A Rising Star

December 30, 2022

Hong Kong actor Ling Man-lung talks about his journey to rise and shine in the performing arts industry.

By Esme Lam

Having defeated popular Japanese and Thai actors including Yokohama Ryusei from The Journalist and Dew Jirawat Sutivanichsak from F4 Thailand, Ling Man-lung has been crowned as the first Hong Kong winner of the Best Rising Star at Busan’s Asia Contents Awards.

Ling Man-lung has been crowned the Best Rising Star at the 4th Asia Contents Awards in Busan, South Korea. (Photo Courtesy of Ling Man-lung)

“I was amazed. Who could have imagined that the globally-renowned judges would have watched In Geek We Trust, which is just a small TV drama production in Hong Kong? I am also thrilled that my hard work of 14 years is finally recognised,” says the 36 years-old actor who received the award on October 8 2022.

“My family and my friends sent me messages to congratulate me that night. The nomination is already a great achievement for me,” he says.

The ViuTV drama, which made Ling a household name, was broadcasted in January 2022. He plays the role of Shun, a CEO of a startup company.

In Geek We Trust, which made Ling Man-lung a household name, was broadcasted in January 2022. (Screen Capture from Viu TV’s website)

He was nominated for both Best Actor and Best New Performer for his role in Tomorrow Is Another Day at the Hong Kong Film Awards in 2018 and won the latter.

Ling fell in love with acting when he was a Form Four student.

He decided to study performance after joining a drama production and attending acting courses at The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts (HKAPA). He was 15 years old.

“I was amazed. I did not know that acting could be trained before attending the courses. I wanted to continue to learn from those teachers,” he says.

Instead of joining an artiste training class held by a television station, he decided to study performance at the HKAPA.

“People in Hong Kong categorise actors as movie actors, stage drama actors and TV drama actors. To me, they are the same. They all act,” the actor says.

His parents used to worry about him, fearing he could not make a living after graduation, but they supported him to pursue his dream anyhow.

“My mum told me not to regret my own decision. No matter what decision I make, she will always support me,” he says.

“After gaining more acting experience in my secondary school and HKAPA, I find acting more and more attractive,” the actor says.

After graduating from HKAPA in 2008, he started his journey of acting by joining Hong Kong Repertory Theatre, a troupe founded in 1977.

He starred in the Hong Kong movie Tomorrow Is Another Day in 2017 after working as a stage drama actor for 10 years.

“Teresa Mo Shun-kwan, a locally renowned actress, was impressed by my performance after watching a stage drama The Sin Family in 2016. Then she recommended me to the director of the movie,” Ling says.

Mo acted with Ling in another leading role as Wong Kam Fa, the mother of Ling’s character Kwong in Tomorrow Is Another Day.

“Even though I have been in the troupe for nearly ten years, I rarely get the chance to play the leading role. So this opportunity is really precious to me,” he adds.

To better portray the character Kwong, who suffers from autism and mild intellectual disability, the actor did research about the medical condition to prepare for the role.

“I read a lot of research about symptoms and behaviours of autistic patients to gain more understanding of my character,” he recalls.

Although Ling enjoys acting a lot, he admits that there are some difficulties in being an actor.

“I deny myself easily. As an actor, I am always ready to take criticism. The feeling of the audience is always directly reflected in their faces and comments. The only solution is to be more positive,” Ling says.

Unstable income is also a problem. To make a living during the pandemic, Ling has held workshops to teach acting since last year.

“I had no job for a period of time due to the pandemic. Then I decided to learn how to hold acting classes from my mentor Chan Suk-yi, who is the acting dean of the School of Drama in HKAPA, a drama actor and a director, so that I can sustain my living by holding acting classes,” Ling says.

Apart from acting, Ling Man-lung has held workshops to teach acting since last year. (Screen Capture from Ling Man-lung’s Instagram account)

His students are mainly new actors, and some are Youtubers such as Locker Lam Ka-hei from Trial Or Error and Angela Yuen Lai-lam.

Through the preparation of teaching materials and designs of the curriculum, the actor also sharpens his own acting.

“Every time I prepare for my workshop, I can revise some basic acting knowledge and techniques I have learned. Also, I can learn new things from my students. I also want to join acting workshops hosted in Europe to polish my acting if I have the opportunity to,” the actor says.

Ling says he does not really have a career plan.

“I will just take things as they come and keep learning and appreciating my own value. I hope I can continue producing and creating not only as an actor, but maybe as a director or a screenwriter,” he says.

Ling thinks that it will be great if Hong Kong can collaborate with other countries more. He also thinks audiences’ input is important to the industry.

“Creators and audiences have to grow up together. Audiences can give more comments and advice. Producers in the industry can create better work by taking in their views,” he adds.

Edited by Felicia Lam
Sub-edited by Ella Lang

Quick-Sketching to Spread Joy

December 29, 2022

Lui was sketching while waiting for the next MTR train (Photo Courtesy of Josh Lee Kwan-lok)

By Karmen Yip

Every weekend, Charlotte Lui Cheuk-nok draws passengers in the MTR with a few notepad-sized papers and a black marker.

“I usually finish a sketch within four MTR stations. I have to complete the sketches fast so that I can give them to the passengers I drew before they leave the train. It always gives me an adrenaline rush because I am competing against time,” she says.

She sees giving sketches and bringing smiles to commuters as a motivation for her to continue drawing commuters every weekend.

“I feel satisfied immediately after I successfully give the sketches to the passengers. I am especially exhilarated when it comes off as unexpected to the passengers and brings bright smiles to their faces,” she explains.

Lui, an alumnus who graduated from the Academy of Visual Arts of the Hong Kong Baptist University in 2019, started drawing the lives of MTR commuters when she started a new job last year.

