This Hong Kong Life

When you have found the thing that you love doing, spending time with people who love to do the same thing could spark some of the happiest moments of your life. For this episode,, we have invited Navan, Harry, Navpreet and Avneet to share their magic moments with us. They are all members of Funjabi, a #Bhangra #dance group who performed recently at KELY’s BE PRESENT: Cherish Your Gifts Carnival.This is the last English episode this season, and we will have two episodes in Cantonese coming up, stay tuned!Support the show

Krishna had to experiment with a lot of industries before she finally found the one that spoke to her. The hurdles on the way made her feel lost and caused a lot of self-doubt. Luckily, an unexpected experience shown the way for her creative path - to become a tattoo artist. Join us and learn how she turned her interest into a career!Support the show

 "You are stressed, I am also stressed!"Hong Kong is a fast-paced society. Sometimes you just wanna shout “I've had enough!" Being exposed to such a high-pressure environment could make us put our emotions aside, or even neglect our true emotions. Find out how our guest (and KELY alumni) Avneet  deals with stress, and her experience in advocating mental health. Spending quality time with yourself is very important too!Support the show

Have you ever felt dragged back by or struggled to move forward with your emotional baggage? Expectations for yourself, from your parents or friends could bring you down sometimes - how do we cope with that? In EP5, we are co-hosting with Melody and Vivian from Unlabelling Effect to talk about the uncertainties and pains of growing up, and how to restart with new beginnings. Our key takeaway? We are free to perceive ourselves in any way we choose.Support the show

The mainstream society has always had specific expectations of how "male" or "female" should behave. These expectations are reinforcing the gender stereotype. How do we construe and interpret concepts like "equity" and "equality" under gender dynamics? How should we adjust ourselves to cater for the needs of different genders? Listen to what our guests, Rita @ Unlabelling Effect and Emery, have to say, and reflect on the relationship between "gender" and "mental health support"!Support the show

We talk little to nothing about mental health, despite its vital importance to our personal lives and health  What is the cause of these common phenomenon? How can we vent out stress? How should we resolve with our emotions? In this episode, we have invited Wincel to join us and share her answers with us. Make sure to tune in and listen from anywhere you can!Support the show

In a metropolis like Hong Kong, we often meet people from different races and cultural backgrounds. How do they live in such a vibrant city while maintaining their identity ? What obstacles have they faced while being themselves? With the deeply inhibited stereotypes in Hong Kong's community, how do these hinder people from being themselves? In this episode, we are glad to have Renee and Jeal, sharing their ideas and thoughts about cultural conflicts and the issue of self-identity  among different communities in Hong Kong. Make sure to tune in and listen from wherever you are!Support the show

Season 7 is back with the brand-new theme 'Under the Surface'! Very often when we look at something, we are merely taking in the tip of an iceberg. There's always more - much, much more - to what we can see.In Hong Kong, 47.5% of students have drunk alcohol before (Narcotics Division, 2022). At family gatherings or due to peer pressure, many young people are exposed to alcohol at an early age. Our young host, Renee, and Youth Services Officer, Miriam, exchanged their thoughts on this.Support the show

Ever wondered what boarding school is like? Jayde described her experiences in boarding school during this episode. Jayde is grateful for her boarding school experience, where she met friends and grew as a person. Jayde explained how the house-mother and house-daughter relations allowed her to build a good friendship. Jayde gets inspiration from being around others, though she mentioned struggles with meeting people in university in comparison with being surrounded by friends in boarding school. As an arts lover, Jayde writes poetry and songs. She does dance and drama too. Jayde mentioned how reading and writing poetry helps to “release emotions in a healthy way.” At the moment, Jayde regularly prioritizes alone time, and she continues to delve into the world of literature as an English major student.  Support the show

Some people have full access to education, and some do not. Henry, a student from Durham University, discussed education inequality and the differences between types of schools both in the UK and Hong Kong. Having previously studied at Renaissance College in Hong Kong, Henry went through training to teach Maths, Geography, and English to students in Nepal. His community services showed him the divide between his experience in school and those of the Nepalese students. In that Nepalese school, basic commodities like WiFi had to be built too with the help of Henry’s class. Henry also participated in a fundraiser during university, where he raised funds to travel away from the university as far as possible to raise awareness and learn about education inequality. Henry continues to make a difference in education, and he is interested in addressing the societal needs of the educational system. Being passionate about education, Henry will go into the education field in the future. Do not miss out on Henry’s insightful story! Support the show

