It used to be said that a Hongkonger's idea of a good time was to work 12 hours a day. There was a lot of truth in that. In the desperate postwar years, people living in rotting squatter slums had no time for leisure. Any family member not on the factory floor or in a rooftop school spent their hours in the narrow alleys making plastic flowers or assembling cheap toys.Survival was the name of the game.
A generation later, toil does not totally dominate our lives. The average worker enjoys a five-day week. There's ample time for most people to enjoy their leisure. Watching television, shopping or going out to dinner top polls of favoured spare-time activities.
But increasingly, the 21st century citizen of Hong Kong is liable to be a member of a trendy gym, go for long weekend hikes in country parks, jog at night or play some team sport. Every fine weekend, well-maintained public barbecues at seasides or along rural roads are packed with families.
Cinemas are busy, reflecting the city's century-old love affair with the movies. The sound of music, western classical or Canto-pop, echoes from concert halls and pubs. The roar of football fans rises above the stadium at Happy Valley and the Sha Tin valley reverberates as 75,000 punters urge on the favourites. Hongkongers now know how to enjoy life.
As the city rose with astonishing rapidity from poverty to wealth, habits changed.
Holidays? In the 1960s, most people didn't have any. Twenty years later, tour guides were escorting affluent workers and their families on Cantonese-speaking guided trips across Europe.