“I used to spend four hours commuting to work every day. The long and draining commute made me realise that I did not have any spare time to draw so I started sketching people in the MTR during the commute,” the 25-year-old artist says.

Spreading positivity with artworks

At first, she only posted the artworks on Instagram page “Moving Drawing”, which was created in March 2021. In January 2022, she began giving sketches to commuters with inspiration from Devon Rodriguez, an American artist who draws subway passengers in New York.

“Many friends sent me Rodriguez’s videos and suggested me to give my sketches to Hong Kong commuters. So I gave it a go and began giving my sketches to the commuters earlier this year when the local pandemic situation improved,” she adds.

Lui was finding new inspirations and sketching at the Tsim Sha Tsui promenade. (Photo Courtesy of Josh Lee Kwan-lok)

Lui hopes gifting sketches to commuters can spread positivity to Hongkongers.

“A lot of Hongkongers feel stagnant and depressed after the political turmoil in 2019 followed by the pandemic. I wanted to cheer locals up through my art by giving my sketches as gifts to weekend commuters,” she says.

“I have always loved spreading happiness through my art and I find sheer joy through gifting sketches to other people. It is always an unforgettable experience whenever I meet and give sketches as presents to Hongkongers,” she adds.

Her Instagram page gained visibility after a video of her drawing a train cleaner went viral. The post has received almost 80,000 likes and 1,000 comments on Instagram.

“I posted the video in June 2022. I passed by a train cleaner who was working in the MTR on a busy day. She was sanitising the escalator handrail and I wanted to appreciate her hard work, so I gifted her the sketch,” she says.

In her sketch, a girl gives thumbs-ups with both hands to the cleaner. The artist also wrote “Thank you” in Chinese and English on it.

Feeling astonished to see her artworks gaining popularity on social media, she says, “I was lost and uncertain about what I should do in the future before the video came out. Then that video suddenly went viral and it opened the door for me to become a full-time artist.”

The illustrator has now garnered over 75,000 Instagram followers and collaborated with brands like Mirabell and the MTR Corporation.

“Humans incorporate all sorts of emotions through different life experiences so I use drawing as a cathartic outlet to express my sentiments. I did not anticipate so many people will notice my art,” she says.

She credits Man Pak-lap, her art teacher, as a crucial contributor to her project’s success.

“Mr Man has been my art teacher since Form 6 when I was 17 years old. I started taking his art classes when I was preparing for my high school art diploma exam,” she says.

“He welcomed me into the world of art and introduced the habit of drawing a sketch every day. Mr Man also reminded me not to get easily defeated by criticisms. His teachings have been constantly helpful throughout my artistic pursuits,” she explains.

Not all kindness is accepted

Lui held her sketch that features the North Indian family.(Photo Courtesy of Charlotte Lui Cheuk-nok)

Although Lui’s drawings are happily accepted by many MTR passengers, she was turned down by a few.

“I was once rejected by a Northern Indian family. They just ignored me when I handed them the sketch and they waved their hands to signal they were not interested in keeping the sketch,” she says.

The millennial says she was shocked when rejected because she never expected such a reaction.

“I was confused by why they rejected me, so I felt a bit upset after the incident,” she says, adding that she posted a video about the incident on her Instagram account.

“A person who knows the family messaged me on Instagram and told me that the family had just arrived in Hong Kong from Northern India. He said the family does not know English and is not familiar with the Hong Kong culture so he told me not to blame them for the rejection,” she explains.

The Hong Kong Baptist University graduate who majored in painting and printmaking says she reflected on how she should approach passengers after being rejected.

“I might not express my intentions well, so some people may be confused when I give them my sketches. They may have misunderstood that I was asking for money for the drawing and were not sure that the drawing was for them to keep,” she says.

“I am more careful about what I say before approaching passengers so that I can express my intentions more clearly,” she explains.

Looking into the future

Lui aims to maintain her habit of drawing a sketch every day and continue spreading joy to others. But her long-term goal is to become an oil painter in Hong Kong, drawing with paint brushes instead of a black marker.

The full-time artist says she hopes to draw more oil paintings and share them on her Instagram page – “Moving Drawing” to reach her long-term goal.

Lui devotes more time to practising oil painting nowadays.
(Photo Courtesy of Charlotte Lui Cheuk-nok)

Despite having a clear future goal, she has some doubts.

“Van Gogh’s art is only appreciated by others after his death but not when he was alive. So I do not know if I can become a successful oil painter in my twenties since painters usually become renowned at a very old age. That is why I have the perception that it takes years of practice to be a good enough painter,” she says.

“I am not sure if I will be a recognised painter very soon, but I will paint every day and fulfil my promise to myself,” she adds.

The aspiring painter thinks that Hong Kong artists should not think too much when creating art.

“Art-making itself is a healing process. If you do not feel happy when you draw, it will be harder for your artworks to impact a wider audience,” she explains.

In the near future, Lui says she wishes to draw subway passengers from other countries when she travels overseas.

“I hope to reach a global audience by travelling elsewhere and draw commuters in other countries. Since my act of giving sketches to commuters was inspired by Rodriguez, it will be fun if we can draw portraits of each other in the subway someday,” she says.

Sub-edited by Felicia lam

Caring for the Deceased and Living

December 29, 2022

Pasu Ng Kwai-lun founded RIP88 to answer the city’s calling: a lack of alternative undertaker service providers.

By Lesley Lam

Pasu Ng Kwai-lun quitted his job as the manager of the dissection laboratory at the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2020. When he was struggling to stay or leave Hong Kong, the success of his social enterprise proposal submitted to the Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship Development Fund (SIE Fund) made him stay.

“The proposal is actually designed based on my final year project when I studied art and design for my top-up degree at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. The funeral market is confined by traditions and rituals. No one (in Hong Kong) have thought of the need for alternative funeral services. I want to change that,” says Ng, whose proposal is the prototype of “RIP88”.

