RESIDENTIAL MOBILITY AND KINSHIP TIES AMONG URBAN CHINESE FAMILIES IN HK
119
Table 6 Community Environment Compared With Previous Residence
Aspects of Environment Better Same Worse Total No Response Groceries Department Stores 52.6% 27.0% 20.3% 99.9% (3) Neighbour 39.5% 51.3% 9.1% 99.9% (17) Security 76.7% 22.5% 0.7% 99.9% (3) Quietness 69.8% 13.2% 17.0% 100.0% (3) Air 93.1% 4.5% 2.4% 100.0% (1) Health-Care 49.9% 34.4% 15.7% 100.0% (13) 44.8% 30.0% 24.5% 100.0% (417)The Oi Man resident interviewed was therefore a person whose after-work social life was closely tied to home, family and the neighbourhood. There should be little wonder that he saw more of his neighbours. But that did not displace the importance of "close relatives", for Oi Man families maintained contact with many of them.
NOTES
1. R.E. Mitchell, Family Life in Urban Hong Kong, (Taipei, 1972), p. 430.
2. F.M. Wong, "Family Change," in Chung Chi College, A Quarter Century of Hong Kong, (Hong Kong: The Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1977), pp. 47-68. Citation from p.64.
3. D. Podmore and D. Chaney, "Family Norms in a Rapidly Changing Society: Hong Kong," Journal of Marriage and the Family, 36(1974), pp. 400-407. Citation from p.405.
4. Statisticians at the Research and Statistics Section at the Housing Department were most helpful in the sampling process. Mr. M.K. Cheung, Senior Statistician, and Mr. Dominic Leung, are particularly to be thanked. The samples were formed by systematically selecting 1 in 12 tenant-households.
5. See the following: John H. Goldthorpe et al., The Affluent Worker in the Class Structure, (Cambridge University Press, 1969); M. Young and P. Willmott, Family and Kinship in East London, (Baltimore: Penguin, 1964).
6. Angela K.S. Kan, "A Study of Neighbourly Interaction in Public Housing: The Case of Hong Kong," in Luke S. Wong (ed.) Housing in Hong Kong: A Multi-Disciplinary Study, (Hong Kong: Heinemann Educational Books, 1978), pp. 160-182.