Yhk 9 4 learning for living

a quarterly journal from the hongkong federation of youth groups

December 2017

Volume 9 Number 4

Youth HONG KONG

Learning for Living

Contents

December 2017 | Youth Hong Kong

Volume 9 Number 4

OVERVIEW 4 Learn to be 10 Special: LLA INTERVIEWS Living Life Academy 12 Running playgroups 13 Flower arranging 14 Becoming a physiotherapist 16 Cooking up a storm 18 Yoga: strength and stretching 19 Working with wood YOUTH SPEAK 20 Living and learning YOUTH WATCH 22 Nonstop learning 26 From cradle to grave

4-9 OVERVIEW

10-11

12-19

SPECIAL: LIVING LIFE ACADEMY

INTERVIEWS

FEATURES 28 Loving quizzes 30 Hidden Hong Kong 32 Movies with a message 34 Salzburg Global Seminar 38 Lifelong companion 40 Can we really recycle?

20-21 YOUTH SPEAK

HKFYG 42 Calling Parents 43 Neighbourhood First 44 Media Literacy 46 Youth Service Awards 48 Youth Business Awards 50 Social Enterprises 51 eGiving

22-27

28-41

YOUTH WATCH

FEATURES

42-51 HKFYG

YOUTH HONG KONG published quarterly

by The Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups EDITORIAL BOARD Andy Ho (Chair) Elaine Morgan (Editor) Ada Chau (Assistant Editor) Amy Fung Angela Ngai Gary Tang Lakshmi Jacotă William Chung Hon Advisers Henry Poon Veronica Pearson CIRCULATION (unaudited) 11,000-12,000 in Hong Kong, throughout the region and overseas

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VIEWS EXPRESSED are the authors’ and interviewees’, may come from official sources, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial board or publisher REPRODUCTION OF CONTENTS without written permission from the publisher is prohibited OVERVIEW Elaine Morgan INTERVIEWS Ada Chau OTHER CONTRIBUTORS Sophia Lai Stephanie Hung Margarita Pavlova TRANSLATION Ada Chau & Angela Ngai PHOTOGRAPHS Acknowledged as captioned, stock images, or in public domain

TRADEMARKS All brand names and product names are registered trademarks.

Youth Hong Kong is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in articles.

ARTWORK, DESIGN, LAYOUT & PRINTING DG3 ISSN 2071-3193 (Print) ISSN 2519-1098 (Online) WEB youthhongkong.hkfyg.org.hk CORRESPONDENCE to The Editor, Youth Hong Kong, 21/F, The Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups Building, 21 Pak Fuk Road, North Point, Hong Kong TEL 3755 7084, 3755 7108 FAX 3755 7155 EMAIL youthhongkong@hkfyg.org.hk

ADVERTISING enquiries to Ada Chau 3755 7108 The Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups was founded in 1960 and is the city’s largest non-profit youth organization. Its programmes and activities at over 60 locations have annual attendance of 5 million.

CORE SERVICES Youth SPOTs, M21 Multimedia Services, Employment Services, Youth at Risk Services, Counselling Services, Parenting Services, Leadership Training, Volunteer Services, Education Services, Creativity Education and Youth Exchange, Leisure, Cultural and Sports Services, Research and Publications WEB hkfyg.org.hk m21.hk

Editorial December 2017　|　Youth Hong Kong

When learning can be for its own sake, for enjoyment or to acquire fresh and useful life skills, it can become a lifelong journey for everyone. We launched the Living Life Academy to encourage people, no matter what their age or motivation, to join us as travellers in a vast world of discovery and joy.

Youth Hong Kong looks at this kind of learning for living, here in Hong Kong and around the world. We share stories from the perspective of tutors and students who take part in the many interest classes that are offered.

What is apparent is that this has practical implications for the future.

Please do share your stories with us.

May I also take this opportunity to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Andy Ho Wing-cheong Executive Director, HKFYG December 2017

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Overview December 2017 | Youth Hong Kong

Learn to be “Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.”

Mahatma Gandhi Gandhi’s famous words are thought to mean that one should live life as fully as possible, always keep on learning and treasure timeless knowledge. In other words, make the most of life by continuing to learn whatever one’s age. In Hong Kong, where the focus at school is on passing exams in order to get well-paid jobs, many students neglect life skills such as knowing how to look after themselves, their homes or other people. Some schools are adding subjects like these as extras, without exams, whereas in the past they would be learned at home as part of growing up. Some people also think that learning starts and stops with school.

When formal education ends, reskilling, keeping up to date with change, and staying active provide motivation to learn and relearn and there is no longer a clear division between the place and time to acquire knowledge and the place and time to apply the knowledge acquired. Instead, learning is all around us, all the time, in formal and informal ways,

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for pleasure or leisure; for advancement or attainment.

The ways of learning Continuous learning comes in many forms today.

Finding out how to book a holiday online, for example, or discovering how to help children with homework on a tablet instead of a textbook, even getting acquainted with a new mobile phone. All of these involve new skills and a learning curve that needs to be upgraded all the time.

For whatever purpose, different kinds of learning are always about building knowledge, skills and attitudes.

The ways in which people learn have become more and more varied as learning has been transformed by the internet. Not limited to studying indoors or in class, people of all ages learn online − anywhere, anytime − as well as being taught one-to-one and in classrooms as a result of signing up for courses.

However, YouTube videos, seminars, workshops and selfdirected online courses are all good new ways to acquire knowledge and skills and learning today, throughout life, is more accessible than ever.

Continued learning Adult education usually describes systematic and sustained self-educating activities, pursued in order to gain new forms of knowledge, skills, attitudes or values.

It can mean any form of learning in which adults engage beyond traditional schooling and it encompasses basic literacy and 1 personal fulfillment as a lifelong learner.

Informal learning can be either selfdirected or spontaneous and comes about often as a result of learning from experience. It has no set objective in terms of learning outcomes and is rarely, if ever, 2 intentional from the learner’s standpoint.

Lifelong learning includes learning how to master learning tools rather than learning by rote. Learning skills, learning to live with others, fostering community capability, individual competence and capacity, economic resilience, and social 3 inclusion are all part of lifelong learning.

Non-formal learning includes various activities such as sports or fitness programmes, DIY workshops, expert-led seminars and classes which may or may not have a formal curriculum or syllabus. Neither do they always have the accreditation or 4 certification associated with “formal learning.”

The “whys” of learning There are many reasons to learn, both during and after finishing formal schooling. Apart from the need to adapt, curiosity also features strongly, as does getting a taster for various possible careers. As we all live longer, we need to find new interests, be they language learning, crafts or hobbies. Other powerful reasons include social inclusion, effective citizenship, enhanced communication skills and fitting into one’s community. Learning can also be an answer to loneliness, becoming accepted, and managing one’s life better.

All these kinds of learning are about building knowledge, skills and attitudes to make life easier, fuller, longer and more enjoyable. This is learning with a practical purpose by becoming adept with the best tools available. It is the kind of learning can help us to cope with a changing world − socially, economically, culturally and physically. It is all about learning through living. Henry Ford, puts his finger on it when he says, “Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at 20 or 80. Anyone who keeps learning stays young.”5

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Overview December 2017 | Youth Hong Kong

Learning in context Lifelong learning has a long history around the world and in all well-developed societies today it is available to everyone. The concept was described in a 1972 report to UNESCO by Edgar Faure, entitled “Learning to be.”6 Faure says that such learning should not be the privilege of the elite, nor should it be applicable to only one age group. It should embrace the whole community and the entire lifetime of each individual. “We should no longer assiduously acquire knowledge once and for all, but learn how to build up a continually evolving body of knowledge all through life [and] learn to be.” 7 Confucius is renowned for his wise sayings about learning such as, “When I walk along with two others, from at least one I will be able to learn,”8 and “I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.”9 In western countries, fulfilling society’s needs tends to be the main driver of adult learning. It can be seen in Europe during the Industrial Revolution of the 18th and 19th centuries and one example is the Workers' Educational Association (WEA) movement.

It was founded in Britain in 1903, spread to Australia and Canada, and now has affiliations around the world.10 6

In Hong Kong, universities feature prominently in the development of lifelong learning and continuing adult education. The University of Hong Kong’s School of Professional and Continuing Education, formerly the Department of Extra-Mural Studies and now HKU SPACE, acted as a pioneer from the 1957 onwards.11 Several other major institutions followed suit, appealing to a broad spectrum of students, including The Hong Kong Baptist University which established its School of Continuing Education in 1975 and now offers full-time and part-time programmes suitable for “toddlers to teenagers, secondary school students, undergraduates, working adults, and even retirees.”12 In 1989 there was another milestone with the establishment of The Open University, originally known as the Open Learning Institute. It was the first distancelearning higher education institution in Hong Kong.

The HKFYG Living Life Academy (LLA) The Academy was launched by the Federation this year in answer to the growing needs of people of all ages for non-formal, lifelong learning. LLA courses are widely available throughout the community and they embrace the idea that we are all, “learning to be.” The Academy brings together the offering of various HKFYG units and encourages people to learn something new, develop hobbies and maximize potential. The focus is on discovering skills that are practical, fun and relevant, instead of on learning purely for the sake of getting a qualification.

Several other major institutions offer courses designed for lifelong learners. They include the Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions,13 which organizes around 6,000 part-time, short programmes that include everything from hiking, medical care and fashion, to Ancient Greek and Latin.

Caritas Hong Kong – a Catholic service organization, which has been providing community and higher education service since 1963,14 The YMCA College of Continuing Education began offering services in 1992,15 and the Women’s Commission founded its Capacity Building Mileage Programme in 2004, partnered by The Open University of Hong Kong to encourage lifelong learning in women.16

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Overview December 2017 | Youth Hong Kong

Learning to overcome Where next for a lifetime of learning in Hong Kong?

A Federation study in 2016 revealed that the cost of continuing to learn was too high for most budgets. 17 As a result, youth participation in adult education has been declining, with the trend particularly noticeable among 1834 year-olds. Although most young people believe in the value of continuous learning, over 60% of those who had taken courses in the past five years had not received financial support from the Continuing Education Fund, usually because the courses they had chosen were not subsidized.

No courses on IT are currently subsidized and no massive open online courses (MOOCs). Hong Kong’s Continuing Education Fund subsidizes adult continuing education and training courses with a maximum lifetime benefit of the sum of HK$10,000 per person.18 Other types of financial assistance, excluding company sponsorship, are minimal.

There will always be barriers such as time and cost but one possible answer was mooted by Professor Nancy Law in a report to the Central Policy Unit that was published last

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year19. She says the answer lies in MOOCs. “There is a need for an e-learning policy that addresses the lifelong learning needs of adults, including those outside of the workforce, in order that they can participate adequately in a society that is increasingly dependent on digital technology for all everyday communications, transactions, services and entertainment.”

Some MOOC platforms, such as the Khan Academy, already have 14-15 million users. Coursera has 22 million registered learners and the numbers will only grow. Not only traditional degrees are on offer. MOOCs try to make content as flexible as possible. The optimal length to ensure people complete a course is four weeks. Six minutes is considered optimal for the length of an online video. Measuring the skills learned on such programmes can present a problem and another online education platform, Udacity, offers nanodegrees, sometimes called microcredentials. Digital badges are another way of recognizing the completion of less formal training. They are used to mark milestone in the development of skills and can be posted on social media or an online portfolio. 20

Online and offline Many free online courses are offered by Hong Kong’s universities on platforms such as edX and Coursera.

They are built around self-paced video lectures and are designed and taught by university professors with online discussion groups and assessment exercises.

They include a wide range of diverse topics that are of interest to students from a variety of backgrounds.

In mainland China, XuetangX − one of the world’s top five MOOC providers − has over seven million registered students, most of whom are at university.21 XuetangX was launched by Tsinghua University in 2013 as the mainland’s first MOOC platform in Chinese.

About 400 courses are offered and more courses and microcredentials are coming soon.22 Other mainland universities that have MOOC platforms include Peking University and Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

Despite the accessibility of MOOCs there are still barriers to be overcome. According to a Pew Research report,23 lack of familiarity with online learning persists as a hurdle among all adult learners. In Hong Kong, language of instruction is another major barrier facing MOOCs. In recent estimates, almost 75% of MOOC courses were presented in English.24 This has encouraged content developers and other MOOC stakeholders to develop content in other popular languages to increase MOOC access. Furthermore, despite the wide range of courses on offer in Hong Kong, the costs involved are a disincentive to many potential students.

Digital devices may be the answer. Certainly they give access to compelling educational content from just about anywhere on just about any subject. As a result, students of all ages have more control over the time, place, pace, price and path of learning than ever before. Nevertheless, the costs of digital technology are likely to present a difficult hurdle for many people in an unequal society.

