published_or_final_version / Public Health / Master / Master of Public Health

Shanghai is often regarded as China’s best embodiment of cosmopolitanism, transcending the local through the purchase of global goods that, in turn, allows its citizens to be part of a post-socialist world. This aspiring outlook of Shanghai is often the result of larger institutional changes, such as the move to a market economy and China’s entry into WTO. Crucial to the understanding of how this state-mediated cosmopolitan culture came to have an impact on the lives of individuals, the key patterns in romantic experiences of young Shanghainese women are discussed in elaborate detail in this thesis. In particular, this study focuses on two specific forces, namely the state and the market, that have greatly shaped the romantic context of cosmopolitan Shanghai. As such, this thesis seeks to answer three key questions: 1) Is it possible that the Chinese state has (re)structured contemporary Shanghainese women’s romantic experiences and, if so, in what ways? 2) Do current findings on the role of the consumer market in shaping romantic practices also apply within the context under study? 3) In what ways have Shanghainese women played out their love lives in the current context? Building a theoretical framework from state-role theory which emphasizes the role of the Chinese state in initiating life-altering social transformations and theory that relates romantic love to the consumer culture and the social organization of advanced capitalism, this thesis asserts that the romantic experiences of young Shanghainese women both mirror and extend the fundamental arguments framing both theories, thus offering new levels of complexity for examining the relationship between romantic love and culture. Through an open-ended interview process following grounded theory principles, 44 respondents (age 25-39) are asked questions regarding their romantic experiences to provide key details from the context under study. The findings of this study suggest that the state and the state-mediated consumer culture has produced contradictions in the romantic experiences of young Shanghainese women. While as cosmopolitan individuals young women are supposed to be desirous and constraint-free in pursuit of their romantic ideals, persistent class and gender hierarchies, and rising economic and emotional uncertainties, nevertheless, undercut their freedom and many of the incentives to realize these ideals. Such freedom is further undercut by mounting pressure from their parents who are primarily dependent on their only daughters, as a result of the family-planning policy and other shifting state policies in the past, for long-term financial and emotional care amidst rising costs and barely functional social welfare programs. Caught in a tension between self desires and traditional role obligations, young women become rational actors in their romantic experiences as they negotiate or even transform the conventionalities by lurching between different understandings of love and varying moralities of self and family to justify their motives and behaviors. As such, their romantic experiences embody the market ethos of consumer capitalism—rational, selfinterested, strategic, and profit-maximizing––complexly entangled in a material and moral environment built by the socialist state. / published_or_final_version / Sociology / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

In Hong Kong, the population of older adults aged 65 and above is expected to nearly double by the beginning of the 2030s, which will then represent just over a quarter of the population. A local study found that many people in Hong Kong had given very little thought to plans for retirement and old age, including aspects of financial, health, social, and living arrangements (Lee & Law, 2004). Many similar retirement studies can be found in the West, primarily using a quantitative inquiry framework. The number of qualitative inquiries on aging issues has steadily increased over the last decade. Results from previous studies showed similar patterns, i.e. low levels of planning activities for retirement and old age across all social classes. However, none of the studies explored beyond the correlations and associations among variables. This study aims to add to the body of knowledge in the field of aging by employing life course perspectives with a qualitative approach through examining whether situational and contextual factors do in fact affect individuals’ old age readiness. There are two core objectives of this study. The first objective is to investigate whether and how life experiences from significant events or transitions influence important decisions in life, in this case, the planning for retirement and old age among the target population of mid-aged women from middle and working class backgrounds in Hong Kong. The second objective is to explore relationships and the degree of significance between Chinese traditional belief systems and the level of retirement preparedness amidst high volatility in global financial markets and the development of old age friendly welfare and policies in Hong Kong. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with a purposive sample of 34 women between the ages of 45 and 59. Results connote that most of these women witnessed the growth of economic development in Hong Kong; unfortunately they have not accumulated enough physical resources to prepare for retirement or old age after its growth plateaued and has been stumbling since the late 1990s. Their social network system is very limited and in many cases also fragile. Minimal preventive health measures are being taken except for addressing pre-existing physical and mental health issues. Living arrangements is the area least planned for, including those women who are public rental housing tenants. The interviewed women hold the same Chinese traditional value that they are hoping to receive family support during old age. Nonetheless, they also feel vulnerable because their adult children are struggling to make ends meet as well. Public cash assistances are these women’s last resort if their children cannot afford to provide support due to economic difficulties or after depletion of their own funds from MPF, personal savings and investments. This group of women is likely to actively utilize the public healthcare system, community programs, and long-term care facilities in the near future. Implications of the study include social work practices and public policies that will support the potential needs of the forthcoming wave of the old age population. / published_or_final_version / Social Work and Social Administration / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Medical Sciences / Master / Master of Medical Sciences

published_or_final_version / abstract / English / Master / Master of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / abstract / toc / Nursing Studies / Master / Master of Nursing in Advanced Practice

published_or_final_version / abstract / toc / Nursing Studies / Master / Master of Nursing in Advanced Practice

published_or_final_version / Nursing Studies / Master / Master of Nursing in Advanced Practice

(Uncorrected OCR) Abstract of thesis entitled Beauty Myth in Hong Kong submitted by Lai Hoi Van for the degree of Master of Philosophy at the University of Hong Kong in February 2000 After the first and second waves of feminism, women in Western societies have the right to vote and work in public. However, in late capitalism, many scholars proclaim images of female beauty are used as a new political weapon against women's advancement. This weapon is the beauty myth. The general popularity of feminine culture of beauty and the abundance of related beauty consumption can be observed in Hong Kong. In order to find out how the beauty myth is operating in Hong Kong and whether women are the victims being hindered from social advancement because of the beauty myth, the case of Hong Kong is investigated. There are two parts of the research. The first part makes use of secondary and primary data on the positions of women in Hong Kong to construct the dominant standard of beauty. It is found that the positions of women in Hong Kong are not as advanced as women in Western developed countries in terms of work, education and family. In addition, the existence of a dominant standard of beauty can also be found in Hong Kong from analysis of beauty parlors, magazines and beauty guidebook contents. The second part of the research is an ethnography of 13 respondents who are supposed to be the victims of the beauty myth. It is discovered that they generally accept the dominant standard of beauty but negotiations and personal politics are detected in their daily encounters with the myth. They are not "cultural dopes" but express certain degrees of agency. They actively make choices under the circumstances not of their own making. In their beauty practices, they find the specific women's community and knowledge, in which pleasure is intertwined. Combining the macroscopic and the microscopic parts of research, women's pursuits of beauty should not be narrowed down to a totalitarian statement. For the advancement of women in Hong Kong, the present forms of beauty need not be abandoned. More perspectives and options in terms of beauty and other aspects of life such as work and education, have to be provided for women, as well as for men. The positions of women in education, work and family can only be advanced with the general political awareness of women and the struggle to change the structure. To advance the structure, the present ideologies of femininity and masculinity based on dualism have to be changed. Education, mass media and the present feminine communities of beauty can be viewed as the sites promoting a new political awareness. / abstract / toc / Sociology / Master / Master of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / abstract / toc / Comparative Asian Studies / Master / Master of Arts