Happiness is a state of mind beautifully articulated by the philosopher Democritus, who was born in Abdera 450 years before the birth of Jesus Christ.
Ridiculed by Plato but admired by Aristotle, he lived during the dawn of the Golden Age of Ancient Greece, and developed a passion for metaphysics, mathematics and astronomy.
He also peeled away the human spirit to reveal its moral frailties in the fragments of his manuscripts that have survived. “Happiness resides not in possessions, and not in gold, happiness dwells in the soul,” Democritus wrote.
More than 2,500 years later in another vibrant city halfway across the world, Hong Kong citizens are still grappling with the same concept.
“If Hong Kong was measured on the scale of happiness quotient, I suspect we would be very low in the pecking order,” Neville Sarony, a Queen’s Counsel and a former Professor of Law at the City University of Hong Kong, told Asia Times. “Do the drunks in Lan Kwai Fong [an upmarket restaurant and bar area of Central’s business district] celebrate their free economy status or are they drowning their frustrations in alcohol?”
While the Heritage Foundation’s 2018 Economic Freedom Index cemented Hong Kong’s long-standing No.1 spot, the annual Gallup Global End of Year Survey in December showed the city was ranked the seventh-least ‘happy place.’
After polling 54,000 people from 55 countries and regions, the report made grim reading with Hong Kong trailing Iran, Iraq, Ukraine, Greece, Moldova and Brazil.
“Hong Kong people are unhappy because their original lifestyle has been invaded,” Phalanda Pang, a former newspaper editor from Shenzhen, who moved to Hong Kong in 2012, told Asia Times. “The family shops they liked no longer exist after being replaced by luxury brand stores [which are favored by mainland Chinese tourists].”
Still, this crisis of identity reflects just part of a complicated picture, which has become even more obscure since the former British colony was handed back to China under the ‘One Country, Two Systems’ agreement in 1997.
More than 20 years later, there is a widely-held view that the rule of law has been eroded as Beijing tightens its grip on Asia’s major financial hub.
Grossly distorted
Monopolies in a slew of sectors from transport to supermarkets have triggered consternation along with a grossly distorted and expensive property market, which has been fueled in part by mainland Chinese buyers.
Simply owning a home has become an impossible dream for millions of Hong Kong people.
“There is no time to lose for the government to address our huge and stubborn housing problem. But as long as politics gets in the way, no government can be effective in tackling the problems that plague us. So, creating a favorable political environment must be a priority,” Alice Wu, a political consultant and a former associate director of the Asia Pacific Media Network at UCLA, wrote in the South China Morning Post.
But the issues run much deeper than just “housing.” Calls for great democracy and autonomy have grown louder, fueled by movements such as the “Umbrella Revolution” in 2014.
In response, a concerted campaign was rolled out by Beijing to clamp down on dissent at Hong Kong’s universities. Already the specter of ‘big brother’ was starting to loom large over society before claims surfaced that China was meddling in legislative elections.
“People are disappointed with the governance of Hong Kong,” Wu Chi-wai, a legislator and the chairman of the Democratic Party, told Asia Times. “Democracy and freedom are our core value. Those who are financial [secure] might decide to leave.”
A “brain drain” is a recurring theme when talking to certain sections of the community, although it tends to be anecdotal with few hard figures to back up emigration claims.
Significantly, the rising cost of living and narrow employment opportunities, centered around the financial industry and the low-paid service sector, are also cited as causes of discontent.
“Hong Kong has a brain drain,” Andy Kwan Cheuk-chiu, a former associate economics professor at the Chinese University, told Asia Times. “Many middle-class families send their children to study abroad and tell them not to return to Hong Kong.
“I expect more families and students will emigrate, and the reason is Hong Kong is getting worse and worse when it comes to living here,” he added.
Sarony, a Queen’s Counsel, went even further as a passionate advocate of political freedom. During the past few years, mainland Chinese security agents have apprehended Hong Kong booksellers for publishing ‘warts-an-all’ profiles on senior Communist Party politicians.
At the same time, Beijing has evoked a power to rewrite Hong Kong laws, while the government has moved to criminalize “disrespecting” the national anthem.
“Because they no longer see the city as an environment of opportunity to flourish, owning property is beyond their means and they fear for the future of their children,” Sarony said. “Before the rendition of the booksellers, people in Hong Kong believed they were safe, that sense of security has evaporated.
“They have been educated and brought up in a liberal quasi-democratic system and have adopted those concepts of freedom of thought and expression, which are taken for granted in advanced democracies. They see increasing attempts by the mainland to regiment their way of thinking. Hence, they fear the future,” he added.
Another hotly-debated topic is the standard of education in Hong Kong. Kwan, a former associate economics professor, is convinced a practical solution would be to set up “a vocational university.”
This would be run along the lines of institutes in Norway, which happened to be voted the second “happiest place on Earth” in the United Nations’ World Happiness Report last year.
“By doing this, we could train more people to be nurses to tackle Hong Kong’s aging problem,” he told Asia Times. “With enough talent, Hong Kong would be able to develop different industries, such as a healthcare sector for overseas visitors.”