Full accessibility to learning throughout life, whether for pleasure or for professional reasons, remains a goal for all who care about youth and their future. The Federation’s Living Life Academy provides many examples of ways in which we can make strides towards that goal by offering courses for all ages throughout the community.

Sources 1. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adult_education 2.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Informal_learning

3.

llcq.org.au/01_cms/details.asp?ID=12

4.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nonformal_learning

5.

goodreads.com/quotes/tag/lifelong-learning

6. “Learning to be.” unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0000/000018/001801e.pdf 7.

ibid

8.

en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Confucius

9.

Legge, J. The Chinese Classics. Hong Kong: Legge; London: Trubner, 1861–1872

10. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Workers%27_Educational_Association 11. hkuspace.hku.hk/ 12. sce.hkbu.edu.hk/about-SCE/ 13. ftu.org.hk/en/participate?id=105 14. cihe.edu.hk/eng/index.html 15. ymcahkcollege.edu.hk/en/index.htm 16. women.gov.hk/mono/en/empowerment/CBMP.htm 17. Report No 12, 2016. “Young People’s Views on Continuous Learning.” yrc.hkfyg.org.hk/news. aspx?id=93aad322-639a-49b9-b087-59458af5c46f&corpname=yrc&i=9587 [in Chinese].

18. .wfsfaa.gov.hk/cef/en/index.htm 19. cpu.gov.hk/en/public_policy_research/pdf/2014_A8_019_14E_Final_Report_Prof_Law.pdf 20. economist.com/news/special-report/21714173-alternative-providers-education-must-solveproblems-cost-and 21. prnewswire.com/news-releases/one-and-half-million-chinese-students-are-using-xuetangx-cloudlms-platform-300433028.html 22. class-central.com/report/xuetangx/ 23. onlinelearninginsights.wordpress.com/2016/04/04/pew-research-reveals-three-barriers-to-lifelonglearning/ 24. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massive_open_online_course

現代社會資訊科技發展一日千里，要追上這種急速步伐，持續學 習變得更為必要。在香港，早於上世紀五十年代已開始發展持續 教育；經過多年演變，如何可將終身學習化成恒常舉措？除了因 為事業或工作進修之外，人們進修、學習，還可以發展自我興趣， 為生活帶來更多可能。近年香港不少機構開辦更多不同類型課程， 以配合市民的學習需求。香港青年協會的「生活學院」注重推廣 生活興趣的學習，期望大眾能拓展個人潛能，促進優質生活，讓 有共同興趣的人土分享學習與生活樂趣。今期，我們探討香港持 續學習的發展、趨勢，以及未來方向等。

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Special: LIVING Life Academy December 2017 | Youth Hong Kong

Living for learning W

hatever your age and your learning wish list, HKFYG’s LIVING Life Academy has something for you. Its huge range of courses, with the emphasis on interests and experience that can expand potential and improve quality of life, focus on discovering skills that are practical, fun and relevant.

What’s on at HKFYG’s LIVING Life Academy (LLA) • Living Arts Lifestyle, arts and creativity, music and dance, cooking and healthy eating • Knowledge Enrichment Creativity and innovation, media and production, science and technology, finance and investment • Ability Enhancement Languages, health and fitness, outdoor and adventures, personal growth • Career Development Planning, leadership training, healthcare and medical industries, support and counselling

LLA courses are widely available throughout Hong Kong. Not only can you learn about design and the arts, music and coffee tasting, there are courses on sports, pets, social media management, yoga, golf and dancing. From cooking to the performing arts, from learning a foreign language to meditation, you will find all these on offer and much, much more.

Read on for a sample.

LLA: vision to reality Goal Enjoyment of learning, motivated by loving knowledge Objective Enhanced personal growth and quality of life Strategy A one-stop learning hub with high-quality courses, enabling everyone to make the most out of life

Target Students of all ages who share the joy of learning with tutors, fast-tracking growth of a knowledge-based community Future growth Added-value lifelong learning; greater range of accredited courses; stronger trainer-student networks and a flagship learning platform

LIVING Life Academy Web lla.hkfyg.hk

Hotline Rex Chan 2130 4000 Email lla@hkfyg.org.hk Whatsapp 6990 3007 Find the brochure at all HKFYG units and Youth SPOTs Register for courses online at lla.hkfyg.hk

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Answer: These activities are all taught in classes given

by HKFYG tutors or associates and many people like to learn about them in their spare time. The tutors we meet in the next few pages tell us why and how they teach.

Facebook facebook.com/hkfyglla

Question: What do the activities shown on these pages have in common?

Answer At foot of page 10.

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Interviews December 2017 | Youth Hong Kong

Running playgroups With more women in the workforce, and especially when relatives can’t help with childcare, playgroups perform an increasingly useful role.

Beyond their basic function of letting children play together when parents are busy, playgroups also provide a place where children become more confident and learn new social skills. In such an environment it is ideal if caregivers are professionally trained.

The main focus of Ms Ma’s classes is role play. “I ask my students to play games, just enjoy the experience.” They also learn how to design play-based lessons, communicate with other parents and understand children’s needs. “If they don’t have this basic grounding, it’s harder for them to get started.

Ms Ma, with 30 years of experience in child education is an expert in situations this. “I’ve been a kindergarten teacher, a child physical fitness trainer and teacher of the Montessori Method,” she begins, “and the most important lesson for those who come to my playgroup classes is to remember what it’s like to be a child themselves.”

Most of Ms Ma’s students want to work in kindergartens, start their own playgroup or play with their children at home. Others are volunteers working with NGOs to offer free playgroups for children of low income families. Playgroups give all preschool children experience of playing together. They help to develop social skills and build confidence.

Tips on playgroups •

Tell the children a story and let them role-play.

•

Help them learn to take turns, how to win and how to loose.

•

Praise, encourage and laugh with them.

•

Be silly with them and have fun.

不論你是否有興趣入行，成為幼兒遊戲小組導師，還是剛剛為人 父母，大家可能需要面對同一問題是：如何了解小孩子的想法？ 參加馬老師的課程，有助大家重新回憶兒時的快樂時光。除了可 以學習如何跟小朋友相處，亦可學習課程設計、跟家長溝通等重 要技巧。

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Arranging flowers B

ringing out the beauty of flowers, whether for your own home or for events and functions, requires artistic skills that can be learnt.

“It was challenging. I needed to know about depth, texture, colour and technique … there are basic bouquets and then there are flower arrangements,” says one student of flower arranging.

Cathy Chow, a teacher of floral arts with qualifications from the Netherlands, the US, Korea and Japan, says about half of her students come to learn as a hobby and the other half are thinking about a career. “Some want to change their job or start a business and many discover that flower arranging is not as easy as it looks. It takes time and practice, not just to buy the right flowers but to create the right arrangements, whether for home, for church or for a community centre.”

With so many options available in Hong Kong, you can create gorgeous decorations but good courses, especially

if they lead to internationally-recognized qualifications, are demanding and the classes are often in the evening.

“Getting the length of the class right is very important,” says Cathy. “If the lesson is too short, students will be half way through creating an arrangement when it’s time to go home, but if the lesson is too long fatigue sets in, even for my students, most of whom are aged 25-45.”

For creative, discerning members of the younger generation who see how artificial so many commercially made decorations can be, finding out about floristry and floral art is a coming thing, and Cathy’s practical tips on how to mix and match blooms fresh from the market for maximum effect are in great demand.

A few rules for flower arrangement •

Balance Arrangements should be at least one and a half times the height of the container and flower heads should be on different levels with a three-dimensional look.

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Colour Yellow: bright and cheerful

Pink: feminine and uplifting Blue and green: cool and soothing Orange and gold: warm and mellow Red: vibrant and exciting Purple: rich and dramatic •

Harmony Mix and match by flower type so keep hothouse orchids separate from simple daisies.

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Proportion Flower size, foliage and container should all be in proportion with each other and with the surroundings

•

Texture Use different textures of petals and leaves to give variety

花藝可以是個人興趣，亦可發展成為事業。要成為花藝師，大家 需要了解不同花卉的特性、結構、顏色配襯及技巧等，周老師提 供的花藝課程，讓學生了解不同花藝門派的特點，且有充足時間， 讓學生在課堂實習。

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Interviews December 2017 | Youth Hong Kong

Becoming a physiotherapist’s assistant P

eople who take part in contact and adventure sports will know all about physiotherapy. Made use of in timely fashion, it can speed recovery and minimize the need for more aggressive treatment. That’s why many people like to learn the basics. Some move on to become physiotherapists’ assistants.

Not only sports injuries but problems resulting from poor posture and repetitive strain at work can be helped by rehabilitation exercises and physiotherapy. Looking after elderly or disabled relatives and friends also calls for knowledge of some of the physiotherapist’s techniques. For those who like to know more about looking after themselves and their family and friends, a short course can be a boon.

For those wanting an active and varied job, who have a genuine interest in people, are good with their hands, and are interested in health science, a career as an assistant physiotherapist could be suitable. You’ll work with patients of all ages and with a range of conditions. Your patients may have an injury or an illness or disease that has caused lack of movement. You’ll support patients and work with them to improve their mobility. Day-to-day duties might include: £ Talking to patients and preparing them for therapy £ Showing patients how to use mobility aids £ Demonstrating and working through exercises with patients £ Setting up equipment £ Keeping records of patients' progress £ Providing reports to physiotherapists 資深物理治療陳老師表示，雖然部分學員報讀物理治療助理課程， 是為了方便照顧家人，但大部分學生也是為了就業方面的發展。 而學生上課面對最大的難題，是專業名詞的理解，但大部分學生 最終都能克服。

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Raymond Chan, a registered physiotherapist for the last 16 years, runs his own clinic and has taught assistant physiotherapists since 2009. “There are three main motivators for my students. Some want to find out more about healthcare simply for the sake of knowing.

Others wanting to improve existing knowledge and skills for the purposes of career advancement. A third group want to find out about a physiotherapist’s work because they are considering a career change.”

Given the mixed reasons for participation and the differing backgrounds of Raymond’s students, some find learning about the structure of the human body, the equipment, and the terminology more difficult than others. However, this is no big surprise. Instead, as Raymond explains, “What is much more unexpected for some students is the need for extensive direct physical contact between

Skills and personality traits of an assistant physiotherapist • Initiative, patience, sensitivity and tact • Communication skills • Motivational skills • Happy with hands-on contact with patients • Willingness to demonstrate exercises • Ability to work in a team • Problem-solving skills • Organizational skills

physiotherapist and patient and equally important in this kind of work is the need to communicate effectively.”

In the course that Raymond usually runs for assistant physiotherapists, about two-thirds of the lessons are theory-based, and are held in a classroom setting with about 36 students. “Three lessons are hands-on and one factor that is very important is the length of the class.

An hour and a half is just about right for both teacher and students who come to the class straight from work and cannot focus for too long, especially when they need to learn, understand and use many technical terms properly.” Students study human anatomy and physiology with an emphasis on the musculoskeletal system. They become familiar with common medical conditions and the main clinical features of these conditions.

The physiotherapy assistant works with the physiotherapist to assess and treat people whose movement is restricted by injury, illness or age. They use techniques to help with injuries and disorders of muscles and joints.

The techniques include exercise, massage and other treatments such as hydrotherapy, deep heat or ultrasound, and the work involves helping patients recover from injuries, regain movement and manage pain.

• Ability to be encouraging, empathetic and firm

the majority, if they are reskilling and considering a second career, they have to realize it often means a lower income.”

Time spent working without job satisfaction is a good motivator, as is wanting to do good for others, “But sometimes there is a much more personal reason for coming to my classes,” Raymond says. “For example, one of my students quit his job in the IT field because of his son’s disability. As a trained, experienced physiotherapist he may be earning less but he can now do everything necessary to take care of his own son.”

That sort of motivation often works best, growing out of a deep personal interest not only as a lifelong learner but because of a lifelong career.

Apart from the need to learn in depth, a major barrier that might stop an otherwise well-motivate student from progressing in physiotherapy is the opportunity cost involved. “Most of my students are in their 30s or 40s but the youngest was only 21 and the oldest was over 70. For

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Interviews December 2017 | Youth Hong Kong

Cooking up a storm M

ore and more Hong Kong people like to cook their own food, both for health reasons and for fun. Learning how from an expert, beginning with simple recipes and working upwards, is a great way to start.

