March 2019 / Issue 4
THE YOUTH ISSUE
delving into the realities of death at a young age Co-living housing thrives amidst skyrocketing rents
In This Issue
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10
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04
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Underwater Hockey: The strange sport comes into view in Hong Kong
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Government measures on local wild boars control remain ineffective
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Dying before death in the millennium
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Young people’s “new religion”: To seek help through superstition
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Minimalism in Hong Kong’s minuscule flats
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Co-living: Deluxe, dorm-style housing thrives amidst skyrocketing rents
Letter from the Editor The Young Reporter welcomes 2019 with a brand new editorial board and a more diverse group of reporters.
Editor-in-Chief
Reporters and Editors
Katherine Li
Alexandria Lin Amy Ho Anna Kam Brison Li Chen Fangyi Cara Li Fifi Tsui Hailey Man Jo Ng Katherine Li Karen Kwok King Woo Maisy Mok Nadia Lam Oasis Li Phoebe Lai Rachel Yeo Sammi Chan Stephanie Ma Tomiris Urstembayeva Vanessa Yung Vimvam Tong Wallis Wang William Tsui Yetta Lam Zoya Zhao
Deputy Editors
To start off, we have decided to take on our digitalisation further to accommodate to the ever evolving media scene. Our Facebook, Twitter and Instagram updates will become more frequent than before as we explore creative mediums of presenting stories, such as Instagram TV. Furthermore, we have introduced the use of themes in our print issues so that a single newsworthy focus can form a connection between all the stories. In our first issue, our theme is youth. The youth are facing a myriad of challenges nowadays, from limited living spaces to a general confusion about which direction to take in life when under pressure. Many are forced to ask themselves if all there is to life is saving for an apartment and trying to enter a relationship. To cope with these issues, our stories have explored the youths’ solutions to their life’s problems. While some choose to adopt a co-living arrangement, others turn to fortune telling or changing their attitudes towards death in order to have a better life.
Anna Kam Phoebe Lai Rachel Yeo Wallis Wang Art Directors
Elaine Soh Hailey Man Maisy Mok Nadia Lam Oasis Li Stephanie Ma Tomiris Urstembayeva Zoya Zhao Social Media Editors
Fifi Tsui Hailey Man Multimedia Editors
Alexandria Lin Amy Ho Nadia Lam Tomiris Urstembayeva Vanessa Yung Advisers
Jenny Lam Robin Ewing
In response to current local events, we also examined Hong Kong’s unfolding wild boar situation upon the beginning of the Year of the Pig, and looked into the innovative field of underwater hockey. We wish you a fruitful year of 2019! Sincerely, Katherine Li Editor-in-chief
Corrections
Dying before death in the millennium (Page 10 to 13): There were errors in interviewee Christ Ho Tin-yan’s name and organisation he works at. Interviewee Paul Wan Yat-ming’s age is also amended. Paul Wan Yat-ming has also indicated that he has not participated in past death workshops in Stay Within Bookspace. Reporter namelist: One of our reporter’s, Jo Ng, was mistakenly uncredited in this issue. The following errors have been corrected in the latest PDF version Vol. 51 No. 4, but not in the printed version.
The Young Reporter Volume 51 No. 4 2019
Printer
Department of Journalism School of Communication Hong Kong Baptist University
4 SPORTS
Underwater Hockey
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The "strange sport"comes into view in Hong Kong Reported by Vimvam Tong Edited by Windy Li
Putting on swimwear, goggles, snorkel and fins, Henry Chan was not going to jump in the ocean, but instead play hockey underwater. Underwater hockey requires a lot of skills, but being good at swimming isn’t the most important. “I swim very fast, but there's no point. The game is 30 minutes, you cannot swim all the way,” said Mr. Chan, who is one of the founders of the Hong Kong Underwater Hockey Association (HKUHA).
Fins, swimwear, snorkels, gloves and sticks are essential tools for playing hockey underwater.