The social enterprise provides affordable, simple and dignified after-death services and emotional support to low-income families to bid final farewells to their deceased family members.

“ ‘88’ in Cantonese means ‘bye-bye’, and RIP88 is about how to say a good farewell,” says Ng, who set up his social enterprise in April 2020.

Apart from being a social enterprise founder, Ng is also a certified embalmer. He is an awardee of the 2020 Hong Kong Humanity Award and the Top Ten Outstanding Young Persons for 2019, as well as the founding president of the Hong Kong Life and Death Studies Association.

Ng started working as a body embalmer when he was 24. Holding a higher diploma in applied arts, he finds his work as an embalmer who preserves and recovers bodies in line with his background.

“I think helping to recover a deceased’s appearance is somehow quite similar to artwork which is related to my studies,” he says.

Ng had his first grief counselling training at the Centre on Behaviour Health at the University of Hong Kong after working as an embalmer for around seven years.

“I gradually realise that there is little I can do to comfort friends and relatives of the deceased. But I want to be of help,” he says.

RIP88, Pasu Ng Kwai-lun’s social enterprise, also serves as a life-and-death education bookstore.

Ng points out that funeral directors in other countries such as the United Kingdom are well-trained in counselling, and there are licenses, qualifications framework, and codes of ethics that govern the industry.

Yet the funeral industry in Hong Kong is run by traditions, rather than a professional and knowledge-based system.

“Some say that undertakers in Hong Kong profit off the dead. That is true in a sense when the pricing is intransparent in the industry. Some may even demand for extra charges after the funeral service is completed,” he says.

He is determined to make a difference with RIP88, which is situated across the street from the Kowloon Deaths Registry. It takes up half of the floor of a commercial building and is not only a funeral home but also a life and death education bookstore.

Ng talks about how the office of his funeral home is designed during the interview.

“This place looks like other hipster-style stores in Sham Shui Po. Customers find this environment more comfortable. They do not have to see a lot of coffins on display like those traditional funeral homes do,” he says.

Pasu Ng Kwai-lun introduces different types of urns available at RIP88.

There are different types of urns in the office including necklaces, bracelets, crystal balls, and keychains that can be tailor-made.

“This is to cater to different people’s preferences when it comes to keeping their loved ones with them,” he points out.

Ng’s funeral home also provides non-traditional funeral planning services.

“Rituals can help easing the grief, but relying too much on it will make the ceremony highly religious, especially in Daoism for Hong Kong. But in reality, many of the deceased here are not religious,” Ng says.

Modern-style funeral featuring tailor-made service is an important alternative that Ng wishes to provide. He recalls one of the memorable ones he has planned for a mother of two.

“The deceased was a designer with two sons. Her husband chose pictures she designed to be printed on her paper coffin,” he says.

The paper coffin with the deceased designer’s designs printed on it.

The sons were in primary school at the time their mother left them in her forties. A farewell this early for the boys left a remarkable impression on Ng.

Asked if he has had compassion fatigue or feeling burnt out having handled so many heartbreaking cases for years, Ng thinks that his rational personality helps.

“I am a rational person. Of course, I am motivated by emotional causes and I act upon them, but I am also strongly rational and introverted when it comes to working,” he says.

He describes himself as someone with an entrepreneurial spirit and sense, and this side of him prompts him to be active on social media platforms as well as doing a lot of interviews with multiple news outlets.

Pasu Ng Kwai-lun has been featured in various media outlets and is active on his social media accounts.

“Word of mouth is important in this business. The reason why I post on Facebook every day is to reach out to people. Also, since the underprivileged in Hong Kong relies greatly on the recommendation from hospital social workers to make funeral plans, keeping a media presence can help build trust with social workers so that they will consider recommending us to clients,” he explains.

About half of the clients of RIP88 are less well-off families, most of which are living on welfare dole.

Ng hopes he can also continue to host talks and workshops on life and death education.

The funeral home has developed faster than Ng expected. Sadly, the pandemic brought a lot of unexpected and hard farewells.

Combined with immigration waves and an ageing population in Hong Kong, Ng advises Hong Kong people to bring death to the table for discussion.

“If there are elderly in a household, what to do at the end of their lives is a topic that should be discussed. It is important to plan end-of-life care because living and dying is a process that is not cut in two by the occurrence of death. End-of-life care is done so that during this whole process, families and friends of the soon-deceased person can face their passing away,” Ng says.

“The ultimate goal of funerals and ceremonies is for the friends and families to say a good farewell. Funeral homes seem to serve the deceased, but we are actually serving the living ones,” he adds.

Sub-edited by Gabriella Lynn

Can We Settle Down?

December 29, 2022

Tenants of transitional housing keep moving while waiting for public rental housing to settle down.

By Iris Jiang

Oi Chan* felt lucky when she was allowed to move into a transitional housing unit in Sham Shui Po after living in a subdivided flat in the same district for more than six years with a serious water seepage problem.

“My two children used to do their homework in bed, but now they have a proper table and chairs,” says Chan, one of the 89 tenants being chosen from over 400 applications for the Nam Cheong 220 transitional housing project.

The project is coordinated by the Hong Kong Council of Social Service, a non-governmental organisation that promotes social welfare and development, with the site provided by the Henderson Land Group, a large real estate developer.

Nam Cheong 220 is the first transitional housing project built with a modular integrated construction method with 89 tenants.

With a two-year rental period, Chan and her children moved in on 24 August 2020 as the first batch of tenants.

When the rental period ended, only 25.5 per cent of the tenants were able to get a public rental housing placement. While 62.8 per cent of them moved to other transitional housing, the remaining 11.7 per cent were forced to settle themselves back into the private market, like renting a subdivided flat and living with friends or families, according to the Task Force on Transitional Housing under Housing Bureau.

