‘Seniors don’t deserve to just wait to die’: actor Brenda Chan on creating a festival for elder artists
The Hong Kong Creative Aging Arts Festival features more than 100 artists aged 55 and older, and its closing show will explore the challenges of living a mature life in the city
People say youth is wasted on the young, but actor Brenda Chan Kwai-Fun feels more disappointed when time is wasted by the aged.
“I once asked an elderly person, ‘What do you do daily?’ ‘I go to the social centre to kill time,’ she replied. This shocked me,” says Chan. “We do not have much time as it is, why would you waste more? Seniors don’t deserve to just wait to die. Life is so valuable.”
This is one reason Chan is launching the Hong Kong Creative Aging Arts Festival (HKCAAF), a two-week cultural fete, under her organisation Arts’ Options. The event features more than 100 artists, aged 55 and older, expressing their passions, imaginations and voice, in more than 30 performing and visual art shows from September 25 to October 6.
“The elderly will be the most populous segment of the population. I really believe the seniors community can do more than what we now see. Hong Kong should know they are a treasure,” says Chan. “Our programme is not just for the elderly. I want all people to see it. Everybody should enjoy our art, with no age limitation.”
Some performers are veteran artists, while others are retirees engaging in creative expression for the first time.
