LARP
Organisers:
Jessica TSANG, Timothy HO, Florence HO, Bowie WOO
WHAT IS LARP?
In recent years, LARP has become a huge hit among youth in Asia, as evidenced by the rise of Larp-related mobile games, stores and variety shows, such as the hit Korean programme Crime Scene (2014-2017). Live Action Role Play (LARP) is an acted, immersive, social game, which combines acting (performative arts), gaming, social interaction, and immersion. The principles of embodiment in LARP require participants (players) to live their character and interact with other characters within a given scenario—historical, fantastical, futuristic—as if they were living in that specified space and time. These principles are akin to the “role-taking” in educational drama, especially for experiential purposes; role-taking helps players develop experiential knowledge of being in “someone else’s shoes”.
BACKGROUND
According to a research conducted by Mind Hong Kong in 2021 with 1010 randomly selected adults, social stigma and lack of understanding among Hong Kong people on mental health are alarming. For instance, over 70% of respondents were unwilling to live with mental health sufferers, among which 1 in 3 even was willing to end friendships with those diagnosed with mental illness. Also, over 40% of the respondents attributed the main cause of mental illness to the mental health sufferers, considering “lack of self-discipline and willpower”. These data illustrate the need to dismantle mental health stigma in the local community. Furthermore, owing to our market landscape research, the majority view, if not all, current LARP games in Hong Kong are having a stigmatized view towards mental health in general
PROPOSED SOLUTION
We deeply believe that one of the most effective ways for people to understand stigma is through direct experience. Therefore, based on the immersive nature of LARP, we propose to introduce a destigmatising LARP game to the current LARP market in Hong Kong. We plan to finish the script of the LARP from May to September, then we will try to sell it to LARP studios in Hong Kong. In our story setting, the characters have different identities (e.g. housewife) , mental health struggles (e.g. stress), stigma received (e.g. public stigma/ professional stigma) as well as hopes and dreams. We hope to reduce stereotypes on people having mental health struggles by showing their multi-dimensionality, i.e. both suffering and bright side. We also give them identities common in daily life so that players can easily identify hence empathize their situation.
OBJECTIVES
We propose that through perspective taking and immersive learning in LARP, participants would:
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Gain awareness of the mental health stigma they originally might possess;
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Understand that everyone is multi-dimensional, no matter people with or without mental disorders; therefore, people with mental illness should not be defined solely based on their “mental disorder tag”;
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Reduce their negative attitudes towards people with or had mental illness, and;
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Be empowered to advocate for mental health stigma destigmatisation, including but not limited to engaging in private collective actions such as making conscious attempts to use non mental health stigmatizing language or using social media platforms to raise others’ awareness of mental health stigma.
What are we doing?
"All about R" is a project dedicated to retiree's family members. An Instagram and Facebook page has been developed, which includes organizing useful information and links about retirement, sharing retirement-related psychological knowledge, providing practical tips on how to get along with pre-retired/retired parents and how to help them adapt to the transition in retirement.
Why we initiate this project?
Hong Kong has an aging population. According to the Census and Statistics Department, the number of people aged 65 or above will escalate from 11.7% in 2003 to 27% in 2033. Many citizens will have to undergo retirement eventually (Au et al., 2017). Our in-depth research has discovered that existing resources and support for retirement issues are insufficient. At the same time, work-family conflicts are common when preparing for retirement or just getting retired (Matthews & Fisher, 2012). Most importantly, retirement is not only about an individual. Family also plays a crucial role, which is the basis of support retirees possess (Dorfman,2002). Hence, we would like to address this issue by providing resources to families of pre-retirees/retirees.
Gendesis
Organisers:
Cherie Ng, Cyrus Chong, Jay Ng
ABOUT GENDESIS
Our name “Gendesis” comes from the word “genesis”, which is then combined with the topic that we are concerned about - “gender”. The overall meaning of this title is the rise of gender equality. We are concerned about gender equality, gender stereotypes, and gender discriminations. We believe in being whoever we want to be, regardless of gender.
Goals, missions, visions, target:
Our goal is to create social impact concerning gender and its equality in Hong Kong through the following three practical means:​
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Provide comprehensive gender education through quality information from credible sources in a digestible manner.
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Help our community engage in conversation around gender inequality
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Heighten awareness and reduce stigma around gender inequality in Hong Kong
We are aiming to create our community by reaching those who are aged between about 15-25, with prior interest in gender issues, but have little exposure to gender equality information.​