Demographics of Hong Kong
This article is about the demographic features of the population of Hong Kong, including population density, education level, health of the populace, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population. Hong Kong is one of the most densely populated areas in the world, with an overall density of some 6,300 people per square kilometre. At the same time, Hong Kong has one of the world's lowest birth rates—1.11 per woman of child-bearing age as of 2012, far below the replacement rate of 2.1. It is estimated that 26.8% of the population will be aged 65 or more in 2033, up from 12.1% in 2005. Hong Kong recorded 8.2 births per 1,000 people in 2005–2010. Ethnically, Hong Kong consists of Han Chinese who constitute 92% of the population. Of these, many originate from various regions in Canton. There are a number of descendants of immigrants from elsewhere in Southern China and around the world after the end of World War II. People from Hong Kong refer to themselves, in Cantonese, as Hèung Góng Yàhn.
In English, the term'Hong Kongers' is used to refer to Hong Kongese people, while the term'Hongkongese' is sometimes used as an adjective to describe people or things related to Hong Kong. The following census data is available for Hong Kong between the years 1841–2011. In 2011, Hong Kong had a population of just over 7 million, with a density of 6,300 people per square kilometre; this makes Hong Kong the fourth most densely populated region in the world, after Macau and Singapore. According to the 2016 by-census, 92% of the Hong Kong population is ethnic Chinese. 8% are other non-Chinese ethnic groups, including a large number of Filipinos and Indonesians, making up 4% of the population. The Hong Kong census does not categorise Han Chinese subgroups. However, the majority of Hong Kongers of Chinese descent trace their ancestry to various parts of Southern China: the Guangzhou area, followed by Siyi, Chaoshan and Shanghai; some Cantonese people originate from Hakka-speaking villages in the New Territories.
Most Teochew-speaking migrants immigrated to Hong Kong from the late 1940s to the early 1970s, while migrants from Fujian have constituted a large-growing number of migrants since 1978. Many Taishanese and Cantonese migrated after 1949; the major Chinese groups include the Punti, Cantonese and Tanka. Punti and Tanka are Hong Kong indigenous people, while Cantonese people are not Hong Kong indigenous people. For Hakka and Hoklo, they have both non-indigenous people in Hong Kong; the following lists ethnic groups with significant presence in Hong Kong in alphabetical order by category: Africa East Asia Japanese Koreans Europe British French Russians North America Americans Canadians Oceania Australians South Asians Indians Pakistanis Nepalis Southeast Asia Filipinos Indonesians Thais Vietnamese Census data from 2006, 2011, 2016. According to United Nations estimates from 1 July 2013, Hong Kong's population is distributed in the following age ranges, with the largest age group represented being 50–54 years: The Hong Kong government provides the following estimates for mid-2013: 0–14 years: 11.0% 15–24 years: 11.7% 25–34 years: 15.2% 35–44 years: 15.9% 45–54 years: 17.7% 55–64 years: 14.2% 65 and over: 14.3% Median age: 45.0 Sources: 1961,1971: 1991: 1996: 2001: 2006, 2011, 2016: According to The World Factbook in 2013, the Hong Kong population was divided into the following male/female ratios: At birth: 1.07 male/female 0–14 years: 1.09 male/female 15–24 years: 1.01 male/female 25–54 years: 0.88 male/female 55–64 years: 1 male/female 65 years and over: 0.88 male/female Total population: 0.94 male/female According to The World Factbook estimates in 2002, 93.5% of the population over the age of 15 had attended schooling, including 96.9% of males and 89.6% of females.
