ABSTRACT
Hong Kong, a British Colony for more than 150 years, was returned to the People’s Republic of China to become a Special Administrative Region (SAR) on 1 July 1997. As over 98 per cent of the population in Hong Kong are ethnic Chinese, the place has been dominated by the Chinese or Confucian culture, though Western practices have also been prevalent, especially among the young and the educated. Hong Kong is no doubt a typical example of where the East meets the West. This encounter of different cultures is most apparent among the older people as most have come from an agrarian social and economic background and are now the first generation to grow old in a highly industrialized city (Chow 1983). It is therefore not surprising to find that the majority of the older people in Hong Kong are unprepared for the kind of retirement life they are experiencing now.
