Today we started classes, with our first lesson discussing the socio-demographics of Hong Kong lead by Professor Annie Chan of Lingnan University. We started by coming up with political events in China to explain the population growth trends in Hong Kong from 1841 to today. Then, we went into more details concerning various topics, including demographic transition, immigrants (especially from mainland China), sex ratios, marriages, British and Chinese influences, and foreign domestic helpers.
I was surprised by Hong Kong’s dependency on foreign domestic workers as in the US they are not such a huge percentage of our population. Learning about the history of Mui-Tsais/妹仔 (girls sold to wealthy families as unpaid domestic servants – “outlawed” in 1930) and Amans/马姐 (paid domestic servants who were spinsters sworn to a life of celibacy) helped clarify why this is an accepted practice.
I also had not known that many Hong Kong men marry mainland Chinese women. It was interesting to learn about the different immigration policies that stemmed from this, stereotypes of women (Kong girls/港女), and various issues regarding cross-border families.
After class, we split up into groups to talk about the consequences of the aging population, foreign domestic workers, and trends in dating and marriages among the young population of Hong Kong, hearing the perspective of the Hong Kong students.
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Journals by:
- Adriana Roman (21)
- Haley Bosse' (20)
- Jake Rinaldi (21)
- Keileh Atulomah (21)
- Konnor Herbst (14)
- Li Yu (18)
- Robert Smith (21)
- Tongyu Zhou (17)
- Zihan Ye (21)