https://www.scmp.com/rss/324744/feed Anson Au, PhD, is an assistant professor of sociology, in the Department of Applied Social Sciences, at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Award-winning author of over 30 academic research articles, he is an expert in professions, organisations, and social and economic networks, particularly in East Asia. He has previously held visiting appointments at the National Sun Yat-Sen University in Taiwan, Seoul National University and Yonsei University in South Korea, Harbin Institute of Technology... en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com China’s 2023 economic data, just released by the National Bureau of Statistics, turned up few surprises. Gross domestic product grew by 5.2 per cent year on year in the last quarter and in 2023. While economists debate the veracity of this, there is a bigger issue at stake: weak consumption. Wage growth tends to lag behind productivity gains and it gets worse when gross domestic product grows faster. This is an issue at the heart of China’s economic malaise. Consumption has fallen as a... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3249150/why-china-must-waste-no-time-pivoting-consumption-based-economy?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3249150/why-china-must-waste-no-time-pivoting-consumption-based-economy?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 25 Jan 2024 08:30:15 +0000 The most insidious poisons are those that linger the longest. The surge in Covid-19 case numbers in Hong Kong in recent weeks has bludgeoned the city’s public health defences. Pundits have rightly turned their attention to how to curb the spread of Covid-19, but they seem to assume that everything will return to normal after it passes. This could not be further from the truth. We are faced with a deeper mental health crisis unleashed by the pandemic, the effects of which will be felt long after... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3169817/coronavirus-pandemic-unleashing-mental-health-crisis-hong-kong?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3169817/coronavirus-pandemic-unleashing-mental-health-crisis-hong-kong?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 10 Mar 2022 00:15:17 +0000 China’s ramping up of regulations in the tech and education sectors has made headlines around the world, and triggered a global sell-off of more than US$1 trillion in related stocks. In an unprecedented move, tutoring companies nationwide will be barred from profit-taking. Likewise, Didi Chuxing was banned from accepting new customers after it went ahead with a public listing in the United States in defiance of Beijing, which had cited concerns about data management. This ongoing transformation... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3146167/three-reasons-not-fear-chinas-regulatory-crackdown?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3146167/three-reasons-not-fear-chinas-regulatory-crackdown?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 25 Aug 2021 22:45:12 +0000 Anson Au Anson Au Financial analysts, writers and retail investors alike have flocked to bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, like many did with US housing in 2008 and Dutch tulips in the 1600s. But few pundits have noticed the similarities between cryptocurrencies and gold, and even those who do, treat the parallel as merely a compass for setting a price target. But this parallel is ominously important. It shows that cryptocurrencies threaten state control over currency circulation, and are headed for a heavy... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3137932/global-cryptocurrency-crackdown-looms-governments-enter-digital?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3137932/global-cryptocurrency-crackdown-looms-governments-enter-digital?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 20 Jun 2021 16:30:00 +0000 The coronavirus pandemic dealt a severe blow to the global economy last year after it took a battering in 2019. As a result, central banks around the world have released rounds of cheap money into the market to support recovery – most of all in the United States. Pundits have focused on the US and observed the beneficial effects of cheap money, but they have largely overlooked how this will affect Hong Kong. In fact, there are three significant risks from US monetary policy for the city, given... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3134239/how-us-fed-monetary-policy-putting-hong-kongs-economy-risk?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3134239/how-us-fed-monetary-policy-putting-hong-kongs-economy-risk?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 21 May 2021 22:45:11 +0000 One stock that has taken the US financial market by storm is GameStop. Its propulsion from a beaten-down stock to one with a moon-shot valuation in less than a month owes much to the now-notorious Reddit group WallStreetBets. As a long-time member of this group, I can say with some certainty that the development of mass retail investor interest in GameStop is a cultural story, rather than a financial one, about the power of social media. (Full disclosure: I have not purchased any GameStop... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3121182/wallstreetbets-and-gamestop-saga-reveals-cultural-power-social?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3121182/wallstreetbets-and-gamestop-saga-reveals-cultural-power-social?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 10 Feb 2021 22:45:09 +0000 Affordable housing is becoming an Achilles’ heel in cities worldwide, but nowhere more so than Hong Kong. The city’s rising housing prices and living costs are juxtaposed against stagnating wages and stark socioeconomic inequality. More than ever, resolving the housing crisis is a matter of national security. In an article published in the research journal Asian Affairs, former Royal Hong Kong Police officer Martin Purbrick writes that a significant driver of the anti-extradition bill protests... