Playing with Shadows

March 27, 2013

Traditional Chinese shadow puppets get a new lease of life

By Charlene Kwan

In a 300-square-foot studio in an industrial building, a man wearing reading glasses is carefully and skillfully cutting a piece of cowhide into the shape of a puppet.

Wong Fai, director of Hong Kong Puppet and Shadow Art Center, is a shadow play maestro in his 60s. He has been fascinated by puppets since he was a boy and began to learn puppetry seriously, with marionettes, when he was 17.

His love of puppetry led the Hong Konger to travel to Hunan in the late 1970s to study shadow play from Tan Degui, an eminent shadow play maestro at the Hunan Puppet and Shadow Art Troupe of China.

Wong returned to Hong Kong as a full-time puppeteer performing at nightclubs and other places of entertainment. In the 1990s, the market for puppet shows shrank and the demand for performances declined. Wong worked as a building surveyor for the next decade or so, treating his art as a part-time job.

Even so, Wong has never lost his enthusiasm for shadow play. In 2000, he decided to devote himself fully to shadow puppetry once again and invited other masters from the mainland to help.

“I think if we let it fade away and no longer have these performances, this culture in Hong Kong, I think it would be a pity,” he says with an unconscious frown.

What inspires and drives Wong to persist is his admiration for the skill of the masters he was apprenticed to who were passionate about performing throughout their lives. “[They were] performing until the last day of their lives and were extremely enthusiastic about this job,” says Wong, adding that their dedication was a lesson that was worth learning.

Wong thinks the best thing about apprenticeships is that apprentices not only learn performing skills from their masters, but also life values. Despite this, he himself does not have any apprentices. “Shadow play requires a lot of time and patience in practising even basic skills,” explains Wong. “Hong Kong people only enjoy things that yield immediate rewards.”

To make shadow play more attractive to the next generation, Wong acknowledges the need to bring it up to date. In 2003, he used a combination of puppets, including marionettes, hand puppets and shadow puppets in a show, striving to make a fresh impression on his audience.

But he says it is difficult for people of his generation to hit upon new ideas. “Our concepts are very traditional, and we do not have broad enough vision,” laughs Wong. “We will have to rely on the younger generation to modernise this art.”

Opportunity came knocking through a Chinese folk art programme run by the Hong Kong Baptist University a few years ago. Wong met Lee Yuk-shan, a student who was willing to help him in his quest.

In the Mood for Cheongsam

March 27, 2013

Meet Hong Kong’s cheongsam collectors

by Elaine Tsang

Opening an ordinary black suitcase, a young man smiles and takes out the dresses from his exquisite collection. From the pile of embroidered cheongsams, Helius Yuen Kin-wai picks out his favourite piece.

“It has the longest history within my collection,” Yuen explains of his choice, a sheer blue lace cheongsam. “Also, its design really represents the era which it comes from, the 1920s and 1930s.”

Yuen started collecting cheongsams when he was 20 and now, at only 28, he has more than 700. He was just 11, however, when he fell in love with them thanks to an old photo which showed how the dresses can turn any woman into a star.

Yuen was not a motivated student. He attended a vocational school where he fell in with a bad crowd and spent much of his days roaming the streets.

“I only studied until Form Two,” Yuen says. “[You could say] it was playfulness or naughtiness; I stopped going to school when I was about Form Three.”

At the time, Yuen had no education, no job, and no meaningful goal in life. It was only after he took up a part-time job as a sales assistant that he realised he had to find some life goals for himself. It was this search that led to his cheongsam collection.

Yuen’s current devotion to the cheongsam can be attributed to his friend and mentor Joel Chung Yin-chai, a famous toy collector.

“When I first met him, he was my boss. I was a salesperson selling clothes then,” Yuen explains. “A boss who sells clothes should be very well-dressed and tidy. But every time I saw him, he was carrying rubbish.”

Yuen was curious about Chung’s litter-picking habit and discovered Chung was picking through rubbish to find anything that was related to Hong Kong culture; old photos, stationery and in particular, toys. He told Yuen that things that others threw away could be prove useful to him. Bearing that in mind, Yuen decided to follow Chung on his search.

“When you pick something up you need to clean it, to put it somewhere safe. You must do research and understand the historical meaning behind the object,” Yuen explains. That was when he began to think about his ambition to collect cheongsams, and to learn something about Hong Kong.

This would later influence Yuen’s own beliefs as a collector of cheongsams.

