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
