Report says Hong Kong is at a record low level of happiness

Global Business

Hong Kong has announced tax relief steps for lower and middle income workers and businesses that are aimed at off-setting the impact of last year’s Occupy Central protests which are said to have affected normal operations in the city.
CCTV’s Cathy Yang filed this report from Hong Kong.

Report says Hong Kong is at a record low level of happiness

Hong Kong has announced tax relief steps for lower and middle income workers and businesses that are aimed at off-setting the impact of last year's Occupy Central protests which are said to have affected normal operations in the city. CCTV's Cathy Yang filed this report from Hong Kong.

A lack of local identity is just one of the many reasons why some think Hong Kong ended up at the bottom rankings of Asia’s happiness survey.

According to the latest survey conducted by City University, Hong Kong trails Singapore and Osaka in Japan as having the unhappiest of residents in three Asian cities. The result surpasses the low in 2003 during the Sars epidemic. It is a new record for Hong Kong.

More than a thousand respondents were interviewed in each city, with six areas covered, including politics and society, the economy, the environment, public health, leisure and housing. The timing is also key. The survey was done a month after the Occupy Central movement ended in December of 2014.

Professor Dennis Wong, associate dean from College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at City University conducted the survey. “Since the Occupy Central incidents, I think people are feeling very dissatisfied with the government,” Wong said.

Many of those who took part in Occupy Central were tertiary students and the unemployed. Two groups who turned out to be the least happy in the survey.

Ethnic minority youths were also well-represented in the protests, recounts Leung, who is now in the midst of completing a study involving South Asians in Hong Kong. Exacerbating this saddening state is the continued rise in the cost of rent and basic goods, pressuring Hong Kong locals to work longer hours, just to pay the bills.

“But the most important is the relationship between the legislature and also the administration and also the government and the people,” Wong said.

The last time Hong Kong turned up happiest was in 2006, said Wong, when the people had a better relationship with the government. As for Leung, he hopes the results of his study would, for a start, help ease the festering discontent in the city.


Fred Teng of Hong Kong Association of New York discusses Hong Kong economy

CCTV America interviewed Fred Teng, former Chairman of Hong Kong Association of New York.

Fred Teng of Hong Kong Association of New York discusses Hong Kong economy

CCTV America interviewed Fred Teng, former Chairman of Hong Kong Association of New York.