Hong Kong Families: At the Crossroads of Modernism and Traditionalism

The cultural embeddedness of family structure and processes is a crudal point of departure in unravelling family life in Hong Kong. Two sets of cultural forces, that of Chinese traditionalism and Western modernism, provide the key ideological axes in the shaping of Hong Kong families. This ideological vantage point sheds important light on salient aspects of the family conditions, e.g., the prevalence of utilitarianistic familism, the rise of nuclear families, the changing authority pattern among family members, and the formation of gradated, extended familial ties. These variegated features are characterized in this essay in terms of the concept of modified nuclear family. </jats:p

Decolonization and the movement for institutionalization of Chinese medicine in Hong Kong: a political process perspective

This paper focuses on the question of why the social and political acceptance of Chinese medicine has grown in the former British colony of Hong Kong since the late 1980s. To supplement the conventional explanations for the institutionalization of alternative medicines, we propose a political process perspective that highlights the effects of political changes amidst the decolonization process in Hong Kong. During the late 1980s and early 1990s, the weakening of the political position of the established elite, the opening up of political space for previously excluded groups, and the competition for support among the new political elite, all stimulated the indigenous Chinese medicine organizations to mobilize for the institutionalization of Chinese medicine. By the mid-1990s academics from leading tertiary institutions began to take over the leadership of the movement and in doing so carried it to a higher level. In the conclusion, we briefly consider the implications of this movement for the future development of alternative medicine in Hong Kong and other societies.Alternative medicine Traditional medicine Political process Hong Kong