The Creative Personality: Hong Kong Perspective

The purpose of this study was to investigate the Hong Kong Chinese perceptions of creative and non-creative individuals and to explore factors associated with variations in these perceptions. In the first study, 367 participants at Hong Kong railway and subway stations were asked to describe a creative and a non-creative individual. In the second study, nine Hong Kong Chinese who were nominated as creative responded to the same questions as the general public. In the third study, 278 participants representing the general population, teachers, students, and parents were asked to rate the importance of characteristics associated with a creative person. Results indicated that the core components of the concepts of a creative individual highly overlapped across sex, age, education, and occupational status variables. Differences were found between the implicit concepts of the general public and that of highly creative people. Five strong factors emerged from the analysis of ratings of characteristics of a creative person. They were: innovative abilities, intellectual abilities, dynamism, boldness, and social style. Some differences between the Hong Kong Chinese perception of a creative person and the Western concepts are discussed.