The First Lady of Hong Kong Television

March 27, 2013

Eighty years-old and still going strong, Lily Leung Seun-yin never tires of acting

By Hilda Lee

Immaculately dressed in a trouser suit, accessorised with a gold tulip brooch and matching earrings, Lily Leung Suen-yin greets Varsity with a friendly smile and perfect poise. Looking at her radiant face, nobody would guess that she had worked until 4 a.m. that morning.

The 80-year-old veteran actress has been in show business since 1957. Her career-defining role as a wealthy and haughty woman known as the “Upper Class Person” in the hit 1990s TV sitcom, A Kindred Spirit, is deeply etched into people’s memories. Even now, she still catches the attention of most passers-by in the street.

But the role is just one of the great achievements in Leung’s 56-year career. Leung has been on TV for almost as long as TV has been in Hong Kong. In that time, she has marked many major milestones.

She was named “the first lady of television in Hong Kong” because she was a voice actress in the first TV programme, Puppet Family, a children’s programme. She was one of the first actresses to act in a TV drama, one of the first news anchors, a host of the first variety show, and a host of the first television programme aimed at women viewers (teaching them about make-up and deportment).

Leung never set out to be an actress. She came from a respectable middle-class family, whose fortunes changed when her father’s business failed after World War II. She gave up her studies after high school and went to work selling perfume in the Sincere Department Store to support her siblings’ tuition fees. After working in the perfume department for two to three years, people gave her the title of “Princess of Perfume” owing to her beauty.

But the beauty never regarded herself as a “princess”. She just wanted to be an ordinary woman who could earn money to support her home and her own family.

It was a chance suggestion from her husband that set her on her extraordinary path.

Leung’s husband read an advertisement in the newspaper saying that Rediffusion was recruiting announcers and encouraged his wife to apply. Rediffusion, Hong Kong’s first television station was established in May 1957 as a subscription cable service.

Then aged 24, Leung had already given birth to three children. To this day, she expresses her heartfelt gratitude to her late husband for his constant support and encouragement.

Running into the Light

March 27, 2013

Sudden blindness brings Mok Kim-wing a life full of surprises

By Vanessa Cheung

On a cool and breezy night at the Hammer Hill Road Sports Ground in Diamond Hill, the sea of runners practising for the Standard Chartered Marathon was joined by an unusual duo – Kim Mok Kim-wing and his partner Yeung Yuk-wing who guided him with a hand strap.

Mok, 48, is blind and Yeung is hearing-impaired. Both are members of the aptly named Fearless Dragon long-distance running team which has around 25 members, of whom around 15 are visually impaired while the others are hearing-impaired. On the track, one deaf runner is paired up with a blind runner to form a team in which the deaf runner takes on the role of a lead runner to guide his or her blind running mate.

Mok is a former blind athlete for Hong Kong and won a silver medal in the standing long jump in the Far East and South Pacific Games for the Disabled in 1984. With his rich experience in sport, Mok founded Fearless Dragons two years ago. “Sport is not the ultimate goal, it is a way to provide a bridge [between the disabled and the rest of society]”, he says.

The team keeps growing and setting higher targets. Last year, the team took part in the 10 km event of the Standard Chartered Marathon. However, this year Mok ran in the full marathon event. The distance is 42 km, which is equal to the distance from Aberdeen to Lo Wu. After practising for two years, Mok can finish it in 5 hours and 46 minutes.

Apart from The Fearless Dragon, Mok also co-founded the Hong Kong Blind Sports Association. He believes sports can be a way to help the disabled build up their confidence and to engage with society. To this end he also organised golf and bowling activities for the disabled in the association.

Mok has devoted his life to helping other disabled people view their disabilities positively. But he did not always view his blindness so positively himself, in fact, he recalls a sense of desperation when he first lost his sight.

Cecilie Gamst Berg’s Canto Crush

March 26, 2013

Norwegian preaches Cantonese “fundamentalism” through unconventional language classes

by Rachel Cheung

Dressed in a police officer’s uniform and brandishing a baton, Mister Public Security Bureau rushes to different restaurants in Hong Kong and demands that people replace traditional characters on the menu with simplified ones. This is a scene from one of Cecilie Gamst Berg’s YouTube videos. Gamst Berg is a Norwegian who has been teaching Cantonese in Hong Kong for 16 years and the videos are a part of her unusual take on Cantonese learning.

