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The Central Policy Unit (CPU) and four co-organisers today (June 9) co-hosted a one-day conference on "Strengthening Hong Kong's Families: Obligation and Care Across the Generations". The conference aimed to further academic and public understanding of the nature and importance of inter-generational obligations and reciprocity in family care-giving, support and solidarity in Hong Kong, and to discuss measures in support of obligations and care across the generations.
The Chief Secretary for Administration, Mr Henry Tang, officiated and delivered remarks at the opening of the conference. He said that to meet the many challenges posed to the family, it was important to strengthen inter-generational obligations and care. He called on the seminar to come up with ways to enhance inter-generational relations in Hong Kong.
Professor Charlotte Ikels of the Department of Anthropology at Case Western Reserve University delivered a keynote speech on "Filial Piety in Contemporary East Asia". The second keynote speaker, Professor Julia Tao Lai Po-wah, Chief-of-Staff and Professor of the Department of Public and Social Administration at the City University of Hong Kong, addressed the topic,"Qinqing in Chinese FamilyˇVA Confucian Perspective".
There were three discussion panels on the themes of "Obligations and Care Across the Generations in Comparative Perspective", "Obligations and Care Across the Generations in Hong Kong", and "Measures in Support of Obligations and Care Across the Generations in Hong Kong". In the last roundtable session, the chair-persons of the Elderly Commission, Women's Commission and the Commission on Youth joined other panellists to offer thoughts and ideas on measures and policies in support of obligations.
About 200 participants from various sectors took part in the conference, which was held at the University of Hong Kong. The co-organisers were the Family Council, the Centre for Chinese Family Studies of the Hong Kong Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, the Department of Applied Social Studies at the City University of Hong Kong, and the Sau Po Centre on Ageing at the University of Hong Kong. The Elderly Commission, Women's Commission and Commission on Youth were supporting organisers.
More details of the conference and speeches by the guest speakers will be uploaded onto the CPU's website at www.cpu.gov.hk.
Ends/Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Issued at HKT 16:53
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