Similar to ice or field hockey, in an underwater hockey game, two teams compete to push a puck with a hockey stick across the bottom of a swimming pool into the opposing team's goal. “For me, the first step that I think is difficult is to really get myself calm underwater,” Mr. Chan said, “But the most difficult is to have a team mentality to play for team, not only by yourself.” Underwater hockey has been around for decades in Canada, England, USA and Australia but has only recently taken off in Asia, mostly in the Philippines and Malaysia. The sport has its own World Championship, which first took place in 1980, according to World Confederation of Underwater Activities. Hong Kong has one team that is trying to compete on an international level.
Henry Chan demonstrates how to defend and protect himself against attacks from the opposing team.
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Noel Luis Suarez Ignacio, another founder and the head coach of HKUHA, said breathing was crucial to this sport. “Every time you think your sport is hard, try doing it while holding your breath,” he said. “I don't need swimmers, I need singers,” Mr. Ignacio said. "The physical demands when playing underwater is to “stretch lung muscle and increase lung capacity”. Mr. Chan has played this special kind of hockey since 12 years ago when he was studying in a university in America, where he failed to find a swimming team, but came across an underwater hockey club.
Underwater hockey players were fully equipped while practicing breathing control for warm-up in Life Fitness Swimming Pool located in Whampoa in the evening.
After he graduated from university, Mr. Chan came back to Hong Kong and started a Facebook page for local people to share their experiences about underwater hockey. Since then, more and more players of the sport gathered on the page, showing their strong desires to form a team and to hold regular practices. “I just somehow carry them together, and then we had a meeting,” said Mr. Chan, “In August 2015, we really started playing underwater hockey. We got a pool, we had our first practice and from then we keep practicing regularly until now.” The Facebook page created by Mr. Chan has attracted over 200 followers, and his team, the HKUHA, has got about 30 players involved in regular practices.
Hong Kong player Chelssy Chi (right) and Colombian player Maria Isabel Parra (left) stretch before the practice to avoid muscle strain.
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The Hong Kong team plays against teams from China, placing 5th out of 11 teams at the 4th Underwater Hockey China Cup & International Invitational Tournament in Chongqing in 2018. (Photo credit: Hong Kong Underwater Hockey Association)
“People of any age can join this sport as long as your body can accommodate,” said Mr. Ignacio, adding that the oldest player in the team is more than 50-years-old. Wallace Ng, who just learned the sport eight months ago, was appointed as vice captain of the upcoming Rookie Cup, a competition in China for new players. “Playing underwater hockey is quicker for me to become physically stronger than jogging or any other sports that I played before.” Playing underwater hockey as a sparetime interest, Mr. Ng said he used to practice three times a week. But after the winter came and one of their two available pools was shut down, he could only have two practices per week.
Mr. Chan said the difficulty for applying a pool is always a big concern because the underwater hockey is a nonOlympic game. “Hong Kong has an Underwater Association but the resources in Hong Kong were mostly given to those sports that are involved in the Olympics first,” he said. Despite the lack of training time, Chan said he is still ambitious to introduce the sport into the Southeast Asian Games. “And the bigger picture for the organization that organized the highest tournament, are trying to get underwater hockey into the Olympics,” he said. Chelssy Chi, a current freediving instructor and Hong Kong’s female record holder
for static apnea in 4'27", an event in which she held her breath underwater for as long as possible, is also a member of the upcoming Rookie Cup. Ms. Chi said this is her first time working with a team. “You may have many mixed feelings when you are alone, but with your team activities, you cry with the team, then you really think of how to build this team,” she said. Parma Tang, who plays in Hong Kong, said that cooperating with all teammates is the “most enjoyable" part. “As long as you have a breath left, then you can play the game,” said Ms. Tang.
8 HEALTH & ENVIRONMENT
Government measures on local wild boars control remain ineffective despite use of contraceptive vaccines Reported by Karen Kwok and William Tsui Edited by Maisy Mok and Anna Kam
Two wild boars rest near a construction site close to Borrett Road.