Gamst Berg’s passion for the Cantonese language and Hong Kong culture propels her to teach Cantonese through different channels. Until 2011, she was one of the hosts of an RTHK radio programme called Naked Cantonese, which ran for four years. But she was not satisfied with just that. She wanted to have her own TV programme. After being rejected by several producers, she turned to YouTube and began broadcasting her own videos on her channel.

Her eccentric videos are full of crazy characters, costumes and cheap props. They feature colourful stories that teach people Cantonese, as well as Gamst Berg talking about her adventures in China. Like her Cantonese classes, they are full of fun scenarios. They revolve around adult themes such as drinking and brothels and reflect her belief that language learning is all about imagination and creativity.

Gamst Berg appears in all them, assuming the improbable personas of characters such as the language police officer (the aforementioned Mr Public Security) and the beer-bellied local “bloke” Ah Mok. “I invented all of them, except one, which is my favourite – Aluminium Man,” she says.

In person, Gamst Berg provides private tutoring in places like Hong Kong diners and restaurants and holds parties for students at her village house in Pui O, which she has named the “Happy Jellyfish People’s Democratic Language Bureau”. She also calls herself a Cantonese fundamentalist because the word “fundamentalist” combines fun and mentalist, a fun, crazy and creative person just like her.

Her teaching career began in a private school where she taught English. But friends and colleagues were more interested in knowing how she learnt Cantonese and demanded that she teach them. This soon became a full time job with a good income. She now has 35 to 40 regular students, most of whom are foreigners.

Re-living World War II

March 27, 2013

War ruins and the memories of veterans are all that remain to remind us of World War II in Hong Kong
by Louie Cheng,Emily Chung & Sharon Lee

The Great Escape

March 26, 2013

Become a real escapist with Freeing HK

By Emily Chung

You are thrown into a tiny, dark room, with your hands cuffed behind your back. The door shut and locked. Now, you are left alone in front of a treasure box. Some random pictures hang from the ceiling. A timer is ticking in the corner. You have 45 minutes to sort out the clue and complete your great escape.

Welcome to Freeing HK, the city’s first ever real-life escape game. Just like escape games on mobile apps and the internet, players make their way out of themed chambers by solving various codes and puzzles. Only the Freeing HK experience stimulates all five senses rather than just hearing and vision. You need to be on the scene and you are the protagonist.

The game has three different themed chambers in ranging degrees of difficulty. The entry level chamber is a kidnapping scene, where players strive to unlock their handcuffs and reclaim their freedom before gangsters come back. The second level is a remake of the US TV series Prison Break: players have to break out from a jail cell using codes hidden in scrambled letters and numbers on a wall. The most difficult chamber is a laboratory full of gimmicks. If they are not careful smoke emitters and alarms will be triggered. Each chamber can accommodate two to five players at one time.

Should you be lucky enough to escape all the chambers, a limited edition chamber featuring seasonal festivals or events awaits.

Real-life escape games have swept many places including the United States, Japan and Taiwan. Some local elements have been added to the game here in Hong Kong. For instance, all the riddles are based on a knowledge of the city, such as its geography and transportation.

“Many people say Hong Kong lacks a creative culture, but this is not the case. We try to bring a lot of Hong Kong culture into the locked rooms [in the game],” says Raymond Sze Wai-hang, one of the founders of Freeing HK.

Sze is a second-year business student at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, where he met his co-founder Instant Wan Sze-tang, a lecturer, author, and member of the high IQ Mensa society. Both enjoy detective comics such as Kimdaichi and Detective Conan. They were fascinated by the idea of building a real-life escape game in Hong Kong.

Maggie Wu Ho-yi, a Hong Kong Polytechnic University student, went to Freeing HK for the first time earlier this year. Wu says the real-life game can be a good alternative pastime for teenagers.

“The young always play on their laptops, game consoles and mobile phones at home. Maybe going out with friends [to play Freeing HK] offers a more eye-opening experience,” Wu says.

Although Wu and her friends ultimately failed to escape from the most difficult chamber “Dr. Alpha’s laboratory”, she cherishes the experience as it helped boost cooperation amongst her friends. Wu said the game allowed her to better understand her friends, as genuine they showed their genuine emotions under stress and with the clock ticking.

If you have been dreaming of becoming an action hero, want to challenge yourself, or simply have a good time with your friends, check out Freeing HK at Room 415, Pakpolee Commercial Center, 1A-1K Sai Yeung Choi St S, Mong Kok. One game costs HK$128 per person. To reserve a place, visit http://www.freeinghk.com.