On 17 September 2022, Chan and her two children moved to another transitional housing in the same district on Yen Chow Street.

“I had applied for three other transitional housing projects before moving out. Luckily, we are now assigned to the same district, but we are still waiting for a public housing unit,” she adds.

“Why should I keep moving?”

Susan Hung*, also a tenant of Nam Cheong 220, has to move to another transitional housing in Tai Po with her husband and their three-year-old child.

“It was tiring moving around. My child has to change schools due to the distant relocation and I need time to adapt to the new environment too,” Hung says, adding that the family has been lining up for a public housing flat for seven years.

The family also needs to pay a security deposit of about HKD$10,000 (US$1280.70) just to settle down, temporarily again.

View looking out from the window from one of the units of Nam Cheong 220.

Before moving into Nam Cheong 220, Hung and her family lived in a 100 square feet subdivided flat in To Kwa Wan with a monthly rent of more than HKD$5,000 (US$642.28). They had waited for public housing for five years at that time.

While living in Nam Cheong 220, they paid around HKD$3000 (US$385.92) for a 200 square feet unit. They enjoyed cheaper rental prices and a larger living area for two years.

“I thought we could definitely get a public rental housing placement within that period, so we decided to move in. Unfortunately, we still cannot get it after waiting for seven years,” the full-time housewife says.

“Why should I keep moving? I would have rather stayed in my original subdivided flat if I knew I could not get public housing,” says Hung.

“I am really stressed worrying we might still have to move around. I just wish that we can get a public housing unit to settle down,” she adds.

“Why should I keep moving? I would have rather stayed in my original subdivided flat if I knew I could not get public housing!”

When Can One Settle Down?

According to the Hong Kong Housing Authority, there were about 144,200 general applications for public rental housing as of June 2022.

The average waiting time is six years at the end of June 2022, while the average waiting time is just 3.4 years in 2015.

According to a special analysis from the authority, changes in applicants’ household circumstances, including change of district choice, household particular and location preference, might have affected the timing of the first flat offer.

It also states that the pace of public rental housing flat allocation work had been largely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic especially in 2020. Chun Yeung Estate in Fo Tan was used as a quarantine centre since February 2020 while Fai Ming Estate in Fanling was damaged in January 2020. People were allowed to move into these two housing estates from late 2020 onwards.

To achieve the target of providing the first flat offer to general applicants at around three years on average, the government has identified about 350 hectares of land to produce around 330,000 public housing units for the coming ten-year period. It hopes the demand for around 301,000 public housing units can be met.

One of the living units of Nam Cheong 220, a transitional housing project.

The government is currently offering 5,215 units of transitional housing, while building more than 20,000 units in a bid to meet people’s housing needs, according to the Secretary of Transport and Housing Bureau Frank Chan Fan’s blog post on 28 May 2022.

Meet the Purpose of Transiting People to Public Rental Housing

Sze Lai-shan, deputy director of the Society for Community Organisation, says the original initiative of transitional housing is to provide a better living environment to people who are waiting for public housing while living in inadequate housing.

“Building transitional housing can be way faster than building public housing. It takes a small piece of land and around one to two years to build transitional housing, while for public housing, it can take more than ten years,” says Sze.

She says the government expects transitional housing tenants to a public housing placement within the two-year rental period.

“The government also does not know the possibility of moving back to a subdivided flat or relocating to other districts can cause strong concern from tenants,” she adds.

“People living in transitional housing can have a better living standard for two years. But if they unfortunately have to move to transitional housing in another district and need to change their jobs or schools, that will definitely be tragic,” Sze says.

She notes the government should extend the rental period by learning from the experience of the Nam Cheong 220 project.

“It will be better if tenants are allowed to live in transitional housing until they get public rental housing. Otherwise the programme fails to meet its purpose,” Sze says.

Hung, as a tenant under the project, echoes with this comment.

“It is nonsense to keep moving. What is the point of building transitional housing if it cannot transit us to public rental housing,” she says with a sigh.

“It will be better if tenants are allowed to live in transitional housing until they get public rental housing. Otherwise the programme fails to meet its purpose.”

*Name changed at interviewee’s request

Sub-edited by Felicia Lam

Fancy But Affordable: A New Dining Style

December 29, 2022

More customers are enjoying casual dining that offers quality food at affordable prices.

By Charlie Chun

Audrey Yung Ho-yan goes to casual dining restaurants to search for quality food and reduce infection risks during the pandemic.

“I avoid restaurants reported with confirmed cases before and I avoid eating in large-scale restaurants to avoid cluster infection,” she says.

“Fewer customers are dining at one table in casual dining restaurants. Infection risk is lower at this kind of small restaurant. I do not want to pose any risk to my grandparents who are living with me,” the university student majoring in medicine says.

As a food lover who shares her dining experiences on Instagram with more than 15,000 followers, Yung goes to casual dining restaurants around 18 times a month.

Casual dining restaurants’ average pricing is about USD $15 (HK $117), according to The Walnut Room, an American restaurant under Macy’s Inc., one of the premier retailers in the United States.

“I spend around HK $300 to 400 (USD $38.46 to 51.28) per meal. The price is lower than eating in a fine dining restaurant which takes around HK $1,500 (USD $192.31), and the food quality is better than chain restaurants,” she says.

Yung studies the hygiene conditions of casual dining restaurants when choosing which one to go to.

“I look for recommendations on social media such as Instagram to avoid stumbling into the bad ones,” she says.

Standing Out From The Crowd

According to the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department, the number of general license restaurants increased from 11,448 in 2019 to 12,914 in July 2022. Casual dining restaurants are required to register under the general license.