Hong Kong people often say they are too busy to cook for themselves and many families employ a helper to do the cooking, or they eat out. “It’s so different from when I was in school,” says Alan Lee. “We learnt a lot about the basics and started to enjoy cooking when we were young. Today, some children don’t even know how to peel an apple or cook instant noodles.”

Alan Lee Kam-fai teaches cookery to HKFYG students of all ages, from primary school children upwards. The younger ones come to his classes with their parents. As a teacher for other NGOs, his students also include senior citizens in their 90s. “Most of them are beginners,” he says, “but regardless of age, even those who have tried cooking at home don’t have many skills.” Some learn the basics by watching TV cookery programmes. “Newlyweds want to cook in their own homes. It’s such a novelty, and I like designing classes especially for couples. Others are just interested in making coffee and desserts.”

If you cook for yourself, you know what you are eating.

That’s never the case in a restaurant! If you buy your own ingredients, you also learn about value for money.

An important part of Alan’s classes is learning about ingredients. “I want people to have a balanced diet

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and I always use several items in my recipes, including vegetables in different colours. I ask my students to buy in local markets. It’s cheaper and the produce is fresh.”

For total beginners, the class always begins with basic skills such as how to use oil, correct levels of heat, and how to tell when food is fully cooked. “The main point of this is to make sure they are not scared to use a wok!” Alan explains.

Keeping equipment simple and basic is important too.

And the recipes? “I only distribute the recipe after the cooking is done,” says Alan, “because I want them to focus in class while I demonstrate how to cook before they try by themselves. At a beginners class, there may be Sweet and Sour Pork or Chrysanthemum Fish.”

Alan always has pre-prepared ingredients ready in advance to save time. “Even then, classes are usually three hours long and there is plenty of preparation left for students to do too. For group cooking, I always plan a dish that can be divided and taken back home.

That’s especially important for children. For them, I also try to include a variety of different ingredients of various colours, such as fruit. They like to play!

Any plans for the future? “I would really like to organize more classes in schools. Not all students are interested in academic subjects. Instead, maybe some of them will find that their real interests lie in a career as a cook. If they have the chance to try while they are young it will give them a taster of what they might achieve when they are a bit older.”

Two recipes to try [Editor’s choice] Sweet and Sour Pork

Eight Treasure Duck Ingredients

• 1” piece ginger, sliced

• 2 oz gingko nuts, shelled and skinned

• ½ tsp salt

• 3 cups water

• 3 tsps dark soy sauce

• 2 tbsps oil

• 2 cloves garlic, crushed • 3 tsps light soy sauce

• 2 tbsps ginger juice

• 1 tsp brandy

• 4 dried mushrooms, soaked in hot water 15 minutes and then sliced thinly

• ½ lb pork, chopped coarsely • 4 tbsps pearl barley

Ingredients

• 1 lb lean pork • 8 oz fresh pineapple, in chunks • 1⁄3 cup brown sugar • 1⁄4 cup vinegar • 2 tbsps soy sauce

Method

• 2 oz lotus seeds, boiled and drained • • • • •

2 tbsps cornstarch 2 tbsps garlic, minced 1 green pepper, diced 1 onion, diced 1 carrot, sliced

Dice pork and brown in a large pan over a medium heat.

Add carrot and cook 5 minutes then add garlic, onion and pepper. Once all vegetables are tender, add pineapple and reduce heat to keep warm. In another pan, add cornstarch to 1½ cups cold water and mix well. Add sugar, vinegar and soy sauce. Bring to the boil and thicken, stirring well. Pour sauce over meat and vegetables. Pile the mixture into a half-pineapple shell. Serve with hot rice.

• 1 duck, whole

• Salt water for washing and rinsing

Method

Wash duck thoroughly with salt water. Wipe dry. Rub ginger juice over the whole duck, inside and out.

Heat oil in pre-heated wok and stir-fry sliced ginger and garlic till brown. Add mushrooms and stir fry for 1 minute. Add chopped pork and stir fry for 5 minutes. Transfer fried ingredients to a saucepan with a slotted spoon, leaving excess oil in the wok.

Add all other ingredients except duck to wok. Pour in 3 cups boiling water and simmer for 30 minutes. Transfer simmered ingredients to the saucepan with the fried mixture. Mix well together. Stuff duck with this combined mixture.

Steam duck over rapidly boiling water for 3 hours or till tender. Serve hot. 雖然香港人生活忙碌，但近年愈來愈多人喜歡親自下廚。李老師 是資深大廚，他認為，從小培養飲食的正確態度十分重要；故此 大力推動各式各樣吸引的烹飪課程。為了讓學員掌握更好技巧， 李老師主張由基本功開始；即使是初班學生，畢業後都能煮出好 幾種家常小菜。

17

Interviews December 2017 | Youth Hong Kong

Yoga: strengthening and stretching

Y

oga is great for relieving stress, strengthening your core and improving flexibility.

Investing in classes with a good instructor helps you stay on track and keep motivated.

Barbara Ng has been teaching yoga for more than 10 years. Most of her students are aged about 30. “Their main expectations in my classes are knowing how to relax and stretch,” says Barbara. “Personally, my greatest wish is to promote yoga to more people, so that they learn how to relax and be healthy, both in body and mind.”

Stress-relief is the chief motivator for many yoga adherents, Barbara explains. “Hong Kong people are so over-stressed, they seldom make time for exercise and their joints and muscles become quite stiff

because their lives are so sedentary.” Although they go to classes mainly for relaxation, “Some of them also want a sense of peace once they have experienced the physical benefits that yoga can bring,” she adds.

Barbara runs her classes at the HKFYG Heng Fa Chuen Youth SPOT and says many of her students have to take care of families in the evening. “The most important elements of the venue are its airiness and sense of space,” she says. And for her students? “They say that what they like best is the peacefulness that comes from relaxing.”

Yoga benefits* Yoga improves flexibility and strength. It’s a lowimpact, non-competitive form of exercise that can be done by people of all ages and fitness levels. There are more than 100 different forms of yoga. Some are fastpaced and intense. Others are gentle and relaxing.

Ashtanga is a series of poses combined with a special breathing technique.

Bikram is also known as “hot yoga”: a series of challenging poses performed in a hot room.

Hatha is the form most often associated with yoga, combining basic movements with breathing.

Iyengar is a type of yoga that uses props like blocks, straps and chairs to help you move correctly.

Power is a fast, high-intensity form of yoga that builds muscle.

Vinyasa is a series of poses that flow smoothly into one another. *Note Yoga has historical origins in ancient Indian philosophy. It has become popular as a form of physical exercise across the western world but yoga in the Indian tradition has a meditative and spiritual core. Despite considerable research, there is little scientific evidence that yoga is beneficial for aspects of physical health apart from strength and flexibility.

吳老師教授瑜伽長達十年。她一心希望在香港推廣瑜伽，讓大家釋放壓力。由於港人生 活繁忙，故此一星期能夠上一堂瑜伽課，已屬不錯的安排。

18

Working with wood W oodwork skills are useful for everything from getting your crooked kitchen shelf straight to making furniture. Learning how is just as enjoyable as it is practical.

Sue Wong trained as an interior designer, a furniture designer and an urban planner before she came up with the idea of combining her skills with a social enterprise.

That’s when she founded Woodrite.* “My main mission is to save wooden objects that have been thrown away,” she explains. “Often, they are in extremely good condition and it’s such a waste to just let them all go to the landfill.”

One of Sue’s goals is to demonstrate how much potential such discarded material has. “There are plenty of possibilities. Rather than just buying new things, reuse them or recycle them. Best of all, you can refashion them into something useful or beautiful with your own hands.”

Sue runs workshops for students who, so far, have all been quite young. Some are beginners, and others have a little experience in woodworking or computer design. “Although most of them are men, due to the nature of work, we do have female students too, with a background in design or administration, like myself. They are all usually motivated because they want to work with their hands. I think many of them just can’t sit in an office behind a computer all day.

They like to get their hands dirty and make real stuff.”

The first lesson with Sue is on workshop safety. “There’s a lot of machinery in our studio workshop and safety always comes first.” With so much unfamiliar equipment to find out about, there are plenty of challenges.

“Becoming familiar with all the woodworking tools, including hand tools and power tools, and getting used to the amount of energy required to work with wood is a surprise to some students. So is the fact that there is no air conditioning in the workshop.” *Woodrite is featured in this year’s Hong Kong Youth Service Awards. (See more on page 45.) Sue Wong is not currently featured at the HKFYG Living Life Academy.

Sue’s students mostly want to learn how to make things. “Many of them don’t even notice that they are using recycled material because the discarded wood we collect is often in such good condition. I provide them with all the materials and tools they need. They say the most enjoyable part of the course is being able to make something useful out of mere scraps of wood.”

And what have they made? “Stools, chairs, storage boxes, mirror frames, magazine holders, even a kid’s bicycle …” she says. Unimaginable treasure, waiting to be discovered in what other people have carelessly discarded as “trash.” 一般而言，香港人較少掌握木工的技術。然而，學懂基本木工，不僅 能親自修理家中物件，更可以助人自助。黃小姐成立的「Woodrite」正 希望更多人能掌握基本木工，從而學懂珍惜物品，不會輕易拋棄它們。

19

Youth Speak December 2017 | Youth Hong Kong

Living and learning P

art-time learning is a way of life for these young people. Some of them take classes for pure enjoyment. Others might have a job in mind. For all of them, the key is in knowing more.

Tree Play therapy, drama therapy and art therapy: those are the subjects I’ve been learning at evening classes. Then I learned about children’s physical fitness, African drumming and Japanese toymaking. I think I must be a “professional learner.”

I did all of these short courses just as a taster to begin with, out of general interest. I just wanted to see whether they suited me. Eventually, when I realized that work with children was my vocation, having all these skills meant that I could change my job. Everything I’ve learnt in those classes has been important, especially the communication skills. So has learning from my own experience. There’s so much to learn, and always room to improve.

Anna I do yoga classes, first aid courses

and Chinese calligraphy programmes. I’ve done philosophy, piano and life-saving. I play Go and do competitive running. All of them mean I’m constantly learning about something new and adding another dimension to life.

And I love my guitar classes - those I just relax and enjoy.

Next on my list is learning to drive. Then maybe I’ll learn how to mix cocktails, or pick locks. Imagine how useful that would be if you locked yourself out of your flat! Really, I just love learning. Even after a long day in the office, the enjoyment pays off and I’ll never stop. Learning itself just keeps me going.

Xavier “Keep trying!” That was the

message from my most important mentor, my trainer. He taught me touch rugby and said that it’s always hard to begin with when you start something new. But keep going, and with perseverance, even if you are lazy, like me, you’ll make progress. Just keep on trying and keep on practising, all your life, that’s how you learn.

20

Learning from failure too, that’s another good lesson I’ve learnt, especially when it comes to sport…and life. “Never give up,” that’s what my mentor says. So I’ve joined teams and I’ve often played for the losing side, but as in rugby, so in life. There are always going to be many strong players on the other side, just don’t give up trying. Then one day you’ll play better and perhaps you’ll win. That’s the best lesson I’ve learned.

Una Dancing, urban dancing, that’s

what I’m learning, choreographed, and hip-hop style, moving to a cool rhythm, I love it! Feeling my body matching the music, but there’s challenge too. You need real skill to do street dancing well, much more than you might think.

If you’re like me, studying for the DSE exams, it can be challenging and hard to focus. I don’t have enough skills yet to express myself freely. You need full control of your body’s movements for that. You need to be strong and fit. For now, I have to memorize all the steps and try build up my confidence. I’ll do it though, I’ll learn, because I love to dance.

Monica I used to be so anxious and had to learn how to be calm. That’s why I started doing Zentangle. Most of my patterns are black on white, but I love to add colours.

Drawing freely, following my heart, it makes my otherwise boring life more fruitful and colourful.

Today, with my Zentangle squares in class, I just destressed. I untangled the tangles in my brain. I turned the ideas in my head into reality on paper, forming the patterns and choosing the shades, it’s so therapeutic and so satisfying. Maybe one day I will move on, learn more and add designs from other cultures to the patterns I make. Then it will be meditation. That’s the philosophy behind it, and my teacher is my guru.

Roy Web-page design and drone

photography were the courses for me. I needed the skills for work and I found exactly what I needed. The course was up to date, even though aerial video taking is very trendy technology. We had the chance to practise outdoors and I learnt all the techniques I needed.

Next? I’d like to do a course in computer graphics, just for personal interest. I enroll happily in all these courses, just out of interest, or because I need new skills. If I only did courses for which I could get funding I’d never learn anything. The maximum government subsidy is just HK10,000, and that’s for a whole lifetime. Anyway, IT courses are not even eligible for subsidies, so I’ll pay for myself.