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3104718/hong-kongs-government-must-wrest-back-control-housing-market-or?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3104718/hong-kongs-government-must-wrest-back-control-housing-market-or?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 09 Oct 2020 22:45:07 +0000 Two events are shaking up the global order. The first is the coronavirus, which is raging across nations worldwide, leaving in its wake sealed national borders, major disruptions to trade routes and supply chains on life support. According to the US Census Bureau, the total value of imports to the US from China, Japan and South Korea declined by around 17 per cent for the first half of 2020 compared to that of 2019. In some cases like Singapore, the historical trade surplus with the United... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3099547/why-us-footprint-asia-looks-set-shrink?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3099547/why-us-footprint-asia-looks-set-shrink?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 31 Aug 2020 22:30:14 +0000 Covid-19 is sweeping through Europe and the United States is feeling its effects. Domestic and global travel routes have been placed on lockdown, and US President Donald Trump recently decided unilaterally to suspend travel from Europe. Public gatherings have been curbed, prominent events have been postponed or cancelled, universities around the world have transitioned to online classes, and there has been a shift to remote working spearheaded by organisations such as Google. These measures have... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3075642/how-coronavirus-will-humble-america-and-trump-and-strengthen-chinas?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3075642/how-coronavirus-will-humble-america-and-trump-and-strengthen-chinas?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 18 Mar 2020 17:00:17 +0000 The Covid-19 epidemic sweeping through the Asia-Pacific appears to be heading inland towards Western Asia and Europe. This past week has witnessed the first major outbreaks outside the Asia-Pacific, in Iran and Italy, prompting temporary lockdowns on schools, museums, universities and cinemas, as well as bans on public gatherings. With a climbing death toll and infections diffusing through the continent, Covid-19 takes on new meaning as it reopens the scars left by the severe acute respiratory... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3052304/what-world-learned-sars-stands-us-good-stead-curb-covid-19?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3052304/what-world-learned-sars-stands-us-good-stead-curb-covid-19?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 26 Feb 2020 22:30:07 +0000 The protests that have gripped Hong Kong for over seven months have been credited with taking a heavy toll on the economy. The impact on the tourism sector has received particular attention – in October, for example, the number of visitors from the mainland dropped 46.9 per cent compared to the previous month. These stark figures are compounded by anecdotal accounts of students, academics, businesses and professionals considering leaving Hong Kong. Hong Kong entered a technical recession in... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3047011/why-hong-kongs-economy-more-capable-weathering-recent-protest?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3047011/why-hong-kongs-economy-more-capable-weathering-recent-protest?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 23 Jan 2020 01:30:09 +0000 A pang shot through me when headlines blared that Goo Hara had died from suspected suicide – just a month after her best friend Sulli’s death.  “That’s the thing about pain,” goes a popular line in John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars. “It demands to be felt.” Recent medical and social science literature have added to this picture, showing that pain also demands to be spread. Mental health is contagious in patterned ways. And these patterns tell a compelling story of a mental health epidemic on... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3039776/k-pop-deaths-show-east-asia-must-end-stigma-and-solitude-surrounds?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3039776/k-pop-deaths-show-east-asia-must-end-stigma-and-solitude-surrounds?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 30 Nov 2019 02:30:15 +0000 The recent demonstrations in Hong Kong over the planned extradition bill have evolved from setting up illegal barricades to besieging the Legislative Council. For the first time in history, Hong Kong watched masked people break through the glass facade of the Legislative Council and spray-paint the walls of the chamber inside. But as the protests gain more traction globally, it’s important to take a step back and rationally recognise some of the shortcomings of the opposition movement. First,... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3017555/four-key-areas-where-hong-kongs-protest-movement-has-come-short?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3017555/four-key-areas-where-hong-kongs-protest-movement-has-come-short?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 06 Jul 2019 14:05:58 +0000 Taiwan’s legalisation of same-sex marriage has been celebrated as progress towards a more liberal society and a model for the rest of Asia to follow. While legalisation is certainly a huge step in these respects, we can’t rest on our laurels. Legalisation was never truly the end goal: egalitarianism is. Just as it was with the fight for social justice by black people in America and by almost every other minority in history, the goal of LGBT activism is not just policies that honour rights, but... