1. Wai-Kwok Benson Wong
HKBU > GIS
2012/10/19
Youth policy in Hong Kong: Torn
between Trust & Manipulation?

2. Outline
1. Rationale behind the proposed topic: Empirical
and conceptual facets
2. Nature of youth policy
3. Brief literature review
4. Nature of local youth policy
5. Concluding remarks
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3. Rationale
1. Emerging the post-80(90)s generation
• Major social movements/campaigns: anti-HSR rally
 Scholarism against the enforcement of National
Education as a subject at school level
• Deviant with the mainstream media’s discourse of
constructing the reality of local young generation
• Less competitiveness, politically and socially
apathetic, consumerism
• “poisonous boy” (毒男)  “god” (男神)
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4. Rationale
2. Marginalization of youth policy in policy
discourse
 Not influential comparing with
e.g., labor, education, housing, HK’s integration with
China
 Youth policy is not working for the youth, but for the
gov’t & capitalists
 “Controversial” issues surrounding youth policy’s
domain are defined, selected & constructed NOT by
the youth – Housing, Education, (Un)-
employment, (National) identity
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5. Social reconstruction of the youth
policy
 Youth = socially/politically marginalized, like
women, minority, the poor?
 No subjectivity
 Material needs: livelihood’s issues
 Instrumental: serve the defined purposes designed
and enforced by state
 Youth’s voice: Who represents the young people?
How to represent them? How representative of
such representatives? Why are they represented?
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6. “Representation” as “participation”
1. How such representatives are located and
absorbed? – What are the criteria of being located
and absorbed?
2. How such absorbed and coopted participants know
about the youth? In what capacity do they know
about the youth?
3. How does the youth approach them so that such
coopted participants virtually know their voice and
express faithfully in the policy mechanism?
4. How and how far do such coopted participants
accountable to e.g., the public, notably the youth?
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7. Nature
 Collective term
 Muti- & trans-dimensional issues which can be
interrelated
 (un-)employment, education, (national)
identity, housing, social welfare, social mobility
 Social (livelihood) > political
(participation, engagement) issues
 Positioning & engagement of the youth in policy
consultation, formulation & in decision-making
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8. Literature review
A. Policy content
 Prevention: helping the youth to manage the
societal changes/transitional needs (Policy
Research Initiative, 2010; Youth Policy in
Luxembourg, 2002)
 Identity: Redefining the role & responsibility of the
youth in society (Youth Policy – Here & How, 2005)
 Securing basic needs & protection:
employment, education, social
security, housing, criminal justice, civil & family law
(Youth Policies in the UK, 2002)
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9. Literature review
B. Participation:
 Engagement through
mechanisms, e.g., council, forum, school; by
legislation
 Bottom-up, NOT top-down approach
 Shaping agenda-setting, apart from decision-
making process
 Empowerment
(Youth Policy – Here and Now, 2005)
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10. HK’s Youth Policy
 2 pro-government reports: HK Youth Politics (by
HK Policy Research Institute & HK Youth
Council, 1997) & Submission of HK Youth Policy
(by HK United Youth Association, 1998)
 Policy discourse:
 Context: China-HK integration, China as a hub of
opportunities
 Identity: Youth, based on the adults’
expectation, should be competitive, adaptive and
submissive
 Power relationships: unequal, top-down, imposition
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11. HKYDC：Pro-BJ organization?
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12. HKYDC
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13. HKYDC
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14. Instrumental, socially constructed
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15. The “ideal” type of the youth
 Quality:
 Physical/mental
 Moral
 Intellectual: leadership, adaptive
 Values:
 Personal
 Social
 National
 Global
 Knowledge & skills
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16. HKSYC
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17. “Irrelevant” questions from surveys
done by HKYDC
1. Do you believe that HK will continue to be
stable & prosperous?
2. Do you believe that “1 country 2 systems” will
be successfully implemented in HK?
3. The estimation of the situation after 1997
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18. HK United Youth Association
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19. Political infiltration
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20. Activity
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21. HKUYA
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22. Interesting remarks
1. United front of the youth: cultivating the patron-
client relations
2. Material attractions and future prospects as well
as social and professional networking being as
the driving force of exercising manipulation
3. Trust is illusionary, taking advantages are of
salience (coopted young: privileges and
networking; state: pro-establishment
supporters)
4. Prevalence of cynicism: “I pretend to be
submissive and loyal to you; and you pretend to
be trustful and supportive of me”22

23. Conclusion
 Youth policy without youth participation &
engagement
 In the official stance, youth policy aims
 To serve the political needs: New generation with
national identity, supporting the regime
 To follow the guidance and framework imposed by
the powerful to survive and mobilize
 To serve the capitalists so as to be more capable
instrument maintaining and sustaining the existing
system
 To help the youth being adaptive and flexible in
facing the context
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24. Conclusion
Resistance: The power of the powerless
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