xiii
some difference by firm size, more of the respondents employed in small
firms (40%) had considered this compared to 24% of those employed in
large firms. This general lack of ambition by the respondents for
starting up business on their own account is paralleled by the respondents'
lack of experience in this field.
fact only 8 of the respondents
In
had ever had a business of their own. Thus the respondents had been
employees rather than small scale capitalists in the past and preferred
to remain employees in the future.
The respondents' low level of aspirations is further confirmed by their
replies to the question on attendance at vocational classes/night school.
Only just over a quarter (27) were currently attending such classes.
These attenders were in fact drawn from the younger section of the
sample only; thus 3% of the younger men and 40% of the younger women
attended whereas none of the older men and women did. There were also
tendencies for the attenders to be unskilled (35%) or semi skilled (29%)
rather than skilled (14%) and to be employed in large firms (38%) rather
than small firms (16%).
We can conclude here that the workers in the sample did not in general
appear to resemble the picture of aggressively ambitious would-be petty
capitalists that has been so frequently painted of workers in Hong Kong
by writers such as England and Rear. However, we should note that the
younger respondents, particularly the younger men were considerably
more ambitious than their elders, suggesting perhaps a lack of the
refugee mentality that might have still influenced the older workers
despite their mostly having been brought up in Hong Kong themselves.
The more ambitious also tended to work in small firms rather than large
firms, possibly reflecting the greater contact that would be found in
the former with persons of different social status and with businesses
of their own.
Despite their tendency to have limited aspirations for themselves, the
6 workers in the sample had high aspirations for their children. Almost
all of the respondents would be prepared to support a son for 5 years of
secondary school education and over three quarters would be prepared to
support a son for a further period of post secondary education both
part and full-time. When asked what occupation they would like a son
of theirs to take up, the respondents aimed their sights high; thus 86%
of the respondents who named an occupation named one on the technologist/
professional managerial level. It is interesting that the most
frequently named occupation was that of docter. There was no difference