Kwan-kwok Leung

Developing civic consciousness through social engagement among Hong Kong youths

Abstract It is not clear how much young peoples engagement in activities in the school, youth center, family, and mass media influence their civic consciousness. To answer this question, the present study conducted 7,649 telephone interviews to collect data from 3,757 Chinese young people in Hong Kong repeatedly from 1998 to 2000. The panel study, by controlling for prior scores, allowed for examination of changes due to various forms of social engagement. Results show that in this naturally occurring setting, participation in social development activities, such as volunteering, community service, and leadership training, contributed to the average young persons civic consciousness about democracy and leadership whereas discussion with family members contributed significantly to the persons consciousness about societal progress. These results endorse the greater developmental role of the school and family than the youth center.

Mobilized or Civic Minded Factors Affecting the Political Participation of Senior Citizens

Using Hong Kong as a case study, this article addresses whether senior citizens are rational in their voting behavior, whether they are mobilized by political parties to participate in elections, and whether they are enabled or constrained in fulfilling their political responsibilities and asserting their political rights. The findings of a recent study were presented to examine the extent to which senior citizens’political participation is determined by rationality, political knowledge, political mobilization, and constraint and enabling factors. Seven composite scales measuring senior citizens’ political participation, sense of civic-mindedness, self-interest orientation, political knowledge, political mobilization, and constraining and enabling factors were constructed and validated in the study. Statistical analyses show that political knowledge, political mobilization, and enabling factors were most influential in affecting senior citizens’level of political participation. The article also compares the responses of elderly persons who are members of senior centers with those of ordinary senior citizens.

Economic and political conditions and modern and postmodern value orientations of Hong Kong citizens

Abstract There is no research evidence concerning relationships between individuals’ modern and postmodern value orientations and their perceptions of modern and postmodern economic and political conditions. To examine the relationship, the present study surveyed 1,008 Chinese adult citizens in Hong Kong, 2000. Results of structural equation modeling indicate that citizens’ perceptions of modern (postmodern) economic and political conditions had significant positive effects on their modern (postmodern) value orientations. These effects may reflect people’s conformity to perceived societal norms about modern or postmodern conditions. Meanwhile, they reveal that there were weak effects of modern (postmodern) value orientations on perceptions of modern (postmodern) conditions.

Relationships among the civic awareness, mobilization, and electoral participation of elderly people in Hong Kong

Abstract Given the significance of the elderly population in the burgeoning democratic politics of Hong Kong, research is necessary to elucidate the basis for elderly people’s electoral participation. Furthermore, questions regarding impacts of mobilization, and civic awareness on the participation are of important concern. In response to the questions, the present study is the first one surveying a representative sample of 831 Chinese elderly people (aged > 60) in Hong Kong. Using causal modeling techniques, it identified latent variables of civic awareness (including exposure to media on public affairs and political knowledge), electoral participation, and mobilization by politicians and estimated their relationships. Results showed that civic awareness had a strong effect on electoral participation and mobilization also had some significant effect. Electoral participation also appeared to be a function of the elderly person’s education, age, sex, community attachment, and membership in an elderly center. These findings suggest that Hong Kong elderly people’s electoral participation is subject to influence of power, both internally through civic awareness and education and externally through mobilization.

Structure of Moral Consciousness and Moral Intentions Among Youth in Hong Kong

ABSTRACT The study is to examine measures of moral consciousness and moral intention and their linkages for Chinese youth in Hong Kong. It aims at testing the cognitive-developmental model of moral consciousness along seven stages, in ascending order: moral confusion, hedonism, personal interests, interpersonal and intrapersonal accord, societal order, societal progress, and universal principledriess. A face-to-face survey of 1,500 Chinese youths in Hong Kong provided data for analysis. The survey benefited from focus groups, which helped formulate items to measure moral consciousness. Structural equation modeling showed that one-step effects of moral consciousness on those of a stage higher were significant and more positive than two-step effects of moral consciousness on those of two stages higher. Moreover, effects of the moral consciousness of higher stages are more positive on moral intention and more negative on delinquent intention than moral values of lower stages. The cognitive-developmental model appears to hold with regard to Chinese youth.

MSL16A: an asynchronous Forth microprocessor

A 16-bit Forth microprocessor, called MSL16, was developed for embedded applications, as the design offers good code density, easily developed software development tools, high performance and small area. A delay-insensitive re-implementation of the processor has been developed to explore the potentials of asynchronous logic for low-power applications and to demonstrate the feasibility and practicability of using asynchronous circuits in embedded applications. This paper describes the asynchronous clone of the MSL16, called the MSL16A. Its implementation and performance evaluation are also presented. The design is fabricated using the AMI 1.2-/spl mu/m CMOS double-layer metal process in 3Q99.

Social inclusion of the older population in response to the 2008 financial tsunami in Hong Kong

ABSTRACT Social inclusion of the older population in employment, housing, social protection and other livelihood aspects was predicted to suffer because of the financial tsunami in Hong Kong in 2008. An expected mitigating factor of the impact on social inclusion was social cohesion, which is the focus of the present study. A total of 1,352 Hong Kong Chinese adults were surveyed in 2009. The results show that social cohesion is perceived in Hong Kong to have mitigated the negative impact of the financial tsunami in terms of support for public policy relating to social inclusion of the older population. These results have implications for sustaining social cohesion as a means to promote the social inclusion of the older population.