Abstract: Hong Kong's economic takeoff in the 1960s brought to Hong Kong people optimistic consciousness of class mobility. The “Hong Kong Dream” became a popular expression referring to the relatively open social strata structure of Hong Kong society. However， the mid-1980s was a period when the class structure got stabilized， resulting in the disappearance of the longdistance class mobility， and with it， the evaporation of the sense of optimism. The financial crisis and the bursting of the housing bubble in the 1990s degraded Hong Kong to a “lower middle” society. Based on the class theories and empirical data， the author finds that the lower middle class people， whose objective and subjective strata are both positioned at the lower end， are apt to having more pessimistic sense of upward mobility， which in turn is constraining their upward mobility. The “Hong Kong Dream” has lost the social basis of reality.

Key words: consciousness of class mobility, Hong Kong dream, lower middle class, “lower middle” class consciousness