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3012723/pushing-forward-fight-lgbt-equality-hong-kong?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3012723/pushing-forward-fight-lgbt-equality-hong-kong?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 01 Jun 2019 09:44:09 +0000 Just this week, the Hong Kong Public Doctors’ Association proposed that the government subsidise patients seeking private health care while capping private medical fees, the latest attempt to lighten the load of the city’s overburdened public health care system. Patient waiting times are a perennial problem in Hong Kong. It takes about 80 days from diagnosis to first treatment for patients with colorectal cancer and 66 days for those with breast cancer. It can be years before people receive... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/hong-kong/article/2185294/how-hong-kong-public-hospitals-can-ease?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/hong-kong/article/2185294/how-hong-kong-public-hospitals-can-ease?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 08 Feb 2019 04:30:45 +0000 Last month, a new set of five-year air quality objectives starting from 2020 were proposed by the government and are now pending approval from the legislature and environmental advisers before coming into effect next year. Local environmental advocacy groups like the Clean Air Network have lambasted the proposal for being too conservative, even aimed at protecting vested interests, since lax standards would make it easier for projects like the proposed artificial island off Lantau to gain... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/hong-kong/article/2183596/beat-air-pollution-hong-kong-must-turn-science-and?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/hong-kong/article/2183596/beat-air-pollution-hong-kong-must-turn-science-and?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 27 Jan 2019 03:00:30 +0000 The stress that Hong Kong educators and students face as a result of a dysfunctional education system received much attention as 2018 came to a close. Teachers are reportedly struggling to cope; in a recent survey, 52.2 per cent were found to show some symptoms of depression. Suicide rates among students have also risen over the years. Some efforts have been made to help alleviate these problems. For example, Chinese University has a student-run “Tree Hole” campaign where students are allowed to... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/hong-kong/article/2180675/stress-facing-hong-kong-teachers-and-students?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/hong-kong/article/2180675/stress-facing-hong-kong-teachers-and-students?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 06 Jan 2019 00:00:15 +0000 The recent referendum results in Taiwan signal a major setback in the fight for marriage equality in Asia: in the latest elections, Taiwanese voters also supported the removal of gender equality content from schools; approved of limiting marriage to heterosexual couples; and, rejected same-sex marriage. Human rights groups are lamenting that Taiwan, once seen as a progressive society, has regressed. How did this happen? From the perspective of political sociology, there are multilayered reasons... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/united-states/article/2175733/three-reasons-why-same-sex-marriage-still-no?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/united-states/article/2175733/three-reasons-why-same-sex-marriage-still-no?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 30 Nov 2018 03:00:30 +0000 Will Hong Kong maintain its unique cultural identity, or will everything that makes us who we are be flattened underneath a political machine steamrollering towards us from Beijing? These questions stir perennial debate. Recent developments aimed apparently at popularising the teaching of Mandarin in Hong Kong schools and the political suppression of the advocacy of Hong Kong independence and self-determination have fuelled a climate of fear in the city. Some commentators believe an intolerant... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/hong-kong/article/2171932/hong-kong-should-not-fear-change-under-china?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/hong-kong/article/2171932/hong-kong-should-not-fear-change-under-china?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 06 Nov 2018 22:30:45 +0000 The trade war between China and the United States has dominated headlines for months. The most recent in a string of disastrous public relations events was US Vice-President Mike Pence’s call for open competition and an end to cooperation with China at all levels, sparking fear and furore among Chinese living in the US and spectators abroad. In his highly mercantilist speech, he claimed that China's economy had grown at the expense of the US’, further justifying the trade war. But the trade war... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2170121/us-political-realities-mean-donald-trumps-trade-war-china?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2170121/us-political-realities-mean-donald-trumps-trade-war-china?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 25 Oct 2018 16:30:15 +0000 The film Crazy Rich Asians has ignited a cacophony of congratulatory jubilation, expectation and resentment on both sides of the ocean and among Asians everywhere. Most reactions belong to two camps. One, prominent among Asian immigrant communities, argues that the movie marks a breakthrough in Asian representation by virtue of its all-Asian cast, and holds the promise of further representation. Enough of Crazy Rich Asians, think of crazy poor Hongkongers The other camp, by contrast, faults the... