The British rule in Hong Kong ended in 1997 and it is now both timely and intellectually inspiring to look back at the last twenty-five years of the British rule, when Hong Kong was transformed from a low-cost manufacturing base into one of Asia's most vibrant international service centers. The underlying social and political tensions of the society during this period of change constitute the focus of this present monograph, which is a collection of articles written by well known scholars and academics in Hong Kong. What have been the moral values and motivating forces of the Chinese population during this period of economic growth? How was the population organized and how were political parties formed to air their old grievances and newly found legitimate claims? How did the Hong Kong British government cope with such social forces and conflicts both in the urban areas and among the rural communities? What have been the identities and allegiances of the local populace in view of the Chinese recovery of the city? The authors, who witnessed these events and some even participated in the process, try to answer these and many other questions with convincing eloquence and insights with the help of decade-long surveys and statistical analyses.

Social Development in Hong Kong: The Unfinished Agenda introduces the Social Development Index, the unique model used to measure Hong Kong's social development changes, and offers an in-depth assessment of the major findings resulting from its application. With twenty-four chapters written by local specialists, the volume reports on progress in critical sectors such as health, education, housing, transport, arts and culture, and science and technology, and also assesses Hong Kong's response to the social development needs of vulnerable population groups such as children, youth, the aged, women, and people living in low-income households.

This title was first published in 2003. Hong Kong is a society of contrasts and paradoxes. The city has a contrasting and yet fluid intermingling of social and cultural images - east and west, local and colonial, modern and traditional, extravagant and frugal. In this volume, the editor has selected essays dealing with a variety of aspects of Hong Kong including change and development, culture and identity, trends in political development, economy and society, social issues and social policy.

This book reviews the political development of Hong Kong before and after 1997, in particular the evolution of state-society relations in the last two decades, to analyze the slow development of democracy and governance in Hong Kong after 1997. This book is a most comprehensive analysis of the multi-faceted changes in Hong Kong in the last 20 years. The scope of changes analyzed included state functions and institutions, political changes such as party development and development of the Legislative Council, and social changes such as social movements, civil liberties, etc. It helps the reader understand the crisis of governance of Hong Kong after 1997, and the difficulty of democratic development in Hong Kong over the years. The book covers: changing state institutions in Hong Kong in the last few decades; party development in Hong Kong; the changing role and function of the legislature in Hong Kong; the evolution of social movement and movement organizational forms; media freedom, civil liberties, and the role of civil society; and theoretical discussions concerning governance problems and state-society relations in Hong Kong. Special emphasis is placed on how these changes brought about a new state-society relation, which in turn brought governance difficulties after 1997.

The papers in this volume, prepared by social scientists with different specializations, address selected aspects of Hong Kong's post-War development.

Chinese parallel title on jacket romanized as: Hsiang-kang ti cheng chih pien hua chi cheng fu ho fa hsing chih wei chi. Bibliography: p. 449-467.

Hong Kong society is often regarded as politically apathetic. Yet throughout its history, Hong Kong experienced periodic waves of social movement activity. In part, the perception of an apathetic populace stems from the colonial government's laissez-faire policies, the society's concentration on economic development, the maintenance of traditional Chinese culture, and a consensus that Hong Kong would revert to Chinese sovereignty. Since Hong Kong was a colony, instead of evolving into a democratic government, Great Britain instituted a system of elite consultation and absorption of the masses' political problems through indirect participation. Butenhoff addresses the question of why social movements emerged and how they influenced the process of political reform. Her study presents and analyzes the activities of social movements so that a clearer picture of civil society and political change from below emerges. Butenhoff integrates the literature on Hong Kong, civil society, and social movements into an integrated approach to analyze social movement influence in Hong Kong politics. Her three case studies: the independent labor movement, the nontraditional Christian movement, and the democracy movement are analyzed using a social movement framework. She evaluates the forces that drive and sustain social movements and argues that while the Chinese and British governments debated the fate of democratic Hong Kong, the Hong Kong people have been overlooked throughout the process. And, as a result, Hong Kong social movements play an essential role in raising the awareness of the people and bringing to light the voices from below.