Perception of High-density Living in Hong Kong

by LAWRENCE H. TRAVERS, assistant professor, State University of New York, College of Arts and Science, Oswego, N. Y.

ABSTRACT.-Analysis of the Hong Kong experience of adaptation to urban living can provide insights into some of the problems that can be expected to occur in the rapidly expanding cities of the Third World. Population densities in Hong Kong are among the highest in the world, exceeding 400,000 persons per square mile in parts of Kowloon. Research based upon residence in a worker's dormitory and interviews with workers reveals a variety of adaptive strategies employed by people to cope with the stress of the crowded urban environment. An understanding of the individual's ability to adjust to the stress of high-density living must consider the meaning of density as a concept in the culture in addition to social and cultural norms.

DESPITEDECADES OF CONCERN informal conversations with many of the about the possible effects of high residents, and through structured inter- living densities upon human behavior, views with cooperative individuals. we know very little about mankind's ability to adapt to crowded conditions. ACTUAL POPULATION DENSITIES Fears persist that the presence of a be- Densities in Hong Kong are among havioral sink among rat populations the highest in the world. In 1971 the forced to live in very crowded quarters Mongkok area in Kowloon had a density (Calhoun 1962) might have a correlate of 154,677 persons per square kilometer in human populations. Perhaps rather (or 400,612 persons per square mile) than simply observing human behavior which is almost five times the living den- in dense conditions, we might more sity of Manhattan Island (H. K. Census profitably attempt to uncover the mean- & Statistics Dept. 1971). In the area ing of different crowded living situa- studied, the average family of five lives tions for individuals in different so- in a single room of about 120 square cieties. Analysis of the perceptions, as feet. Although in the newer housing well as the behavior, of the inhabitants estates each room has its own toilet and of cities like Hong Kong might help us cooking space, in the older estates wash- to understand better why some areas of ing and toilet facilities are communal, the world already overcrowded by most and cooking is done on the exterior standards fail to exhibit a true be- balcony which also serves as a corridor. havioral sink. Though nearly half of the colony's Information about the concept of population lives in such public housing, density was obtained by interviewing in 1971 there were still almost 30,000 young Chinese worker-students in Hong squatters on the rooftops and hillsides in Kong. For eight months in 1973 I lived the urban area and 35,000 living in in a worker's dormitory in Ngau Tau areas about the size of a bed-space. The Kok, site of several large public-housing congestioi-L and crowded conditions in estates for low-income families and re- which nearly 4 million persons are liv- settled squatters. Impressions were ing in less than 13 square miles of built- gained by living as much as possible the up land must truly be seen to be believed. life of the residents of the area, through Crowded urban environments are, of course, nothing new to the Chinese PERCEPTION OF people. The Fengsheng neighborhood in POPULATION DENSITY Peking, considered to be fairly typical of other parts of that city, had a density To obtain comparable data about the of over 91,000 persons per square mile Chinese perception of the urban area, in 1972 (Side1 1974). Most of the build- 46 male adolescent workers attending ings there were reported to be one- or evening classes at a secondary school in two-story structures. Li Choh Ming Kowloon were interviewed. Each was (1959) has calculated that in 1957 the asked to indicate on a six-interval scale average housing space per capita in 175 his familiarity with 58 urban districts Chinese cities was 3.5 square meters, (fig. 1). The students were then given varying from 4.9 in small cities to 2.2 a second questionnaire, which required in big cities. Of necessity Chinese both them to estimate as best they could the in China and in Hong Kong have learned average population density for the same to adapt to crowded living conditions. 58 urban districts on a six-interval scale.

Figure I.-Familiarity with the Hong Kong and Kowloon urban area; 46 workers attending a school marked by a dot have been averaged together. Darker shading indicates greater familiarity.