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/hong-kong/article/2162646/crazy-rich-asians-just-movie-lets-not-confuse?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/hong-kong/article/2162646/crazy-rich-asians-just-movie-lets-not-confuse?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 04 Sep 2018 18:03:27 +0000 Hong Kong National Party leader Andy Chan Ho-tin’s speech at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club last week, calling for Hong Kong independence, has ignited a firestorm of controversy and mudslinging across the political spectrum. Former chief executive Leung Chun-ying has attacked the FCC for betraying the government’s faith, the club has issued statements on the importance of free speech and others have seized the opportunity to reiterate their call for democracy.  Now, Chan could face potential... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/hong-kong/article/2160590/hong-kong-different-rest-china-thats-no?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/hong-kong/article/2160590/hong-kong-different-rest-china-thats-no?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 21 Aug 2018 21:00:00 +0000 This summer, a safety scandal involving vaccine maker Changsheng Bio-technology rocked China and made headlines around the world. The Chinese company has been accused of fabricating quality control records and selling substandard, dangerous vaccines to inoculate over a quarter of a million children. Many Chinese see this as but the latest in a long line of public health and food safety scandals in the country – from expired vaccines and contaminated milk powder to even the production and... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/hong-kong/article/2158919/moral-decay-china-has-been-greatly-exaggerated?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/hong-kong/article/2158919/moral-decay-china-has-been-greatly-exaggerated?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 12 Aug 2018 06:31:20 +0000 Last month, after China announced its decision to refuse the import of further plastic waste from about half the world, activists, athletes, scholars and writers have all put out a call to action for Hong Kong citizens to phase plastic out of our lives. Local organisations like Eco Drive have since urged Hongkongers to re-evaluate our lifestyles and reduce plastic consumption in our daily habits. Small changes make a big difference, goes the refrain, as lifestyle guides invent new ways to tweak... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/hong-kong/article/2155106/why-giving-your-plastic-straw-wont-save-planet?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/hong-kong/article/2155106/why-giving-your-plastic-straw-wont-save-planet?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 13 Jul 2018 07:01:03 +0000 Xenophobia and racial discrimination have taken centre stage in the US amid a whirlwind of political decisions made by the Trump administration. And, as trade tensions between China and the US escalate, a proxy war of sorts between the two contesting rivals is already being fought elsewhere: in academia. Citing fears of “intellectual property theft”, US authorities have announced plans to limit Chinese graduate students in certain fields to one-year visas. In the past, five-year visas could be... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/united-states/article/2152076/how-china-winning-war-us-scientific-hearts-and?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/united-states/article/2152076/how-china-winning-war-us-scientific-hearts-and?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 24 Jun 2018 08:15:45 +0000 The results of the most recent survey by Hong Kong’s Centre for Health Protection on HIV prevalence and risky behaviour, released this week, found that 6.54 per cent of 4,133 respondents who said they had sex with men have HIV, a rise from roughly 4 per cent in the past three surveys. The Virtual Aids Office, an initiative under Hong Kong’s Department of Health, has also just released a report drafted in March that shows the number of cases of HIV infection has increased over the past 10 years,... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2148643/hong-kongs-hiv-problem-prejudice-real-malady-society-where?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2148643/hong-kongs-hiv-problem-prejudice-real-malady-society-where?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 31 May 2018 12:00:16 +0000 Last month, an online forum in Hong Kong circulated a 2013 article written by a mainland Chinese scholar, for Chinese-language teachers here, suggesting that Mandarin, rather than Cantonese, should be Hong Kong’s mother tongue. What’s more, the scholar, Song Xinqiao, drew on resources published by the Hong Kong Education Bureau to back his assertion. The article ignited a firestorm from all corners of Hong Kong, with commentators, writers and even celebrities, including Chinese-language... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2146238/any-attack-cantonese-language-will-only-strengthen-hong-kong?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2146238/any-attack-cantonese-language-will-only-strengthen-hong-kong?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 15 May 2018 10:23:47 +0000 Pupils are currently grinding through Diploma of Secondary Education (DSE) exams and will be plunged into existential uncertainty until their results are released. On this judgment day, all prospects of future success will hinge upon being accepted into university, which depends primarily on the grades pupils receive. Although the Joint University Programmes Admissions System (Jupas) has implemented more “holistic” evaluation criteria, such as “other experiences and achievements”, and a personal... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2143654/hong-kong-universities-should-look-beyond-dse-if-they-want?