Candy Flowers are my passion: learning

their names, choosing them, arranging them in beautiful bouquets and seeing them harmonize with their surroundings. It’s a hobby that consumes me and takes up all my spare time. What better way can there be to spend your time. I could spend my whole life learning about flowers.

But in the classes I go to, time matters. Our tutor gives us as much time as possible in hands-on practice. She also shared a little tip with me that I will share with you: “If it’s thin, stick it in; if in doubt, leave it out.” She also tells us to take our time. What better way can you have of learning than a great teacher, face to face, who lets you learn by doing?

Bobo Chinese medicine is my thing.

It’s fascinating! Chinese medicine for skin care, for diet, for acupuncture. The theory and the philosophy too. It’s preventive medicine, curing you before you get sick. I do acupuncture classes as well and they are very challenging.

Imagine: learning the 14 “passages through which vital energy circulates” and more than 100 acupuncture points. What a lot to memorize, all in your spare time.

Some people like to learn online but I like to learn in a small group, in a classroom with notes. They help me to remember. There are hurdles though, such as time management and getting support from my family. I’m a housewife so family comes first. But I still want to learn. It’s important for all of us, isn’t it?

Lila Languages, that’s what I love to

learn: Spanish, Italian, Japanese, German, anything! I’ve taken courses in so many and it’s best when I find a course with a strong cultural element. Italian, for example.

I found one where we tried out Italian food one week, Italian opera the next and then, in the last class of the programme, as a finale went to an Italian ice cream parlour!

Every step of the way, we learned the vocabulary that fitted the venue, and that’s exactly what I wanted. I’m not really interested in getting certificates or qualifications, but I know these languages will come in useful one day.

Imminent travel plans? Yes, I always have them, even if they don’t interialize, it doesn’t matter. Languages, for me, learning them is the key. It’s like learning about life itself.

Hin “Learn from mistakes, learn from experience,” that’s what Sai-lo sir, my Thai boxing tutor, says. Sai-lo sir also taught me about respect and not giving up my dreams. I learned about health too. You need that in Thai boxing, so I quit smoking and drinking.

One thing I really worry about is how to find the money to carry on training. What if I can’t afford a coach in the future? When I start to think like that I must remind myself of the lesson Sai-lo sir taught me.” Don’t give up on your dreams.” That’s why I’ll keep on learning.

Learning Galore at the Living Life Academy Some of the courses that these young people describe are on offer at the HKFYG Living Life Academy.

Find out more: Web lla.hkfyg.hk Hotline Rex Chan 2130 4000 Email lla@hkfyg.org.hk Whatsapp 6990 3007 Facebook facebook.com/hkfyglla Register for courses online at lla.hkfyg.hk

21

Youth watch December 2017 | Youth Hong Kong

Nonstop learning

driving forces around the world

T

hink tank surveys and official statistics offer useful insights into the reasons why people continue to learn when formal education and training ends.

In the US

a recent survey1 by the Pew Research Center shows that 73% of adults consider themselves lifelong learners, 74% learn about something that interests them personally, and generally they tend to be younger, better educated and better off financially than those who don’t.

They learn by reading, taking courses or attending events. Their motivation is mixed. 61% say they love to gather the maximum amount of information on unfamiliar subjects. 58% say it is very important that people learn new things about their hobbies or interests.

Personal reasons for learning

80%

To make life fuller and more interesting

64%

To help others more effectively

60%

Because spare time allows pursuit of interests

36%

To turn a hobby into something that generates income

33%

To keep up with schoolwork being done by children in their lives

Benefits of lifelong learning

22

87%

Felt more rounded and capable

69%

Opened up new perspectives

64%

Made new friends

58%

Felt more connected to their local community

43%

Were motivated to get involved in career opportunities

What are the obstacles

Limited access to learning aided by technology

Lack of familiarity with online learning

Learning gap: 87% believe learning things is very important but only 73% see themselves as adult learners

Modes of learning

58%

Reading magazines or other publications

35% 30%

Attending meetings, support groups or clubs where new information is available

25% 16%

Taking a course or class

Going to an exhibition, convention/conference

Doing an online course

Note Responses from 2,752 adults living in the US.

2

In Europe

the definition of lifelong learning encompasses all purposeful learning activity − whether formal, nonformal or informal − undertaken on an ongoing basis to improve knowledge, skills and competence.

2017 was declared The Year of Adult Education in Europe and a manifesto issued by the European Association for the Education of Adults − an NGO − includes active citizenship, democracy and participation, life skills, social cohesion, equity and equality as well as employment and digital literacy among the goals of lifelong learning.

Benchmarks to be achieved in the European Union (EU) by 2020 include adult learning, namely, that an average of at least 15% of adults aged 25 and over participate in lifelong learning.3 According to the latest official Eurostat survey,4 the number of 25-34 year-olds participating in lifelong learning is nearly twice that of 55-64 year-olds. Although only 10.8% of EU citizens of all ages are in education or training, Denmark, Sweden and Finland stand out, with a quarter to a third of all adults participating in lifelong learning.

The Netherlands, France, Luxembourg and Estonia were the only other member states where the participation rate in 2016 exceeded the 15% benchmark. On the other hand, Romania, Bulgaria, Slovakia, Croatia, Poland and Greece reported adult learning rates of 4.0% or less. Lack of funds was not among the most common reasons cited for not being engaged in any form of adult education.

In another major report5 of lifelong learning in ten European countries − Czech Republic, England and Wales, Finland, Germany, Italy, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, Spain and Switzerland − the benefits of lifelong learning were considered to be social interaction, motivation to learn, and self-confidence.

Gained through lifelong learning Top ten benefits

Top ten skills

Social interaction

Languages

Motivation to learn

General or new knowledge

Self-confidence

ICT skills

Physical well-being

Communication

Job or organization skills

Handicrafts & arts

Confidence in own skills

Social skills

Efficiency & increase in job or task performance

Writing

Sense of achievement Joy of learning

Self-expression and creativity

New networks

Staying updated

Musical skills

Note Responses from 4,400 adults in 10 European countries.

6

23

Youth watch December 2017 | Youth Hong Kong

In Hong Kong

participation in education out of school is on the decline, particularly among 18-34 yearolds, according to a Federation survey.7 Most young people believe in the value of continuous learning but in the past five years only a third had enrolled in a course and 46% had no plan to do so in future. This is explained by lack of time but also by Hong Kong’s high tuition fees. Over 60% of those who had taken courses in the past five years had not received financial support from the Continuing Education Fund (CEF), usually because the courses they had chosen were not subsidized. At present the Fund offers reimbursement up to a ceiling of HK$10,000 over an entire lifetime and only for approved courses of study which exclude IT.8 A recent LegCo report9 notes a government proposal to expand the scope of CEF courses but not to include Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). Contrast this with Singapore, where lifelong learning is promoted via a skills credit scheme that includes a wide range of MOOCs, and with Europe’s new Erasmus+ programme.10

Why do young people want continuous learning?

24

Junior school

High school

Tertiary

University or above

Self enhancement and skill improvement

15.60%

27.50%

42.00%

50.70%

Personal interest

65.20%

43.80%

30.00%

19.30%

Better promotion prospects

21.00%

22.50%

36.40%

49.58%

Flexible work hours

30.30%

26.30%

22.10%

21.30%

Sufficient subsidy

5.10%

26.90%

22.70%

22.80%

Useful content of the courses

5.10%

16.00%

26.50%

24.40%

Increase the opportunities to change company

15.20%

19.70%

15.80%

18.90%

Get certifications and qualifications

5.10%

18.20%

16.10%

14.00%

Encouraged by company

10.10%

7.20%

9.20%

11.40%

Too much leisure time

15.10%

4.60%

3.20%

1.70%

Don't know / difficult to say

5.10%

3.20%

0.50%

0.00%

What subject areas interest you most?

Junior school

High school

Tertiary

University or above

Languages and translation

20.20%

32.20%

40.50%

42.00%

Business and management

10.10%

26.00%

42.50%

49.60%

Computer and information technology

28.90%

26.90%

32.80%

32.00%

Arts, design and music

5.10%

11.30%

15.30%

7.70%

Travel-related services

5.10%

13.60%

10.30%

6.50%

Chinese medicine and healthcare

10.60%

9.80%

8.10%

12.60%

Education

5.10%

5.30%

11.20%

16.60 %

Cookery

26.20%

13.20%

5.90%

3.50%

Logistics

15.10%

7.30%

9.70%

9.40%

Social science-related work

0.00%

7.50%

7.60%

8.20%

Services in physical education and recreation

5.50%

6.20%

4.30%

6.20%

Others

5.10%

2.60%

3.70%

2.40%

Don't know / difficult to say

19.70%

12.50%

2.40%

1.80%

How long do you spend each month on continuous learning outside working hours?

What are the biggest barriers to continuous learning?

Percentage

18 - 29

30 - 39

Expensive course fees

25.50%

13.80%

0 - 5 hours

14.10%

Difficult to arrange time

18.50%

17.50%

6 - 10 hours

35.90%

No urgency to get qualifications

11.20%

13.80%

11 - 15 hours

6.80%

No time because of family commitments

4.20%

18.30%

16 - 20 hours

8.40%

No suitable courses

9.30%

6.30%

21 - 25 hours

1.30%

Long working hours

8.10%

7.10%

26 - 30 hours

2.90%

6.90%

7.80%

31 - 35 hours

Not interested in learning

0.20%

8.10%

6.00%

36 - 40 hours

1.50%

Duration of the course too long

41 - 45 hours

0.00%

Not helpful to current position

4.60%

5.60%

46 - 50 hours

2.10%

It would mean having to work part time

1.90%

3.70%

51 - 55 hours

0.20%

Don't know / difficult to say

1.50%

0.00%

56 - 60 hours

1.10%

Note Responses to HKFYG survey of 527 18-39 year-olds living in Hong Kong.

60 hours or above

0.80%

Sources 1. pewinternet.org/2016/03/22/lifelong-learning-and-technology/

Don't know / difficult to say

24.70%

2. onlinelearninginsights.wordpress.com/2016/04/04/pew-research-reveals-three-barriers-to-lifelong-learning/ 3. eaea.org/en/policy-advocacy/2017-the-year-of-adult-education-in-europe.html 4. ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php/Adult_learning_statistics#Main_statistical_findings 5. bell-project.eu/cms/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/BeLL-Research-Report.pdf 6. ibid 7. HKFYG Youth IDEAS Report No 12, 2016. “Young People’s Views on Continuous Learning.” yrc.hkfyg.org.hk/news.aspx?id=93aad322639a-49b9-b087-59458af5c46f&corpname=yrc&i=9587 [in Chinese].

8. wfsfaa.gov.hk/cef/intro.htm 9. legco.gov.hk/research-publications/english/1718rb01-continuing-education-in-hong-kong-20171117-e.pdf 10. ec.europa.eu/programmes/erasmus-plus/ 11. HKFYG Youth IDEAS Report No 12, 2016. op cit

25

Youth watch December 2017 | Youth Hong Kong

From cradle to grave T wo Asian countries adopted lifelong learning mainly as a response to the low birth rate and ageing societies. What are their special characteristics?

Both South Korea and Japan have a strong cultural Confucian ethic. They also both have ageing societies and their policy for lifelong learning was enacted in the late 20th century. Japan passed its Lifelong Learning Promotion Law in 1990 and South Korea’s Social Education Act came into force in 1982, succeeded by the Lifelong Education Acts of 1999 and 2007.

kyudo –- the archery used by Japanese armies, and taiko – an energetic form of warlike drumming. Learning languages for travel, work and living abroad, is also very popular in Japan and some employers sponsor staff by sending them overseas to attend classes in a mother-tongue environment.