Riding on the trend of casual dining, Wong Ka-kei opened up his restaurant with two partners in February 2022 amid the COVID-19 pandemic when many eateries shut down.

Chef Wong Ka-kei owns a casual dining restaurant in Soho, Central.
(Photo courtesy of Wong Ka-kei)

Located in Soho, Central, Wong’s casual dining restaurant serves seasonal seafood and champagne mainly targeting female customers aged 25-34.

Before opening this casual dining restaurant, Wong worked in the one-star Michelin Dome Antwerp in Belgium, and the one-star Michelin VEA Restaurant in Hong Kong, which ranked 63rd out of 100 restaurants in Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants Award, created by Asia’s 50 Best Restaurant Academy, in 2022.

“Fine dining serves the best part of ingredients to customers, which causes a lot of food waste. Casual dining has less restrictions in comparison.”

His restaurant has recorded a growth of 600 per cent in sales since the relaxation of social distancing measures in April 2022.

“We only have 18 seats in total with nine tables. Our small business scale helps control costs. It is easier to calculate the costs as we do not serve many people throughout the day. We have around 15 to 20 customers every night now,” the 28-year-old chef says.

“We are only open for weekend brunch and dinners from Wednesday to Sunday. We can serve a maximum of 36 customers in two rounds of dining sessions,” he adds.

Wong’s restaurant can only serve 18 customers per seating.

Business Under The Pandemic

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the government banned dine-in services at catering businesses from 6 p.m. to 5 a.m. between 7 January 2022 and 20 April 2022.

When dining was banned at night, Wong’s restaurant mainly served lunch and takeaway featuring food items such as pasta and burgers.

“These food items are easy to take out, but we only get a few hundred dollars of sales from takeaways,” he says.

Despite earning little from the takeaway sales due to the restaurant opening time restrictions, the casual dining restaurant owner thinks that the small operation scale lets him catch up with the ever-changing government policies during the pandemic quickly.

“The advantage of my restaurant is that we only sell seafood and can calculate our cost precisely. Food ingredients will not be wasted,” he says.

Industry Reformation

Lawmaker Tommy Cheung Yu-yan, who represents the catering functional constituency, says restaurant owners want to keep operation costs low in order to stay in business.

“Owners would rather operate their restaurants by themselves instead of hiring a bunch of workers. Plus, they can put less food stock in the fridge under small-scale operation,” he says.

More than 1,200 restaurants have suspended their business due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to other media outlets.

Cheung adds that the catering industry relies heavily on tourism.

“The catering industry will not be able to revive without Hong Kong opening up the borders with Mainland China. It is just like introducing the Individual Visit Scheme in 2003 to help revive the economy after the SARS outbreak,” he says.

Edited by Chaelim Kim
Sub-edited by Gabriella Lynn

Scavenging to Survive

December 29, 2022

Scavengers strive to make a living while escaping from the eyes of the hygiene officers.

By Amelie Yeung

Almost every evening, elderly woman Susan Tang* does her best to flee when uniformed officers from the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD) approach.

Scavenging is a risky business as FEHD officers could confiscate her collection on the charges of street obstruction. Tang scavenges on the streets of To Kwa Wan and typically flees from the officers once a day when they patrol the area. If she fails, she will be fined HK$1500.

Officers from the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department frequently patrol the streets for public health.

“I just wish they would leave me alone. I’m only trying to get a few extra bills,” Tang says.

The monthly income of a scavenger is HK$9000 a month, which is lower than that of the minimum wage, according to a 2021 report by Waste Picker Platform, a subsidiary body under the Mission to New Arrivals Limited’s School of Poverty Caring (SPC).

“I mostly collect cardboard and Styrofoam boxes. On a good night, I earn HK$20,” the 77-year-old says. For every kilogram of cardboard she collects, she gets only HK$0.8.

Tang splits her time between scavenging and raising her grandson, so she does not spend as much time scavenging as other full-time scavengers.

Every night at 6 p.m., Tang gets her first round of cardboard from stores such as fruit and vegetable stalls. The second round comes at 10 p.m. when restaurants close.

Tang piles the scavenged material on her trolley after cutting the boxes and laying them flat. She then wheels her trolley to the alleys, where they remain for the night.

The next day, Tang sells them to recycling businesses after spraying them with water to make them heavier. She finds them hard to transit with added weight, but the water is necessary.

“More weight, more money, even if it hurts my back,” Tang explains.

Being a widow, she takes care of her only grandchild who is in primary one. Her son died a few years ago, leaving behind his wife.

“My daughter-in-law doesn’t care about my grandson or me. She parties all day and never come home,” says Tang.

Unable to qualify for the Comprehensive Social Security Assistance (CSSA) as her assets slightly exceed the limit, Tang and her grandson rely on her savings and her old age allowance, which is HK$1,290 a month.

“I don’t think the savings are enough, not for raising my grandson. So what else can I do but scavenge?” she says.

Citywide Cleanup

This August, the Hong Kong government launched a three-month programme named “Tackling Hygiene Black Spots”. The initiative will clean 600 hygiene black spots in the community to stop waste accumulation and rodent problems.

According to FEHD, its primary concern is the maintenance of environmental hygiene, especially issues aroused by scavenging activities. Enforcement priority is given to cases that obstruct cleansing operations, an offense under section 22(1)(a) of the Public Health and Municipal Services Ordinance (Cap. 132).

FEHD will issue a notice to the owner of the article obstructing the operation to remove it within four hours.

“Enforcing cleanliness on the streets strictly appears to reduce environmental hygiene issues, but in reality, the core problems remain. When enforcements are relaxed, the hygiene issues will return,” says Peter Chiu Yat-fai, Ministry Coordinator of SPC.

“Even if you improve the elderly welfare program or elderly employment, scavengers will still exist because some of them enjoy the flexibilities of the job,” he says.

