ABSTRACT
This chapter looks into individual and family histories to appreciate the uniqueness and particularity of the post-war housing situation in Hong Kong and how it affects the current housing crisis. The housing question is too complex to take on such a deterministic stand. Rather, the historical context of a society must be taken as part and parcel of the whole housing analysis. In order to fully appreciate the housing process in Hong Kong, a chronological mapping of individual and family housing histories will be constructed, spanning from the early 1950s to the 1970s. The improvement of housing conditions in the renovated or newly constructed public housing estates was obvious but yet far from satisfactory. The individual and family housing histories of the respondents are reflections of the housing history of Hong Kong, which is interwoven at the same time with social history itself and the changing society.
