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Sammy Heung

Housewife Ash Maya Limbu accompanied her husband and four children from Nepal to Hong Kong in 2014, only to find daily life a challenge because of language barriers.
Unable to speak English or Cantonese, she found it almost impossible to take public transport, shop for groceries or go to hospital on her own.
“I have less confidence to face the world,” said Limbu, 72, speaking to the Post through an interpreter.
The language barrier, along with cultural differences in the city, make it difficult for older people from ethnic minority groups to describe their feelings or seek mental health support.
But since May this year, Limbu has found a way to express her emotions through clay art, playing the drums and painting.
She joined a project started by the Hong Kong Expressive Arts Therapy Service Centre a year ago to teach 300 older people from ethnic minority communities and their carers. Most are Nepalis with some from the Indian and Pakistani communities.
Working with eight social service organisations, it provides expressive arts treatments for emotional relief, carer stress relief, and life and death education, through activities such as dancing, visual art and drama.
Sponsored by real estate investment trust Link, it held an exhibition that showcased participants’ artworks at two shopping malls in August.
Janet Li Wai-chong, the centre’s service director and a registered arts therapist, said the project was a response to the limited mental health treatments and information available to elderly people from ethnic minority groups.
According to Hong Kong’s 2021 census, 301,344 people from ethnic minority groups lived in the city, aside from domestic helpers, including Filipinos, Indians and Nepalis.
Li said most of the social services for these groups focused on employment or the needs of children, rather than the elderly.
“The social circle of elderly people is very close-knit. They seldom leave the areas they are active in and probably will not even visit the street next to their homes,” she said.
Even if older people turned to the local counselling services, the language barrier and cultural differences might get in the way.
Madhavi Gurung, a programme officer of Yuen Long Town Hall – one of the social service groups in the project – said some elderly people might never have heard of the concept of seeking emotional support.
“Having spent the larger part of their life in Nepal, coming here and starting from ground level is very difficult for them,” she said.
Many elderly Nepalis also worried about death. While this was not taboo in their culture, they felt anxious about dying in Hong Kong and the rituals that followed.
“They’re worried that their children may not follow the rituals of their ethnicity or religion,” she said.

Li said without focusing on the emotional aspects of death, the workshops set participants thinking about their past and exploring feelings of gratitude, love and saying farewell.
“We ask them to imagine what the world would be like after their death … what kind of wisdom they would like to pass to the next generation,” she said.
“This helps them relieve their anxiety, using imagination and creativity to feel safe when expressing their feelings about life and death.”
Li said art therapy did not rely on verbal expression, so there was no language barrier when the elderly expressed their emotions through their artworks or dance.
“They can express their love for their mothers through colours or movements,” she said. “But if you ask them to talk about it, it can be difficult as their level of education might not have taught them how to express or access their emotions.”
The centre conducted a study with the Chinese University of Hong Kong’s department of psychology and found that participants’ emotional health improved after attending these activities. Participants responded more positively to statements such as “art expression helps improve my feelings and emotion” and “I am capable of expressing emotion related to life and death issues”.
Housewife Bhanu Gurung, 62, who came from Nepal in 1997 and has three children, said she was most worried about her health as she had heart issues and underwent surgery 12 years ago.
“If I die, I don’t want to trouble my family,” she said through the interpreter. “I hope my death will be peaceful.”
Limbu said she also felt anxious when she thought about her last days.
Both women found consolation in the clay art workshop, creating figures of their mothers.
“I put a lot of chilli around my mother because she loved chilli,” Limbu said.
Gurung said: “I am also a mother so I know mothers face a lot of responsibilities and duties caring for the family. I remembered my mother after making this figurine and it makes me feel very happy.”


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Elderly from Hong Kong’s ethnic minorities learn to cope with hurdles through arts

(From left) Janet Li with Bhanu Gurung and Ash Maya Limbu. Photo: Jonathan Wong

(From left) Madhavi Gurung, Ash Maya Limbu, Bhanu Gurung and Janet Li with artworks. Photo: Jonathan Wong

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Hong Kong’s ethnic minority communities are facing an increasingly ageing population. Photo: Nora Tam

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A room in the Haji Omar Ramju Sadick Care and Attention Home in Tuen Mun. It is Hong Kong’s only public care home providing halal meals. Photo: Handout

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Chief Secretary Eric Chan (second from left) visits one of the service centres for ethnic minority groups. Photo: Handout

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News

Hong Kong

Society

Expressive arts centre helps 300 from minority groups deal with emotional issues, including worries about death


Expressive arts centre helps 300 from minority groups deal with emotional issues, including worries about death.
