Petula Sik Ying Ho

A body-mind-spirit model in health: An Eastern approach

SUMMARY Under the division of labor of Western medicine, the medical physician treats the body of patients, the social worker attends to their emotions and social relations, while the pastoral counselor provides spiritual guidance. Body, mind, cognition, emotion and spirituality are seen as discrete entities. In striking contrast, Eastern philosophies of Buddhism, Taoism and traditional Chinese medicine adopt a holistic conceptualization of an individual and his or her environment. In this view, health is perceived as a harmonious equilibrium that exists between the interplay of ‘yin’ and ‘yang’: the five internal elements (metal, wood, water, fire and earth), the six environmental conditions (dry, wet, hot, cold, wind and flame), other external sources of harm (physical injury, insect bites, poison, overeat and overwork), and the seven emotions (joy, sorrow, anger, worry, panic, anxiety and fear). The authors have adopted a body-mind-spirit integrated model of intervention to promote the health of their Chinese clients. Indeed, research results on these body-mind-spirit groups for cancer patients, bereaved wives and divorced women have shown very positive intervention outcomes. There are significant improvements in their physical health, mental health, sense of control and social support.

The (Charmed) Circle Game: Reflections on Sexual Hierarchy Through Multiple Sexual Relationships:

The purpose of this study is to capture the lived experience of eight men and women with multiple partners in Hong Kong. By investigating their ways of coping with social and moral pressures, the study aims to explore the tension between proper masculinity/femininity and personal desires which often result in the trespassing of what is socially defined as ‘good’, ‘normal’ and ‘natural’. Their selective appropriation of cultural norms and gender ideals offers a vantage point not only to recuperate a lived version of ‘Chinese’ sexuality, but also to re-visit Gayle Rubin’s concept of sexual hierarchy.

Negotiating Anal Intercourse in Inter-Racial Gay Relationships in Hong Kong

This article is about the experience of Chinese gay men in colonial Hong Kong, their relationship with Western partners and their sexual practices. The body of the colonized is a critical space where resistance against the subjection by the colonial intrusion is put up. As their agency and instruments of desire are actively claiming personal and interpersonal space, the forces of colonial domination are met with subversive resistance. It is in the paradoxical site of inter-racial gay anal intercourse that the equation between the colonizer and the powerful is simultaneously realized and questioned, both the enemy and the lover present themselves to a desire that is always characterized by ambivalence.

Beyond Virtual Carnival and Masquerade In-Game Marriage on the Chinese Internet

This article documents the brief history of cyber marriage on the Chinese Internet and shows how in-game marriage, with its game codes and marriage regulations, turns out to be the most visualized, institutionalized, and heteronormative form of cyber marriage, by exploring the game players’ gender performativity, especially the gender swapping of male gamers. This study sheds light on Chinese youth subculture under the influence of new media and the consumer digital network in postsocialist China.

Does Similarity Breed Marital and Sexual Satisfaction

This study examined the effect of socioeconomic–cultural homogamy on the marital and sexual satisfaction of Hong Kong Chinese couples. Using a representative, territory-wide sample of 1,083 first-time married heterosexual couples, this study found that wives were generally less satisfied than their husbands with their marital and sexual relationships. Husbands were more likely to be satisfied with their marriages when they were two to four years older than their wives than when they were of similar age to their wives (i.e., within one year of each other), but they were less likely to be satisfied with their marriages when only their wives were employed than when both partners were employed. In addition, they were less likely to be satisfied with both their marital and sexual relationships when their wives were five or more years older. Wives with an older husband were more likely to be sexually satisfied than wives of the same age as their husband, but they were less likely to be satisfied with their marriages when they were better educated than their husbands. The implications of the findings are discussed.

