After reading Lui Tai Lok’s Hong Kong's Four Generations, many thoughts are activated in my head. I have to write them down to release myself.
Lui divided Hong Kong people into four generations: 1st born before the end of WWII, 2nd baby boom after WWII, 3rd the thirties, 4th born after 1975.
The 1st generation contributed and created a free and stable environment with many opportunities for the 2nd generation. While the 2nd generation enjoyed the benefits without succession to the role of the 1st generation to give a good environment for their next generation, and in fact, protected their own vested interests by their power established by the opportunities and freedom provided by the 1st generation.
The 2nd generation had chance to get into their career and become experts even if they failed in the elementary education, got jobs and power in the expanding economy. They praise the philosophy of “competition” whole-hearted without mentioning, or even noticing, the contribution of their preceding generation and the environment but their own efforts. This is the generation that have power in the education reformation and created a strictly monitoring system for the 4th generation which is far away from the freedom they enjoyed in their childhood and youthhood.
Lui created a sound picture. Is it realistic? I don’t know, but it can nourish the concept of “vested interests” in a social and historical context, and explain many injustices such as the cut down of new comers’ salaries but not their workload to protect the full benefits of those get into the career in the bursting economy.
Lui divided Hong Kong people into four generations: 1st born before the end of WWII, 2nd baby boom after WWII, 3rd the thirties, 4th born after 1975.
The 1st generation contributed and created a free and stable environment with many opportunities for the 2nd generation. While the 2nd generation enjoyed the benefits without succession to the role of the 1st generation to give a good environment for their next generation, and in fact, protected their own vested interests by their power established by the opportunities and freedom provided by the 1st generation.
The 2nd generation had chance to get into their career and become experts even if they failed in the elementary education, got jobs and power in the expanding economy. They praise the philosophy of “competition” whole-hearted without mentioning, or even noticing, the contribution of their preceding generation and the environment but their own efforts. This is the generation that have power in the education reformation and created a strictly monitoring system for the 4th generation which is far away from the freedom they enjoyed in their childhood and youthhood.
Lui created a sound picture. Is it realistic? I don’t know, but it can nourish the concept of “vested interests” in a social and historical context, and explain many injustices such as the cut down of new comers’ salaries but not their workload to protect the full benefits of those get into the career in the bursting economy.
True or not, it is an attractive story, a brief but deep confession by one of the 2nd generation, with a conscience either too thin or too clear.
呂大樂《四代香港人》(香港：進一步，2007年)
http://www.stepforwardmultimedia.com/product/book_detail.asp?isbn=978-962-8326-89-1
http://www.stepforwardmultimedia.com/product/book_detail.asp?isbn=978-962-8326-89-1
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