Ageing in place in Hong Kong -- challenges and opportunities in a capitalist Chinese city

Abstract

In 1997, Hong Kong was returned to China, but it has retained its capitalist socio-economic order under the socialist People’s Republic. It is a Chinese city in which ethnic Chinese constitute a majority of the population. Like other advanced economies, Hong Kong has a gradually ageing population. The virtue of respecting the older people, as a facet of traditional Chinese normative order, is facing challenges from rapid social changes. Urban development has posed a considerable threat to implementing the policy of ‘ageing in place’. Divergent paths are being taken in the public and private sectors respectively in the effort to enable older people to remain living in familiar physical and social environments. Market forces in private sector redevelopment usually bring about gentrification, which results in the dislocation of older people. In the public sector, massive public housing programmes can be beneficial to older people affected by redevelopment by permitting in-situ relocation. The government’s community care policy also helps to achieve ageing-in-place. This paper provides an account and analysis of the challenges and opportunities in accomplishing the principle of ageing-in-place in the capitalist Chinese city of Hong Kong.