Reviews & Articles

Captions:
1. Playing Super Mario Bros video game at Floating Projects' front door  

2. Lok Man Chung's cat model to cheer-up his friend, 2016  

3. Lok Man Chung's composite model using leftover pieces from Lai Wai Leung's model-making, 2016  

4. Lai Wai Leung's Model Sceneries, 2016  

5. Lai Wai Leung's Model Sceneries ("How Can I Fix It?"), 2016    



(Please scroll down for English version)

珠海學院商學院院長何濼生教授自2005年起已開始每年就香港的快樂水平進行研究，他在最新一次研究中發現，今年是30歲以下的香港人10年以來最不快樂的一年。教授在接受香港電台訪問時指出其中一個原因：「如果事情在你控制之內，你可以歇盡所能做到最好。如果在你控制之外，你便盡量不去想。但年輕人似乎傾向對於自己真正無法控制的事情有很多想法。」

青年人關心香港以至世界大事及政治議題是正常不過，可是自2014年雨傘運動以來，政府並沒有改善和年輕人溝通，也沒有在決策上加入更多年輕人的聲音。引入民主改革失敗，令同一個決策小圈子主導了政府的諮詢體制，延續了許多過時的想法，例如在研究意念和解決問題上，仍然過份執著於基建的大興土木、建橋築路和推廣大型活動和雷聲大的方案，而非採用草根、有機、以人為本的方針。

所以，最近聞說政府有意在迪士尼樂園擴建計劃中注資58億港元，一點也不令人意外。它正是政府心目中的有趣、優閒和快樂應有的模樣：所有事情都在控制之中、被規定和包圍在欄柵內，最好要付費入場。在香港，由政府經營的公園也大同小異。兒童倡議組織智樂兒童遊樂協會的報導便指出，兒童對於香港的遊樂場感到沉悶。園內的遊玩設備並沒有挑戰性，更沒有多少草地可供自由玩樂或進行球類遊戲。

位於黃竹坑的「據點。句點」最近有一個妙不可言的展覽，將於12月12日（星期日）結束。展覽題為「玩具之間」，入口處有一張有關遊戲的展板，引述了柏拉圖所說的「一小時的遊戲比一年的對話更能令你認識一個人」，還有榮格 (Carl Jung) 的「新事物的創作並非由才智成就，而是靠遊玩的直覺。」表面看來，展覽只像一個模型工作坊，但是從各位藝術家對作品的精彩註釋，我們可以看出一些深入認真的探究。

展覽以遊玩、童年回憶、工藝、英雄崇拜和與玩具相關的文化關聯為中心。駱文聰提出「長大是怎樣的？」這個問題，然後以「是接納的意願……是對抗的意願」和「……相信的意願」作回答；這些心情也是終身目標，從駱文聰的作品中可見一斑。他的友人因為愛貓過身而哀傷，他問自己：「我還可以為她做些什麼？」，於是決定建立一間異想天開的紙板屋，裡面住了一隻擺出不同姿態的貓。

黎偉亮的「模型場景」主要是想像的戰爭場面，以戰機、坦克車、交通工具、配件和各式軍人的塑膠模型，在彩繪的泥土、草和灌木林營造的場景中做出戰爭的狀況。黎偉亮以諷刺的幽默感刻畫戰爭的荒謬。其中一個場景以1941年的烏克蘭為背景，一名軍人站在裝甲車車頂，被各種工具圍繞，他低頭看著另一名軍人，問道：「我怎樣把它修好？」

展覽也探討了文化特色。黎仲民設置了一個遊戲空間，讓訪客一同玩任天堂的「超級馬里奧」電視遊戲，但作品卻刻意放在正門附近。人們經常在這裡進出，就像香港的小宅內，兒童在玩遊戲機時，父母煩擾地在電視機前行來行去一樣！

林建才和劉清華請觀眾畫出小時候的遊玩記憶。這些記憶中，有些反映了純真的時代：兩個人手執床單一端來模仿大海，其他孩子在裡面「游水」。另一個遊戲是打開雪櫃門來模仿天氣寒冷的效果，再以兩根筷子「搓揉」出溫暖！這些故事稍後會以雜誌形式出版。

我們的官僚應該親身參觀這個展覽，因為遊玩是一項簡單的活動，而最有趣的地方，是和朋友一同分享，不一定要鉅額注資！很早以前便有人這樣說過，例如Cat Stevens一首1970年的歌(較年長的官員應該聽過)，便這樣唱出： When you crack the sky, scrapers fill the sky （當你打開天空，摩天大樓直插雲霄）/ Will you keep on building higher（你會否繼續提高建築高度） / ‘til there’s no more room up there? （直至上面不餘任何空間？）/ I know we’ve come a long way （我知道我們已走了很遠）/ We’re changing day to day （我們每天都在改變） / But tell me, where do the children play?（但告訴我，兒童要到哪裡去玩？）」


