sites of industrial production.

The impetus for the Industrial Revolution came from trade with the expanding colonies by a growing middle class of entrepreneurs and investors whose wealth was not derived from land but from commerce; those entrepreneurs reinvested their wealth in new forms of manufacturing and trade rather than in ways that imitated the consumption patterns of the landed gentry. The Industrial Revolution began at the end of the seventeenth century, specifically in the machine-driven manufacturing processes made possible by the steam engine, which was first used in 1698 to draw water from an underground tin mine, and then was adapted to drive power looms in textile mills. Overseas colonization and wars with other European powers stimulated the further development of mining and metallurgy, precision machine tools, navigational instruments, cartography, and managerial and logistical organization, which were exploited for commercial gain by private entrepreneurs. By 1815, Britain had the world's largest and most powerful navy, and within twenty years steam railways and steam-powered ships designed by British engineers were carrying passengers and cargo for profit, allowing British shipping companies to dominate world trade. By midcentury, the country was the world's leading power in business and finance, engineering, science, and medicine.

The Industrial Revolution created a new social order as entrepreneurship and factory production resulted in new forms of wealth and work that were added to the agrarian social order dominated by aristocratic landowners. The 1832 Reform Act ended the political privileges of landed wealth by extending the vote to middle-class male heads of household. The country would be governed by the beliefs, values, and aspirations of the middle class rather than by those of the landed aristocracy. One dimension of this new social order was urbanization: as dispersed cottage industries such as weaving were replaced by mills in central locations, nearby housing was needed for the workers; that housing frequently was built by the mill owner and rented to the workers. The populations of Glasgow, Manchester, Liverpool, and Birmingham doubled or tripled between 1801 and 1841, and many major towns and cities grew up around mines, mills, smelting works, ports and railway junctions.

Work in the "dark, satanic mills" brought new levels of exploitation and hardship. Rapid industrialization caused overcrowding and disease; cholera epidemics between the 1830s and 1860s provoked public unrest and forced the government to improve public health. Another consequence of Victorian working conditions was the rise of trade unionism. A socially stratified and politically divided society, that was preoccupied with distinctions of social class and the rival ideologies of laissez-faire capitalism and state socialism soon crystallized.

Until the middle of the twentieth century, the United Kingdom was one of the world's wealthiest and most influential nations. Machine tools, locomotives, and steamships built in Scotland and the industrial Midlands were exported worldwide; textile products from Lancashire, Staffordshire china and pottery, Welsh anthracite coal, and finished steel products from Sheffield, dominated world markets for a century. British mining, manufacturing, transportation technology; legal, banking and parliamentary systems; and scientific discoveries and advances were exported worldwide. The nation's wealth was further underwritten by its position as the chief European colonial power, with captive markets and extensive sources of cheap labor and raw materials in Australasia, Asia, Africa, and the Americas. The country's position as a world power was reduced in the second half of the twentieth century by two world wars and the gradual decline of its advantages in manufacturing and business, the loss of the empire, and expensive experiments with state socialism. By the late 1970s, the nation was in debt to the International Monetary Fund. The discovery of oil in the North Sea in the 1970s saved the country from bankruptcy and stimulated economic recovery. Tax revenues from the oil industry provided the means to restructure the economy away from an obsolescent manufacturing base and toward a base dominated by service and knowledge-based industries.

National Identity. The United Kingdom is made up of four interdependent nations with many common institutions. While differences in everyday modes of sociality and consumer behavior are not great from one part of the nation to another, some aspects of culture are symbolic of national or local difference on the level of everyday practice or on special occasions. Support for the monarchy, political parties, and soccer teams are the most obvious expressions of contemporary localism; religious adherence and ethnic differentiation are also significant. Support for the monarchy and the Conservative Party is highest in England, especially in the south, while in Scotland and Wales it is substantially lower. In Scotland and Wales, there are minority nationalist parties. The Scottish National Party's political program is dominated by economic issues, particularly tax revenues from North Sea oil. The political agenda of Plaid Cymru, the Welsh nationalist party, is mainly concerned with linguistic and cultural matters. In both Scotland and Wales, the Labour Party is dominant, drawing strength from its critique of the class privilege traditionally associated with London and southeastern England. The dominance of the Labour Party in much of Wales and Scotland provides conditions for patronage-style politics.

