How do Lack of Social Space Harm Expats-Local Connections in Hong Kong
DISCLAIMER: This UX research was done by my teammates Kelvin Chan, @lai cheuk for a school project.
Intro
Can you remember when was the last time that you had a deep conversation with someone you just met? When was the last time that you actually developed a meaningful relationship in the last year?
If the world was to end by an apocalypse tomorrow, would you want to go somewhere else rather than places you are currently in before it is too late?
Brain drain is the emigration of highly skilled individuals who moved to one and to the other countries. Hong Kong has long been the yin-yang energy exchange hub since the colonial era where many highly skilled professionals migrated from various countries to Hong Kong, and vice versa.
The following research mainly focuses on brain drain and brain gain situation in Hong Kong and the mutual struggles that one encounters during the exchange process.
Our Research
We have decided to conduct interviews and surveys via emails as our primary research. The respective qualitative and quantitative research have been conducted on expats who moved from another country to Hong Kong and locals who want to leave home to other countries.
The interview aimed to measure factors that drive locals away and what attracts expats to Hong Kong whereas the survey aimed to measure the severity of issues that they encounter and included open-ended questions to further investigate certain concerns that they had during the process.
Findings
We interviewed 5 expats: 3 face-to-face and 2 with zoom meeting; 5 locals. with zoom meetings. We have successfully collected 18 surveys with people from various countries and 10 surveys with locals. From the 10 local responses that we collected, 80% of the people have thought of or planned to leave Hong Kong in the future; Out of the 18 expats surveys we collected, 72% of the surveyees admitted that they have thought of moving out of Hong Kong again. What has changed them since and what makes them want to leave Hong Kong?
Expats
There are two major concerns expats had when they moved to Hong Kong. They are space and working culture. Before jumping into their concerns, let’s figure out what motivated them to move to Hong Kong in the first place.
Motivation
“On the other side of fear. There’s boredom”
The common mentality of expats who came to Hong Kong is curiosity. Their curiosity drives them to seek new experiences and be adventurous. They enjoy and embrace uncertainties. In fact, all of our interviewees did not have a concrete plan when they came to Hong Kong. They seldom do research thoroughly before coming to Hong Kong so as to enjoy the most out of the process of figuring out local culture.
The essence of exploring local culture
“Going to a new place, making friends is tiring… (Yet) social life is the most important factor. Even if the job pays well, you’ve got nowhere to spend it.”
Expats think that the essence of local culture is the people. Exploring local culture means getting to know locals. In order to explore the local experience to the utmost, they have to make deeper connections with locals.
However, expats find it difficult to get to know locals on a deeper level. They think locals are more private. Space and working culture are the two major factors that make it so difficult for expats to make deep connections with the locals in order to experience the most authentic local culture.
Space
“Everyone lives with parents/ family — after a drink at Lan Kwai Fong (LFK) we had to part ways”
Expats had much larger living space back in their hometown. They socialise and connect with friends by throwing house parties. Inviting friends over and hanging out was easy. In a safe and chill environment, conversation flows naturally. Hence, deeper connections between friends build up.
However, houses in Hong Kong are extremely small. In our survey, the rating of residential experience has decreased by 18% from 3.94 to 3.22, meaning closet-like mini flats are worse than what expats expected. The “old way” of socialising does not work in Hong Kong. Neither expats nor locals could invite friends over to their places. It forces our users to go outdoors. With activities outdoors as the means, expats hang out in hope of building up stronger bonds with locals.
One of the interviewees mentioned that the typical place he meets and hangs out with his friends are bars in LKF. It is easy to make hi-bye friends at bars, yet heart-to-heart conversations are absent most of the time. Without deep talk, expats could not bond deeply with locals. Hence, stopping them from experiencing the most out of the local culture.
Working culture
Despite Hong Kong being full of opportunities and a well-known metropolitan city, working in Hong Kong is more challenging and demanding, compared to their previous experiences. In our survey for expats, the rating of working culture before and after their experience in Hong Kong has decreased. It is significant as the majority of the ratings have increased.
Locals
There are two interestingly similar factors for locals who have considered leaving Hong Kong. They are space and working culture.
Space
Residential condition is also the biggest factor that drives locals away from Hong Kong. According to our survey, dwelling and residential environment is the number one reason why Hong Kongers are leaving. Locals from our interview all agreed that it would be awfully painful and unworthy to repay the mortgage for almost a lifetime for a nano-flat. As a result, many locals share their tiny flats with their direct family, which means insufficient personal space and privacy for them, let alone inviting friends over while family members are living in the same room. It forces locals out when they’re meeting with friends, which is the same situation as the expats.
Working culture
“Local companies are quite hierarchical. I prefer working for companies which are more open-minded.”
Hong Kong is best known for its long working hours and stressful working environment. According to OECD, employees on average spend 42 hours at work per week, which is much higher than the global average of 33 hours per week. From the interviews, after long working hours, locals are too exhausted to even pick up any hobby, let alone meeting someone new from a foreign country.
Insight — The Importance of Social Space
Social space is a physical or virtual gathering space that enables interaction between people. It includes physical space and time.
From our findings above, people in Hong Kong lack private space and leisure time to gather with others. As people tend to live with their families to avoid high rents, it is much harder for people to hold house events for people to gather and relax in the same space, lowering the possibility of having deep conversations with other people. Super long working hours also make it hard for one to have the mood in making new friends after work, let alone developing deeper relationships.
Of course, they can always instead share their daily events through online social platforms especially during this pandemic period. However, this does not work the same way as having a face-to-face conversation in a private place where people feel connected and immersed into the same atmosphere.
In light of the above mentioned, the lack of social space echoes why 80% of the locals have thought of fleeing the region; 72% of the expats have thought of or wanted to migrate to other countries and regions again.
The Problem
Considering expats’ perspective, one of the main objectives of coming to Hong Kong is to experience the most out of the local experience. Having deep connections with locals is the biggest part of creating social space. But as Hong Kong lacks social space, expats and locals are unable to make deep connections.
So, in such a city like Hong Kong, how might we enable more social space for expats and locals to make deeper connections?
Due to a short time frame our research regretfully ends here.
Nevertheless, here are two preliminary ideas:
- Perhaps future research on development and promotion of a new online platform in which expats and locals are able to get to know each other with ease could be very beneficial for both parties.
- Better in-house design with new technologies and design concepts could also be a way to utilise every single square feet to create more guest space in our home.
Please leave a comment below if you have any thoughts or ideas. Thank you for reading!
Reference:
OECD (2018), Hours worked (indicator). (Accessed on 04 June 2021)