Zosha Piotrowski, a resident in Clearwater Bay area, said it was scary to see packs of wild boars by the rubbish bins when she was walking her dogs at night. “The wild boars knock down the bins and rummage for food, and there has been more and more of them in recent months,� she said. According to the written reply from Wong Kam-sing,
Secretary of the Environment to Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee, current legislative councillor from the geographical constituency, in early January, the number of the wild boars reached 738 in 2017, more than double of what it was in 2013. Back in the 1970s, teams of civilian volunteers were granted arms licenses and special permits by the police and the Agriculture, Fisheries
and Conservation Department (AFCD) in order to hunt the boars, Mr. Wong said in a statement. Around 40 to 60 animals were caught each year. But in early 2017, the government suspended the hunting teams after reviewing their strategies for quantity control and relaunched the Pilot Scheme, Capture, Contraception and Relocation/
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Release Programme (Pilot CCRP), a two-year wild boar contraception project which successfully sterilised 54 wild boars by December 2018. Jeremy Young Chit-on, a district councillor for Central and Western District who wants the government to restart the hunting team, said contraception injections are ineffective because they are difficult to administer. The anaesthetic in the contraceptive vaccines, takes at least five to 20 minutes to take effect after injection. This gives the boars time to try to escape and become aggressive during the operation, a Legislative Council panel discussion summary released in late January stated. Wild boars may become aggressive and attack humans when provoked or threatened, it quoted from the AFCD.
RTHK Radio 1 Programme, “Millennium”, in early February.
the contraceptive vaccine operation, Mr. Wong added.
Previously, civilian hunting teams from the AFCD were sent to conduct hunting operations only when necessary, such as when public reports of damage caused by wild boars had been confirmed or when human safety and property were threatened by wild boars on a frequent basis, the discussion panel summary wrote.
In an email response from the AFCD, it wrote they will continue their contraceptive injection operations, while exploring other practical means to address the nuisance caused by wild boars.
“To a certain degree, it was successful, provided that the total number of the boars was not that big. But now I believe the boars have gone up to around, probably more than 200 or 300 in number,” Weslie Ho Hei-yuen of pressure group, Feral Pig 70, said during the radio broadcast. The AFCD currently has six people in charge of
Meanwhile, given the safety concerns and potential serious consequences of wild boars’ attacks, animals which have attacked people, searched for food around built-up areas, got irritated or are accustomed to approaching and snapping food from people, will be captured. They will be destroyed humanely by a veterinarian. In the summary, it stated “a provision of $3.5 million has been earmarked for the pilot scheme in 2018-2019.”
On account of operational need and safety, the AFCD has to deploy 12 to 15 staff to capture one wild pig in each operation, it wrote. “The operation poses risks to the lives of people in the surrounding area given there is limited manpower,” said Roni Wong Ho-yin, spokesman for the Hong Kong Wild Boar Concern Group, on the
The Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department advises people to stay away from the wild boars and not to threaten them.
