Society & Politics

by Terrance Zheng   On October 25, Sam Wong Bo-long and his staff took the last photo together at Spirit Bookstore in Sai Wan. They bid farewell to the second-hand bookselling business founded by Wong's grandfather in 1958. "We really don't want to leave the neighbourhood," he said. "We will surely come back if we have the chance in future." Spirit Bookstore, first opened in Mong Kok, relocated to Sai Wan some ten years ago when the rent skyrocketed. History has repeated itself and this time Mr Wong, the third generation in this family business, has to shut down the store. Rent in West Central District is set to rise mainly because of the MTR's Island Line western extension. Rent for the 500-square-feet space soared to around $40,000 per month and Mr Wong is forced to say goodbye to the neighbourhood. "We were hoping to tough it out but the situation has not improved," Mr Wong said. "Even small bookstores upstairs in building in Mong Kok would rent more than $30,000 a month." Mr Wong admitted the lack of online promotion might be a cause of the decline of his shop but the reading attitudes among Hongkongers, he said, have also changed. "When people want to relax, they go shopping and watch movies, but they would seldom read a book in a quiet corner." He said many Taiwan readers would travel from urban areas to small bookstores in the peripheries of the city. But that, he believed, is unlikely in Hong Kong. Some old local bookstores including Dymocks and Well Read Shop, also closed earlier this year because of soaring renting. But that has not not deterred Taiwanese bookstore chain, Eslite, to expand. The chain has opened up its second store in the city. The shop in Tsim Sha Tsui offers other services besides book selling, including light meals, shoes and accessories. "It's just a trend. Bookstore chains with a …

By Catherine Xu Thousands of participants at the annual gay pride parade shouted out this year's theme "yell out for equality" along the route from Victoria Park to Central Government Complex yesterday. More than 30 groups signed up as committee and participants for this year's pride parade, with the same goal to fight for LGBT rights and equality. Hilda Lau, a volunteer at the parade, explained the meaning of the giraffe, the theme visual of the year. She cited the Chinese idiom "wait until our necks become long", which symbolises the LGBT community's long fight against discrimination. "I found more young participants taking part in the parade this year and there're more people joining the pride parade here than in my home country," Li Po Chun, a Spanish participant said. Apart from LGBT rights, sex‐related banners also waved in the parade, such as "Sex work is also work" held by Midnight Blue, an organisation founded by a group of male sex workers and labour right supporters for sex workers in Hong Kong. "As a minority group, sex workers are always pressurized by the media, and the charm of the work is hidden. I stand out today to show my support for a sex diversified society. The society should embrace differences among individuals," said Chu Bei, a volunteer at Midnight Blue. Asked about how the legalisation of same‐sex marriage in the US earlier this year might affect Hong Kong, Chu said the US's first step can make Hong Kong people reflect on legal rights for homosexuals, but "it's still a long battle in Hong Kong". Ding Lau‐bin, a transgender protester, made a dress with paper medicine boxes and brought it with her to her third pride parade. "These are medicine we (transgender) have to take every day, my friends and I took one year to make this dress especially for the parade to make people understand how much …

By Julieana Wu Everyday at 9 pm at Winnie Poon Yam Wai-chun's office in Kowloon Bay, Mrs Poon's husbandwaits for her to finish so they can go to the market together to pick up ingredients for dinner that Mrs Poon will cook. Today, an elderly man is asking Mrs Poon where to get a vaccination. A woman drops by, home from her holiday in Malaysia, and hands Mrs Poon's assistant a packet of pastries. They have a brief chat and she soon leaves. Mrs Poon, 61, is the district councillor of Telford Garden in Kowloon Bay. She was elected in 1985 to the then District Boards, which was renamed the District Council in 2000. For the past 30 years, Mrs Poon has worked seven hours a day, five days a week advising her neighbourhood. She is a social worker by profession, wife to a civil engineer and a mother of three. "I was like taking three jobs at the same time," Mrs Poon said, recalling the early days of her career when her children were small. "Being a district councilor is very hard," she said. "It's even harder for a woman." In the previous District Council, female councillors made up 23 per cent of all members, the highest proportion of women ever, according to the Home Affairs Department. In the current council, it dropped to about 21 per cent. That means there are 89 women compared to 418 men for the 18 districts. However, the number of female registered voters exceeded that of male in 2015 with about 1.9 million women to about 1.8 million men. A survey by the Women's Commission also shows that women tend to engage more in community activities, which the District Council deals with, compared to men. "Women's issues are ignored nowadays," said lawmaker Emily Lau Wai-hing, …

