Youth in Hong Kong

"Although with a dominant Chinese population, Hong Kong is an international city and is a mix of East and West rich in cultures, history, and religions.

The most common cause of death for Hong Kong youth aged 15–24 is "external causes of morbidity and mortality," and within this category the highest percentage died under the cause of "intentional self harm.

[4] The youth scene in Hong Kong includes risk-taking behaviour such as party going, sex, drug abuse, fighting, and high-speed driving.

[6] However, given the city's salient influence by globalisation, neoliberal values, mainland China and its postcolonial condition, the youth are generally characterised by a fluid and ambivalent cultural and social identity that affects how they frame and mediate future opportunities.

[8] The most common reasons to why Hong Kong youth go on the internet and engage in mass media were for entertainment, searching for information, and connecting with friends.

[1] For non-engaged youth in Hong Kong, there are higher risks for experiencing poor mental health and becoming involved in criminal activity than their peers who are engaged.

For Hong Kong youth who have low social support from their parents and peers, they often feel hopeless and have lower self-worth, increasing the risk for suicide.

[4] As the contagion spreads, combined with perceived hopelessness over their future, loneliness and lethargy often drive young people from interacting with others in the real world to retreat behind the shield of a computer screen.

A lack of societal understanding and resources for mental illnesses also plays a role in the increasing number of non-engaged youths in Hong Kong.

[11] The youth scene in Hong Kong includes risk-taking behaviour such as party going, sex, drug abuse, fighting, high-speed driving.

Attending dance parties, such as raves or discos, seems to expose Hong Kong youth to drugs and other risky behaviour due to peer influence.

This is true for Hong Kong youth who attend local institutions where foreign courses are offered that are considered British, Australian, American, Chinese.

Hong Kong has been considered an international and prosperous city for a long time and is one of the wealthiest societies in the world in terms of per capita GDP.

Since the general public of Hong Kong recently does not receive much of this economic growth, the past 30 so years has seen far more unemployment and under-employed people living in poverty.

Nowadays, many jobs in Hong Kong require an undergraduate qualification or a particular professional skill set, such as lawyer, plumber, and steel bender.

Youth without at least a senior secondary education level usually enter the labour market with part-time low-skilled jobs, but even that does not necessarily protect them from exploitative practices from their employers such as low wages.

Human rights and democracy have emerged quickly in Hong Kong, triggered by the political transition toward the handover of sovereignty, and was accelerated by the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre.

Youth who consider their families in a "difficult" economic status spend considerably more time online than their counterparts from the middle class and rich.

[9] Some negative aspects that come out of Hong Kong youth's social media access is cyber bullying, participating in "compensated dating" and copyright infringement.

One news reporter stated, that during the Umbrella Revolution, "the predominantly young demonstrators of Hong Kong... also thought of ways to disseminate information with their mobiles should the authorities decide to cut internet reception to these devices.