Japan The city of Kakogawa became a hub for lifelong learning in the 1980s1 and the terms shôgai gakushû and shakai kyôiku refer to the concept in Japanese. Kominkan is Japanese for a community centre with space and facilities used for lifelong learning. They include schools, museums, gyms, libraries and meeting rooms.2 Examples of NGOs that provide lifelong learning services are Bridge Asia Japan and Global Village. 3

Learning out of personal interest Hobbies and pastimes that originated in Japan and which provide motivation for lifelong learning include ikebana (flower arranging), origami (paper folding), bonsai (growing artificially small trees), shodo (calligraphy with traditional ink and brushes) and karaoke (DIY pop music singing). Japanspecific sports include karate, Sumo-Japanese wrestling,

Learning with new technology New technology has exerted a strong influence on all learning societies and e-learning in Japan allows an increasing number of people to take courses. A good example is the Japanese Cyber University. Although it has a physical campus at Fukuoka, all its correspondence-type courses can be accessed via the internet and it provides computers and mobile phones to complete four-year degree courses, giving students extra time and flexibility.4

Sources 1. wgordon.web.wesleyan.edu/papers/lifelrn1.htm 2. UNESCO Institute for Lifelong learning. Building a Learning Society in Japan, the Republic of Korea and Singapore unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0023/002325/232547e.pdf 3. jca.apc.org/baj/; globalvillage.or.jp/ 4. asiajin.com/blog/2008/03/03/japans-cyber-university-offers-courses-on-pcs-and-mobiles/ 5. UNESCO op cit

26

South Korea Legislation in South Korea stipulates that all citizens shall be guaranteed an equal opportunity for lifelong education with free, voluntary participation. Legislation also requires that lifelong education shall not be exploited as a propaganda tool for promoting political or personal prejudice.5 There are 118 “learning cities” that provide citizens with easy access to literacy classes, cultural activities and other educational resources. They work together to create a strong network of community learning centres, learning clubs and libraries. Examples include the book-delivery service in Gwanak-Gu, which is part of the city’s lifelong learning promotion plan. The volunteer-led English language learning programme of Dongducheon, and the home-based learning programmes in Sangju, devised in response to the city’s rapidly ageing population, are other good examples.6

Learning out of personal interest The most popular classes in South Korea with the highest attendance among all age groups include the arts and culture. These are followed by healthcare and exerciserelated programmes, languages, IT education and liberal arts. Participants are mainly in their 40s upwards and the emphasis tends to be on realizing “active senior lifestyles,” not only by expanding the opportunities to work, volunteer and have leisure activities, but also to promote the expansion of lifelong learning widely.11

Learning with new technology Technology for learning is part of many programmes run for adults in South Korea. For example, Dobong City Lifelong Learning Centre runs training courses on social media such as Facebook and YouTube. The chief of the National Institute for Lifelong Education, Ki Young-hwa, has been active in spreading the message. “We live in a time of 100-year lifespans,” he says, “After completing ordinary school life, we could live for more than 75 years”.12

WorldSkills WoRldSkills flic.kr/p/f3o4cX

There are also more than 100 so-called learning “lighthouses” in South Korea, located in unused offices.7 They are manned by volunteers and provide facilities such as gyms, swimming pools, basketball and fitness clubs, while international NGOs such as the Asia Foundation8 and the Mannam Volunteer Association provide literacy and arts classes.9 Lifelong learning in South Korea is notable for its inclusiveness. It involves collaboration with public schools in programmes designed for families in rural areas, immigrants, marginalized groups, prison inmates, homeless people and people on low incomes. This helps minority groups establish their identity and build self-confidence.10

Sophia Lai, researcher and writer for this article, graduated from Macquarie University, Australia; with Kaoru, a Japanese student learning English in Hong Kong.

Sources 6. uil.unesco.org/lifelong-learning/learning-cities/learning-cities-republic-korea-additional-thirteenkorean-cities

10. Choi, DM. Trend and development of learning cities in Korea. Journal of Higher Education and Lifelong Learning, 16, 59–66, 2008.

7. unc.edu/~rowlett/lighthouse/kor1d.htm

11. pascalobservatory.org/pascalnow/pascal-activities/news/lifelong-learning-korea-october-2015

8. asiafoundation.or.kr/wordpress/en/about-the-asia-foundation/

12. koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20170324000579

9. mannamcooking.weebly.com/mannam-volunteer-association.html; http://eng.karts.ac.kr:8090/

27

Talking point December 2017 | Youth Hong Kong

Loving knowledge I

n a pressured city like Hong Kong, what makes students already loaded up with academic work want to learn even more and then be tested on it? For some, general knowledge quizzes are the motivator.

Test what you know • What global urban phenomenon occurs in Manila, Manchester and Melbourne but in no city in China?

• What did Chinese monks accidentally create while looking for the elixir of everlasting life?

• Which language does the word “bamboo” originally come from?

Answers at foot of page 29

“A quiz is a great way of testing what you know and expanding on the information at your fingertips,” says Justin Mak. Together with Matthew Wright and Zaheu Jacota, all secondary students from Island School, he also enjoys quizzes because they involve competing against peers.

“It is an easy and enjoyable way to learn,” says Matthew, “and we are all generally very curious.” According to Zaheu, “Acquiring general knowledge doesn’t only take place in the classroom. It comes from newspapers, television, blogs and listening to people. General knowledge is everywhere; it just depends on how much you think is interesting and can remember.” The boys, who are all good at sport, won the Mind over Matter inter-school quiz this year. “I enjoy the thrill of being in a competitive environment,”

28

says Matthew. “We don’t get easily flustered but it’s a definite advantage to know that your team mates have different strengths and weaknesses that help back you up,” comments Justin. Nonetheless, as Zaheu says, “It’s important to do well and winning is always our goal.”

What is general knowledge?

General knowledge topics usually exclude what people learn for work-related reasons and include current affairs, fashion, family, physical health and recreation, arts, and science. Males are usually better at answering general knowledge questions than females and this probably reflects differences in interests rather than differences in verbal skins, reasoning or memory.

Read more en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_knowledge

All three boys acknowledge that the fun of these quiz competitions is also about being made to think. This is what a good quiz master does. Quite often it’s possible to work out an answer by deduction if general knowledge is sound.

“Sometimes we can make an educated guess at something even if we’re not 100% sure,” comments Zaheu. Matthew remembers being asked the Italian word that describes races with rowing, sailing or power boats. “I’m a dinghy sailor and so I could figure that one out. It’s a regatta.”

It’s fun finding out and just knowing things for the sake of knowing, they say. “I really love learning about things in general,” says Justin, “and that’s why I enjoy quizzes.”

by Hector A Parayuelos flic.kr/p/JBDj7

Enjoyment in competitions like this also comes with confidence, but there will always be questions which stump contestants. A stand-out example this year, for which nobody had an answer, was about an animal that produces milk with four times the amount of protein in cow’s milk.

The correct answer: a cockroach!* That won’t be forgotten!

pp Is it the right kind of cockroach?

Note *According to scientists at the Institute of Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine in Bangalore, India, cockroach milk could be good for you. However, they say make sure your cockroach belongs to the Diploptera punctate species. It’s the only one known to give birth to live young and to have the special, super-nutritious “milk.”

Mind over Matter: Joy in Learning This annual competition gives students the chance to tap into their store of general knowledge and use logic to work out answers. The idea is for entrants to focus on lifelong learning instead of rote learning and work together as a team.

Soundari Mukherje, director of Tvameva Solutions Overseas Ltd which organizes the competition, says it’s about “joy in the quest for learning, developing curious minds and raising knowledge quotient in the process.” A teacher comments, “It’s an eye-opener to all students of this generation. They are just used to cutting and pasting material from the internet.”

Read more tvamevasolutions.com/tsol pp (left to right) Zaheu Jacota, Justin Mak, Matthew Wright

Chinatown; gunpowder; Malay Answers to questions on page 22 29

Culture December 2017 | Youth Hong Kong

Hidden Hong Kong V

ibrant contrasts and down-to-earth realism are all part of Hong Kong.

Tourists and locals can get a first-hand taste of them on walking and cycling tours.

“Today, more and more people want to explore neighbourhoods in depth and see the less well-known, authentic gems of our city,” says Paul Chan, who set up Walk in Hong Kong with his cofounders in August 2013. “We were among the first to seek a viable, financially sustainable business model for heritage tours in the city.”

Paul thinks that all old neighbourhoods deserve more government attention and conservation, even those that have already seen their old buildings flattened to make way for rebranding. “Redevelopment has been overwhelming and many old heritage buildings are still at risk of demolition, only to be replaced by lacklustre, monotonous high-rises, but with concerted action and more hard work by government, traditional culture can still be preserved.”

by Frederick Sitt flic.kr/p/fFrxXa

The most popular of his walks include a food adventure focusing on Kowloon Walled City, an evening exploring the colourful, gritty neighbourhoods of Yau Ma Tei and Jordan, and a tour of Wan Chai that takes in some of the district’s many legends and stories. Paul is convinced, “Historic parts of the city connect us to a unique, local way of life, yet their cultural significance can be destroyed by developers overnight. Wherever there are threats to our cityscape, traditional culture or scenery, the tourism industry should speak out.”

pp Wan Chai revitalized

Paul Chan & Carmen Fung Co-founders Walk in Hong Kong Ltd Winners of the GOLD AWARD HSBC Youth Business Award 2017 Organized by HKFYG

by Bevis Chin flic.kr/p/icnTud

Occupying a niche market and showcasing the energy of Hong Kong, Walk in Hong Kong’s tailor-made tours and engagement with youngsters are all part of its heritage work.

More information walkin.hk/ ybhk.hkfyg.org.hk/ybaward2017 pp Food adventure

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WiNG commons.wikimedia.org/w/index. php?curid=3677495

by Chong Fat commons.wikimedia.org/w/index. php?curid=2322061

pp Tsang Tai Uk walled village

Hong Kong can thrive on the global tourism map because of its cultural blend of East and West, its safety and social order and its magnificent country parks. Other companies that are taking advantage of these factors include those offering “free” walking tours, where you give a tip equivalent to the value you think your guide has offered instead of paying a fixed amount. HK Walk Tour and Hong Kong Free Tours are two such firms with daily options that include Hong Kong and the Peak, Kowloon, outlying islands and the New Territories. One example is a bike excursion via the Hakka walled village of Tsang Tai Uk near the Lion Rock Tunnel, the Shing Mun River, Hong Kong Science Park, Tai Po Waterfront Park and Tsz Shan Monastery. The sunset destination is Plover Cove Reservoir followed by a Chinese dinner.

Dialogue Experience, by contrast, with its Dialogue in the Dark Hong Kong tour, has a rather more serious mission. In a pitch-black environment where professionally trained tour guides lead visitors on a 75-minute tour in total darkness, roles are reversed, with the sighted being led by the visual impaired. Discover Hong Kong with a “unique texture, sound, smell and even taste,” say its founders.

“Be prepared to have your senses heightened as you explore these foreign yet familiar places without the help of your eyes.”

The leaders of Hide and Seek Tours bring the emphasis back to heritage preservation and include local culture such as markets in Yau Ma Tei, little-known temples in Sheung Wan and a tour of World War II monuments, often left neglected in a city that is often pushed relentlessly away from its past and onwards towards its future.

by Justin Gaurav Murgai flic.kr/p/5zzAhd

pp Plover Cove Reservoir

pp Colourful local markets

More details

pp World War II Ammunition Magazine, Wong Nai Chung Gap • dialogue-experience.com.hk/web/?lang=en

• hkfreewalk.com/concept/

• hongkongfreetours.com/

• facebook.com/hideandseektour/

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Culture December 2017 | Youth Hong Kong

Movies with a message T

wo movies about daughters and sport have been acclaimed by Hong Kong audiences this year. So has an old movie that recently won the equivalent of a Nobel Prize.

ilmari hyvönen flic.kr/p/3g2sfg

by Ada Chau

Shanghai-born, Hong Kong director Wong Kar-wai, won the Prix Lumières in Cannes this year for Chungking Express (1994). Famed for his use of light and music to create a mood, his most significant work includes The Days of Being Wild (1990), In the Mood for Love (2000), 2046 (2004) and The Grandmaster (2013). Chungking Express was no exception. The building of the same name is a crowded microcosm of Hong Kong and the film is full of metaphors about Hong Kong’s future. It’s a good time to watch this movie again, 20 years on.

Dangal (2016) follows the life story of Mahavir Singh who gives up his professional wrestling career for the sake of his family. He hopes for a son to help him live out his dream of winning a gold medal for his country. Instead, he has four daughters who have their own talent and he starts training them instead. They realize how becoming good wrestlers could free them from the shackles of tradition and their fate as child brides and start to enjoy the training.

Eventually they win an international prize, bringing home the gold medal and the fame and glory their father always wanted so badly. Is there a moral in the story? Perhaps it resonates with Hong Kong parents, echoing their own family dynamics. Maybe they see their desire for reflected glory in the relationship between Mahavir and daughters.

The Empty Hands (2017) is a new release on the same theme as Dangal. Half-Chinese, half-Japanese Mari Hirakawa once resented the way her karate-sensei father forced her to train in his own favourite sport. When he dies and she finds herself wasting her time in deadend jobs, she realizes that her destiny lies in karate. She needs to win a martial arts competition in order to make money. Chapman To, a dedicated karate student with a black belt, directed the film. He also stars in it beside Stephy Tang. It was released in November 2017.

