Summer programme inspires young artists
Primary school students in To Kwa Wan had an exciting summer when the Sheraton Hotel teamed up with the Hong Kong Youth Arts Foundation (HKYAF).
The eye-opening project taught participants to value Hong Kong’s traditions and precious but slowly disappearing heritage, as well as to appreciate their own talents and creativity.
Activities on the first Saturday were arranged by the House of To Kwa Wan Stories, a heritage preservation service supported by St James’ Settlement. It organises exhibitions and cultural walks to introduce and explain the district’s history.
The 12 children taking part heard the stories behind certain types of local food. They learned that “ice rooms” were places selling ice-cream, shaved ice and other desserts and that “soy sauce western food” is a hybrid Cantonese-western dish. They visited a cha chaan teng and stalls selling local street food to try traditional Chinese snacks such as egg tarts, red bean pudding, pineapple buns, egg waffles, fish balls and siu mai.
On the second Saturday, Inkolize, a group specialising in artistic silk screen printing and photography, took the lead. Their members taught the children how to take good photos, and various examples were later used in an artwork project.
On the other two days, the focus was on drawing and silk screen printing techniques taught by Inkolize and, afterwards, producing stencils to celebrate the traditional snacks of To Kwa Wan on T-shirts, tote bags and cushion covers.
“We wanted to help children in the area create awareness of the district, and find out more about traditional local food,” says Henry Cheung, the Sheraton Hotel’s senior marketing communications manager.
