Modernization and Chinese Culture in Hong Kong

Abstract

Hong Kong, by now, is quite modern. At the same time, it remains essentially Chinese. Measured by most accepted indicators, Hong Kong qualifies as a newly industrialized region. It is using so much inanimate power to drive machines that the increase in fuel consumption is no longer proportionate to the increase in population size. It has joined the ranks of the “ecological phase 4 societies” in which the livelihood of the inhabitants is dependent on “extrasomatic energy”. As it began its transition in the pattern of energy usage much later, Hong Kong is still well behind western industrial nations in per capita energy consumption. But in Asia, in 1981, it had the third highest per capita use of commercial energy after Japan and Singapore, which stood at 1,487 kilograms of coal equivalent. Between 1960 and 1979 its average annual growth rate in energy consumption was about 10 per cent, a rate higher than those of all the industrial economies and most Asian countries except Singapore and the Republic of Korea. Hong Kong's productivity is high, ranking third in Asia after Japan and Singapore with a Gross National Product (GNP) per capita that grew at the annual rate of 6 8 per cent. By 1980 its GNP per capita reached US$4,240.5 In terms of employment, in 1981, 49 per cent of its labour force was engaged in manufacturing and construction, 47 per cent in commerce and various lines of services, and just 2 per cent in agriculture. The inhabitants of Hong Kong are keen participants in the mass media.