Artwork for Dangal courtesy of Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures 32

The Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups Jockey Club Community Team Sports

Sports Mileage Scheme Register and login to help the needy by taking exercise cts.hkfyg.hk/sportsmileage

7 January 2018

Hong Kong Sports Institute

Kick-off Day The 2 nd Hong Kong Youth Community Team Sports Festival Sports in 18 Districts More activities from January to April 2018

Tel: 3468 8059 Website: cts.hkfyg.org.hk/

33

City space December 2017 | Youth Hong Kong

Social cohesion, identity and leadership

P

olitical and socio-economic polarization is on the rise everywhere and with rising inequality, unaffordable housing, lack of social mobility and growing integration with mainland China, Hong Kong, is no exception. Creating social cohesion here was the theme of the city’s first Salzburg Global Seminar which was funded by The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust.

The Salzburg Global Seminar, held in conjunction with the launch of the HKFYG Jockey Club School of Global leadership, was in November this year. Distinguished overseas visitors were Mr Ahmad Alhendawi, Secretary-General, World Scout Movement; Professor Grande Lum, Director, Divided Community Project, Michael E Moritz College of Law, Ohio State University; and Ms Clare Shine, Vice-President and Chief Programme Officer, Salzburg Global Seminar.

At the opening session, keynote speaker, Mr Ahmad Alhendawi and panel members The Hon Ronny Tong Kawah, Non-official Member, Executive Council, HKSARG, and Mr Lau Ming-wai, Chairman, Commission on Youth, set the scene. They spoke of a vision for an inclusive Hong Kong and identified the key points.

Mr Alhendawi made special reference to the generation gap, the need to “learn from each other without being patronizing. Through real dialogue, where actual listening and seeing from another person’s perspective takes place.” One of the biggest problems that Mr Alhendawi identified for today’s young leaders in Hong Kong is the adaptation and evolution of their roles “from activists to lobbyists, and then recognition of their place as members of a society where change takes place step by step, from within.”

34

Imagining change

Getting to yes

Formulating concepts that could create new pathways for dialogue and collaboration was seen as a crucial first step for tackling the roots of tension in the territory within the current political framework. A sense of empowerment for youth representatives, the chance to take part in decision-making, both in the political arena and in other key sectors, both public and private, were central issues identified by speakers on the second day, The Hon Patrick Nip Tak-kuen, Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs, HKSARG, and Associate Prof Simon Shen Xu-hui from The Chinese University of Hong Kong, pictured below with Ms Clare Shine.

The next step was to move on to managing societal conflict and demonstrating practical use of facilitation and mediation tools applicable to Hong Kong. Professor Grande Lum and Ms Quince Chong Wai-yan, Chief Corporate Development Officer, CLP Power Hong Kong Ltd, explored the potential of advocacy and effective communication with different power groups, stakeholder lobbies and the media. “Getting to yes” is a phrase adopted by negotiators for reaching agreement on complex issues without giving in. It is a strategy that creates win-win situations and mutually acceptable agreements. Principles of such negotiation include: • Separation of people from the problem in order to reach agreement on substantive issues • Demonstrating the importance of recognizing the other side’s perceptions • Focusing on interests, not extreme positions in order to counter the argument of the other party in the negotiation process • Recognizing multiple options that allow both sides to benefit, thereby resulting in an outcome that is less likely to break down • Not assuming that there must be a winner and a loser in the process of negotiation

While examining some of the controversial socioeconomic and political issues and disruptive changes that have opened up cracks in Hong Kong’s society, Mr Nip emphasized the importance attached by the current administration to involving young people in consultative dialogue, while Professor Shen reminded us of the need to remember the silent majority of youth. The roles that young people might play in creating a better Hong Kong, the obstacles to involvement they face and the role of older generations all need clear definition.

The afternoon’s speakers were Professor Grande Lum and The Hon Law Chi-kwong, Secretary for Labour and Welfare, HKSARG, pictured below.

Professor Lum, author of The Negotiation Fieldbook, says, “When there is a lot at stake and emotions are involved, negotiators can find themselves in situations they cannot dig their way out of. The negotiation elements I focus on … have been used in situations … when a solution seemed difficult or even impossible to achieve.”

Launching action The practical lessons to be learned from both success and failure were key issues in the concluding debate.

Young participants talked of the issues that concerned them most for the next decade and suggested civic engagement initiatives that might launch positive action.

Developing a common language and building trust were seen as essential. Change from within was identified as a crucial factor for progress in the following steps: • Begin developing a common language and building conditions of trust to address complex and sensitive issues in Hong Kong society • Propose ideas and develop multi-year plans for connecting emerging leaders across Hong Kong beyond the initial group of participants • Pave the way for a multi-year programme that will progressively build a cohort of networked emerging leaders across Hong Kong, mainland China and neighbouring countries • Shape organizing values for a more inclusive Hong Kong now and tomorrow 35

City space December 2017 | Youth Hong Kong

Salzburg Global Seminar at HKFYG: Key Questions

Which are the most pressing issues that affect Hong Kong society and cause fragmentation?

Is building bridges across generations in Hong Kong different from elsewhere?

Hong Kong is facing a deepening identity crisis. Since the return of Hong Kong to mainland China, the number of people in the territory who identify themselves as “Chinese” has declined, especially among youth who view themselves primarily as “Hong Kong people.” A decline in social cohesion and dynamism within Hong Kong society, as well as a weak sense of belonging, present major challenges.

Hong Kong is a unique setting where different generations have had very different life experiences. Perhaps some members of the older generations did not fully appreciate the freedoms of pre-handover Hong Kong. Since 1997, these have become limited, giving some young people the feeling that their quality of life and their future options are more restricted than those of members of the older generations.

On a practical level, the lack of affordable housing contributes to a starkly unequal society. More generally, social mobility among Hong Kong’s youth is at an alltime low and the younger generation feels both alienated and disenfranchised. At such a time, recognizing intergenerational tension and providing young people with the opportunity to choose and shape their own pathways is crucial for the territory’s future dynamism and confidence.

Although the context is quite different, the “Brexit” vote in the United Kingdom also opened up generational divides.

Some families are still deeply split, and some young people feel that the votes of an older generation have deprived them of opportunities, formerly taken for granted, to study, work and live freely across Europe. The future outlook is unsettling and British society is polarized.

How can political inclusion best be built in order to seek solutions to these problems?

Young people in Hong Kong want to have their voices heard and to know that their ideas and concerns are addressed in the political process. They need a greater sense of agency and the opportunity to take part in decisionmaking processes, not only in terms of political inclusion but also by guaranteed youth representation in other key stakeholder organizations in the public and private sector.

Equally important to influence from within are efforts from the outside to support the building of young people’s capacity to advocate effectively on their own behalf. This can be done by helping them to identify stakeholders and build cross-sector relationships. They also need support to develop and improve communication and other skills for addressing urgent issues such as the environment, building a more civil society, increasing the wellbeing of all through healthy living, education and job opportunities, affordable housing, and the ability to earn fair wages.

36

How can the next generation of leaders for Hong Kong best be prepared and mobilized?

HKFYG can seek out, encourage and support the next generation of leaders. It can continue to work towards increasing academic, economic and civic opportunities across all socio-economic classes, and to enhance personal leadership and communication skills that can help bridge divides, ultimately giving more hope for the future.

What are the greatest obstacles that young Hong Kong leaders face today?

The greatest obstacle that today’s young Hong Kong leaders face is loss of hope for the future. The loss of identity, an increasing sense of a society polarized between generations and between the haves and have-nots, have both led to a loss of confidence and optimism that the younger generation can change things for the better.

Salzburg Global Seminar Leadership for Inclusive Futures in Hong Kong 17-19 November 2017 The HKFYG Jockey Club School of Global Leadership Launch Ceremony and the Salzburg Global Seminar involved a group of emerging young leaders in various sectors who focused on the challenges of polarization. The programme’s aim was to help provide them with the knowledge, skills and networks to become active agents of change.

Guest of Honour The Hon Martin Liao Cheung-kong, Non-official Member, Executive Council, HKSARG

Overseas speakers Mr Ahmad Alhendawi is the Secretary-General of the World Organization of the Scout Movement, the youngest person to serve in this capacity. Prior to this, he was the first-ever United Nations Secretary-General's Envoy on Youth, appointed by the Secretary-General of the United Nations in January 2013 as the youngest senior official in the history of the United Nations. He supported former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in addressing his thematic priority of working with and for young people as part of his Five-Year Action Agenda.

Professor Grande Lum is Director of the Divided Community Project at the Moritz College of Law, the Ohio State University Moritz College of Law. The project’s mission is to strengthen communities. Initiatives include establishing programmes in order to try to prevent civil unrest. Professor Lum is also a Lecturer at Law and Research Fellow at the Gould Center for Conflict Resolution at Stanford Law School. Previously he directed the Community Relations Service at the United States Department of Justice.

Ms Clare Shine, Vice-President and Chief Programme Officer of the Salzburg Global Seminar (SGS) since 2012, acted as a moderator at the event. Prior to SGS, an independent non-profit organization that works to bridge divides, she worked as an independent environmental lawyer and policy expert for intergovernmental organizations, national governments, the private sector and NGOs.

Hong Kong speakers The Hon Ronny Tong Ka-wah Non-official Member, Executive Council, HKSARG Mr Lau Ming-wai Chairman, Commission on Youth The Hon Patrick Nip Tak-kuen Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs, HKSARG Prof Simon Shen Xu-hui Associate Professor, Faculty of Social Science, The Chinese University of Hong Kong The Hon Law Chi-kwong Secretary for Labour and Welfare, HKSARG Ms Quince Chong Wai-yan Chief Corporate Development Officer, CLP Power Hong Kong Ltd

Some of the young participants at the event.

37

City space December 2017 | Youth Hong Kong

Lifelong companion Here I am, scratching Nana, my corgi, behind her ears, remembering how I begged my parents for a puppy when I was a child. Then, I didn’t understand the responsibilities that would be involved and my parents always refused, until they read my formal proposal on how I would take care of a pet. Potty training, visits to the vet, walks, feeding … it was no easy task.

Nevertheless, I was ecstatic when we first brought Nana home. She was so cute. My days with Nana − now 11 years old, or about 60 in human years − have been filled with her barks and whines. She has waited excitedly for me to come home all her life and sits impatiently beside the dinner table waiting for illicit scraps of food every night.

It seems that I am not alone in longing for a fluffy and loving companion. There has been a huge boom in pet ownership in recent years, with the number of dog licences issued by the government rising from 40,700 to 65,500 in the last decade. The upsurge has caused a boom in the pet industry too, with the number of kennels for dogs and cats shooting up by 400%. The pet care market, with startups including “doga” (yoga with your dog), pet-friendly Chinese acupuncture and pet grooming, has also really taken off.* Social enterprises have joined in too, with services like Dr

Pet providing therapeutic fur-bundles to elderly centres and hospitals, thus apparently improving psychological and physical health.1 There is also Senior CID, a social enterprise that offers jobs as pet-sitters to senior citizens.2 What has caused this explosion of interest in petownership? In Hong Kong, it has been associated with the fall in the birth rate, which fell from 35 per 1,000 in 1961 to 8.2 in 2015. Another factor is the apparent reluctance to get married. Government figures show that in 2015, 28.9% of women and 33.2% of men in Hong Kong had never married.3 After all, singletons need someone to keep them company, don’t they? Other possible factors include the cost and stress of child-rearing and the alienation produced in some parents by children, compared to the unlikelihood of animals causing upset and the fact that pets can’t speak.

Beware There are cruel, unscrupulous pet shop owners in the city. There are also large-scale commercial dog breeding operations, known as puppy mills.

They aim to produce the maximum number of puppies for the lowest cost, causing much animal suffering in the process. The boom in pet ownership is not a purely Hong Kong phenomenon either. The National Bureau of Statistics reports that mainland China is third in the world for dog ownership with 27.4 million pet dogs, just behind the US with 55.3 million, and Brazil with 35.7 million, and second in the world for cat ownership with 58.1 million, behind only the US with 80.6 million. Euromonitor, a market research firm, forecasts that the mainland pet industry will grow by more than 50% to RMB15.8 million by 2019.

Sources spca.org.hk/en/animal-welfare/hk-puppy-trade-cruelty/pet-shops forbes.com/sites/mariannacerini/2016/03/23/chinas-economyis-slowing-but-their-pet-economy-is-booming/#bb5e2cd4ef77

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Pet benefits

• Pets generally have beneficial health effects on owners, improving motor skills and increasing physical activity.

• Children who have early contact with cats and dogs have fewer respiratory infections 5 and ear infections, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics.