Those sentiments were echoed by Ho Hei-wah, a veteran social activist and the director of the Society for Community Organisation.
Upward social mobility has stalled for poor families, Ho pointed out, and he put that down to a broken educational system.
A study by the Hong Kong Institute of Education, which has been renamed the Education University of Hong Kong, revealed that children from rich families were nearly four times more likely to go to university than ones from a less-affluent background.
“The educational system has reduced the upward social mobility,” Ho told Asia Times. “The inequality is the result of our education policy. The government encourages the establishment of private and direct subsidy schools which only the rich families can afford.
Poor families
“Students from poor families in ordinary, local schools lag behind, so upward social mobility is low,” he added.
Yet despite the challenges ahead, Hong Kong still has a strong hand to play, according to Shih Wing-ching, the founder of the Centaline Property, one of the largest real estate agencies in the city.
Being joined at the hip with the world’s second-largest economy has opened up an array of possibilities for future growth and development, he stressed.
“Hong Kong is so blessed to be able to rely on mainland China,” Shih said. “On a visit to Singapore, their officials said they would be delighted to have a motherland like China, which can bring so many business opportunities. It is an advantage to have China’s never-ending support.”
Others are not so sure.
Sarony, who has lived in Hong Kong since 1986, has great faith in the judiciary system. But he would like to see Beijing “take its hands off the wheel” instead of micro-managing the city.
Finding government leaders to “think outside the box and inspire the young” would also be a step in the right direction. Above all, Hong Kong’s government must put the people’s interests first, he argued.
“Unquestionably, Hong Kong’s greatest asset has been and still is, the absence of a corrupt judiciary. So, while mainland academics from obscure institutions who claim to be legal scholars pontificate about Hong Kong’s ignorance of the meaning of the Basic Law and snipe at our internationally recognized jurists, this city’s standing as a legal jurisdiction is second to none throughout Asia,” he said.
“[As for our] leaders in Hong Kong, they need to create solutions [and] inspire the young, and [have] the guts to put Hong Kong’s interests above all others. Is there still hope? Adapting the lyrics of a popular song of yesteryear: ‘If the song has ended, will the melody linger on?’” he added.
Now, that would have brought a wry smile from Democritus … and a raised eyebrow from Beijing.
Now read the full series
Part 1: Behind the glitz and glamour of ‘Monopoly City’
Part 2: Life in a ‘shoebox’ for the lucky rich in Hong Kong
Part 3: Little guys struggle in the land of the giants
Part 4: Road transport policy runs into a dead end in Hong Kong
Part 5: Innovation can breathe new life into the markets and economy
Part 6: Dreaming of a vibrant past and fearful of an uncertain future
As the article says, there is a problem with the education system, and I would guess you are the perfect example.
Ken Kwan What a silly responce to a problem of today. Hong Kong people built the place and that means Hong Kong Chinese. All the Brits did was ensure a corrupt free (for Asia) legal system and open market for whatever business people wanted to start. And it led the way in Asia till quite recently. Whatever hardships you feel were put in your way (or your grandparents), they were par for the course in every country, including the western world too. It seems as if you have been primed to put the blame on everyone else for failures that you see. There are always failures everywhere, but people learn and get over them. The problems the article refers to though have very little to do with "Brits", so you cannot with all honesty, shift that onto them. Singapore has a good many Chinese, and a Brit inspired legal system. In the last 20 years they have pulled far ahead of HK. I suppose that is the "fault" of the Brits too is it?
What a crock of shit.
chinese are no better off whether under damn brits or stupid communists. chinese are chinese always, and people do whatever to survive.
Anybody who think that f*cken brits were in HK for the love of chinese must be whores. Hong Kong thrived economy only because wealthy chinese bribed the brits in charge, and can do whatever they wanted to make more money, and vast chinese underclass labored without complaint. The retarded brits so called rule of law meant nothing, when several hundred thousands gangsters extracted wealth from poors while HK polices and administrators took bribes as matter of rule, while worthless brits turned blind eyes on local conditions, except to maintain all the trapping of a faded glory of what has been of past colonial empire soaked in chinese blood.
is HK better off today? maybe today’s communists aligned administrators take the same bribe, but at least they did not have to pass big percentage to their damn brits colonial masters. maybe they can have some little pride in being chinese after all.
maybe these chinese gangsters in HK can be instilled with some chinese patriotic pride, while being deferential to chinese communists rulers, at least they did not have to be deferential to their former colonial G8Fdamn Brits anymore ( only the most worthless lower class, dredge of society, people without prospect would serve oversea just to collect some bribes to augment their meager salary!!)
as far as vast majority of HK people are concerned, their days are numbered as all investment and jobs, flowed to Shenzhen next door last decades due to rise of china inevitably .
what is use of crying over fading HK lifestyle (formerly HongKong was under colonial rule, and never had democracy of any sort, except in some wet dreams of some most degenerate people), which were never really great anyway.
