Coffin Homes in an Overpopulated Hong Kong

By Alexis Lee, Johnson Lo, Hang Wong

Victoria Shanghai Academy

The Global Issue Discussed

Imagine a world in which gleaming skyscrapers sit right next to derelict tong lau, containing coffin homes the size of an average parking space. This is the reality in Asia’s financial hub and one of the world’s richest cities, with a GDP higher than that of Hungary and Ukraine combined. But hidden underneath Hong Kong lies a plethora of struggles for the most vulnerable in society, where many families are unable to access essential needs and receive a reasonable quality of life standard. 

The main global issue that seems to still be a problem in society is the SDGs “Good Health and Well-being” and “Quality Education”. More specifically, relating to the underprivileged within the youth and the elderly community.

According to the United Nations: “3.8: Including financial risk protection, access to quality essential health-care services…”, which is followed by “3.8.2: Proportion of population with large household expenditures on health…”. Quality Healthcare and Well-being are one of the most important pillars of any society, and that is also true here in Hong Kong. Amid a rising elderly population, there has been a higher need for local community centers that can support their physical and mental needs, where the elderly may receive quality care and support in a cramped city that can be demanding and stressful. 

Education is another key pillar in society, helping millions of students around the world broaden their horizons and rise in social status for their families. However, many students in the city, especially those from weaker economic backgrounds, have much fewer opportunities. Hence unable to fully utilise resources towards learning and developing important skills, putting them at a serious disadvantage. It is seen in the magnitude of this issue when they’re taking the same exams as their more privileged peers. Beyond academics, local students may have a much hindered ability to further develop their interests and talents, holding back on much of the youth’s potential. This connects back to the official website of the United Nations, under the SDG “Quality Education”, it reads: “By 2030, substantially increase the number of youth and adults who have relevant skills, including technical and vocational skills.” (4.4) and “Proportion of youth and adults with information and communications technology (ICT) skills, by type of skill” (4.41) (United Nations). As we move into an increasingly technologically-focused world, it's important to be able to help others who may not be able to keep up with this rapidly changing landscape, which may determine their fate in the future. 

Although people in Hong Kong generally have easy access to essential health services and high-quality education, it’s also one of the most unequal cities in the world, so it’s not the same for everyone. Financially underprivileged people have always faced many challenges worldwide, and nowhere is this wealth gap more prominent than in Hong Kong. The city’s population stands at 7.4 million, yet it was found that over 1.4 million people here live below the poverty line, which is 20% of the population (Oxfam Hong Kong). Many of these elderly unfortunately live alone, and for many of those who are struggling financially, paying high rent for living spaces as small as a parking space is widespread across poorer areas of the city.

Poverty hits especially hard on the elderly in this city, because these people may find it much harder to sustain themselves due to the fact that they can’t work nor reinvent themselves to find a much higher-paying job. One third of the city’s elderly population lives in poverty, and its associated effects take a high toll on their physical and mental health (Oxfam). 

Poverty also has a large influence on children, because if a child is in poverty, they have a high likelihood of being trapped in this cycle once they grow up and head into adulthood, because they don’t get the same resources and support as their more privileged peers. Their physical and mental health troubles can be exacerbated when many of them live in tiny coffin homes that restrict their movement and their study areas. A quarter of all children in the city live in poverty, while 50,000 live in extremely poor living conditions (SoCo). 

All this inequality is holding back both the elderly’s living conditions and the potential of many students. These are the main issues that VSA Reach Out strives to aid with, in collaboration with the charity AKA (Aberdeen Kai-Fong Association), which shares our vision.  The Initiative

VSA Reach Out is our service club, focused on volunteering and raising awareness around Hong Kong about local issues.  Here, we aspire to do our part to help and give back to our community on a broad variety of concerns. Our main mission is to help people, from underprivileged children to many of the elderly who live alone. Beyond that, we try to help with the local flora and fauna as well, through missions such as regular beach cleanups. Our club was created in 2017, and the original founder hoped that through this club, students, from any age, could still make a positive impact on their local community. 

Fig 1. Service Group Photo

As we all know, Hong Kong has an incredibly huge wealth gap, and our club aims to help with that. With the help of the Aberdeen Kai-Fong Association, we have achieved many things over the past few years. Firstly, to help out with the SDG of “Good Health and Well-being”, we took part in AKA's annual winter elderly visit, conversing with the elderly and helping them through their familial and financial issues. We brought them food, clothes, supplies, and engaged in conversation and meaningful exchange. We saw their faces light up after we started communicating with them and talking to them about their lives and whatever they wanted to talk about. We felt we'd made their entire week, and we also encouraged them to participate in more activities organized by AKA. Moreover, through another event, we encouraged critical thinking and social interactions between the elderly and teenagers, through playing the board game Rummikub with them. 

Fig 2. Playing Board Games with the Local Elderly

Fig 3. Teaching Children English

Secondly, to help out with the SDG “Quality Education”, we taught kids English at the AKA center, through writing storybooks and teaching them typography. We used AI to generate images, and we taught the kids how to use AI effectively. Through this, we helped children with less exposure to technology understand what it was like to use AI, and how it can be used to one’s advantage. Additionally, we had the incredible chance to teach local kids what we learned about life, death, gratitude and loss through a session. Here, children were able to discuss their opinions and share their experiences with their friends, family and other peers. From this, they were able to understand more of what they were feeling and how to be more aware of their own and others’ emotions.

One of the main difficulties our club faced when conducting service, was that we were unsure of how to approach and communicate with a differently aged target audience. For example, we felt it was initially really difficult to strike up conversations with the elderly. To overcome this, we had our supervisor hold workshops on how we should appropriately speak and interact not only with elderly people, but with young kids as well. 

Finally, as we move forward into the next academic year, we plan to deepen and extend our impact through continuing our current service while extending into the field of mental health. We will also be creating a short documentary on the lives of less fortunate elderly citizens and the challenges they face every day, which will hopefully be published through AKA. Through this documentary, we hope to show that the elderly don't have it as easy as we think they do, through illustrating many of the struggles and obstacles they encounter. 

Works Cited

“Deep Dive: Hong Kong’s Wealth Gap Widens as Elderly Poverty Increases.” Young Post, South China Morning Post, 20 Oct. 2024, www.scmp.com/yp/discover/article/3282538/deep-dive-hong-kongs-wealth-gap-widens-elderly-poverty-increases. Accessed 5 Aug. 2025.

“SDG Indicators | All 17 Goals.” SDG Indicators, 2015, sdg.tw/. Accessed 5 Aug. 2025.

“The Wealth Gap in Hong Kong Surges to 81.9 Times Elderly Poverty Exceed 580,000.” Oxfam.org.hk, 2015, www.oxfam.org.hk/en/news-and-publication/the-wealth-gap-in-hong-kong-surges-to-819-times-elderly-poverty-exceed-580000. Accessed 5 Aug. 2025.

“Children’s Right Project - SoCO ｢與弱勢並肩、為公義行動｣.” SoCO, 2018, soco.org.hk/en/projecthome/child-rights/. Accessed 11 Aug. 2025.