Ministry Coordinator Peter Chiu Yat-fai teaches workshops to educate people on the issue of scavengers. (Photo Courtesy of Waste Picker Platform)

“Scavengers are accused of causing hygiene issues. For that, they have been driven away, complained about, given a ticket, or even insulted,” he continues.

Waste Picker Platform hopes more people can learn the importance of scavengers to the city.

“We host workshops with human libraries so that participants, most of them students, will understand more about scavengers and their contribution towards society,” Chiu says. A human library refers to a person who shares their stories with listeners.

“What scavengers really need is a friendly space for them in the community,” he says.

Waste Picker representatives visit scavengers to understand what they need. (Photo Courtesy of Waste Picker Platform)

While Hong Kong is having its citywide cleaning activity, New York City also initiated the “Get Stuff Clean” campaign in November this year. Under the USD14.5 million plan, the government hopes cleaner streets and rodent eradication will improve the quality of life for its citizens.

A Precarious Balance

Waste management is completely necessary, according to Professor Hung Chi-tim at the Chinese University of Hong Kong’s Jockey Club School of Public Health and Primary Care (SPHPC).

The Professor of Practice in Health Services Management asserts that it is important to keep back alleys clean and free from obstruction by removing rubbish that accumulates as soon as possible, even if this clashes with scavengers who often cause hygiene issues.

According to Hung, rubbish can become shelters for pests, as well as posing access issues so these areas must be cleaned up for the sake of cityscape and public health.

“It is very noble that some of the elderly people insist on earning their living all by themselves instead of applying for CSSA. Social enterprises should make use of the productivity of elderly scavengers safely so that they can keep their self-esteem and be able to earn some money of their own,” he says.

His sentiments are echoed by Professor Daisy Zhang Dexing, also from SPDPC.

“The government should have clear regulations on whether the items are disposable and where to place and collect the discarded items. Only in this way can scavengers cooperate with the government’s operation as well as help promote community hygiene,” says Zhang.

“Crucially, the welfare of the scavengers should be taken care of by forming a labour union for the unprotected scavengers to get a regular salary. They should not lose their dignity or be discriminated against,” she says.

*Name changed at the interviewee’s request

Sub-edited by Gloria Chan

Farmers Fighting Climate Change in China

December 20, 2022

WechatIMG67 — The bed of Poyang Lake (Photo courtesy of Yu Wentian)

By Fiona Dongye

Yu Wentian, who has been farming all his life, has never seen such a devastating drought, as the water level in Poyang Lake has continued to drop since July.

“My parents are in their seventies. They have never encountered such a serious disaster,” says the 54-year-old farmer, who grows rice on 25 acres of land in Duchang county, Jiangxi province in southern China.

The water level of Poyang Lake, the largest freshwater lake in China, retreated to 6.67 meters in November – the lowest water level on record for the same period since the recording practice was introduced in 1951, according to data from the Jiangxi Provincial Hydrological Monitoring Centre.

“I cannot water more than four acres of my land, and the crops have died. I have lost about RMB ¥110,000 (US $15000) this year,” Yu says.

“As a farmer, the land they own is geographically fixed. Even if they know that there is climate change going on, they cannot move to another place.”

Another farmer Wang Zhixin, who lives in Rongbing Town, Jiangsu Province in the northeast, also suffers from extreme weather in China.

“It has been an extremely hot and dry summer. There was only very little rain and it was sunny most of the time. I usually use water from the well for irrigation. But this year the water has dried up, which has not happened for more than ten years,” says Wang, who has been farming for 21 years.

“Since Jiangsu has always been rich in water resources, I have never thought of buying any irrigation equipment. The extreme weather has caught me off guard. I can only water my field manually this year. The cost of tap water is too high, so I have to fetch water from a river a kilometre away for watering. It has made my farming work a lot harder. But I have no choice,” the farmer who grows various kinds of vegetables such as spinach and honeysuckle adds.

Statistics from the Jiangsu Provincial Climate Centre show that the intensity of high temperatures in Jiangsu this summer is the strongest in 61 years. From June 1 to August 23, the highest temperature in the province was 42.2 ℃, and the number of high-temperature days was 34 in a year, the highest record since 1961.

Data from the Jiangxi Provincial Hydrological Monitoring Centre (Screenshot of the website)

Wang says she lost about RMB ¥2,000 (US $280), nearly half of her monthly income as a farmer, in August, yet has not received any help or subsidies from the government.

“I think the government will only help farmers in areas where disasters are even more serious. Farmers who do not grow staple food such as grains or rice and operate a small scale of planting usually don’t get any help,” she says.

Li Zhao, a researcher at Greenpeace Beijing, has been doing research on climate change since 2018.

“Temperature in mainland China has been increasing in recent years, and extreme climate, including drought and flood, is occurring more frequently. Also, the increase in temperature has led to the increase of pests and pathogens, which affects the output of crops and farmers’ income,” Li says.

Li thinks that farmers are under a lot of pressure when combating climate change.

“As a farmer, the land they own is geographically fixed. Even if they know that there is climate change going on, they cannot move to another place,” she says.

“According to our survey, what farmers need most are insurance subsidies after experiencing natural disasters and other kinds of financial support. Support is also needed in maintaining farmland water conservancy infrastructure,” she further adds.

Professor Zhang Chuanhong of China Agriculture University, says climate change has a significant impact on farmers in China.

“Farmers are forced to adjust their farming plan. For example, some farmers who used to grow rice are now growing sweet potatoes, which need less water, instead,” Zhang says.

She thinks that there is nothing that the farmers can do while the government can step in and improve the infrastructure for agricultural usage.

“Since the climate is unpredictable, it is impossible for farmers to know whether there will be droughts or floods next year. So the most important thing is to improve the conditions of agriculture infrastructure such as construction of wells, the use of groundwater and so on. But all these plans require government effort,” she says.

