Percy Lee and Gloria Kwok had penciled a child into a future that first involved finishing their dissertations and earning Ph.D.s in humanities at universities in Hong Kong. Instead, the baby came sooner. The couple found themselves juggling overnight feeds, studying and research, and a constant calculus of rent, stipends and child-care expenses.
They received a HK$20,000 ($2,550) newborn baby bonus from the Hong Kong government early this year and spent it almost immediately on a crib, stroller and diapers. Then another message landed in their inboxes, this one from a local tycoon’s philanthropic organization. Lee and Kwok were each ...