10 SOCIETY
“Dying
before death
in the millennium Reported by Nadia Lam and Phoebe Lai Edited by Jo Ng and King Woo
“You wake up to see yourself lying on a hospital bed. You are being told by a doctor that you were rushed to the hospital by the taxi driver. The next thing you know you are dying. Your heart pounds as your body stays frozen. Millions of questions pop and memories of your life replay. Do I need a funeral? Do I donate my organs? What about my money? What about everyone? Will anyone remember me? Will they come and visit my grave? If anyone is ready, please open your eyes and write down your death note.” Art therapist, Michelle Chan Wan-chee, in her mid-30s, paused the meditation session of the death-education
workshop, organised by an independent bookstore, Stay Within Bookspace, in Chai Wan on a Sunday in January. She asked the 15 participants to write down their feelings and share it in small groups. Louis Chuk Ka-lok, 21, who runs the bookstore, said his traumatic experience with the deaths of his mother and grandmother made him want to help others rehearse and prepare before death happens in real life. Like this workshop, a handful of private organizations in Hong Kong are starting to offer interactive and reflective death education experiences, as more people call for better public
awareness of the value of life and death. Hong Kong needs death education because society is aging faster, said Lam Ching-choi, CEO of the Haven of Hope Christian Service and chairman of the Elderly Commission, at a health conference at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Government data has shown an inversely proportional phenomenon on the demographics in Hong Kong. From 2014 to 2018, the number of births in Hong Kong showed an average annual reduction of 2,150; while the number of deaths from 2014 to 2018 showed
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End-of-life care and dying-in-place should be made a major topic in the public discourse. ”
Mr. Lam Ching-choi Chief Executive Officer of the HKSAR Government
an average annual increase of 425 in four years time. Athena Lee Hoi-ting, a 21-yearold medical student, said when death happens in hospitals, dying appears “distant and mysterious.” “Death is so too abstract and mysterious to some. It is also unknown to some people, which makes it scary,” she said. “Death education in Hong Kong is important because of the public’s general avoidance towards death,” said Christ Ho Tin-yan, assistant manager of The Jockey Club Life Journey Centre, a non-governmental
organisation under the Senior Citizen Home Safety Association.
together, to make each other understand life and death thoroughly,” said Mr. Ho.
“We always think there will be a lot time for us to do things,” he said. “Hong Kong lacks public healthcare education on dying,” he added.
“There have been visitors of all kinds, such as NGOs, secondary schools, universities, churches, business companies, and even police officers,” he added.
The Jockey Club Life Journey Centre in Ho Man Tin currently offers an interactive life and death experience. Participants get mock airplane tickets to use for playing games about death, even choosing the way they will die and climbing into a coffin. “One focus of end-of-life education is to bring people
At The University of Hong Kong, Ms. Lee said she has offered talks and short-term courses on end-of-life care for patients, but there is currently no existing courses in her six-year curriculum that teaches about death before she enters local hospitals for clinical trainings. Even for experienced medical staff, dying patients can be hard to handle, a British medical research paper from Queen’s University reported based on analyses of palliative healthcare for dying children. The potential impact on medical staff, especially young doctors and nurses, include high risks of developing mental illness caused by “additional
Hong Kong’s birth rate reached its peak in 2014 at 62,300, and reduced by approximately 9% to 56,500 in 2017; while death rate showed a steady increase of around 4% over the same period.
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stress” and “sense of guilt” when they are unable to cure the patient or to provide follow-up bereavement support. Art therapist Ms. Chan said she uses the psychological theory of “negative visualization” as some participants have mental health issues. This technique of imagining the worst is the key to cognitive behavioral therapy, according to a British research paper on treating anorexia. It is “designed to facilitate patients to gain insight into their illnesses, albeit indirectly, boosting their motivation,” the report said. Ms. Chan, who founded Memes & Friends, a non-profit community art organisation, said that incorporating elements of photography, words, visual arts and meditation can enhance
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the sense of realism in experiencing death for participants during their workshops. Paul Wan Yat-ming, 62, who never participated in past workshops at the bookstore, said the first-time he wrote a death note was inspiring because it gave him the opportunity to review his past and contemplate the present thoroughly. “In the past when I was studying at HKU, there were no student-initiated societies of life-and-death; Public seminars on death education have also been available at the Hong Kong Central Library, but this workshop allows me to enwrap myself in the whole process of dying in a much more realistic and meticulous way,” says Mr. Wan.
“If we were to make it a regular exercise, we leave with less regrets in the end,” said Mr. Wan. “Death education can come in any form and through any medium, given that resources are available,” said Dani Chong, creative director of Memes & Friends. In April 2018, Frontiers in Psychology published a research study report which highlights the possibility of using psychodrama and moviemaking in “death education” courses among high schools in Italy. 268 high school students in Southern Italy were put into two groups, in which one provided students with “formal” death education, such as meditation
You can feel your gratitude to life and courage to take up any challenges in life when you assume yourself dying.
