Cultural Homelessness, Social Dislocation and Psychosocial Harms: An Overview of Social Mobility in Hong Kong and Mainland China

In order to facilitate collective decision making and breed productivity, it is important to ensure societies operate in a fair and just manner. Chinese literature has a propensity of relying on sociological theories from the modern West, prompting the review essay to address theories of capital, social mobility, cultural preferences and otherwise based on leading western literature. This review essay addresses how an increase in social mobility of those from lower social origins results in cultural homelessness and social dislocation, in relations to the experiences of psychosocial harms. As per western studies, the review essay examines the extent of cultural homelessness, social dislocation and psychosocial harms faced by upwardly mobilising cohorts in Hong Kong and China. To conclude, the essay argues upwardly mobilising cohorts in Hong Kong and China are likely to experience cultural homelessness, and the corresponding cohorts in China face salient problems of social dislocation. The encounters of cultural and social dilemmas are associated with the experiences of psychosocial harms for both populations.