Ethnic Relations. A high degree of spatial integration is generally held to be indicative of social integration, assimilation, and acculturation, while spatial segregation is indicative of social pluralism. Non-European immigration in Britain has not moved toward a pattern of sharply-defined urban ethnic ghettoes. Nevertheless, many non-European immigrants continue to be subject to discriminatory practices in employment and in other spheres, even if systematic marginalization cannot be inferred from their spatial distribution within the towns and cities of the nation.
U RBANISM , A RCHITECTURE, AND THE U SE OF S PACE

Rights to land development were in effect nationalized in 1947 by an act of Parliament that removed the right of the owner of a piece of property to change its use and transferred that power to the state. By the end of the twentieth century, 80 percent of the land area was reserved for agricultural use but was responsible for less than 5 percent of the gross national product and less than 2 percent of employment, yet the land-use planning system has continued to grow in size and power. Speculating in land is big business, and the amount of land available for housing is so restricted that any house within commuting range of a job will command a high price.

The countryside is increasingly seen as an aesthetic and recreational resource for people who live in the towns and cities. However, this image of the countryside is very expensive to maintain. The population is crowded together in towns on tiny plots of land, while much of the open land is underpopulated and underused. Many people in small
Cottages in Walthamstow Village, London, England. Housing in or near the cities is in very high demand.
Cottages in Walthamstow Village, London, England. Housing in or near the cities is in very high demand.
urban houses have high mortgages because of the cost of land.
F OOD AND E CONOMY

Basic Economy. The United Kingdom has one of the largest economies in the world, with a Gross National Product estimate in 1999 at $1.29 trillion (U.S.). Finance, manufacturing, and trade form the base of the economy. The pound sterling is the currency, and it is still being debated whether the nation will join with the its European Union partners and adopt the Euro.

Commercial Activities. Banking and finance, including insurance, are mainstays of the economy.

Major Industries. The United Kingdom is one of the most industrialized nations on earth and has a strong manufacturing base. Major products include machine tools, aircraft and ships, motor vehicles, electronics, chemicals, coal, petroleum, textiles, and food processing.

Trade. One of the leading trading powers in the world, the United Kingdom exported $271 billion (U.S.) and imported $306 billion (U.S.) worth of goods in 1998. Chief exports include manufactured goods, food, chemicals, and fuels. Manufactured goods, machinery, fuel, and food products are imported. Primary trading partners are the European Union and the United States.

Division of Labor. Although the nation produces almost two-thirds of its food needs, in 1998, agriculture accounted for less than 2 percent of the workforce sector. Services account for 73 percent, and industry another 25.3 percent.
S OCIAL S TRATIFICATION

Classes and Castes. The idea of social class is much more powerful than that of ethnicity. People frequently characterize themselves as working class or middle class. Although few admit to being upper class, in principle there are three classes, with the highest one reserved for the aristocratic inheritors of old, landed wealth. The term "social class" has complex meanings with social, economic, and political dimensions. People who describe themselves as working class perceive themselves to have respectable but unprivileged origins, and typically are born into a family supported by wages from industrial or agricultural labor paid in cash at the end of the week. In these families neither parent has a college degree and the housing that the family occupies is rented. There is a strong association between the idea of being working class and supportive of the
Wide open grounds surround Belfast's Northern Ireland Parliament Building for security reasons.
Wide open grounds surround Belfast's Northern Ireland Parliament Building for security reasons.
trade union movement and the Labour Party; the identification thus is with a set of corporate or collective economic, social, and political interests and aspirations. A self-described middle-class person has a social background and political attitudes that suggest parents with white-collar jobs whose salaries are paid monthly by check and who are likely to have professional or advanced education, to live in an owner-occupied suburban house, and to have made strategic choices about their children's education. They are likely to use their education and social skills for upward economic mobility and to support the Conservative Party, which stresses self-sufficiency and individualism. These differences have never been as clear-cut as the rhetoric of the main political parties and professional critics of the social order have asserted. The concept of class has recently fallen out of favor with politicians and sociologists as the nation's social and economic structure has changed dramatically with deindustrialization and the growth of social mobility and the knowledge economy.
P OLITICAL L IFE

Government. The United Kingdom is a constitutional monarchy. The monarch is chief of state and the prime minister is head of government. The Cabinet of Ministers is appointed by the prime minister and are responsible to Parliament. Parliament is composed of the House of Lords (hereditary), the House of Commons (elected), and the sovereign.

Leadership and Political Officials. The monarch reigns, but does not rule the nation per se, acting only with the approval of Parliament. The prime minister holds the executive power and is traditionally the leader of the majority party in Parliament. The primary parties are the Labour Party, the Conservative Party, and the Liberal Democrats.

Social Problems and Control. Each of the countries within the United Kingdom has its own judicial system and courts.

