Hong Kong Stories

On most days, these men lead monotonous dull lives that could crumble their spirit, but on special nights, as they grip onto their shooting guns and transform into warriors, the special spark of life comes back. These brothers aim and shoot for the joy of beating their own games every week, and on special days, they come to gather on competition grounds and focus themselves for the show of talent; such is the kind of anticipation that turns the lives of these men around.

There’s a Chinese saying that suggests a good day is counted by “Doing work by Sunrise, and Getting rest by Sunset”; a group of photography-lovers however have chosen to chase the sun day and night. Having formed themselves into a group through facebook in six months’ time since March 2011, this is a group of two thousand people united by their passion for the sun and who simply automatically know where to meet as they make their daily runs to hilltops and sea sides just to capture the best shots of nature’s ever-changing beauty.

How will you spend a good weekend this time? For most people, the same question pops up as every Saturday and Sunday draw near. Imagine however that you no longer need to fuss about your weekend activities because someone else plans something special and different for you every other week. Wouldn’t it sound wonderful? Believe it or not, but that is the case with the happy followers of two special event organizers, a PhD student of philosophy for one, and your everyday white-collared guy who happens to love Kung Fu for the other; Derek and Look. These boys who happened to share a childhood of school life together, happened to grown up loving and sharing the same single hobby of never-ending exploring and planning of fun activities for large groups of facebook friends in Hong Kong they hardly know. “Not doing it for fame or money”, they say, but sheerly for the ideals of spreading joy in ways to make sure Hong Kongers break out of their comfort bounds to experience life. For two years, they have been organizing every kind of activity, ranging from night-time hiking, snorkelling, war-games to secret cinemas, and even special Halloween-styled hide-and-seek for a group size of people that goes beyond the number of 50. If you happen to be one of the participants, this might just be another happy weekend of fun and fulfilment for you. But for the organizers themselves who specialize in the “making-of” these interests must be personally involved in every step of the stages from planning, coordinating, renting locations, buying and preparing event materials to finishing the chores and wrapping up accounts and expenses, one just might have to question: what is it that these organizers find to be so worthy of their efforts and how are we to understand the kind of joy that seems to drive these endeavors? In this episode, we will bring to you first-hand experiences of this special group of gamers and we will leave it for you to decide whether these young groups of people

“Life in Hong Kong is too tense, but Rugby as an intense sports game will help you kill off the stress!” – an agreement uncommonly found among the ladies and gentlemen of Hong Kong, and more so in an uncommon area of interest like the fields of Rugby. Homan, Spencer, Kan and Poon, though of different backgrounds, are four Hong Kong guys, united in their share of passion for an atypical sport. Unlike football, basketball and table-tennis, rugby had always been misunderstood as a sport meant “only for westerners”. Against such beliefs, the group of four, two of whom once educated abroad and the other being members of the post-90s generation, join to disagree in unity. Vowing to “localize” the uncommon sport for all class and age groups to enjoy, Homers and Spencer dedicate their lives to Rugby both inside and outside of work. They volunteer to teach kids the sports they claim to be the best way to de-stress and for boys like Kan and Poon who experience first-hand the stresses of school life, they couldn’t agree more. Queenie has been called “the chubby one” since little. Having struggled and failed at losing weight many times, she shares about how her bodyweight has ironically helped her regain confidence through the joy of playing and being qualified for the leader’s role in a Rugby girls team. Queenie’s girl pal, Kim has even been twice qualified for the Hong Kong Rugby’s team. Though having hurt her ligaments twice, Kim says that the joy of playing this sport far surpasses the pain. Rugby may not be the typical sport for Asians, but for a particular group of Hong Kongers, it is the everyday sport. This episode looks into reasons behind each person’s passion for this special sport and shows how perfect coordination forms a team spirit that brings happiness to everyone.

Many of us enjoy wandering the streets, shopping for goods and savoring various delicacies. But there are those who insist on walking solely for the sake of walking. They wander thousands of miles through roads and alleys, only to embrace freedom. When Swing was trying to make ends meet a year ago, he whimsically started Hong Kong’s first full-day street wandering event. Twelve hours of walking from Cheung Kwan O to Yuen Long was exhausting, but helped drive away the sense of impotence. Walking all of Hong Kong was not enough to satisfy his ambition, Swing put his tracks on Japan and Iceland. Through that means, he learned about the various communities and cultures. On his webpage, 11walker, Swing shares his routes with friends who have common interests. In a society that values benefits and performances, Swing’s hobby may be seen as tedious. But for the many people who joined Swing, they walked away with experience of a lifetime. Being young enables one to be tedious at times.