By Viola Zhou China's Communist Party has decided to allow all couples to have two children, putting the 35-year-old One-Child Policy to an end, according to Xinhua News Agency. The announcement was made after the party's Central Committee concluded its annual plenum today. The strict family planning restriction was introduced in 1980 to curb the fast-growing population. Most couples were allowed to have one child only, with exceptions made to ethnic minorities and families with hukou, residence in some rural areas. The policy was later loosened so parents could have a second child if both of them were born the only children. One-Child Policy has been criticised for causing gender imbalance because of the traditional Chinese preference on boys and violating human rights, while Chinese authority has stressed on the its contribution to the economic boom. China's ageing problem has been worsening in recent years, causing the working force to shrink. In 2013, the policy was then further eased to allow couples to have two children if one of them was an only child, but the number of second-child applications remains low. Many experts quoted by mainland media in the past two years suggested that the One-Child Policy be scrapped to solve the problem of ageing population. Edited by Crystal Tse. Copy-edited by Mari Chow.

By Joey Hung and Thomas Chan   The number of public rental housing applications in Hong Kong has reached 285,300 in September, making the average waiting time 3.6 years for families. Executive director of the Federation of Public Housing Estates Chiu Kwok-wai said only 15 thousands new flats are built every year for public housing, and the supply will further decrease in the future. Anthony Cheung Bing-leung, Chairman of the Hong Kong Housing Authority and Secretary for Transport and Housing, said land shortage and opposition from communities have posed great challenges to building new housing estates. "If these problems are not solved, it is hard to overcome the shortage of flats," he said after a meeting with committee members of the authority on Tuesday. The Housing Authority has a target of maintaining the average waiting time at around three years.   According to the latest statistics released, the number of degree-holding applicants aged under 30 increased greatly. Students now constitute about 40 per cent of new non-elderly one-person applicants under the category for single people aged from 18 to 50. Mr Chiu said it was a 10 per cent jump from last year. Mr Chiu said under the new public scoring system implemented last year, more young people choose to act early.  Starting from February 2014, adult applicants are awarded nine points instead of three each year, while people aged 45 or above receive a one-time 60 points, which puts the young in a disadvantage.  Yeung Kwok-hei, a Hong Kong Baptist University student, said he applied for public rental housing three years ago at the age of 18, as he did not expect himself to be able to afford a private apartment any time soon. Mr Yeung said he was not worried about the prolonged waiting time and he was prepared to wait for more than 10 years.  "It will …

By Terrance Zheng   More than 1,000 doctors participated in a sit-in protest at Queen Elizabeth Hospital yesterday afternoon, calling for a 3 per cent increase in their salaries. The doctors, holding banners with the Chinese character "anger", sat in the main lobby for an hour and a half. They also conducted a moment of silence, which they said represented their unwillingness to be enslaved. The protest was triggered after the Hospital Authority refused to grant public hospital medical staff a 3 per cent pay raise, which was given to senior public servants last year.   The Authority earlier responded that civil servants' pay rise did not apply to other agencies, but the Public Doctors' Association said it had been a practice for decades that doctors' salaries were adjusted along with those of public servants. In 2009, doctors at public hospitals were told to accept a pay decrease when the public service pay was cut. "We sit here not just for the 3 per cent increase, and none of us will leave our post if our protest fails," said Dr Chan Pui-yin, President of the Hong Kong Public Doctors' Association. "We just want a justifiable evaluation system for our public doctors' payment." Dr Chan said he had been trying to negotiate with government departments for nine months before initiating this protest. Over 1,600 medical workers have signed an online petition. Some renowned doctors and medical experts came out to request the pay rise. Dr Yeung Chiu-fat, president of the Hong Kong Doctors' Union, said treating doctors' salaries with consistency laid the foundation for providing qualified medical service to the whole society. Chief Executive of the Hospital Authority Dr Leung Pak-yin told protestors he was sympathetic to their need and promised that the authority would look into the matter today. Secretary of Food and Health …