Breaking down barriers

Family is one of the most important things in life, but living with certain family members is not always plain sailing. Much as we love and want the best for others, everyone is under a lot of pressure, which can make us grumpy or short-tempered, and the closer we are to each other, the easier it is to get hurt.

Also, even though family members talk to each other every day, that doesn’t mean they communicate well. Routine conversations contain all kinds of misunderstandings, and it can be hard to find the right moment to talk about a problem or issue that really bothers us.

It is especially difficult for young children to bring up something they don’t like about their parents’ behaviour, with adults often failing to realise there could be a problem.

Opening the door to more candid conversations is the aim of “A Letter to My Family”, the bi-annual book review competition organised by Sun Hung Kai Properties (SHKP). It encourages both young people and adults to read a book and write a review of it for a member of their family in the form of a letter. The competition wants to promote reading as a regular habit and get people to talk about their feelings in constructive new ways.

For example, Yam Ho-ching was nine when she won a bronze prize and a “best presentation special award” for her letter to her mother in the last competition in 2014.

She bought the book Jiaohuan Mama (Exchanging Mothers) on a trip to Taiwan.