For most Hong Kongers who lead the same repetitive lives, it would seem the pursuit of career achievements is the whole of everything that matters in life. But when the year of 2003 hit Hong Kong with the epidemic SARS, for some who had the chance of witnessing the loss of lives and jobs of others people, theirs are perspectives forever changed by such deep experiences of life’s true character of change, instability and uncertainty. The situation begs to question and review not only one’s own state of being and self, but it is in those breaking moments of revelation that some finally come to see the truth of their own faces; that they have lived a life of empty pursuits, with a façade of personhood that seemed to have served little beyond work. The question of “who am I” has no easy answer, but these are the people who manage to find their own rebirths with the help of a writing brush and a piece of paper. Whereby a mysterious relationship unfolds between water-paint and the substances of the soul, this is the episode that will examine how this group of water-painters discovered their true selves through the tip of their writing brushes.

They ain’t volunteers, and it’s not for charity, but they are what they call themselves to be “the silly and the absurd”. These are people who do works that “set fire” in the hearts of men and women, as they spread and plant seeds of passion for the ideals of equality through the act of giving and sharing in the common streets of Hong Kong. A bottle of water, a piece of bread or even a simple greeting can easily become acts of kindness that make a huge difference in the lives of the needy. But “in giving, there is always much to receive”, such a statement testified by three ordinary citizens of unrelated backgrounds who find their lives transformed ever since they joined the “Equal Sharing Movement”. Eva used to work at a trading company where she faced huge amount of pressure on a constant basis until several years ago, her new-found interest in bakery saved her from much of it. Thanks to her talent, Eva soon came to learn there was unspeakable joy to be found not only in making delicious cakes but more so in the act of sharing them with friends and family. Today she is a bakery workshop owner who pours the whole of her heart and talent into the sharing movement. Ivan is a fashion salesman, who loves band music like any ordinary youngster of today. Take a peek at his band-room however and one may see just how special it is. With secondhand clothes, toys and furniture stacking up all over the place, it is the room where Ivan keeps all of the “equal sharing” resources he laboriously gathers and collects from friends, relatives and even unknown strangers over the internet. Unlike any average young guy out there, Ivan says he would always choose visiting the homeless over his personal fun time with friends, because that’s just how exciting it is to build genuine friendships with them! Vera almost lost her life at a car accident years ago, but a rebirth was what she experienced when she decided to love life even more afterwards by cherishing all of her relatio

Of all the sages in the ancient days of the pre-Qin dynasty, Confucians, Mohists and traditional healers had always propagated their schools of thought on how food can define a nation. As tradition goes, the saying of how “food always comes first for the Chinese people” has thus remained unto its modern days of living. Food is considered one of life’s greatest enjoyments, and along with that comes the new saying of how “To eat much is a blessing on its own”. In this episode, a bunch of food lovers will be sprawling all over Hong Kong to discover the bests of cuisines in various districts and share with the audience those special joys of eating. Yet when the appetite is finally filled, it is perhaps always beneficial to review the purpose of our own gratuitous eating. While Hong Kong is a city of fortune, one needs to be reminded of how in various parts of the world, nutrition hardly makes for the basics of life. A reality check into the state of the earth will guide us to remember again that the true Chinese way of living never deemed the satisfaction of taste buds as everything, but had always been about the sustaining ethics behind that say while we live, we must always learn to cherish our food, for the life of one who does everything in moderation is a happy one.

Chan Wai Lin, an ordinary name of a man who lives an extraordinary life. Some friends say that the visible spots on Chan’s cancerous skin have come to represent small heart shapes that bring warmth and care into the lives of others; other friends have been inspired to turn the last stages of this man’s life into artworks, and expressions of a beautiful world of an inner soul; these are the circle of friends will do all kinds of things in remembrance of Chan’s special circle of life, and in those memories, a smile forever hangs on his face. “To live in the moment” is the motto of Chan Wai Lin, it is the staple of his world, and though he is terminal, he will always put up the banner of truth about “life’s natural cycles”, as he walks the distance, meeting and counselling other wounded friends. Happiness is here.

Films and Comic books are all good forms of entertainments, for some who come to love the characters and the world created therein, they might even want to follow and re-watch their favourite episodes from time to time just to reminisce; but for some, they may love these characters so much that they would do everything they can to become these characters themselves! In order for the perfect hero of their dreams to appear before the world’s eyes, cosplay lovers would do everything from collecting, trimming and sewing all kinds of special fabrics and materials together to create the perfect costumes for themselves. For this specific team of “Superhero” cosplayers covered in this episode, some even choose to gym up their physiques every week, and train themselves to learn the mad battle skills of their favourite heroic character. Once transformed into the superheroes of their dream, they often find themselves surrounded by swarms of people, vying to take photos with them. Some may say that popularity is cosplayers’ greatest source of pleasure. Yet as our episode delves into the reasons behind their happiness, we may discover together with these heroes that perhaps, as they look back at their own pictures of memory, the true joy of playing hero has never really stemmed so much from playing pretend but more from the ability to put smiles on the faces of the people around them. Look closer and you will see that happiness actually is this simple.