The Departmental Seminar was successfully held on 3 January 2023. Dr. Xia Lili, Associate Researcher of the Department of Sociology, Zhejiang University in Mainland China was invited to share her topic on “Which families were affected more by the Covid-19 pandemic and how? A tentative comparison of the family well-being between Hong Kong and Hangzhou City” through the online platform.
The world has been heavily stricken by the COVID-19 pandemic since early 2020. Governments of different countries implemented similar community lockdown policies at the beginning to contain the coronavirus and its variants. During the seminar, Dr Xia shared the assessment of intercity family well-being based on the survey carried out in Hangzhou City in January 2022 and one in Hong Kong in Spring 2022. Though research has documented the comprehensive negative impacts of the pandemic on individual well-being and social development, few research has been conducted to examine its impact on the familial level. In the seminar, Dr. Xia presented the elements influencing the family, including economic constraints, infection and death of beloved ones, restrained connections between long-distance family members, and consequences of the “Work From Home” policies.
Students and teachers from our Department have actively participated in this seminar and the topic aroused a lively discussion. They all had a better understanding of the pandemic’s impact on the familial level.
An online group photo of participants