The following table shows birth rates and mortality rates in Hong Kong between 1950 and 2015. At the end of the 20th century, Hong Kong had one of the lowest birth rates in the world. However, the number of births doubled in the decade between 2001 and 2011 due to an increase in the number of children born in Hong Kong to women with residence in Mainland China. In 2001 there were 7,810 births to Mainland women out of a total of 48,219 births; this increased to 37,253 births to Mainland women out of a total of 82,095 births. According to The World Factbook in 2013, the infant mortality rate in Hong Kong was 2.89 deaths/1,000 live births. According to The World Factbook in 2013, the average life expectancy for the total population was 82.2 years. Hong Kong is the territory with the worlds highest life expectancy according to the United Nations. Source: UN World Population Prospects According to The World Factbook in 2006, the average marriage age in Hong Kong was 30 years for males and 27 years for females, the population wa
Cantonese people
The Cantonese people are subgroup of the Han Chinese people native to and/or originating from the provinces of Guangdong and Guangxi, in southern mainland China. Although more "Cantonese" refers only to the people from Guangzhou and its satellite cities and towns and/or native speakers of Standard Cantonese, rather than and referring to the people of the Liangguang region; the Cantonese people share a common native culture, history and language. They are referred to as "Hoa" in Vietnam, "Kongfu" in Malaysia and "Konghu" in Indonesia.". Centered on and predominating the Pearl River Basin shared between Guangdong and Guangxi, the Cantonese people are responsible for establishing their native language's usage in Hong Kong and Macau during the early migrations within the British and Portuguese colonial eras respectively. Today, Hong Kong and Macau are the only regions in the world where Cantonese is the official spoken language, with the mixed influences of English and Portuguese respectively. Cantonese is traditionally and remains today a majority language in Guangdong and Guangxi, despite the increasing influence of Mandarin.
There are around 9 million Cantonese speakers overseas. Taishanese people may be considered Cantonese but speak a distinct variety of Yue Chinese Taishanese. There have been a number of influential Cantonese figures throughout history, such as Yuan Chonghuan, Bruce Lee, Liang Qichao, Sun Yat-Sen, Lee Shau-kee, Ho Ching and Flossie Wong-Staal. "Cantonese" has been used to describe all Chinese people from Guangdong since "Cantonese" is treated as a synonym with "Guangdong" and the Cantonese language is treated as the sole language of the region. This is inaccurate as "Canton" itself technically only refers to Guangdong's capital Guangzhou and the Cantonese language refers to only the Guangzhou dialect of the Yue Chinese languages; the English name "Canton" derived from Portuguese Cantão or Cidade de Cantão, a muddling of dialectical pronunciations of "Guangdong". Although it and chiefly applied to the walled city of Guangzhou, it was conflated with Guangdong by some authors. Within Guangdong and Guangxi, Cantonese is considered the prestige dialect and is called baahk wá which means "vernacular".
In historical times, it was known as "Guangzhou speech" or Guangzhounese but due to Guangzhou's prosperity it has led people to conflate it with all Yue languages and many now refer to "Guangzhou speech" as "Guangdong speech". Similar cases where entire Chinese language families are thought to be a single language occur with non-specialists, conflating all Wu Chinese languages as just Shanghainese and its different forms, as it is the prestige dialect, or that Mandarin only refers to the Beijing-based Standard Chinese and that it is a single language rather than a large group of related varieties. There are many other Chinese languages spoken by the Han Chinese in these areas. In Guangxi, Southwestern Mandarin is spoken. In Guangdong, aside from other Yue Chinese languages, these non-Cantonese languages include Hakka, Leizhou Min, Tuhua. Non-Cantonese speaking Yue peoples are sometimes labelled as "Cantonese" such as the Taishanese people though Taishanese has low intelligibility to Standard Cantonese.
The Taishanese see themselves as people of Guangdong, but not Cantonese. Some literature uses neutral terminology such as Guangdongnese and Guangxinese to refer to people from these provinces without the cultural or linguistic affiliations to Cantonese; until the 19th century, Cantonese history was the history of Guangdong and Guangxi provinces. What is now Guangdong, Guangxi, was first brought under Qin influence by a general named Zhao Tuo, who founded the kingdom of Nanyue in 204 BC; the Nanyue kingdom went on to become the strongest Baiyue state in China, with many neighboring kingdoms declaring their allegiance to Nanyue rule. Zhao Tuo took the Han territory of Hunan and defeated the Han dynasty's first attack on Nanyue annexing the kingdom of Minyue in the East and conquering Âu Lạc, Northern Vietnam, in the West in 179 BC; the expanded Nanyue kingdom included the territories of modern-day Guangdong and Northern Vietnam, with the capital situated at modern-day Guangzhou. The native peoples of Liangguang remained under Baiyue control until the Han dynasty in 111 BC, following the Han–Nanyue War.
