Hong Kong should stop telling its disaffected youth they are the problem

Government initiatives aimed at ‘improving’ young people in various ways miss the point. It’s the mismatch between youth expectations and economic opportunities that breeds social discontent, and what officials must address

Alice Wu

Published: 9:00am, 20 May 2019

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Whenever the government talks about youth policies, it’s like hearing the same old broken record. Phrases like “broadening their horizons”, “enhancing their competitiveness”, “help them pursue higher [this and that]” are repeated ad nauseam. Other than the fact that these terms are so overused they have pretty much lost their meaning, they also reflect the unchanging government tenor that our youths are somehow inadequate.

Young people are inadequate in their narrow outlook; thus the constant need to broaden their horizons. In this ultra-competitive city where children are supposed to “win at the starting line”, the government persistently finds youths’ competitiveness in need of enhancing. And, like a nagging parent, officials keep telling the young people of this city full of overachievers that they need to aim higher.

And yet, when surveys like the one conducted by the Hong Kong Playground Association last year showed that 31.6 per cent of respondents aged six to 24 suffered from mild to extremely severe stress, and 38.7 per cent from moderate to extreme anxiety, we are shocked.

We shake our heads and lament the tough standards kids today have to live up to. But nothing changes afterwards, while policymakers continue to obsess over finding more ways to broaden the horizons and enhance the competitiveness of our stressed-out and anxious young people.

Today’s youth face challenges that are very different from those that confronted policymakers when they were young. A recent study conducted by the New Century Forum found that fresh graduates today earn about 9.6 per cent less in their first job than graduates 25 years ago.

Students of the Chinese University of Hong Kong celebrate their graduation in November last year. A recent survey has found that fresh graduates today earn about 9.6 per cent less in their first job than graduates 25 years ago. Photo: Felix Wong

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Their difficulty in landing a good job also means that many degree holders are undervalued and settling for unskilled, low-paid jobs. This doesn’t merely warp the city’s workforce, it also creates a fresh batch of disillusioned and frustrated young people year after year.

We are responsible for creating the gaping hole between their expectations and reality. We put them through so much pressure to perform academically, selling them the dream that all they do and all they forgo to excel academically will pay off down the road in rewarding and satisfying careers.

Hong Kong parents put so much pressure on their children and the city’s education system requires so much torturous study time that young children don’t have time to play and young people are sleep deprived and physically unfit due to a lack of exercise.

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And we’ve successfully conditioned too many youths with toxic guilt. According to a recent survey by the NGO Breakthrough, about 40 per cent of Hong Kong’s young people feel guilty or fearful when taking breaks for rest or recreation from studying or work. This is not about instilling a good work ethic in youths.

We are setting young people up for a fall. Social conflicts will only intensify when they realise that all their hard work won’t pay off, and all the years of sleep deprivation and stress do not guarantee gainful employment. When university graduates cannot earn enough to support themselves, let alone afford homes with out-of-control prices, we’re setting the stage for more social problems. When university degrees don’t translate into people climbing the social ladder, exacerbating inequality, we deepen the sense of hopelessness in society.

Instead of nurturing talent, we will nurture a sense of fatality – that there’s nothing to lose – in future generations.

That’s why we must address the systemic problems in the education system, in the economy’s over-reliance on the financial industry, and in the out-of-control property market, to create meaningful and lasting opportunities for young people.

If the government finds young people “inadequate”, it is because we have been failing them, and efforts to ensure there are ample opportunities awaiting them have been inadequate.

Alice Wu is a political consultant and a former associate director of the Asia Pacific Media Network at UCLA

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