原文刊於《明報周刊》，2016年12月10日。



I Know We’ve Come A Long Way, But…

John Batten


Ho Lok-sang, Dean of Business at Chu Hai College of Higher Education has been studying Hong Kong’s happiness levels annually since 2005. The latest study, of which he was principal researcher, found that people under 30 years old were the unhappiest they have been for a decade. In a RTHK radio interview, Professor Ho suggested a reason: “If it’s within your control, you have to do all you can to do your best. If it’s not within your control, you try not to think about it, but young people tend to think a lot about things that are really beyond their control.”

Concern about the social and political well-being of Hong Kong and our world is very much on the minds of young people – as it should be! However, government engagement with young people and the inclusion of a younger voice in decision-making has not progressed since the Umbrella protests of 2014. The failure to introduce democratic reform has allowed the same small-circle of decision-makers to dominate government advisory institutions and continue such outdated ideas as obsessive infrastructure concrete-pouring, road-laying and the promotion of big events and big solutions rather than a grass-root, organic, people-first approach to developing ideas and resolving issues.

So, it was no surprise to recently hear of a government injection of HK$5.8 billion to further expand Hong Kong Disneyland. It fits our government’s idea of how fun, leisure and happiness should be: controlled, prescribed and contained within a fence, preferably with fee-paying entry. Hong Kong’s government-run parks are similar; the children’s advocacy group Playright Children’s Play Association report that children are bored by Hong Kong’s playgrounds. The play equipment was not challenging and there was little space or grass for free play and ball games.

Ending on Sunday (12 December) is a marvelous art exhibition at Floating Projects in Wong Chuk Hang. At the entrance of the “Toy as Medium” exhibition is a list of quotations about play as activity. Setting the tone of the exhibition is Plato’s thought that “you can discover more about a person in an hour of play than a year of conversation” and Carl Jung’s “the creation of something new is not accomplished by the intellect but by the play instinct.” Outwardly, this exhibition merely appears as a model-makers’ workshop, but there is also some serious enquiry - outlined in the excellent explanatory artist notes.

The exhibition is centred around play, memories of childhood, craftsmanship, hero-worship and cultural associations with toys. Lok Man Chung poses “what is it like growing up?” Giving such answers as: “It is the will to accept…the will to confront” and “…the will to believe.” But, such sentiments are also lifelong goals and Lok demonstrates this when confronted by a grief-stricken friend whose cat had died. He asks himself, “What else can I do for her?” He decided to build a whimsical cardboard house with a cat inside depicted in different cat poses.



Interior view of 'Toys as Medium' exhibition at Floating Projects, 2016  


Lai Wai Leung’s Model Sceneries are predominantly imagined war scenes, small dioramas, using plastic model war planes, tanks, vehicles, accessories and a variety of soldiers in an open-air landscape of painted dirt, grass and shrubbery. Lai uses ironic humour to depict the absurdity of war. A scene set in Ukraine in 1941 shows a soldier standing atop an armoured car surrounded by tools, he looks down to another soldier and asks, “How can I fix it?” 

Cultural characteristics are also explored. Andio Lai set-up a games area for visitors to play Nintendo’s ‘Super Mario Bros’ video game, but it is intentionally situated near the front door. People constantly use the entrance and this replicates a small Hong Kong flat with children playing video games; while their parents annoyingly walk past and in front of the TV!

Lam Kin-choi and Jess Lau ask the audience to draw pictures about their memories of playing as a child. Some of these memories reflect a simpler time: a bedsheet is stretched out and held at each end to replicate the sea, while other children ‘swim’. Another make-believe game reproduces cold weather by opening a refrigerator door, while heat is then ‘produced’ by rubbing two chopsticks together! A zine will later be published from these stories.

Our bureaucrats should visit the exhibition, because play is a simple activity; and, the best fun is done with friends playing together - not necessarily achieved with huge injections of money! It has all been said before, as Cat Stevens sang (and probably heard by our older officials!) in the 1970s: “When you crack the sky, scrapers fill the sky / Will you keep on building higher / ‘til there’s no more room up there? / I know we’ve come a long way / We’re changing day to day / But tell me, where do the children play?”


Links for further info:
Floating Projects Collective
Cat Stevens, early 2016: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ge__1maElKA

Chinese translation: Aulina Chan
Originally published in Ming Pao Weekly, 10 December 2016