• Pets foster children’s cognitive awareness, according to a 2011 study on second-graders.

6

• Pets help their owners make friends by encouraging social interaction.

• Self-confidence can be improved and stress and depression can be reduced by pets.

• Having a pet can encourage a child to learn more about animals, stimulating interest in research and science.

• Being a pet owner teaches one about responsibility and time management.

• Pet ownership is a recognized form of therapy.

A global survey published in 2016 ranked Hong Kong second in Asia for pet ownership, with 35%, after Japan with 37% and ahead of South Korea with 31%. Top of the list were Argentina, with 82%, and Mexico with 81%.4 Even so, the laws in Hong Kong are lagging behind those of animal-friendly cities. Animal cruelty laws have not been updated for years either. Many residential buildings do not allow pets, taxis often turn passengers away if they have pets, and dogs are banned on much public transport.

Of course, not everyone welcomes animals. They are offensive to some people and they cause allergic reactions in others, thus imposing another duty on their owners – ensuring that their animals are well-trained and obedient.

For me, Nana has become an irreplaceable support, first throughout secondary school and university, and now in my working life. I hope the government will hear the voices of pet owners like me and I look forward to seeing Hong Kong become an even more compassionate society by bringing people and animals more closely together.

Regular contributor Stephanie Hung, loves animals and hopes to adopt a cat.

She helped raise funds for a new wing at the Hong Kong Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA), has fostered animals, and has done dog-walking for Hong Kong Dog Rescue (HKDR). If you ever see Nana and Stephanie, her lifelong companion, they ask you to say hello and “Give Nana a friendly pat or a scratch behind her ears.”

Sources 1. news.gov.hk/en/categories/health/html/2016/03/20160323_180254.shtml

4. petfoodindustry.com/articles/5845-infographic-most-of-world-owns-pets-dogs-are-topsw

2. jour.hkbu.edu.hk/eng/2016/11/10/social-enterprise-gift-to-the-community/

5. sheknows.com/pets-and-animals/articles/2212/kids-and-pets

3. ejinsight.com/20170425-in-many-homes-pets-are-replacing-children/

6. ibid

HKFYG Living Life Academy offers several courses designed for pet lovers and owners.

Go to lla.hkfyg.hk for details 39

City space December 2017　|　Youth Hong Kong

Can we really recycle in Hong Kong?

W

aste management is a big challenge for Hong Kong. Many people and organizations are trying to develop creative solutions and a collective approach, involving partnerships and coordination between institutions, businesses, government and the public.

by Margarita Pavlova How easy would it be to achieve a collective approach to recycling? I would like to share an example from a project1 that has looked at environmentally friendly practices in different Hong Kong industries over the past two years. The hotel business was one of the focuses.

More and more hotels worldwide are addressing environmental issues due to growing pressure from stakeholders to make sustainability a priority. Many have achieved a better balance between business profitability on the one hand, and growth and environmental protection on the other. Our case studies show that the top-tier hotels in Hong Kong have stepped forward into the game of greening.

pp Hotel aquaponics

40

Most sustainable business practices fall under the umbrella of corporate social responsibility, which projects a socially responsible image for the company. Some hotels and chains have developed a more systematic approach by setting up a Green Team or a Green Committee that regularly brainstorms solutions to key sustainability issues. Examples are minimizing laundry by asking guests to consider reusing towels and linen, and recycling soap, paper, glass, plastic bottles and coffee cups.

LED light and motion sensors have been installed by some hotels. They also have electronic heat pumps in rooms and swimming pools which save energy and cut costs.

by Eventcellany flic.kr/p/e3YFSA

pp Used cooking oil

pp Hotel recycling triage

Some offer electric transport and have built aquaponics systems (pictured on page 40) that provide fish and edible plants for their restaurant tables as well as purchasing sustainable seafood and supporting green groups.

Various parties can play a supporting role to tackle these issues. First, a proactive government policy is needed to support local recyclers that produce renewables from local waste. The use of products like biodiesel should also be promoted to stimulate demand and set a cheap baseline price for recyclers to buy used cooking oil if it is recycled in Hong Kong. Recycling companies should have longterm agreements with hotels and other food retail outlets, and kitchen staff should be taught how to sort out food waste for recycling properly, so that no contamination occurs. Green food menus can also be designed and environmentally friendly banquets can be organized.

Despite such positive efforts, we found challenges for the industry. One is related to recycling. In one case, a hotel stopped recycling soap because their recycling company did not have the capacity to deal with the volume of used soap supplied. Another hotel found it impossible to organize a collection of recyclable waste as a local company had closed, and another was not able to pick up from their location for distance reasons.

Used vegetable cooking oil, recycled by the majority of hotels, is another challenge. When we interviewed a Hong Kong oil recycling company, they were very dissatisfied. Recycling companies pay a very high price for used cooking oil from retailers and hotels. They also have high conversion, transportation and labour costs, so their profit is very small. One oil recycling company has closed down and it is ironic that most such companies choose to export used cooking oil outside Hong Kong to companies in countries with government subsidies.

Although Hong Kong has the technology and the capacity domestically to handle all its recycling of waste cooking oil internally, the companies concerned need the government’s support. Without it, Hong Kong’s hotels will find it difficult to establish or continue good practices. Some recycling companies located at the Ecopark receive rent discounts, but this is not enough for them to continue to operate successfully. This situation contradicts the government’s announcements on greening Hong Kong as a policy priority. There is no comprehensive policy on biodiesel in Hong Kong, so demand for it is very low compared to many European countries.

Delivering environmental awareness training such as this will boost green attitudes. The role of education in developing a green mindset is crucial at all levels, including formal education and workplace learning.

Awareness, understanding the environmental issues, and a receptive-to-change mindset are all important for the support of greening. Closer partnerships among stakeholders will also lead to shared ideas and best practices that generate solutions for greening by all.

Dr Margarita Pavlova is the Director of the UNESCOUNEVOC Centre (Hong Kong) at The Education University of Hong Kong. She has worked in Europe, Asia, the US and Australia and is internationally recognized for her current research and development projects in education for sustainability, development and green skills.

1. The author acknowledges the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong for its financial support through the General Research Fund (HKIEd 18601515), and support of Tracy Lau, a research assistant to this project.

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HKFYG December 2017 | Youth Hong Kong

Calling all parents B

eing a parent is a challenge wherever you live and Hong Kong parenting presents special rewards and problems. The HKFYG Parent Support Network now offers both online and offline platforms for sharing experience and building parenting skills.

“It is very difficult to maintain a consistent parenting style in my family. While I have set up a reward and punishment system for my son and daughter in the hope of reinforcing their good behaviour, my husband just comes home after work with bags of snacks or toys for them!”

“Parenting would definitely be easier if it just involved my husband and me. But when grandparents get involved they spoil their grandchildren and we can’t do anything because we are both working parents.”

Aware of such common problems and complaints, the HKFYG Parent Support Network (PSN), reported in the last issue of Youth Hong Kong, is to be officially launched next month.

With a broad range of useful information, including videos, articles, tips on parenting and family life, and a live chat room where parents can share with our professionals any hiccups they have. A survey was also organized. It discovered that among over 1,000 parents of 4-15 year olds, 65% browsed websites daily that had information on parenting.

The HKFYG PSN mutual help groups are also an integral part of learning how to deal with stressful parentchild situations. They build confidence and skills by offering a forum for exchange and positive parenting.

Mediation and referral are available too, while other offline services include training and workshops at the 21 HKFYG Youth SPOTs around the city.

Parenting information: survey findings l What content do you look for most frequently?

Parent-child activities 53% Activities, courses and programmes for parents

33%

Interviews and views from experts on parenting skills

33%

Educational information on parenting

32%

Parents sharing information on their experience

32%

l What kind of information do you prefer?

Short videos and multimedia

43%

Educational articles and general information

42%

Articles by parents about their experience

36%

Parent Support Network Official launch Sunday 28 January 2018 More details psn.hkfyg.hk 42

Venue HKFYG Building, 21 Pak Fuk Road, North Point, Hong Kong

HKFYG Neighbourhood First & Youth SPOT Events D e c e m b e r 2 017 – F e b r u a r y 2 018

Building a Community Loving Soup: 6th Anniversary

Annual Neighbourhood Reunion Lunch Main location North District with reunions

Location Yuen Long District

also taking place in all 18 city districts

Date Sunday 17 December 2017 Guests Home Affairs Department representatives

Date Saturday 3 February 2018

Yuen Long District secondary school principals

underprivileged families, the elderly and people with disabilities; government officials, district councillors, school principals and social welfare organization representatives

Social Welfare Department district officer;

Soup sharing With 4,500 people and at 300 homes More details tyt.hkfyg.org.hk

Guests 10,000 community members at 1,100 tables,

Enquiries Monica Mok 3755 7076

Enquiries Wu Wai-chuen 2448 7474 This annual, festive event celebrates HKFYG communitybuilding efforts: sharing hearty, delicious soups, bringing people together, building a sense of neighbourhood community at district level and beyond.

Young volunteers from HKFYG’s Neighbourhood Teams will be promoting the spirit of mutual support across the sectors of the community in this traditional pun choi (basin feast).

Festive foods for the Community Loving soup: pear and apple with pork Ingredients 3 apples 3 pears 1/2 oz apricot kernels

1lb pork 2 jujubes [Chinese red dates]

Method Peel, halve and core the pears and apples. Mix pears and apples with jujube in a large bowl with the apricot kernels and pork. Cover with hot water in a saucepan and bring to the boil on full heat. Reduce heat and simmer for 90 minutes. Add water and salt to taste during cooking.

Pun choi Pun choi ( 盤菜 ) is a traditional Cantonese dish served in large bowl or casserole. According to tradition, pun choi was invented during the late Song Dynasty and is associated with the early settlers of Hong Kong’s New Territories, who had been driven south by a series of invasions between the 13th and 17th centuries. Today, neighbours, family and friends share pun choi, often at celebrations such as the Chinese Lunar New Year.

Pun choi can include many ingredients, sometimes meat, poultry or seafood, dried mushrooms, fishballs, bean curd, Chinese white radish, taro, lotus root, pumpkin, carrots and mock meat for vegetarians. Eating pun choi symbolizes family values, showing gratitude to ancestors, teamwork and unity – because it requires a big team effort to prepare – and equality – because no complicated etiquette is involved and everyone can join in.

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HKFYG December 2017 | Youth Hong Kong

Be NetWise a project for media literacy T he HKFYG Be NetWise project equips youth with skills to interpret online messages, to think critically and to make appropriate value judgments.

Everyone needs skills to deal with increasingly sophisticated information and entertainment media. They affect the way we think, feel, and behave. Media literate people are better able to understand complex messages in social media, on the internet in general, on television and radio, as well as in newspapers, magazines, books, video games, music, and all other forms of media.

Being media literate means: • Being able to access, analyze and evaluate information • Being able to create media messages

• Being a competent user of the technology tools available

This Federation Media Counselling Centre Be NetWise project included: • Media literacy lessons

• Enhanced empathy for cyberbully victims and their need for coping skills

• Interactive workshop for secondary schools

• Greater respect for intellectual property

• Professional teacher training

Parent Workshop Objectives

Media Literacy Lesson Aims

• Enhancing understanding of students’ social needs

• Parent workshops

• Prevention of cyber crises

• Enhanced understanding of the influence of media

• Improved grasp of trends in behaviour on social media and its potential dangers

• Better understanding of projected online image and the importance of a positive image

Teacher Training Aims

• Improved ability to detect the purpose, authenticity and meaning of media

• Instruction on proper behaviour and being considerate of others online • Taking responsibility for one’s actions online 44

Students’ Workshop Objectives

• Advocacy for development of new media literacy in schools.

• Sharing of practical insight on new media literacy education.

Coming Soon Project Net This new media literacy enhancement project is planned for 2018-2020 with a grant from the Quality Education Fund. It extends media literacy training to pupils in 35 primary schools while aiming to enhance media literacy levels of students in 20 secondary schools as well.

Plus: • Be NetWise New Media literacy teaching kit

• New media literacy resource portal: medialiteracy.hk

Be NetWise Project Partners • Quality Education Fund

• Education Bureau: IT in Education Centre of Excellence Scheme

More details mcc.hkfyg.org.hk

Youth media literacy survey HKFYG research findings reflected insufficient awareness of online privacy, information authenticity and online etiquette among secondary students.

Poor awareness of authenticity • 27.6% of respondents ‘Like’, share or publish feed on social media regardless of authenticity.

• 37.6% of respondents never remove, report or block fake news or its sources.

Positive Feedback “The curriculum is practical and the students reacted well.