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1 Perceived Familiarity With The Urban Area i Maryknoll Practical School - Jordan Valley Estimations of the density of different and where a majority of the students parts of the urban area reflect knowl- reside is most familiar. Major trans- edge of those areas obtained in several portation corridors and business dis- ways. Knowledge gained by travelling tricts are well known; high-income along the streets of the city, the "action residential areas, the urban fringe, and space" concept of urban geography, can most of Hong Kong Island across the be termed experiential familiarity. Re- harbor are not very familiar. sponses to both questionnaires clearly The perceived population-density map reflect this type of knowledge. A second (fig. 2) provides a generalized view of type of familiarity, observational, is also how these students view crowding and apparent in the case of districts such population density in their city. It in- as the Peak. Home of the Colony's most dicates a high degree of uniformity as to wealthy residents, the Peak can be seen which parts of the urban area are most from many parts of the city, and even if crowded and which are least crowded. one has never been there it is not dif- Surprisingly, the district in which most ficult to formulate ideas about the type of the students live is not felt to be of housing and number of persons living among the most' crowded. This area, there. Observational familiarity plays Ngau Tau Kok/Jordan Valley, had been an important role in forming the image selected for study because it was felt to of Hong Kong and Kowloon, twin cities be typical of the most densely populated separated by a deep harbor and fringed residential areas in the city. by hills. Other parts of the urban area never Assessment of the young worker- visited nor observable from afar can students' view of population density en- still be known by what I have termed tailed comparing their perceptions with informational familiarity. Newspapers, some measure of the actual population television, and acquaintances are all density for various parts of the city. sources of information about unfamiliar This was accomplished by comparing places in the city. Of course, most often the students' estimations with two very what one knows of the city and of the different measures of population den- population density of any particular sity: net residential floor area per per- part of it is an amalgam of these three son and the number of persons per types of familiarity. The individual is square kilometer for each urban district. constantly bombarded with information ; Net residential floor area per person and while most is quickly forgotten, im- is a measure of the degree of overcrowd- pressions of the urban environment ing in living quarters. It is calculated remain. as one-half of the total floor area of a Due to the fact that the format of the residential building, thus excluding density questionnaire required an esti- kitchens, toilets, bathrooms, corridors, mation of the population density, which staircases, and landings. This informa- might be unfamiliar to some individuals, tion for 97 planning areas in the city it was necessary to weight each response was made available by the Crown Land to the density questionnaire by the in- & Survey Office of the Hong Kong Gov- dividual's response to each item on the ernment. Aggregated to 58 districts and familiarity questionnaire. The students' standardized, these data could then be estimations of the population density compared with the standardized scores could then be averaged and mapped of the estimated population density, (fig. 2). using Spearman's rank correlation. The averaged familiarity surface There is no similarity between the per- (fig. 1) indicates, as expected, that the ceived and actual density measures for district in which the school is located districts in Kowloon (r, = -0.06) and Figure 2.-The perception of urban area population density. Darker shading indicates more densely areas.

j Population Density as Perceived by Students of / Maryknoll Practical School - Jordan Valley

only minor similarity for districts lo- number of persons per square kilometer cated on Hong Kong Island (r, = 0.52). shows a high degree of correlation. The The population density perceived by similarity is highest for districts on worker-students is much closer to the Hong Kong Island (r, = 0.88) and only other measure of density, the number of slightly lower for districts in Kowloon persons per square kilometer. The num- (r, = 0.83). ber of persons living in each city block was available from the 1971 Hong Kong DISCUSSION Census of Population; the area of each The fact that worker-students' per- of the 58 districts was measured, using ceptions of the urban population density a polar planimeter. Comparison of the closely approximates the actual number perceived density measure with the of persons per square kilometer reveals Figure 3.-Actual population density of the urban area computed as the ratio of net residential floor area per person.

something about their concept of den- sidered densely populated in terms of sity. While it is highly unlikely that the number of people one should expect these individuals had in mind any idea to observe and rub shoulders with when as complex as "number of persons per walking the streets of the city. square kilometer," they probably were Despite the fact that most of the interpreting the concept of dense or urban area, except for that inhabited crowded conditions to mean the every- by the very rich, has a net residential day sidewalk population of each urban floor area of 25 square feet per person, district. An area of the city is con- this uniformity of living density was not perceived by the respondents. Perhaps tionship between density and crime this type of density is less obvious, be- rates or morbidity. Mitchell (1971) ing hidden behind the facades of count- found a high tolerance for crowded liv- less buildings. More likely, it indicates ing conditions among Chinese so long as that the term for dense, crowded condi- only one household occupied the dwelling tions, chkuhmaht in Cantonese, is not unit. On the other hand, Anderson usually identified with lack of space in (1972) found that even when three one's living quarters. Indeed, as Good- families were forced by economic cir- stadt (1969) and Hopkins (1971) have cumstances to live together, the situa- shown, the quality and amount of dwel- tion was made tolerable by the adoption ling space are not a major concern of of behavioral norms that were rigidly most Hong Kong Chinese. Only the very enforced by all. These studies reinforce wealthy in Hong Kong can improve the finding of Kaye (1960), who studied their living accommodations; all others the Chinese inhabitants of an old lane must be content with a place in which to in Singapore. She found a highly struc- cook, sleep, and store possessions. tured code of behavior for both children Despite such high densities, the and adults. Chinese in Hong Kong appear to have In Ngau Tau Kok, most- families are made a successful adjustment to the highly tolerant of their neighbor's activ- present situation. Several studies have ities. The clacking of plastic tiles in revealed that the Chinese family in playing the game of Mahjong at 3 a.m. Hong Kong has learned well how to cope and children playing in the corridors of with the environmental stress of crowd- the buildings is no cause for one to be- ing. Schmitt (1963) found little rela- come angry. Arguments, even when of

