First published in 1969
by Routledge
Reprinted in 1998, 1999, 2000
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN
Transferred to Digital Printing 2006
1969 I. C. Jarvie and Joseph Agassi
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Hong Kong: A Society in Transition
ISBN 0-415-17562-3
The Sociology of East Asia: 6 Volumes
ISBN 0-415-17821-5
The International Library of Sociology: 274 Volumes
ISBN 0-415-17838-X
I. C. Jarvie
Hong Kong is a British enclave on the China coast at the mouth of the Pearl river. The island from which it takes its name was occupied in 1841 during the first Opium War of 183942 between Britain and China and its cession was later ratified in the Treaty of Nanking (1842); further territory was added in i860 (Kowloon) and 1898 (New Territorieson a 99-year lease) by agreement between Britain and China.1 It now comprises just under 400 square miles, considerably less than the size of Kent (1,5547 square miles) or Long Island (1,682 square miles). Much of this land is vertical. A sizable chunk of the mainland area, and most of the 235 islands aside from Hong Kong itself, have very few inhabitants, some none at all. In these islands, and on the mainland among farmers and fisherfolk, the social organization bears some resemblance to what might be called traditional Chinese country life.
The population is largely concentrated in two conurbations on either side of the harbour; on Kowloon peninsula on the mainland side, and in a city called Victoria on the island side. Into this tiny area is packed most of the
to 4 million people in the Colony.2 Of these, approximately 15 per cent are non-Chinese, mainly Europeansincluding a local community of Portuguese descent. As far as its general character as a city goes Hong Kong is Chinese, despite being administered under British law by an almost entirely British Higher Civil Service.3
As a whole the Colony is very rich, and few of the comforts of the affluent society are not available. Most of the population, however, are very poor by western standards (not by Asian standards). But while the gap between rich and poor is very wide, hopeless abject poverty of the kind to be found in India and other parts of S.E. Asia is quite rare.4 The problems of housing, education, water5 and public health are daunting; and however critical one may be of the way the government is managing to finance its projects (especially by refusing to increase the minute public debt) and however much one may feel that even more than the very considerable amount already being done could be done, yet it is an impressive sign of richness that the government finances all its projects from current revenue. This will be even more impressive considering that maximum payable tax is pegged at 15 per cent of earnings (and this is the largest single source of revenue, over one quarter of the total). Pessimists predicted that if labour costs began to rise they would destroy the economic prosperity of the Colony for the following reason: the risk of keeping capital in Hong Kong is high, but so are the profits due to low cost of labour. Change this factor, profits will fall and capital will leave; since it is concentrated in few hands it can and will leave fast. So far this prophecy shows no signs of coming true. The increase in the size and purchasing power of the domestic market resulting from the increasing cost of labour has encouraged capital-formation. Large longer term profits are to be made from products requiring elaborate equipment and skilled and semi-skilled operatives. Thus, both the expansion of the semiskilled group and the improved wages of the unskilled group have resulted in the beginnings of a rise in the standard of living of lower paid workers. In the light of this, it is difficult to avoid adverse comment on the governments holding down the wages of its lower-paid employees, in the name, it is said, of resistance to wage inflation. On the one hand this aim is not particularly desirable and on the other this technique does not forward it but merely creates large numbers of unfilled vacancies in government service. Despite the governments aim of holding wages down, they rise, as they must if the economy is to grow on a sound basis. The present rate of growth of the economy may well be in the region of 15 per cent, more than double the figure of 7 per cent said to be necessary by Dr Szczepanikwhen he wrote the original of the paper republished hereif standards were to go up.
Many people have heard a little about Hong Kong, either from travel books, films or popular novels. Serious crime and violence is not excessive; piracy hardly exists; smuggling, gambling, drug-taking and prostitution are the chief large-scale deviations.
Yet the main story to be told about Hong Kong, hardly of interest to the novelists, is how it has changed in the last fifteen years. Economically things have changed, and these changes, plus the influx of refugees, are bringing about considerable changes in the social structure. This situation virtually makes Hong Kong a laboratory for the social scientist. Its economy, following a period of structural change, is going through a period of extremely rapid growth, virtually unhelped and unhampered by government action. Its social structure is going through nothing short of upheaval in the face of this economic change; plus wave after wave of refugees bringing serious overcrowding and its social effects; plus, not to be forgotten, the ceaseless impact of creeping westernization both in education and in industry. The place is administered, and in a subtle way its atmosphere is dominated, by Europeans who carry an influence wholly out of proportion to their numbers. Let me spell out all this in a little more detail.