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Ms. Michelle Chan Founder of Memes & Friends
Thinking about death makes you understand how to live your life better,” a post-it on the wall of the bookstore, Stay Within Bookspace, where occasional death education workshops are held, says. It is from one of the many participants who have visited the bookstore to join its death education workshops before.
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Reporter Phoebe Lai lies in a mock coffin as part of a death-experience activity at the Jockey Club Life Journey Centre in Ho Man Tin. This allows participants to rehearse death in real life, says Chris Ho tin-yan, assistant manager of the centre.
practices and lectures that deliver protective religious messages related to death, while the other gave students “informal” death education through watching a film on meditation before dying, then creating a psychodrama that reproduced some aspects of the movie.” The report says reading literature helps with death cognition and the processes of death acceptance, which reduces death anxiety; the experience of psychodrama and meditation enables students to look
toward their internal world without anxiety, it states. DEAtHFEST, part of Sheng Kung Hui Sanctuary Church Elderly Regional Center Peace Service Department, has been an active private association which focuses on providing support services and bereavement management to dying patients, families and people in grief since 2004. It is the education of facing death, overcoming fear and anxiety about death, surpassing
death, and thinking about life, enabling us to experience true love and cherish, to show humanity and to live the meaning of life, quoted from the book, Adolescent Life and Death Education, on their official website.
14 SOCIETY
YOUNG PEOPLE’S “NEW RELIGION”: TO SEEK HELP THROUGH SUPERSTITION Reported by Vimvam Tong and Tomiris Urstembayeva Edited by Fifi Tsui
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Two young females take photos of each other celebrating future romantic relationships. Fortune telling is not only a long lasting tradition, but also a way to relax for young Hongkongers. Getting advice or showing directions might help to ease the pressure of the young people in the hectic days of life.
In front of the Buddhas at Wong Tai Sin temple, rows of people are kneeling on the ground to pray. Some of them are shaking divination lots in a bamboo container until one bamboo stick with a number is finally shaken out. Ms. Ting, 29, who doesn’t want to give her full name because she said it would bring bad luck, took her lot to fortune teller, Bessie Chu Siu-jan, 81, to interpret the number and tell her fortune in the coming year. “I heard from my friend that my zodiac snake will be not good in the pig year,” Ms. Ting said. She has come to Ms. Chu for suggestions. Ms. Chu has been telling fortunes in Wong Tai Sin for 21
years, since she retired as a nurse. She told Ms. Ting to be careful with potential bad luck and pay attention to her interpersonal relationships. Ms. Chu then suggested Ms. Ting to wear an amulet to minimize her bad luck because her zodiac sign has “offended” deity Tai Sui this year. “I used to have many worries, but now I feel better after listening to her guidance,” said Ms. Ting. More young people in Hong Kong are seeking out fortune tellers for simple, quick and cheap advice on life decisions. Local fortune tellers say these young people are coming to them because they are feeling more intense pressures from work, relationships and living spaces.
Wong Gu-neung, in her 40s, has been telling fortunes, reading palms and faces for eight years at the Temple Street Night Market. She said that she serves around 90 to 150 people each month, and the majority of her customers are in their 20s. “The economy is not as good as before and people are under different kinds of pressure,” said Ms. Wong. She added that when young people have some problems, they don’t know who to talk to, “so we are someone whom they can talk with.” “People will always come to me and ask ‘why I am still failing now?’” Ms. Chu said. She tells them to stop complaining and work hard,
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Ms. Chu said that young people are lazier compared with the generation 20 years ago, who were more practical.
Mr. Tam recognises this trend and said that the pressures faced in this era are more diversified than the past.
“Nowadays, young people like to check their fortunes but do not work hard. They hope that they can get anything easily,” she said.
“The youth have much more concerns about their future, like work, relationships and buying apartments,” said Mr. Tam. He added that young people hope to grasp alternative solutions through fortune-telling to tackle their problems nowadays.
“Numerology aims to help young people to plan their life, but not to be overly superstitious,” said Tam Wanlung, an expert on geomancy and tutor of the class of Blind Numerology at Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions Amateur Training Centre.