Military Activity. The United Kingdom has a strong military, with an army, the Royal Navy, and the Royal Air Force. The nation is an active participant in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
S OCIAL W ELFARE AND C HANGE P ROGRAMS

The National Insurance, in operation since 1948, provides medical, unemployment, maternity, and retirement benefits, among others. Employers and employees contribute to this fund. The National
City Hall in Cardiff, Wales.
City Hall in Cardiff, Wales.
Assistance Board provides financial assistance to the poor.
G ENDER R OLES AND S TATUSES

The Relative Status of Women and Men. In the 1970s, there were national debates on the changing role of women in society and their women's employment prospects. By the 1980s, the debate had shifted to the implications of the increasing participation of women as the economy was restructured and the balance changed from manufacturing to service occupations. In the 1990s, national debates concentrated on the relationship between work, family life, consumption levels, and the socialization and education of the next generation. Approximately half of British women work; of these, half are part-time workers. Nevertheless, a significant gender divide persists in regard to suitable occupations for men and women, access to occupations by women and men, pay levels for similar kinds of work, and the allocation of domestic tasks. Although the ideal of gender equality is widely shared, social behavior lags behind the ideal. For example, 75 percent of couples say that the preparation of the evening meal should be shared equally, but only one-third of these couples live up to that ideal.
M ARRIAGE , F AMILY, AND K INSHIP

Marriage. Premarital sex and unmarried cohabitation are widely accepted even if they are not liked by defenders of traditional family values. Single motherhood caused by unstable cohabiting relationships or marital breakdown is perceived as a major problem because of its impact on the welfare budget rather than as a moral question. Nonetheless, family relationships remain close. Roughly 70 percent of adults live within an hour's journey of their parents or grown-up children, and nearly half see their mothers, fathers, adult children, and best friends at least once a week. While newspaper and television reports claim that the nuclear family is in decline because of increased rates of unmarried cohabitation and divorce, personal commitment to kinship ties has not changed much. Seventy percent of adults think that people should keep in touch with close family members; 55 percent think that they should keep in touch with relatives such as uncles, aunts, and cousins; 60 percent say that they would rather spend time with relatives than with friends; and nearly 80 percent think relatives are more important than friends. These attitudes vary with age and gender—people over age forty-five tend to be more family-centered than are younger people.

Kin Groups. Family life is changing, and there are tensions between kinship ties and some contemporary social values. However, the great majority of people perceive themselves to be part of multigenerational families and regard these relationships as very important.
E TIQUETTE

The United Kingdom is a crowded country. People cope with this situation by being reserved and diffident in public, politely ignoring strangers, quietly minding their own business, and marking out and defending their private spaces, homes, and gardens. They expect others to do the same.
R ELIGION

Religious Beliefs. Since the 1950s, church adherence has fallen dramatically, and the British are generally uninterested in formal religious practice. Sixty percent of adults do not believe in God, and one-third have no religious affiliation. Thirty-six percent of the population identifies with the official, state-sanctioned Church of England; 10 percent with the Roman Catholic Church; 4 percent with Presbyterianism; 4 percent with Baptism and Methodism; 3 percent with other Protestant denominations, and 3 percent with other religions. Four percent describe themselves as Christians, and 35 percent say that they have no religion. Geographically, the Church of England is represented as the Church of England, the Church of Scotland, the Church of Ireland, and the Church in Wales, but Anglicanism is the predominant church mainly in England. In Wales, there was a strong nonconformist presence of Methodist and Baptist chapels whose importance in local life has declined considerably since 1950; in Scotland and Northern Ireland, Presbyterianism is strongly represented; and Roman Catholicism is significant in Northern Ireland, the Western Isles of Scotland, parts of Lancashire and Sussex, and cities where large numbers of nineteenth century Irish Catholic immigrants settled. Only in Northern Ireland is religion strongly identified with political aspirations.
M EDICINE AND H EALTH C ARE

The National Health Service, which was set up by an act of Parliament in 1947, gave every resident access to free medical care. A system was created that operated local public hospitals throughout the country and directly employed doctors, nurses, and other health workers. Family doctors, specialists, and dentists also received payment from the government for treating patients, although any doctor or patient can practice privately or pay for private medical care. There have been continuing debates on the level of care the service should provide and how it should be funded. The system was intended to provide unlimited medical care to any patient, and the government undertook to pay the full cost. In some ways, the service has been a victim of its own success. Free medical care and successful efforts to promote better health, diet, and working conditions have meant that people live much longer. The care of the frail elderly has consumed an increasing amount of resources; as have advances in treating diseases. Governments' attempts to control the costs of health care inevitably result in the covert rationing of resources, which conflicts with the principle of the citizen's right to high-quality free care when it is needed.
S ECULAR C ELEBRATIONS

The Celebration of the Birthday of the Queen is held on the second Saturday in June. Other legal holidays include New Year's Day, Good Friday, Late Summer Holiday (the last Monday in August or the first in September), Christmas Day, and Boxing Day (26 December). Scotland and Northern Ireland, celebrate several of their own holidays.
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—R EGINALD F. B YRON

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