ABSTRACT
Through conducting focus group interview, this chapter finds that, against the above contextual changes, House Buying persists. However, it has been mutated with a different formula. The optimistic social imagination in open opportunity is replaced by a strong discontent toward the stagnated social and political system. Yet, young adults’ discontent was still channeled toward an individualist life project of being self-reliant. In this kind of life project, homeownership is articulated to be the means for being the safest type of investment, and the future safety net as both shelter and financial tool. The hope to catch up the runaway housing market is maintained through the discourse of “waiting for the coming crisis” (like SARS or terrorist attack). In this discourse, the supposedly devastating crisis is domesticated as an excellent opportunity that one must catch to achieve homeownership and real estate investment under the economic narrative of market cycle. The political effect of this mutated hope mechanism is not about resolving the social discontent toward the government. The mechanism only channeled temporarily the discontent toward an individualist life project in the economic realm. Social discontent remains strong and overwhelmingly shared, and continues to accumulate. And when the moment of political movement comes, the distrust to the government, the belief in individual effort and their longing toward the coming crisis can be articulated differently toward a collective struggle in the political realm.