Zhang says when the farmers are being hit by large-scale climate disasters such as flooding in Henan in 2021 and severe drought in Jiangxi, little can be done.

“Farmers can only rely on subsidies from the government for help,” she says.

Sub-edited by Ryan Li

Dancing on Thin Ice – Editor’s Note

December 6, 2022

Four months after a giant LED screen fell down to the stage at MIRROR’s concert, ripples have not calmed. The incident has put an innocent dancer into paralysis, triggered months-long investigations, and traumatized a great number of fans at the scene.

Our Periscope section probes into individual stories linked with the tragedy. How are fans at the concert recovering? Witnessing a giant object falling onto someone was a big deal, experiencing that at their favorite band’s concert made it even worse. Then how can freelance dancers’ rights be better protected in Hong Kong? For them, getting injured on stage is common. And for a long period of time, the dancers are the only ones facing the risks without proper legal protections yet being underpaid.

A sense of negativity spreads. With the lingering pandemic and waves of emigration, both secondary school students and the elderly in the city seem troubled by depression.

But don’t worry, solutions are available as there are people standing up – Tsang Mei Sze designs industrial workwear catering to workers’ needs and Contrinx voices out for migrant domestic workers’ rights.

Other interesting trends are also covered in this issue of Varsity. In the tech field, Webtoon sweeps South Korea, and Artificial Intelligence (AI) brings controversies over art creation. On social media, “sexual fantasies providers” emerge as a seeming occupation, “glamping” is a lifestyle sold on Chinese social media platform RED, YouTuber Roger Wu shares his Thailand story, Chinese students pay for assignments on WeChat, and a new app called BeReal is gaining popularity.

So please never lose hope. Focus on the good sides and try our best to look for solutions. The world is as colorful as it always was. Enjoy your read!

Ryan Li

Chief Editor

Life after the Mirror Concert

December 5, 2022

Dancers at Mirror concert still reeling from trauma caused by the falling LED screen accident.

By Yika Ng

Passionate dancer David Wong* earns a living by performing in concerts and holding dancing and choreography classes. He is trying hard to overcome the trauma from the horrific accident that happened at the Mirror concert in July 2022.

When the giant LED screen fell down during the performance in the Hong Kong Coliseum and hit fellow dancer Moses Li Kai-yin, the 23-year-old was also on the stage.

“After the accident, I have earned less as some concerts and shows have been cancelled or postponed. I also decided to work less and take a break to mentally recover from witnessing the accident,” he says.

A month after the horrible accident, the dancer performed again at a dance performance. He realised that it had cast a lingering mental impact on him.

“I tend to look up and check if there are any hanging objects above me before performing. I also feel a lot more anxious stepping on the stage after the accident. I cannot explain where exactly my fear comes from, ” Wong says.

A Cut-throat Industry

Apart from trying hard to overcome the trauma brought about by the Mirror concert accident, Wong also struggles to thrive under the keen competition in the dance performing industry.

“Dancers have to fight very hard to earn a spot in (performing in) a concert. There are usually about 80 to 90 dancers fighting for 20 spots in an audition for a concert,” he says.

The Hong Kong dancer says that dancers are paid according to the tiers they belong to.

“There are two tiers of dancers in the dance performing industry: main dancers and minor dancers, and main dancers will earn a higher salary. I consider myself lucky to be recognised as a main dancer and earn more compared to others,” Wong, who started his dancing career only two years ago, explains.

“I tend to look up and check if there are any hanging objects above me before performing. I also feel a lot more anxious stepping on the stage after the accident.”

The dancer thinks that it is unfair to determine a dancer’s salary by categorising dancers into different tiers rather than their talents.

“Some talented dancers may have spent decades in the industry but are only recognised as a minor dancer (and earn less than others). Their hard work cannot be seen by others because they do not have the opportunity to perform in big shows. Even a top-tier dancer may not be able to earn stable income as their income depends a lot on the number of shows he or she are selected to perform in, ” Wong says.

“Dancers and other people in the performing arts industry are often being asked by people around them whether they will change their jobs for a more stable income. I sometimes doubted whether I am making a right choice to stay in the industry,” the dance lover says.

Remiscencing the Good Old Days

Wong has changed his mindset and reconsidered his priorities in life after experiencing the Mirror concert accident. The young dancer realised that his family is the most important thing to him.

“I used to focus more on my work, like whether my dance performance is good or whether I have built a good reputation and can get more job opportunities. After (witnessing) the accident, I understood the importance of cherishing everything I have now,” he says.

He decided to spare more time with his family members, whom he cherishes the most.

“I used to enjoy going out for dinner (with friends) a lot, but I now grab the chance to have dinner at home so that I can spend more time with my family,” Wong says.

After the serious injuries brought by the hit of the LED screen at the Mirror concert, Li has been undergoing medical treatment at the hospital.

“It is hard for us (dancers who performed at the Mirror concert) to accept the fact that our dear friend, (Moses), is seriously injured in the performance. But we have to acknowledge this and started to move on from witnessing the accident,” he says.

The young dancer still struggles a lot on overcoming the mental damages brought by witnessing his friend’s injury in the concert.

“I missed the good old days when dancing is thought to be safe and enjoyable. I now think that the best way for me (to overcome the mental damage) is to live every day to the fullest and let time heals,” he says.

* Name changed at interviewees’ request.

Sub-edited by Ryan Li

Workers Under Record-breaking High Temperature

December 1, 2022

Workers in Hong Kong struggle with constant record-breaking heat waves.

By Iris Jiang

Death Caused by Heat Stroke

May Chan* is convinced that she had lost her husband to an invisible killer – heat, after the 59-year-old construction worker died following an eight-hour shift in a hot basement.