Plant a Pencil

March 26, 2013

Turn your used pencil stubs into beautiful and edible plants

By Louie Cheng

Have you ever experienced the situation where your pencil has been sharpened to only a thumb’s length, and you have no choice but to throw it away? Now, an innovative design called “Sprout” may help relieve your guilt over wasting those pencil stubs. By scrapping the eraser and replacing it with a seed, rubbish bins are no longer the only destination for old pencils. Instead, they can grow into something beautiful, delicious and fun.

At first glance, Sprout is just another wooden pencil. However, once it becomes too short to hold after many times of sharpening, don’t throw it in the bin. First find yourself a pot of soil and gently press the top of the pencil down. The line painted on the pencil indicates how deep it should go in the soil. And then, just take care of it as you would any other plant: water it daily and expose it to sufficient sunlight.

The seed in Sprout is embedded in a water-activated capsule. After several waterings, the protective capsule will dissolve and the seed will start sprouting. With proper care, the once useless pencil stub will eventually grow into a plant that brightens up your office or garnishes your salad.

The wooden pencil shaft can be removed after the plantlet’s sprouts. But you can also keep it as a labelled planting marker if you like.

There are currently 22 different seeds available, including flowers such as marigolds and forget-me-nots, vegetables such as radish, tomato and eggplant, and herbs such as mint, rosemary, thyme and parsley.

To increase the chance of germination, at least two seeds of the plant of the user’s choice are placed in each capsule. Most of them will sprout in around a week.

However, the water-activated capsule cannot distinguish between intentional irrigation and accidental spills. Whenever the pencil tip gets wet, the capsule will start dissolving and the seeds will be ready to sprout. Therefore, if you spill your coffee over your pencil, you may have to get planting although the pencil may still be long enough to write.

So what about the pencil chewers? If you do not want your seed capsule to activate and dissolve in your mouth, maybe it is time to break the habit.

Sprout is now available for online ordering. A single basil Sprout pencil costs HK$40. Different sized packages with a variety of seeds combinations are offered with discounts. The detailed planting instructions for each type of seed can be found on the website. If you are interested, visit http://democratech.us/sprout/.

Getting a Hong Kong Passport, Becoming a Chinese National

January 10, 2013

Hong Kong’s ethnic minorities call for more a more transparent and fair naturalisation system

Editors: Jennifer Xu, Carmen Shih Reporters: Sabrina Poh, Nectar Gan, Jennifer Lam

For most Hong Kong-born children of permanent residents in the S.A.R., getting a HKSAR passport is a straightforward affair. But for those who are not ethnically Chinese, it can be a mysterious and difficult process. Some fail altogether.

Since the British handover in 1997, thousands of ethnic minorities born in Hong Kong have applied for an HKSAR passport. In accordance with the Chinese Nationality Law of the People’s Republic of China, a non-Chinese person must apply to be naturalised as a Chinese national before they can be considered for a passport.

Statistics from the Hong Kong Immigration Department show that between July 1997 and August 2012, there was a total number of 13,959 applications for naturalisation. Of these, 12,502 were successful.

Country	Accumulated no of applications received (from July 1997 to August 2012)
Pakistan	4,465
Indonesia	3,736
India	3,171
Vietnam	1,558
Philippines	546
Others	1,766
Total	15,242

Top 5 countries for naturalization applications as a Chinese national since July 1997 are set out above.
Variance in total numbers differ due to withdrawal of applications for personal reasons.

Vehka Harjani was the first documented ethnic minority person with no Chinese relatives to successfully obtain an HKSAR passport. The 25 year-old had held an Indian passport from birth but chose to apply for the Hong Kong passport when she was 15.

“I was born in Hong Kong, I was raised in Hong Kong. Inside, I feel like my nationality is more of a Hong Kong person, that’s why I wanted to apply for the Hong Kong passport,” Harjani explains.

It took her about 10 months to get her HKSAR passport.

“At first, [immigrations] refused to grant me the application, stating that because I was not from a Chinese family, I did not have Chinese blood, I could not be granted the passport.”

It was only after Harjani’s father claimed racial discrimination that the Immigration Department clarify their previous response, stating that the above-mentioned requisite[u1] was merely one of the requirements. There were other considerations for a passport application as well.

Fermi Wong, executive director of Hong Kong Unison, says ethnic minorities apply for the HKSAR passport because of their sense of belonging in Hong Kong. Hong Kong Unison is a non-governmental organization that advocates for the interests and concerns of ethnic minority residents.

“Nowadays, the minority population is growing, and they have a longer history of being in Hong Kong. They may start considering Hong Kong as their home. They want to take root here, to be naturalized and to get the HKSAR passport.”