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2143654/hong-kong-universities-should-look-beyond-dse-if-they-want?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 27 Apr 2018 05:02:49 +0000 Earlier this year, “morality schools” were exposed in China that trained women by instilling absolute obedience to husbands, even in the face of abuse. Meanwhile, over the past year in Hong Kong, “part-time girlfriends”, where women – and even minors – offer anything from companionship to sex for money, have gained publicity. And while people on social media have been quick denounce them, the practices are anything but surprising: a silent history of gender inequality in society has worked to... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2141208/hong-kong-needs-strong-feminist-movement-and-not-just-its?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2141208/hong-kong-needs-strong-feminist-movement-and-not-just-its?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 11 Apr 2018 03:39:24 +0000 The case of the Hong Kong employer who was jailed for abusing two domestic helpers, Tutik Lestari Ningsih and Erwiana Sulistyaningsih, was picked up by media outlets around the world and decried as an abuse of human rights. Here, however, it was an addition to a long, silent history of the mistreatment of foreign domestic workers. Although the inequality that permitted such abuse is apparently economic and certainly political, it is rooted in the social: an age-old lens colours the way Hong Kong... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2137310/hong-kong-must-stop-clinging-fiction-racial-superiority-and?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2137310/hong-kong-must-stop-clinging-fiction-racial-superiority-and?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 16 Mar 2018 02:01:06 +0000 Over the past few years, Hong Kong universities have become prominent sites of contentious politics, from the organisation of Occupy Central to ongoing disputes between groups of students over the democracy wall at Chinese University and the recent stand-off against Baptist University’s Mandarin language graduation requirement mounted by two student union leaders. Pro-democracy camps have leveraged these cases to suggest a broader oppression from the mainland, whereas pro-Beijing groups have... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2132267/universities-are-places-education-not-political-protests?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2132267/universities-are-places-education-not-political-protests?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 07 Feb 2018 04:03:29 +0000 Facebook’s own research scientists have admitted that using the platform, and social media in general, could negatively affect your mood. Some writers and public figures responded by calling social media a dopamine shot for millennial junkies, arguing that it should be abandoned. The parallels with drug addiction aren’t unfounded – but social media has obvious benefits as well. While it’s not the utopian virtual world tech giants tried to sell, it isn’t a dangerous digital gateway drug either.... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2127012/three-simple-rules-could-change-facebook-better?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2127012/three-simple-rules-could-change-facebook-better?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 07 Jan 2018 07:03:36 +0000 Jonghyun, the lead singer of the K-pop band SHINee, was a favourite of my generation, and the face of K-pop’s global influence. SHINee was an icon of an industry, bringing newfound attention to a country we’d scarcely heard of. Over the decade since the group’s inception, the industry has swollen to become a powerful machine, churning out idols from a mould. Kim Jong-hyun’s death this week again highlights the problems of the K-pop celebrity culture. Han Geng’s infamous departure from Super... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2125064/death-shinee-singer-jonghyun-shows-extreme-pressures-south?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2125064/death-shinee-singer-jonghyun-shows-extreme-pressures-south?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 20 Dec 2017 06:45:30 +0000 The past couple of weeks have seen a resurgence in the push for democracy among youth in Hong Kong. Zealous cries for a new order have filled the air once more, in the wake of the anniversary on September 28 of Occupy Central, which ignited massive dissent among thousands of youth bound to the vision of democracy. And just two weeks ago, former governor Chris Patten concluded his four-day visit by rallying Hongkongers to the pursuit of democracy and urging Beijing to consent. Joined by a host of... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2114062/hong-kongs-young-democracy-campaigners-risk-losing-sight?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2114062/hong-kongs-young-democracy-campaigners-risk-losing-sight?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 05 Oct 2017 09:15:57 +0000 A student leaps from the high perch of an apartment block, a skyscraper, a school. The name of the student escapes us, but the act presses into our memory. An alarming string of youth suicides is making headlines in Hong Kong. A report late last month said firefighters have recently improved their techniques to help suicidal jumpers. And two weeks before that, we read about yet another study in Hong Kong indicating a rise in mental stress for students and their parents, and that overall mental... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2101566/stigma-mental-health-problems-where-real-fight-lies?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2101566/stigma-mental-health-problems-where-real-fight-lies?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 07 Jul 2017 02:31:48 +0000