Sherry and Gordon,
There is a Chinese culinary saying that if you put too many ingredients into the pot you will end up with a inedible shit-pot for food. And guess what you two are doing here that is taboo! – throwing in identity crisis, political democracy, happiness, business monopolies, a dysfunctional inequitable unaffordable housing policy, incompetent governance, brain drain, socially discriminatory education opportunity, lack of socio-economic mobility and poverty. And what is the obvious inevitable result?
Just stick to one simple topic headline that cries out about the social and economic and status divide between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have-nots’. Get directly to the essential problem. Do not beat around the bush like a dog chasing its tail!
Then make it glaringly obvious that if this gross and insidious sense of hopelessness and despair divide is not resolved quickly there might be a people revolution – not of the liberal democracy kind but of the socialist democracy kind.
The problem and answer is obvious. In the Mainland we have Communism as the countervailing power against Capitalism. In HK we have Capitalists in Government as the votes are gerrymandered to cater for the rich and business lobbies. We should have a Socialist HK Government to keep the Capitalists in check.
You do not have to go very far for an exemplary model – the City State of Singapore!
Do housing like Singapore – the State is responsible for 80% of residential housing.
Cut down on disruptive and divisive liberal Western thought and mores like Singapore does.
Establish a Confucian based society like Singapore and that means governance by a Mandarin elite intellectual group – Capitalists to stick to doing business. From each according to his capacity and to each according to his needs! Voltaire I think it was.
Economic and social policy for the benefit of all the citizens so that there is a small very rich class, a small poor class and a substantial middle class.
Yes, you will be right if you were to say that Singapore is like a Westernised Communist State. In fact it is like a Western version of Mainland China, and to top that they all speak English and behave like Anglophiles! Unbelievable!
I can go on but I think you get the drift!
Vincent Cheok
The Hongkies like to to lick the white #@$$
Ken Kwan
Ken Kwan
The environment did not enpower the overseas chinese. The police, military and courts were British controlled. In Malaya, the British purposely left power in the hands of the Malays. The British cunningly practised divide and conquer strategies up to this day. The story is the same all over the world.
You do not resist when the alternative is war and the jungle.
Pride and denigration is empty egoism when the innocent children and women of families suffer.
It is now different in Hong Kong with automonous self rule and real progress has been made. The few ignorant and naive kids protestors in Hong Kong are being duped into creating civil unrest and rebelling against their own people.
The sacrifices and love for the family of the pragmatic, hard working Chinese have now borne fruit in real freedom (self rule), social progress and prosperity.
The Philippines was once the most prosperous nation in SE Asia and is a glaring example of US exploitation and corruption by foreign masters.
Ken Nguyen A lot of Chinese, whether they are from the mainland or from overseas( of which I am one ) had, and still have this "natural" subservient mentality to accept one’s miserable lot when they have the westerners/whites as their overlord! When I was young in Malaysia, the Hainanese would be ever so grateful to take jobs to launder, cook, polish the shoes of the Brits(or in general a westerner/foreigner) and bow and kowtow to them, without a word of complaint or resentment. I still remember what my mother said about the Brits(who ruled Malaysia for more than a 100 years): " Even the fart from a Brit smells great!". That was how the Asians( in our case the overseas Chinese, and this includes the HongKese) have "happily" accepted carrying that colonial yoke, and seem just as happy to welcome the westerners/Brits as their natural lord/master. For the HongKese, even more so for the 100 or so years that they were ruled by the Brits. Whatever their miserable conditions, no complain at all. While all those present day smart alecks/university elites talk about HK being not a democracy when its sovereignty has now been reverted to China, for all those 100 years, the HongKese had never had that sense of pride and voiced/rose up against the Brits to demand the Brits should be booted out and they run HK themselves. No! They were quite happy to kowtow to the white "master!". But they would have this natural reaction against being ruled by someone of their own kind. This is a very weird/strange behaviour with the Chinese race. Resulting from this, we thus have a general description of the Chinese race as "a pan of loose sand"., lacking in unity, cohesion, little affinity to a person of the same kind, and hence as a race, very much lacking in national pride.
This very negative article (which should be challenged) about Hong Kong is a JOKE and the authors should hide their faces in shame. Yes there are major issues with housing and big brother next store casts a wide shadow————-BUT all is not lost and Hong Kong is still a eagle flying to the sun!!!
Rule under the British was terrible. People slept in bunk beds along corridors. There was little industry. People labored under terrible conditions for starvation wages as coolies loading and unloading cargo ships. The lucky few toadied up to the British as servants. Corruption was rife and the British extracted wealth from the citizens via licenses given in return for bribes. Medical care, sanitation, education, etc. was very poor and epidemics were not uncommon. Triads were everywhere and the police turned a blind eye as long as they received their cut from illegal and socially harmful activities.
Rubbish article! Trying to blame Hong Kong’s no progress to the Hong Kong political system. Why don’t the authors blame the brainwashed students for destroying Hong Kong’s image of a politics free territory and scaring businesses away?