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In Western traditions, the astrologer plays the same role as the fortune-teller. Phoenix K is a 35-year-old astrologer at Temple Street who uses tarot cards to serve her customers. Using the name Phoenix K as
her professional identity, she said that her customers are younger than before. “Young people are more confused these days. They don’t know themselves clearly, and they need the exact answers for a life direction,” said Ms. K. Ruka Tong Mei-kwa, 21, a local university student, has been doing research on fortune-telling, palm-reading, face-reading and divination for more than half a year, learning from different related websites and acquaintances. “I am afraid of making the wrong decision,” Ms. Tong
Young people are more confused these days. They don’t know themselves clearly, and they need the exact answers (from astrologers) for a life direction.
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Phoenix K, Astrologer
Fortune sticks marked with different numbers are stored in a cup at the temple. Fortune seekers first kneel facing the temple, then shake the cup with sticks asking questions one by one until one stick falls out.
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Everytime I finish my fortune-telling, the solution to the puzzle will dawn on me.
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Ruka Tong Mei-kwa, University student
regarded herself as an indecisive person, believing that she should find answers and solutions from other approaches. She thinks that fortune-telling can give her what she seeks for. In addition, she can be psychologically prepared for those challenges by fortune telling. “I can follow their suggestions but may not follow them completely,” she said. Young people are generally not very clear about their own life, or are afraid of making the wrong decisions and bringing bad influence, said Mr. Tong. “So people will find the answer through divination first to avoid wrong behavior.”
Many young Hongkongers seek inner peace at the Wong Tai Sin temple in Kowloon. They light incense sticks, hold them with both hands and pray facing the Chinese deities.
“Everytime I finish my fortune-telling, the solution to the puzzle will dawn on me,” added Ms. Tong.
A woman prays for her significant one holding a red silken string which represents her love near the statue of Yue Lao. Buddhists believe that a deity of marriage and love, Yue Lao, ties the red cord between the loved ones to signify their union.
18 BUSINESS
MINIMALISM IN HONG KONG’S MINUSCULE FLATS
Reported by Phoebe Lai Edited by Sammi Chan
Tax consultant, Erica Ip Kayee, struggles to find space to work at home. She lives with her parents. “They [her parents] cannot let go of things easily so they keep everything and I understand them,” said Ms. Ip. “This situation is unavoidable when living spaces are generally compact within the city.” But Ms. Ip is a minimalist. She said her friends often approach her, asking about how to achieve a visually aesthetically-coherent and clean style, similar to images they see on Instagram and Pinterest. She started blogging about the idea in 2017. “To master minimalism, you have to come to terms with your own life in order to see real virtual changes in your living environment,” said Ms. Ip.
She explained that reflection is important in order to live a minimal life. But she believed few in Hong Kong truly give up their material desires when even their basic needs, such as proper shelter, cannot be guaranteed.
“Extremely small flats are great for people who are minimalists, who want to enjoy city life,” Mr. Hanczar said.
Szymon Hanczar, Polish designer and college lecturer, has been making the headlines since July 2015, when his idea on a 140 square feet “micro-apartment” appeared in Dezeen, an online international design magazine.
Chen Yu-chang, founder and creative director of Hoo-residence, who specialises in local home design, said the demand for simplistic and neat interior home layout has always been around in Hong Kong.
According to Dezeen, Mr. Hanczar’s apartment focused mainly on “comfort and functionality” by including merely Minimalism first emerged in the the “essentials”. 1960s as an artistic and abstract ideology in New York, in which For example, he hooked his artworks were mainly composed bike, which had been an “inteof simple shapes, such as trian- gral element of life” for him in gles and squares, according to Wroclaw, over the wall to free information from Tate Modern, up space. an art gallery in London. In terms of design, he used Today, minimalism has become white walls and light wood a social trend that is more than flooring to “visually expand the just an artistic concept. space” through bright colours.