Not everyone who applies for the passport succeeds. Sandeep Singh is a 24 year old Hong Konger of Indian descent who applied for an HKSAR passport in June 2010. He was rejected in 2011.

“I was not happy,” Singh says. “I think it’s strange. I have an Indian friend who came to Hong Kong when he was four years-old. He was born in India. He lived for seven years here and applied for the HKSAR passport, and he got it. I was born in Hong Kong but could not get it. So [the policy] is not totally transparent. I don’t know why some people can while others cannot, because they never give you a full explanation.”

Without transparency and an appeals system, unsuccessful applicants sometimes turn to the media. Although she was born in Hong Kong and adopted by a local Chinese family as a baby, Maggie Cheung’s passport applications were twice rejected, in 2010 and 2011 respectively.

In November 2012, after three years and several media organisations reported on her case, Cheung was finally granted Chinese nationality and will apply for her HKSAR passport following her naturalization.

“I think it’s because of the pressure [from the media],” she says.

For Fermi Wong, Cheung’s case highlights the need for a more transparent and accountable system.

“Are the standards of accepting these people to become real Hong Kong citizens strict or lenient? [the Immigration Department] has a set of criteria, but how should we carry out the criteria? How strict or lenient should it be? The government should make it clearer.”

Ultimately, Wong believes that if Hong Kong wants to retain its role as an international metropolis, it should start by accepting people of different ethnicities and cultures living together and becoming a part of the country, starting with their passports.

The ten requirements to be considered for naturalization include:

(Taken from the Hong Kong Immigration website)

Whether you have a near relative who is a Chinese national with the right of abode in Hong Kong
Whether you have the right of abode in Hong Kong
Whether your habitual residence is in Hong Kong
Whether the principal members of your family (spouse and minor children) are in Hong Kong
Whether you have a reasonable income to support yourself and your family
Whether you have paid taxes in accordance with the law
Whether you are of good character and sound mind
Whether you have sufficient knowledge of the Chinese language
Whether you intend to continue to live in Hong Kong in case your naturalisation application is approved
Whether there are other legitimate reasons to support your application

Calls for Tougher Laws and Animal Police to Stop Animal Abuse in Hong Kong

January 10, 2013

Editors: Carmen Shih,Cherry Ge Reporters: Natalie Cheng, Rene Lam, Derek Li

Hong Kong lacks animal police and specific treatments for animal abusers

In November, a photograph of a stray cat in Sau Mau Ping, bleeding from its mouth was uploaded onto social networking sites and was immediately widely shared. This was picked up by the mainstream media and led to a very public hunt for the cat’s abusers.

It turned out that Miu, as it was named by residents in the area, had been brutally abused by five youngsters. The stray was euthanized due to severe internal injuries. That incident, and other recent cases of abuse have led to an outpouring of anger and for calls for action to halt the abuse. Concern groups have sprung up to add their voices to those that have long been speaking out for animal welfare and rights.

In a 2010 review of the existing legislation on animal welfare, Professor Amanda S Whitfort and Dr. Fiona M Woodhouse highlighted shortcomings in the system. Hong Kong’s Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Ordinance (the Ordinance), Cap 169 was enacted in 1935. Critics say it has a confusing definition of cruelty and in any case, enforcement is ineffective.

Although penalties under the law were raised in 2006, Whitford and Woodhouse say the law itself is outdated and is inadequate to fully protect animals in Hong Kong.
Besides legislation on animal welfare, many members of the public are calling for the establishment of an Animal Police to enforce the law and prevent abuse.

At present, the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD) is primarily responsible for animal welfare. It also works with the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD) and the SPCA inspectorate team to deal with any issues regarding animals, including animal abuse.
But these three bodies have no power to prosecute, even if an abuse has been witnessed. It needs the help of police, although the SPCA provides professional knowledge and veterinary reports on the animal victim in the event of a prosecution.

Various studies have suggested a link between animal abuse and interhuman violence. Acts of cruelty towards animals are seen as a possible indicator of violent psychopathology and mental disturbance. Psychologists have found that aggressive criminals tend to harm those who are weaker than themselves, including children, elderly people, and animals.

In some countries, such as the United States, issues such as a registry for animal abusers have been raised, as well as the need for psychological treatment for those who abuse animals.

Although there are as yet no known programmes specifically for the treatment and rehabilitation of animal abusers in Hong Kong, education is both urgent and needed to foster respect for animals.