Figure 4.-Actual population density map of Hong Kong computed as the number of persons per square kilometer. a very personal nature, are carried on in living densities that most Westerners public, and neighbors often become would find intolerable. The ability of involved. individuals and families in other so- Individuals spend as much time as cieties to adjust to such high living possible outside the home, and many densities in the rapidly growing cities of young adults return only to eat and the Third World is difficult to predict sleep. Housewives shop in street mar- because few places have yet experienced kets at least twice daily, carrying their the densities of urban Hong Kong and infants on their backs ; young unmarried Kowloon. Assessment of their ability to workers enroll in evening courses at adjust must take into consideration the schools ; husbands returning home after individuals' psychological perceptions of working 10 hours escape into the fan- density in addition to the social and tasy world of television. cultural norms of the society. Some methods of coping with the crowded urban environment, on the REFERENCES other hand, show evidence of what Anderson, E. N., Jr. might be called social pathologies. De- 1972. SOME CHINESE METHODS OF DEALING WITH CROWDING. Urban Anthropol. 1(2) : spite the relatively low incidence of 141-150. serious crime, many people live in a Calhoun, J. B. 1962. POPULATIONDENSITY AND SOCIAL world of fear where every young male PATHOLOGY. Sci. Am. 206: 139-146. is believed to be a potential robber or Goodstadt, L. F. 1969. URBANHOUSING IN HONGKONG. 1945- mugger. The doors and windows of 63. In Hong Kong: A Society in ran sit ion. every home are barred with special steel Routledge & Kegan Paul, London. Hong Kong Census & Statistics Department. gates; the city imprisons itself each 1971. HONGKONG POPULATION AND HOUSING night. Drugs and gambling are serious CENSUS. 1971 Main Report. Hong Kong Gov- ernment Printer. problems throughout much of the urban Hopkins, Keith (ed.) . area. Little concern is shown for any- 1971. HONGKONG: THE INDUSTRIAL COLONY. Oxford Univ. Press, Hong Kong. one in need who is not a relative or close Kaye, Barrington. friend. However, this social anomaly, 1960. UPPER NANKIN STREETSINGAPORE. A SOCIOLOGICAL STUDY OF CHINESE HOUSEHOLDS often described by social workers and LIVING IN A DENSELY POPULATED AREA. Univ. government officials, is probably not as Malava Press., Sin~a~ore.u. Li ~ho6Ming. much a result of the crowded living 1959. ECONOMICDEVELOPMENT OF COMMUNIST conditions as of the continued inability CHINA. AN APPRAISAL OF THE FIRST FIVE YEARS OF INDUSTRIALIZATION. Univ. Cal. Press, of most Chinese to identify with a Berkeley. foreign colonial government. Alienated Mitchell, Robert E. 1971. SOME SOCIAL IMPLICATIONS OF HIGH from his homeland in China and un- DENSITY HOUSING. Am. Soc. R. 36 (Feb.): certain of the future political status of 18-29. Sidel, Ruth. the colony, many individuals have 1974. FAMILIESOF FENGSHENG.URBAN LIFE simply ceased caring about anyone out- IN CHINA.Penguin Books, Baltimore. Schmitt. Robert C. side the family. 1963. I~~PLICATIONSOF DENSITY IN HONG KONG.J. Am. Inst. Plan. 24: 210-217. CONCLUSION ~h~ ability of Chinese, both young Acknowledgments. Field research was sup- ported by a dissertation grant from the and old, to cope with the crowded living Technology and Development Institute of conditions that exist in most parts of the East West Center in Honolulu, Hawaii. Hang Kong is tied into the social The author thanks the Maryknoll Fathers for permission to conduct classroom inter- fabric of Chinese society. Most people views and the Hang Kong Government for have made a successful adjustment to providing access to unpublished data.