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Minimalism is nothing new, but he feels the pressure whenever clients approach him for a “minimalistic transformation” on their homes. “I find it ridiculous that people would ask me to intentionally add a ‘line’ to achieve clearly- structured visuals on the interior layout of their homes,” said Mr. Chen. From a designer’s perspective, minimalism means “bareness to the exact”. “Take your living room as an example, there should be no TV, sofa, probably just a chair and a simple coffee table, given that you really need one,” said Mr. Chen. He explained that minimalism is “a fundamental take” because it needs people to transform their usual lifestyle by generally “including less in life.” Vicky Chan, founder of Avoid Obvious Architects, a company which focuses on providing sustainable civic and residential urban planning ideas in various cities, explained that minimalist homes in Western culture usually strip away all the unnecessary items, keeping “everything down to the bare minimum”. However, he doesn’t think it is possible to apply minimalism in Hong Kong because it is difficult to strike a balance between space and function.
Teakha, a cafe on Tai Ping Street in Central, has window frames that are simple and distinctly-structured, which give visitors a clear view of the outside from within.
“Flats in Hong Kong are very small to be fully minimalist in comparison with Western homes,” said Mr. Chan. According to government figures, at the end of the first quarter in 2017, the average living space per person in Hong Kong was 13.2 square metres, which is approximately 140 square feet. In early June, the government’s Task Force on Land Supply pointed out in its Public Engagement booklet that the average living floor area per person in Hong Kong is lower than that of other cities in Asia, such as Tokyo and Singapore. It has suggested the government to work on improving the “livability” of local flats. A research by the City University of Hong Kong, published in January 2018, said the city’s need for a better quality of
life has meant that public and private housing should now focus on architecture and layout to achieve a “convenient and pleasant living environment”. An inequality report published by Oxfam Hong Kong in January 2018, said that government figures show that the rate of increase in rent and the cost of small flats are so fast that “the income growth of average households would never be able to catch up with the increase in housing assets no matter how hard they work.” “You need to understand the concept and figure out a way of minimal living that best suits you; people now are too literal on its [minimalism] meaning and overemphasize on getting rid of everything,” she added. “In Hong Kong, we can only live simpler lives, but never minimal,” said Mr. Chen.
20 BUSINESS
Co-living: Deluxe, dorm-style housing thrives amidst skyrocketing rents Reported by Stephanie Ma Edited by Erin Chan
Right next to the entrance door at the flat, a pile of chaotic shoes scattered on the floor. Their millennial owners were winding through the 200 square feet house on a party night. There is soothing melody swimming through the room as some are preparing dinner in the open kitchen. Finally, the tempting aroma of the cooked food hijacks everyone to the glossy dining table, regardless of whether they are indulging in booze, casual chats or watching movies in the living room. At the first sight, the size of the place doesn’t look much different from any other cramped subdivided flats in the city. Yet, there are small details that stand out. Apart from a spotless communal living room, bathroom and open-kitchen, the flat is embellished with a modern twist of high-spec, sophisticated décor and even a digital piano. The reason: it is a co-living house. The contemporary concept of co-living, a manifestation of the emerging trend of sharing economy, means “any shared living space among total strangers”. It involves living in close proximity and sharing of resources. The communal
nature of such housing arrangement is way beyond just flat-sharing – it also stresses the need for social belonging, community and affiliation. The popularity of such housing arrangement has slowly swept across Asia in recent years. In mainland China, the term co-living first emerged when a group of youngsters found the YOU+ International Youth Community in 2012 upon their return from the overseas. By the end of 2016, nearly 90 operators boomed across the country, leading by the largest co-living operator Vanke Port Arrangement that has managed more than 60,000 units. Likewise, Singapore has had investment companies investing in co-living startups, such as Helmet. Despite co-living still being a novel idea in Hong Kong in general, some property owners have already seized the business potential of converting their residential blocks into affordable communal space for the growing millennial population amid their stagnant wages, but the skyrocketing rents. These co-living houses are located primarily in residential clusters such as Mong Kok, as well as neighbourhoods close to higher education