This episode highlights Olympia, a leader in Pedal4Lalibela, a fundraising campaign by her school with England-based charity Soil of Amhara. She shared her volunteering experience through cycling and raffles competition to promote universal education in Lalibela Primary School, Ethiopia. Ranging from the variety of books to the conditions of classrooms, Olympia and her team improved the learning resources for the local students. Besides, our guest today also revealed how she also co-founded ‘Along Hong Kong’, a dementia elderly service-oriented organization with friends from other schools during the pandemic. Volunteering has taught her approaches to dealing with mental breakdowns and overcoming hardships in life. “Don’t give up because, at the end of the day, little by little you will find yourself making good friendships and learning a lot,” said Olympia. Support the show

Nazreen shares her growing-up journey as a third culture identity person and how she tackled mental health challenges. During her hard times, she had been kept rethinking her position and life paths. With the nurture of religious belief, Nazreen could finally figure out her values and passion for empowering herself and the community. She further integrates her interest with the workplace who is now the youth services officer of KELY,  that she also lives her life to the fullest. Check out her story! Support the show

In view of the education needs of children from underprivileged families during the pandemic, Chloe, a 14-year-old girl, founded a platform with her friends, providing virtual language tutorial classes for these children. In this episode, Chloe shares her vision of minimising education inequality in Hong Kong. She also talked about her experience and learning in collaborating with overseas education organisations and reaching assistance to kids around the world. Support the show

Knowing chance does not always come to us, Felix, a 22-year-old youth, seizes every opportunity to put what he has learnt into practice and give back to our community. Under the pandemic, a local artist looked for an IT talent to help develop creative IG filters. Seeing this would be a great chance for him to apply his knowledge, he took up that challenge and successfully created his first selfie filter. Over the years, he has already developed over 20 brilliant filters for remarkable brands and celebrities. Aside from unlocking his potential, Felix also wanted to support his peers with this new technology. He happened to know KELY, and created two IG filters with peer support elements for “Project Connect”, our new youth mental health referral service. Support the show

Under the stressful atmosphere of the pandemic, Ivan found that it's important to maintain life balance to stay both physically and mentally healthy. In this episode, Ivan talks about his connection with his dog, who is dear to his heart, and their long hike to stay healthy. Ivan also shares about a campaign with his friends to raise funds for a dog shelter which was almost permanently shut down due to financial difficulties and a rising number of abandoned dogs. Support the show

Welcome to Season 6 of “This Hong Kong Life”! The theme of this season is “Things I’m proud of…” This season, our youth host, Renee, will be interviewing members of the youth  to share their experiences of trying new and different activities while embracing the “new normal.” Join us for our first episode, featuring Joshua! Joshua enjoys different types of art and experimenting with various mediums. During the pandemic, he explored new art forms such as digital drawing. In this episode, he will share details about his experimental community art exhibition project themed “Hong Kong subculture.” Joshua noticed other teenagers of a similar age suffering from the challenges of mental health issues and felt inspired to use his art to bring changes to the community and communicate with those teenagers. Here is Joshua’s contribution - Support the show

“Dear Mum and Dad, I used to be a really annoying kid, I want to apologise for doing all those bad things before. Thank you for supporting me all the time!” Goran, who was born and raised in an architecture family, leveraged our platform to express his true feelings to his parents. He knows that only when we BUILD mutual trust with our family, we can feel open and comfortable to talk through all our difficult things. Under the pandemic, Goran has tried to strengthen his family bonds in multiple ways, such as going joggling with his parents, having regular video calls with other family members who are living abroad.  He hopes to grow as a better man and support his parents in the future. Support the show

Here comes our last episode of the Season 5 of “This Hong Kong Life”, a podcast with stories from Hong Kong youth. The theme is “Dear Mum and Dad”.  Adelaide, who has a huge passion for psychology and mental health, knows the significance of mutual understanding between parents and children. When having any conflicts with her mum, Adelaide instantly calms herself down and tries to empathize with her mum. Rather than saying whatever she wants, she would prefer sharing her own feelings on the inside when both of them are in good moods. Seeing parents may also face mental health challenges like young people, Adelaide suggests we should put ourselves in their shoes and support each other when needed.Support the show

Pandemic definitely makes a positive change in Zuhaa’s family that everyone has got much closer to one another. In the past, Zuhaa had to manage everything about study on her own without family support. With the “work from home” arrangement, her parents could finally spend more time on talking with Zuhaa and her siblings, and even being actively involved in selecting a right college for her younger sister. Zuhaa is grateful to see her family bond has become stronger and they can now make a decision as a whole.Support the show

Winston always thinks it is imperative to maintain a good relationship with his family. Knowing his traditional parents never talk through their own problems, Winston takes an active role to share his own issues and encourage his parents to open up. He believes taking these baby steps will help bring all his family members closer together. Support the show