The post-80s generation of young men and women of Hong Kong are mostly bright, well-educated and inquisitive. Unlike their immigrant forebears, they strongly identify themselves with Hong Kong, which they are not embarrassed to call home.

All these are good, except that their elders, those in their 40s and 50s, who are deeply entrenched in the various levels of the power structure in business, finance and the government, don't seem to be able to relate effectively to their de facto successors. Indeed, the generation gap that exists between the old and the young in Hong Kong has been widened and distorted by the return of sovereignty to China in 1997.

Before that, Hong Kong was widely seen as a city of migrants. At that time many people were either first or second generation immigrants from the Chinese mainland, mainly Guangdong province. They regarded themselves as transients who would, one day, either return to their ancestral homes or move on to seek permanent residence in foreign lands.