institutions, such as Hung Hom, Tuen Mun and Sha Tin. In Hong Kong, owning flats is still a meticulous mission for many young people. The statistics by Rating and Valuation Department in November 2018 shows that the domestic property had soared from a rental index at 110 in January of 2010 to 190 in January of 2018 (on a scale from zero to 280) as housing speculation still rifles. Nevertheless, the savings for a private property can be dramatic. The 2011 census data found that nearly 37% of the population aged between 15 and 34 have a monthly income of below $10,000, and they are expected to take five years at least to save merely the 10% down payment, even if they live frugally. The report by Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL), an investment management company specialising in real estate, found that the rent for co-living
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The government should play its part in regulating the minimal size for a livable area, according to Mr. Rodrigo Buelvas, professor of interior design at SCAD. (Photo Credit: Mojo Nomad)
projects such as SynBox, Bibliotheque and Mini Ocean Park Station starts off at a minimum of $2,800 per month while that for residential clusters like Kwun Tong, Kowloon City and Sha Tin can cost up to $5,000, which is twice as expensive. Madame Bon-bon (alias), a former co-live tenant in her 30s, stumbled upon the attractive offer of a co-living house for rent at just $4,000 per month in Stanley after moving away from home. “Although the bedroom for each tennant tends to be small, there are shared areas for
residents from all backgrounds to communicate and this has definitely helped broaden their horizons,” said Bon-bon.
FOCUS in Hung Hom costs $13,500, the Centaline Property Agency found.
However Dennis Ma, head of research at JLL, admitted that the rents of some co-living houses are actually more expensive than normal apartments.
He added that such kinds of co-living flats are mainly catered to young white-collars rather than students, and the price comes with the benefits of more single rooms and the likeness to live with like-minded tennants.
“The rent is not cheap, it’s nearly $20,000 per month and you can actually rent a little self-contained apartment rather than going into co-living,” said Mr. Ma.
“Pushing up rents for a student tenant is a in fact lot harder than the one who is a young professional.” said Ma.
For instance, renting a 200-square-foot flat in The Met
“Regardless of the benchmarks for the co-living houses’ rents, the ultimate goal for them is to
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encourage people to explore the co-living lifestyle.” The attractive part of co-living is still about its community aspect, where a group of people who usually eat outside can bond over a kitchen when they learn to cook their own meals, overcome their anxieties in talking to strangers or have activities in which the fun doesn’t lie in being alone. But Bon-bon, who was also a former employee at a co-living service company, witnessed that some employees at her ex-workplace had been running legal risks by subletting units of co-living flats for a short period of time.
that need a new place to live,” said Mr. Ma.
the same opinion with Mr. Ma on private properties.
He added that it is an alternative for young people wading in the flat-hunting game.
“I was reading an article about a new residential project which will reduce the liveable area of its flats by 50 square meters, which is very inhumane,” said Mr. Buelvas.
“Some of the private properties like nano-flats are actually really bad investments,” said Mr. Ma. “I would say, if you can move into co-living project for years and then use that as a base to save up money for your own apartment – that is a better strategy.”
“The government should somehow regulate what should be the minimal size for a livable flat. We cannot allow the private properties monopolise the housing market.”
Rodrigo Buelvas, professor of interior design at Savannah College of Art and Design shared
“If the contract does not allow sub-tenants, does that mean that these companies are deceiving the property owner?” said Bon-bon. “It will also put the current tenants of the contract at risk.” By law, renting out a property for less than 28 days requires a hotel operation license. “If those co-living units do not have the license, then each subtenant contract must last for more than 28 days,” she said. Despite the loopholes in the developing co-living projects, Ma thought that the co-living business will continue to thrive in the future. “The demands are quite strong, especially the big students (and) young professionals population
Co-living is defined as “any shared living spaces among total strangers”, where residents live in close proximity and share communal resources, such as kitchens and pantries. (Photo Credit: Mojo Nomad)
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