“He worked alone in a poorly ventilated basement. He told me that he felt very hot and stifling there. The accident happened on the fourth day he worked in that basement. I prepared two litres of water for him that day,” Chan recalls.

The accident happened at a construction site in West Kowloon Cultural District in early June 2022. Records from the Hong Kong Observatory show the highest temperature that day was 32 degrees Celsius.

Chan adds that the death of her husband is still surreal for her. Instead of heat stroke, his cause of death was diagnosed as myocarditis, which is inflammation of the heart muscle that reduces the heart’s ability to pump blood, resulting in shortness of breath. He had no record of other illnesses before.

Apart from medical expenses, the employer has not made any compensation for the death. With the help from the Association for the Rights of Industrial Accident Victims, Chan has applied for legal aid to go into a lawsuit for compensation. She is now waiting for the reply from the Legal Aid Department.

“The tricky thing is that the employer claimed my husband died off-work and outside the workplace, so they have nothing to do with his death,” Chan says.

“But the truth is, my husband died right after work in their designated changing room. No one discovered him until around half an hour later,” she adds.

Chan says she will not take the case to court due to the financial burden.

“How can I fight a legal battle against a big corporation alone? I just want justice for my husband. The death could have been caused by the high temperature and poor ventilation condition in the basement,” Chan says.

According to the Centre for Health Protection, “when the environment becomes extremely hot and spontaneous responses cannot effectively cool down our body, heat exhaustion or even heat stroke will occur.”

The centre also says headache, shortness of breath and mental confusion are symptoms of heat exhaustion.

When the body temperature reaches 41 degrees Celsius or higher, people become unconscious and heat stroke may occur. Immediate first aid is required to prevent potentially lethal complications.

Heat Exhaustion Under Very Hot Weather

A similar accident had happened to Adrian Wong who worked as an outdoor vendor at one of the theme parks in Hong Kong from June to August.

Adrian Wong once recorded an apparent temperature during work, reaching 44 degree Celcius, saying he could not bear the hotness, posted on his Instagram account in August 2022. (Photo courtesy of Adrian Wong)

Adrian Wong recorded the temperature during work, saying “34 degree Celsius, risking my life to be a slave”, posted on his Instagram account in August 2022. (Photo courtesy of Adrian Wong)

Despite the Very Hot Weather Warning Signal, Wong wore a long-sleeved uniform and a hat, sweating under the sun, selling cold drinks to visitors. He once suffered from heat exhaustion during work.

With an apparent temperature of more than 40 degree Celsius, the former seasonal part-timer had to stand in an open space for more than eight hours and carry boxes of drinks from backstage to the outdoor vendor.

“I sweated a lot and I had no time to drink enough water. Then I started feeling dizzy and sick walking back-and-forth. I did not dare to bother my colleagues since they were all upset by the very hot weather,” Wong says.

He then took a 10-minute break in an air-conditioned room and drank water. Nobody was there to offer him help.

Wong also complains about the lack of breaks for outdoor workers under very hot weather, saying the company often combines a 15-minute break with their designated lunch time.

“Why can work be suspended or even called off due to typhoons but not very hot weather? They are both adverse weather conditions which can be fatal,” Wong says.

Heat Stroke Or Personal Illness?

Working under intense heat has become more frequent for workers due to record-breaking temperatures recently.

With 25 hot nights (nighttime temperature 28 degree Celsius or above) and 21 very hot days (highest daily temperature 33 degree Celsius or above), July 2022 was the hottest month in Hong Kong ever since the availability of records in 1884, according to the Hong Kong Observatory. It explains the prolonged high temperature was due to a strong subtropical ridge persisting over southern China.

The highest temperature that month, 39 degree Celsius, was recorded at Sheung Shui Weather Station. The number of very hot days in July 2022, 21, equates to that of the entire year of 2012.

The average temperature in July has also increased by 1.5 degree Celsius, from 28.8 in 2012 to 30.3 in 2022.

In response to the worsening hot weather, the government says it will formulate heat stroke prevention measures.

The Secretary for Labour and Welfare, Chris Sun Yuk-han, said in a reply to the Legislative Council on July 13, 2022 that the number of work injury cases related to heat stroke registered by the Labour Department from 2019 to 2021 are 20, 12 and 22 respectively. No fatalities were recorded.

He also states that more specific guidelines based on the Hong Kong Observatory’s Hong Kong Heat Index are under consideration. Employers are required to take heat stroke prevention measures in extremely hot weather.

Fay Siu Sin-man, chief executive of Association for the Rights of Industrial Accident Victims, says the number in the official record is just the tip of the iceberg.

“If outdoor workers die during work, their personal illness will be firstly considered as the cause of death, even though it is triggered by high temperature at the work environment. It is hard for them to get compensation from the company,” Siu says.

Worker carrying heavy equipment, working outdoors under very hot weather.

She adds that the Association received six fatalities reports related to heat stroke from June 2022 to August 2022. In 2020 and 2021, the Association received four and three reports respectively.

Siu also points out that guidelines based on the Heat Index have no legal power.

“Employers will just take those guidelines for reference. They will not be penalised even if they do not follow,” Siu says.

She adds that the consequences will only come when someone dies during work and the court finds the employer to be guilty of neglecting government guidelines.

Siu suggests that the government should include heat stroke as one of the occupational diseases so workers can be compensated by the government.

“The government should not attribute the death of outdoor workers wholly to their personal disease. If part of it is due to the very hot weather, their family members should get at least 50 or 70 per cent compensation without going through a long and expensive legal procedure,” Siu says.

Apart from compensation, Siu says preventive measures are also important.

“More shifts between workers and regular rests are needed. The government should consider suspending work when the weather is extremely hot,” Siu adds.

*Name changed at interviewee’s request.

Sub-edited by Leung Pak-hei