However, it was not until subsequent dynasties such as the Jin Dynasty, the Tang Dynasty and the Song Dynasty that major waves of Han Chinese began to migrate south into Guangdong and Guangxi. Waves of migration and subsequent intermarriage meant that existing populations of both provinces were displaced, but some native groups like the Zhuangs still remained; the Cantonese call themselves "people of Tang". This is because of the inter-mixture between native and Han immigrants in Guangdong and Guangxi reached a critical mass of acculturation during the Tang dynasty, creating a new local identity among the Liangguang peoples. During the 4th–12th centuries, Han Chinese people from North China's Yellow River delta migrated and settled in the South of China; this gave rise to peoples including the Cantonese themselves and Hoklos, whose ancestors migrated from Henan and Shandong, to areas of southeastern coastal China such as Chaozhou and Zhangzhou and other parts of Guangdong during the Tang d
Hong Kong
Hong Kong the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China and abbreviated as HK, is a special administrative region on the eastern side of the Pearl River estuary in southern China. With over 7.4 million people of various nationalities in a 1,104-square-kilometre territory, Hong Kong is the world's fourth most densely populated region. Hong Kong became a colony of the British Empire after Qing Empire ceded Hong Kong Island at the end of the First Opium War in 1842; the colony expanded to the Kowloon Peninsula in 1860 after the Second Opium War, was further extended when Britain obtained a 99-year lease of the New Territories in 1898. The entire territory was transferred to China in 1997; as a special administrative region, Hong Kong's system of government is separate from that of mainland China and its people identify more as Hongkongers rather than Chinese. A sparsely populated area of farming and fishing villages, the territory has become one of the world's most significant financial centres and commercial ports.
It is the world's seventh-largest trading entity, its legal tender is the world's 13th-most traded currency. Although the city has one of the highest per capita incomes in the world, it has severe income inequality; the territory has the largest number of skyscrapers in most surrounding Victoria Harbour. Hong Kong ranks seventh on the UN Human Development Index, has the sixth-longest life expectancy in the world. Although over 90 per cent of its population uses public transportation, air pollution from neighbouring industrial areas of mainland China has resulted in a high level of atmospheric particulates; the name of the territory, first spelled "He-Ong-Kong" in 1780 referred to a small inlet between Aberdeen Island and the southern coast of Hong Kong Island. Aberdeen was an initial point of contact between local fishermen. Although the source of the romanised name is unknown, it is believed to be an early phonetic rendering of the Cantonese pronunciation hēung góng; the name translates as "fragrant harbour" or "incense harbour".
"Fragrant" may refer to the sweet taste of the harbour's freshwater influx from the Pearl River or to the odor from incense factories lining the coast of northern Kowloon. The incense was stored near Aberdeen Harbour for export. Sir John Davis offered an alternative origin; the simplified name Hong Kong was used by 1810 written as a single word. Hongkong was common until 1926, when the government adopted the two-word name; some corporations founded during the early colonial era still keep this name, including Hongkong Land, Hongkong Electric and Shanghai Hotels and the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation. The region is first known to have been occupied by humans during the Neolithic period, about 6,000 years ago. Early Hong Kong settlers were a semi-coastal people who migrated from inland and brought knowledge of rice cultivation; the Qin dynasty incorporated the Hong Kong area into China for the first time in 214 BCE, after conquering the indigenous Baiyue. The region was consolidated under the Nanyue kingdom after the Qin collapse, recaptured by China after the Han conquest.
During the Mongol conquest, the Southern Song court was located in modern-day Kowloon City before its final defeat in the 1279 Battle of Yamen. By the end of the Yuan dynasty, seven large families had settled in the region and owned most of the land. Settlers from nearby provinces migrated to Kowloon throughout the Ming dynasty; the earliest European visitor was Portuguese explorer Jorge Álvares, who arrived in 1513. Portuguese merchants established a trading post called in Hong Kong waters, began regular trade with southern China. Although the traders were expelled after military clashes in the 1520s, Portuguese-Chinese trade relations were reestablished by 1549. Portugal acquired a permanent lease for Macau in 1557. After the Qing conquest, maritime trade was banned under the Haijin policies; the Kangxi Emperor lifted the prohibition, allowing foreigners to enter Chinese ports in 1684. Qing authorities established the Canton System in 1757 to regulate trade more restricting non-Russian ships to the port of Canton.