Sex work in China’s Pearl River Delta: Accumulating sexual capital as a life-advancement strategy:

We develop the concept of sexual capital through examining cases of female sex workers (referred to as xiaojies in Chinese) in the Pearl River Delta, a highly industrialized region of south China. We explore the properties of sexual capital and the conditions that allow them to function. Xiaojies employ sexual and body practices to develop different ‘currencies’: those of bodily beauty; sexual values, knowledge, practices and skills; performance (entertainment and gender performance); and sexual and emotional sophistication – in exchange for economic, social and cultural capital. However, even if sexual capital fails to be converted to the social and economic capital needed for achieving desired goals, these women experience a self-transformation, from rural country girls into sexy, modern and urban women. Such sexual capital is essential for xiaojies who do not have many other resources and are constantly subject to regulations concerning rural migrants and prostitution. This is not only about ‘guanxi’ (social capital, social connections with others) and social network, which were considered essential in earlier studies, but also about self-esteem, emotional capacity, cognitive understanding of life and so on. Sexual capital involves the capacity for sexual expression and developing a new relationship with oneself, and has emotional significance, in addition to its potential for acquiring social and economic capital.

Desperate Housewives: The Case of Chinese Si-Nais in Hong Kong

This article documents the strategies that married Chinese women in Hong Kong use to cope with the stigmatized identity of being si-nais (middle-aged housewives). It analyzes how, in the larger context of Hong Kongs social, economic, and political transformation, the term si-nai has changed over time from being a mark of respect to being a derogatory label. The dissatisfaction expressed by these women with their lives is matched by resistance to a stigmatized social identity and stereotyping images with which others may seek to confine them. The study problematizes the way in which the figure of the housewife is constituted as some form of “other” by feminism.

Not So Great Expectations: Sex and Housewives in Hong Kong

The study explores the life of married women who are being described as having “good,” “normal,” “blessed” sexuality. The case of si-nais (housewives) in Hong Kong shows that we can never assume that married women (or any social category) are privileged by virtue of their status on the sexual hierarchy. The blessings of social respectability apparently enjoyed by these women may work to enable or hinder womens expression of their erotic desires and sexual fulfillment, depending on their special social circumstances. These womens imagination and experience of good sex is composed of a multitude of components. Women may feel good because they can achieve other psychological and social aims that are important in their lives (which could be related to the maintenance of marriage or the peace of the family). Women may feel good because of the erotic satisfaction that they derive from different pursuits including interests, leisure or other intimate relationships, rather than sexual fulfillment in terms of orgasm or physical pleasure. Women may reformulate their pleasures variously at different stages of their lives. Social respectability, orgasm, emotional intimacy, or any other specific element, may all enter or leave the formula for good sex.The study explores the life of married women who are being described as having “good,” “normal,” “blessed” sexuality. The case of si-nais (housewives) in Hong Kong shows that we can never assume that married women (or any social category) are privileged by virtue of their status on the sexual hierarchy. The blessings of social respectability apparently enjoyed by these women may work to enable or hinder womens expression of their erotic desires and sexual fulfillment, depending on their special social circumstances. These womens imagination and experience of good sex is composed of a multitude of components. Women may feel good because they can achieve other psychological and social aims that are important in their lives (which could be related to the maintenance of marriage or the peace of the family). Women may feel good because of the erotic satisfaction that they derive from different pursuits including interests, leisure or other intimate relationships, rather than sexual fulfillment in terms of or...

Breaking down or breaking through: an alternative way to understand depression among women in Hong Kong

Abstract Case studies of ten Hong Kong women diagnosed with depression demonstrate that depression is not necessarily, but can be, one strategy for dealing with the problems of everyday life. Neither is it always an outspoken critique of the family as an institution and the gender inequality in the Hong Kong society. However, depression should never be understood simply as personal or social pathology, but as an attempt to negotiate with social reality. These women used their bodies for experiencing, interpreting, and communicating about emotions and social issues. Depression is one of the strategies these women used to resist social forces and transform them into conditions that made possible the creation of space for personal changes.

“Money in the Private Chamber” Strategies for Retirement Planning Among Hong Kong Chinese Women

This article reexamines the assumptions of the feminization-of-poverty thesis by investigating the perceptions of Hong Kong Chinese women regarding old age and the women’s strategies for dealing with old age and retirement. It challenges the assumptions of a male-centered model of retirement planning and highlights the significance of women’s definitions of wealth and poverty. It shows that retirement planning cannot be separated from women’s practices of self in the multiple and interrelated domains of their lives by examining how women manage their personal savings or “money in the private chamber.”