Evaluation of the course reflected a marked improvement in media literacy in S1 & S2. We hope to continue participating in the new media literacy education programme so that more teachers can be trained.”

Ms Lee Ying-lin, Jockey Club Eduyoung College “The course design reflects daily life and the online activity of students. It will be introduced into the S1 syllabus in the next academic year to continue media literacy education.”

Mr Kwok Yim-lam,Tsung Tsin College "The content of the course meets the needs of students and is relevant to their daily lives. Based on students' existing knowledge and experience, it successfully teaches them how to improve their information literacy and prepare for the future.”

Mr Chan Ho-man HKFYG Lee Shau Kee College

• 33.8% of respondents consider attractiveness of information as more important than authenticity when sharing information.

Insufficient awareness of privacy • 46% of respondents are tagged on social media without giving prior consent.

• 21% of respondents capture screenshots of conversations or pictures to share with others without asking for consent.

• 37.6% of respondents consider all online information to be public and for free re-use.

Inappropriate online attitudes • 21.9% of respondents befriend people on social media of whom they know nothing.

• 28.7% of respondents believe the internet is a community where you can do whatever you want.

Note The survey took place in December 2016 with a sample group of 1,855 S1-6 students in 20 schools.

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HKFYG December 2017 | Youth Hong Kong

Commitment to Serve The Hong Kong Youth Service Award 2017

T

he objectives of The Hong Kong Youth Service Award are to look beyond individual achievement and honour 18-35 year-olds who exemplify the core values of service.

At the presentation ceremony this year, The Hon Matthew Cheung, Chief Secretary for the Administration, HKSARG commented, “These winners have a strong sense of belonging to Hong Kong and demonstrate their will to serve.”

Six award winners for 2017 Dennis Au Cheuk-wing founder of Chinese Medicine for All, is a young practitioner who serves people who only have access to poor medical resources.

He promotes a healthy and caring community in Hong Kong and beyond.

founder of Eldpathy, helps to create a link between the generations. Through his work, he shows young people some of the inexorable physical changes that affect the elderly, while doing his best to build a more tolerant and inclusive community.

Rainbow Chow Choi-hung founder of MicroForests, uses plants to create art and provides training and job opportunities for marginalized women.

Herman was raised by his grandparents and is deeply committed to improving the livelihood of elderly people in Hong Kong. Responding to the needs of an ageing society and building understanding of senior citizens is his goal. His company, Eldpathy, advocates active ageing through simulation programmes.

Since 2012, he has organized over 500 activities, training 30 senior instructors as team members and allowing around 20,000 participants to experience the physical effect of age.

Rainbow knows how much better it is to give than to receive, and with that in mind she gave up working for one of Hong Kong’s large charities and set up MicroForests in 2014.

Its goal is to enhance the social mobility of marginalized women and since its inception, the company has trained over 30 women as professional designers, using plants to create art forms. Rainbow has organized and conducted more than a hundred workshops for over 1,000 participants. The women taking part boosted their self-esteem and, via the sale of their work, became more financially independent.

facebook.com/cmedforall

Read more eldpathy.hk

Read more microforests.com/

pp Leaving no patient behind

pp Shoulder to shoulder

Dennis Au understands from personal experience the challenges of not being able to afford good medical care. He founded Chinese Medicine for All which offers traditional healthcare in poor areas and in 2015, he helped Healthy Hong Kong (HHK) to establish the HHK Chinese Medicine Centre, providing traditional Chinese medical care free of charge to low-income families and the elderly. Today, as a practitioner of Chinese medicine, he helps those in need, locally and overseas and has also worked on a young drug abuser outreach programme since 2008.

Read more cmedforall.org/

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Herman Chan Ho-man

facebook.com/EldpathyHongKong/

facebook.com/microforestshk/

pp Empowering women with art and design

Sue Wong Ming-wai Bosco Ng Chung-lun founder of WEDO GLOBAL, believes that multicultural education can bridge the gap between Hong Kong’s different communities.

Bosco Ng established WEDO GLOBAL in 2011. Its workshops and experiential tours try to narrow the cultural gap by enabling members of ethnic minority group to share stories about their culture with the Chinese community. He has organized over a hundred theme-based community walking tours and cultural workshops for over 2,600 teachers and students, recruiting and training dozens of young people from ethnically minority groups as cultural ambassadors.

Read more wedoglobal.com/en facebook.com/wedoglobal/

founder of Woodrite, upcycles and refurbishes locally transformed wood, making it into furniture and underlining the usefulness of materials that others throw out as garbage.

Sue established the first local-to-local furniture brand in Hong Kong. Her products are made from reclaimed wood and since 2013, Woodrite has been refashioning discarded wooden objects as functional, durable, handcrafted furniture. She also organizes regular workshops where participants learn how to repair and remodel broken furniture. She has saved more than 200 tons of wood from landfills and is devoted to environmental protection. One of her objectives is to change consumer behaviour by promoting environmental sustainability in practical ways.

Andrew Yun Wai-yip founder of Fantastic Dream, gives career guidance to youth via social media, bringing them back from the virtual world to the real world where they define plans for their lives.

Andrew helps youth find positive value in life and develop career aspirations.

Through his own video-sharing channel, he reaches thousands of young people, guiding them to explore their potential in various industry sectors. Via his online and offline service he introduces professionals who share their experience.

Read more sites.google. com/view/fantasticdream/ facebook.com/fantasticdreamnet/

Read more woodrite.com.hk facebook.com/woodritehk/

pp Developing career goals

pp Promoting cultural exchange pp Transforming wood More information about The Hong Kong Youth Service Award ysa.hkfyg.org.hk/en/home/index.html Enquiries Iki Chan/ May Fung 2169 0255

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HKFYG December 2017 | Youth Hong Kong

Encouraging entrepreneurship

T

he HSBC Youth Business Award recognizes outstanding businesses run by youth and encourages young entrepreneurs.

What makes an award winner? The nature, originality, innovativeness and variety of products and services offered are big factors when the judges make their decision. Market positioning and competitive edge also come high on their list, as do customer relations, cost effectiveness and sustainability.

Well done to all who won in 2017!

GOLD AWARD Walk in Hong Kong Ltd

SILVER AWARD The Alchemist Cafe Bistro Co Ltd

Paul Chan & Carmen Fung

Dylan Leung

Walk in Hong Kong embodies an outstanding idea, both for product and service. Its niche market showcases the energy of Hong Kong. Tailor-made guided tours, workshops for the underprivileged and training for youngsters as heritage tour guides are all part of a day’s work at Walk in Hong Kong. This year, Walk in Hong Kong also successfully lobbied for Grade 1 historic building status for the State Theatre in North Point, a unique piece of architecture and the last grand icon of the heyday of Hong Kong cinema. Exploring hidden gems, especially when heritage is at risk, is their strength.

Dylan’s experience in the F&B industry began in his teens.

He went on to set up his own business with relatives when he was 22 and now has outlets in Sham Shui Po, Kwai Fong, Tsim Sha Tsui, Tseung Kwan O, at the Hong Kong Heritage Museum in Shatin and at the Town Hall in Tsuen Wan. A meeting point for artists and musicians, the aim of the Café is to promote the arts and culture while raising awareness of cultural diversity. It has hosted more than 50 sharing sessions with performers and travellers from all over the world (see photo below) and Dylan connects with tourism boards overseas for global cultural exchange.

Read more about Walk in Hong Kong on page 30 Website walkin.hk

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Website thealchemistcafe.com

BRONZE AWARD Starry World Creative Performing Arts Co Cleo Ko & Nic Lau Cleo Ko was born into a musical family whose members include Cantonese opera singers. On stage since the age of 10, she’s known as “Little Teresa Tang.”

Her partner, Nic Lau, has over 10 years of experience as a guitarist and singer.

Their company, Starry World, has studio workshops in Kowloon Bay and Tsuen Wan that are dedicated to fostering stage performers of outstanding quality.

Their students have not only won recognition at key local venues and song contests, but have also received international accolades. Starry World’s aim is to introduce singing to everyone, regardless of age and background, bringing them together to perform pop music and drama for the community at large.

Website starryworldcpa.com

MERIT AWARD Boutir Ltd

MERIT AWARD Twitchy Finger Ltd

INNOVATION AWARD AVATech Innovation Ltd

Eric Ng, Paulo Lam, Rem Suen & Roy Ng

Edward Li & Howard Lau

Terry Tam, Paul Lee & Nelson Kwan

Twitchy Finger is a mobile games developer and publisher for Google Play and the iOS Appstore. Its products include Furball Rampage ( 毛球大暴 走 ), Mini Legend ( 四驅傳說 ) and most recently, Be A Man ( 真的漢子 ). The goal of the founders is to create fun, commercially successful games with mass appeal while striving to become not only a beacon for creative talent but also a global presence in the highly competitive mobile gaming industry.

Augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) are the fields in which AVATech works. Seeing the growing number of students with delayed spatial ability development, its founders invented the Augmented Reality GEOgraphic sandbox (ARGEO) to provide support.

It is used for learning geography in an interactive, intuitive environment. With parent-child workshops offering STEM education, students can gain handson experience by simply moulding sand in the AR environment, and add virtual rain with hand gestures while simulating landscape formations.

Boutir is the name of a mobile app which enables small merchants, individuals and retail marketers to set up online stores easily and quickly. All the elements are managed through the app, including products, orders, transactions, inventories and customer relationships. The Boutir app also empowers store owners to use social media for effective promotion. They can snap pictures of merchandise or import photos from Instagram to share on social media, allowing them to trade on mobile devices. Since August 2015, 20,000 subscribers have been registered and over 320,000 products have been launched. The company’s user footprint in the US and Southeast Asia is already established and continues to grow.

Website twitchyfinger.com

Website avatech.hk

Website boutir.com More information ybhk.hkfyg.org.hk/ybaward2017

Enquiries Michael Wong 3595 0945 49

HKFYG December 2017 | Youth Hong Kong

Social impact with value

F

ive social enterprises at HKFYG offer a variety of services and products to suit many tastes and budgets. Why not check them out one day soon!

PH3 PARTY HOUSE

Services by startups | Versatile venue | Cultural heritage This lovely space in a historic Lee Tung Street building in Wan Chai is the perfect place for intimate celebrations, corporate functions, recitals, exhibitions, handicraft workshops and dining.

Christmas party packages Till 7 January 2018 Address: 3/F, 186-190 Queen’s Road East, Wan Chai Tel 5933 6323 Web ph3.hk/ Book now for the festive season goo.gl/e2hTxi

Organic Farm

Fresh and wholesome | Order online | Hands-on with nature Farming for all is the keynote at this Yuen Long farm. It grows proudly produced crops with USDA organic certification and offers nature tours as well.

Address: No.1 Family Walk, Ho Pui Reservoir, Pat Heung, Yuen Long, New Territories Tel 2838 4808 Shop organicfarm.hk

FAT CHOY

Web organicfarm.hkfyg.org.hk

Farm-to-table | Green cuisine | Youth training Relax in this green escape in Staunton Street, SOHO, Central, with delicious, low-carbon cuisine. Locally-grown seasonal produce is used in signature dishes. Taste one today!

Address : G/F, 60, Staunton Street, Soho, Central Tel 3104 9134

Organic 21

Web facebook.com/HKFYGFATCHOY

Healthy Living | Quality products | Online shop A close neighbour to FAT CHOY, the shop promotes healthy living with products from all over the world. Bring your own containers and be eco-friendly!

Address: G/F, 62B, Staunton Street, Soho, Central Tel 3104 9284 Web facebook.com/hkfygorganic21 Shop organic21.hk

Café 21

Multi-function venue | Convenient rendezvous | Catering services The spacious café run by young people is the perfect place for breakfast, lunch or tea. A minute’s walk from Exit C, Quarry Bay Station, it also offers an event venue and catering.

Address: G/F, HKFYG Building, 21 Pak Fuk Road, Quarry Bay Tel 3188 5792 Web facebook.com/hkfygcafe21/

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PH3 Party House HKFYG’s newest social enterprise

A perfect venue in Lee Tung Street, Wan Chai Web PH3.hk

5933 6323

ph3@hkfyg.org.hk

Publisher : The Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups

香港青年協會

hkfyg.org.hk．m21.hk

Youth Hong Kong: 21/F, The Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups Building, 21 Pak Fuk Road, North Point, Hong Kong Tel : 3755 7084．3755 7108．Fax : 3755 7155．Email : youthhongkong@hkfyg.org.hk．Website : youthhongkong.hkfyg.org.hk The title of this journal in Chinese is Xiang Gang Qing Nian 香 港 青 年

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