Although European demand for Chinese commodities like tea and porcelain was high, Chinese interest in European manufactured goods was insignificant. To counter the trade imbalance, the British sold large amounts of Indian opium to China. Faced with a drug crisis, Qing officials pursued ever-more-aggressive actions to halt the opium trade; the Daoguang Emperor rejected proposals to legalise and tax opium, ordering imperial commissioner Lin Zexu to eradicate the opium trade in 1839. The commissioner destroyed opium stockpiles and halted all foreign trade, forcing a British military response and triggering the First Opium War; the Qing ceded Hong Kong Island in the Convention of Chuenpi. However, both countries did not ratify the agreement. After over a year of further hostilities, Hong Kong Island was formally ceded to the United Kingdom in the 1842 Treaty of Nanking. Administrative infrastructure was built up by early 1842, but piracy and hostile Qing policies towards Hong Kong prevented the government from attracting merchants.
The Taiping Rebellion, when many wealthy Chinese fled mainland turbulence and settled in the colon
Sport in Hong Kong
Sports in Hong Kong are a significant part of its culture. Due to British influence going as far back as the late 19th century, Hong Kong had an earlier introduction to Western athletics compared to other Asia regions. Horse racing has most spectators, while football, swimming, table tennis and running have the most participants. Golf is an popular sport, despite the few number of courses in the city. In 2009, Hong Kong organised the V East Asian Games and it was the biggest sporting event held in the territory. Other major international sporting events including the Equestrian at the 2008 Summer Olympics, the Hong Kong Open Golf Championship, the Hong Kong Sevens, Hong Kong Marathon, AFC Asian Cup, EAFF East Asian Cup, Hong Kong Badminton Open, Hong Kong Tennis Classic, Premier League Asia Trophy, Lunar New Year Cup. Hong Kong athletes have improved in worldwide rankings; as of 2010, there are 32 Hong Kong athletes from seven sports ranking in world's Top 20, 29 athletes in six sports in Asia top 10 ranking.
Moreover, Hong Kong is impressive performance of athletes with disabilities in 2009, having won four world championships and two Asian Champions. Hong Kong City Hall is located today where the original location of "Victoria Recreation Club" stood in 1849 after having been in operation in Canton since 1832, it is the first sporting club established in Hong Kong's history. The first sports involved were water sports such as rowing; the Hong Kong Open golf tournament is Hong Kong's oldest professional sporting event. The primary sport in Hong Kong has been football due to British influence going as far back as the late 19th century; the first documented team came from the "Chinese Football Team" of 1904, which began as a club called the "South China Athletic Club" founded by Mok Hing. It was the first team to join The Hong Kong Football Association league in 1913/1914. At the time, the introduction of Hong Kong First Division League in 1908 was another milestone. In the 1917 Far Eastern Games and 1919 Far Eastern Games, the club represented the Republic of China and won the football championship.
It is the only team in Hong Kong sports history. Around 1920–1922, it formally adopted the present name of South China Athletic Association and diversified into other sports. Financial Secretary John James Cowperthwaite was one of the first government official to assist Hong Kong going into the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne Australia with a contribution estimate of HK$10,000. Victoria Park was one of the free range open space for pick-up games; until the Hong Kong Stadium was built, there was no arena for spectator sports. By the 1960s a number of clubs have surfaced for social reasons. Since Hong Kong sports has been described as "Club Life"; some clubs have documented their history while others have disappeared along with their past. After World War II the Amateur Sports Federation & Olympic Committee of Hong Kong was established; the committee selected athletic leaders to represent Hong Kong in times of competition. The committee became known as the National Olympic Committee. After the transfer of sovereignty in 1997, Hong Kong has competed internationally under the name "Hong Kong, China" with the Bauhinia region flag.
It is treated separately from People's Republic of China, counted as another entry in the games. A variety of sports are available in Hong Kong, with most having their own association, many clubs and groups, along with provision by bodies such as YWCA and YMCA. There are local organisations that strive to help Hong Kong residents identify sports that are not broadly advertised enough; the Hong Kong Government is known for its proactive approach towards sporting events prior to the Beijing Olympics. There are many sports available in Hong Kong for participation by residents, including: Golf has been played in Hong Kong since the establishment of the Hong Kong Golf Club in 1879; the Club, which has hosted the Hong Kong Open every year since 1959, has two sites - Fanling, home to three championship-calibre courses, Deep Water Bay, a short nine hole course in southern Hong Kong Island. Hong Kong Golf Club is considered among the premier golf clubs in Asia and, despite being a private members' club, is open to visitors from Mondays through Fridays.
Horse racing is by far the most popular spectator sport in Hong Kong and generates the largest horse race gambling turnover in the world. This British tradition left its mark as one of the most important entertainment and gambling institutions in Hong Kong. Established as the Royal Hong Kong Jockey Club in 1884, the non-profit organization conducts nearly 700 races every season at the two race tracks in Happy Valley and Sha Tin; the sport annually draws in over 11% of Hong Kong's tax revenue. Off-track betting is available from overseas bookmakers. In 2009, betting on horse races generated an average US$12.7 million in gambling turnover per race, 6 times larger than its closest rival France at US$2 million while the United States only generated $250,000. Some consider betting on horse races an investment. Lunar New Year Cup which held in Hong Kong Stadium is famous international football tournament in, hosted in Hong Kong. Hong Kong's national basketball team qualifies for the FIBA Asia Championship.
In club competitions, its team Regal won the 1997 ABC Champions Cup. Cricket in Hong Kong has been played since at least 1841. Like most cricketing nations, it was part of the British Empire; the national cricket team has been active since 1866, the Hong Kong Cricket Association was granted associate membership of the International Cricket Council in 1969. Hong Kong hosted the Hong Kong
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, sometimes referred to as Britain, is a sovereign country located off the north-western coast of the European mainland. The United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland, many smaller islands. Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border with another sovereign state, the Republic of Ireland. Apart from this land border, the United Kingdom is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, with the North Sea to the east, the English Channel to the south and the Celtic Sea to the south-west, giving it the 12th-longest coastline in the world; the Irish Sea lies between Great Ireland. With an area of 242,500 square kilometres, the United Kingdom is the 78th-largest sovereign state in the world, it is the 22nd-most populous country, with an estimated 66.0 million inhabitants in 2017. The UK is constitutional monarchy; the current monarch is Queen Elizabeth II, who has reigned since 1952, making her the longest-serving current head of state.
The United Kingdom's capital and largest city is London, a global city and financial centre with an urban area population of 10.3 million. Other major urban areas in the UK include Greater Manchester, the West Midlands and West Yorkshire conurbations, Greater Glasgow and the Liverpool Built-up Area; the United Kingdom consists of four constituent countries: England, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Their capitals are London, Edinburgh and Belfast, respectively. Apart from England, the countries have their own devolved governments, each with varying powers, but such power is delegated by the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which may enact laws unilaterally altering or abolishing devolution; the nearby Isle of Man, Bailiwick of Guernsey and Bailiwick of Jersey are not part of the UK, being Crown dependencies with the British Government responsible for defence and international representation. The medieval conquest and subsequent annexation of Wales by the Kingdom of England, followed by the union between England and Scotland in 1707 to form the Kingdom of Great Britain, the union in 1801 of Great Britain with the Kingdom of Ireland created the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
Five-sixths of Ireland seceded from the UK in 1922, leaving the present formulation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. There are fourteen British Overseas Territories, the remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in the 1920s, encompassed a quarter of the world's land mass and was the largest empire in history. British influence can be observed in the language and political systems of many of its former colonies; the United Kingdom is a developed country and has the world's fifth-largest economy by nominal GDP and ninth-largest economy by purchasing power parity. It has a high-income economy and has a high Human Development Index rating, ranking 14th in the world, it was the world's first industrialised country and the world's foremost power during the 19th and early 20th centuries. The UK remains a great power, with considerable economic, military and political influence internationally, it is sixth in military expenditure in the world. It has been a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council since its first session in 1946.
It has been a leading member state of the European Union and its predecessor, the European Economic Community, since 1973. The United Kingdom is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations, the Council of Europe, the G7, the G20, NATO, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and the World Trade Organization; the 1707 Acts of Union declared that the kingdoms of England and Scotland were "United into One Kingdom by the Name of Great Britain". The term "United Kingdom" has been used as a description for the former kingdom of Great Britain, although its official name from 1707 to 1800 was "Great Britain"; the Acts of Union 1800 united the kingdom of Great Britain and the kingdom of Ireland in 1801, forming the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Following the partition of Ireland and the independence of the Irish Free State in 1922, which left Northern Ireland as the only part of the island of Ireland within the United Kingdom, the name was changed to the "United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland".
Although the United Kingdom is a sovereign country, Scotland and Northern Ireland are widely referred to as countries. The UK Prime Minister's website has used the phrase "countries within a country" to describe the United Kingdom; some statistical summaries, such as those for the twelve NUTS 1 regions of the United Kingdom refer to Scotland and Northern Ireland as "regions". Northern Ireland is referred to as a "province". With regard to Northern Ireland, the descriptive name used "can be controversial, with the choice revealing one's political preferences"; the term "Great Britain" conventionally refers to the island of Great Britain, or politically to England and Wales in combination. However, it is sometimes used as a loose synonym for the United Kingdom as a whole; the term "Britain" is used both as a synonym for Great Britain, as a synonym for the United Kingdom. Usage is mixed, with the BBC preferring to use Britain as shorthand only for Great Britain and the UK Government, while accepting that both terms refer to the United K
Cinema of Hong Kong
The cinema of Hong Kong is one of the three major threads in the history of Chinese language cinema, alongside the cinema of China, the cinema of Taiwan. As a former British colony, Hong Kong had a greater degree of political and economic freedom than mainland China and Taiwan, developed into a filmmaking hub for the Chinese-speaking world. For decades, Hong Kong was the third largest motion picture industry in the world and the second largest exporter. Despite an industry crisis starting in the mid-1990s and Hong Kong's return to Chinese sovereignty in July 1997, Hong Kong film has retained much of its distinctive identity and continues to play a prominent part on the world cinema stage. In the West, Hong Kong's vigorous pop cinema has long had a strong cult following, now arguably a part of the cultural mainstream available and imitated. Economically, the film industry together with the value added of cultural and creative industries represents 5 per cent of Hong Kong's economy. Unlike many film industries, Hong Kong has enjoyed little or no direct government support, through either subsidies or import quotas.
It is a commercial cinema: corporate, concentrating on crowd-pleasing genres like comedy and action, relying on formulas and remakes. Hong Kong film derives a number of elements from Hollywood, such as certain genre parameters, a "thrill-a-minute" philosophy and fast pacing and film editing, but the borrowings are filtered through elements from traditional Chinese drama and art a penchant for stylisation and a disregard for Western standards of realism. This, combined with a fast and loose approach to the filmmaking process, contributes to the energy and surreal imagination that foreign audiences note in Hong Kong cinema. In 2010, the box office gross in Hong Kong was HK$1.339 billion and in 2011 it was HK$1.379 billion. There were 56 Hong Kong films and 220 foreign films released in 2011. In 2017, the box office gross was HK$1.85 billion compared with HK$1.95 billion in 2016. 331 films were released in 2017, dropped from 348 the year before. According to McDonald, a star system emerged in Hollywood as talent scouts and publicists were involved with finding performers and making them into stars.
In the vertically integrated Hollywood film industry of the 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, these responsibilities were all undertaken by the studios themselves. The studios made the stars and, due to notoriously restrictive terms imposed by exclusive services contracts, the studios owned the stars; as is common in commercial cinema, the industry's heart is a developed star system. In earlier days, beloved performers from the Chinese opera stage brought their audiences with them to the screen. For the past three or four decades, television has been a major launching pad for movie stardom, through acting courses and watched drama and variety series offered by the two major stations. More important is the overlap with the Cantonese pop music industry. Many, if not most, movie stars have recording sidelines, vice versa. In the current commercially troubled climate, the casting of young Cantopop idols to attract the all-important youth audience is endemic. In the small and knit industry, actors are kept busy.
During previous boom periods, the number of movies made by a successful figure in a single year could reach double digits. Films are low-budget when compared with American films. A major release with a big star, aimed at "hit" status, will cost around US$5 million. A low-budget feature can go well below US$1 million. Occasional blockbuster projects by the biggest stars or international co-productions aimed at the global market, can go as high as US$20 million or more, but these are rare exceptions. Hong Kong productions can achieve a level of gloss and lavishness greater than these numbers might suggest, given factors such as lower wages and value of the Hong Kong dollar. Films in the Cantonese language have been made in Hong Kong since the beginning. In the 1950s, it became a center of Mandarin language film making after the Communist takeover in mainland China and the entertainment industry shifted from Shanghai to Hong Kong. From the 1960s to mid-1970s, Mandarin film productions became dominant those made by the Shaw Brothers studio in Hong Kong.
There was a short-lived period whereby Hokkien films were produced in Hong Kong, there were films made in the Teochew dialect. Cantonese films made a comeback in the 1970s, since the 1980s, films have been made in Cantonese. For decades, films were shot silent, with dialogue and all other sound dubbed afterwards. In the hectic and low-budget industry, this method was faster and more cost-efficient than recording live sound when using performers from different dialect regions. Many busy stars would not record their own dialogue, but would be dubbed by a lesser-known performer. Shooting without sound contributed to an improvisatory filmmaking approach. Movies went into production without finished scripts, with scenes and dialogue concocted on the
Taoism
Taoism, or Daoism, is a religious or philosophical tradition of Chinese origin which emphasizes living in harmony with the Tao. The Tao is a fundamental idea in most Chinese philosophical schools. Taoism differs from Confucianism by not emphasizing rigid rituals and social order, but is similar in the sense that it is a teaching about the various disciplines for achieving "perfection" by becoming one with the unplanned rhythms of the universe called "the way" or "dao". Taoist ethics vary depending on the particular school, but in general tend to emphasize wu wei, "naturalness", simplicity and the Three Treasures: 慈 "compassion", 儉 "frugality", 不敢為天下先 "humility"; the roots of Taoism go back at least to the 4th century BCE. Early Taoism drew its cosmological notions from the School of Yinyang, was influenced by one of the oldest texts of Chinese culture, the I Ching, which expounds a philosophical system about how to keep human behavior in accordance with the alternating cycles of nature; the "Legalist" Shen Buhai may have been a major influence, expounding a realpolitik of wu wei.
The Tao Te Ching, a compact book containing teachings attributed to Laozi, is considered the keystone work of the Taoist tradition, together with the writings of Zhuangzi. By the Han dynasty, the various sources of Taoism had coalesced into a coherent tradition of religious organizations and orders of ritualists in the state of Shu. In earlier ancient China, Taoists were thought of as hermits or recluses who did not participate in political life. Zhuangzi was the best known of these, it is significant that he lived in the south, where he was part of local Chinese shamanic traditions. Female shamans played an important role in this tradition, strong in the southern state of Chu. Early Taoist movements developed their own institution in contrast to shamanism, but absorbed basic shamanic elements. Shamans revealed basic texts of Taoism from early times down to at least the 20th century. Institutional orders of Taoism evolved in various strains that in more recent times are conventionally grouped into two main branches: Quanzhen Taoism and Zhengyi Taoism.
After Laozi and Zhuangzi, the literature of Taoism grew and was compiled in form of a canon—the Daozang—which was published at the behest of the emperor. Throughout Chinese history, Taoism was nominated several times as a state religion. After the 17th century, however, it fell from favor. Taoism has had a profound influence on Chinese culture in the course of the centuries, Taoists, a title traditionally attributed only to the clergy and not to their lay followers take care to note distinction between their ritual tradition and the practices of Chinese folk religion and non-Taoist vernacular ritual orders, which are mistakenly identified as pertaining to Taoism. Chinese alchemy, Chinese astrology, Chan Buddhism, several martial arts, traditional Chinese medicine, feng shui, many styles of qigong have been intertwined with Taoism throughout history. Beyond China, Taoism had influence on surrounding societies in Asia. Today, the Taoist tradition is one of the five religious doctrines recognized in the People's Republic of China as well as the Republic of China, although it does not travel from its East Asian roots, it claims adherents in a number of societies, in particular in Hong Kong, in Southeast Asia.
Since the introduction of the Pinyin system for romanizing Mandarin Chinese, there have been those who have felt that "Taoism" would be more appropriately spelled as "Daoism". The Mandarin Chinese pronunciation for the word 道 is spelled as tao4 in the older Wade–Giles romanization system while it is spelled as dào in the newer Pinyin romanization system. Both the Wade–Giles tao4 and the Pinyin dào are intended to be pronounced identically in Mandarin Chinese, but despite this fact, "Taoism" and "Daoism" can be pronounced differently in English vernacular; the word "Taoism" is used to translate different Chinese terms which refer to different aspects of the same tradition and semantic field: "Taoist religion", or the "liturgical" aspect – A family of organized religious movements sharing concepts or terminology from "Taoist philosophy". "Taoist philosophy" or "Taology", or the "mystical" aspect – The philosophical doctrines based on the texts of the I Ching, the Tao Te Ching and the Zhuangzi.
These texts were linked together as "Taoist philosophy" during the early Han Dynasty, but notably not before. It is unlikely that Zhuangzi was familiar with the text of the Daodejing, Zhuangzi would not have identified himself as a Taoist as this classification did not arise until well after his death. However, the discussed distinction is rejected by the majority of Japanese scholars, it is contested by hermeneutic difficulties in the categorization of the different Taoist schools and movements. Taoism does not f
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