Hi everyone~ Welcome back to Asian Youth. Today Yimin would like to share with you the selected part of the interview with Hong Kong youth Alex Lo. Get excited about hearing Alex’s definition of non-verbal universal language and his identity as one of a kind near extinction.
Hey yo guys! What’s up? I am Alex from Hong Kong. Despite only living for 18 years in this world, I had different opportunities to travel around the world. No matter where I am, I always carry my own language to create my own communities.
“I made my decision to move away.”
Alex grew up in a family with his parents and a brother. Having a really supportive and open-minded mother, Alex was able to see the world as a global citizen. A few years ago, Alex followed his heart and went to Argentina for an exchange year with education organisation AFS. This decision made a permanent mark for Alex’s life and identity.
Apart from family influence, politics also played a big role for Alex’s exchange possibility. As he introduces, Hong Kong is one of the most international cities in the world. Unlike a lot of other Asian passports, a Hong Kong passport will allow its holder to travel around the world without almost any visa requirements. “I could literally book a flight to Japan tomorrow and just get there.” says Alex.
For Alex, the biggest challenge was his process of adjusting to culture differences.
“When I came out of the flight in Argentina, the only Spanish word I knew was hola.” Alex laughed, then went into silence for a few seconds. “The next day I went to school, and that’s when the frustration part began. When I walked in the hallway, I was treated like an alien( because I was the only East Asian student). People pointed fingers at me and called me things I didn't understand.”
“When I went to my host family, I experienced another culture shock. In Hong Kong, we don’t have a lot of physical interactions. I felt quite awkward the first time I got a cheek kiss as a greeting.”
I laughed, it’s hard for me to imagine the cool prince Alex getting his first awkward cheek kiss. I asked Alex “But you got used to it eventually?”
“Yea, I got used to it eventually, both language and the way of living.” Alex answers. “ But even when I didn’t, I made myself possible to communicate with. I developed my own language system.”
For Alex, this language system is composed with sport and music, which, according to him, are the basic universal languages for all humans.
(Alex playing his double bass)
“It started with me joining a local basketball team. After training and matches, I found out that I could actually communicate with my teammates without any verbal language. I know what a gaze means when it's wide open. When you know each other even better, you don’t even need to have any gaze, you just know what feels right to do.”
“Eventually people who spoke my sports and music languages taught me Spanish and got me acquainted with Argentinian society. When I went back to Hong Kong again, I realised that I actually got so much influence from Argentine culture which I never expected. I could not fit into the social norms of Hong Kong anymore. I suddenly became this quirky and loud guy.”
“You can’t go back to your original self ever.” Alex said. I didn’t dare to ask him what it means for him to change permanently. I just remember after he said that, he put himself into the narrative: “I can’t change back to the old me either.”
‘But I don’t regret it, I made my own decision to move away.
“I want to change the education system in Hong Kong.”
One thing Yimin always thinks about is how we, as international students, could use our unique experience for improving the social, political or cultural aspects of our home communities. I brought this question up to Alex in our interview.
In Alex’s opinion, we do not have the duty to do so.
“However, if one day I’m stable enough, I would like to use my educational experience to change the educational system in Hong Kong.”
Alex went to one of the male only schools in Hong Kong. In his observation, students are forced to only have one thing that they devote their time to. For example, if you choose to play piano, you will be forced to only play piano. If you use your spare time to try out basketball, it will be considered a waste of time.
“So in my school, the good students don’t play sports or music, the music students cannot run for 1km, and a basketball player will suck at writing exam papers.” Alex told me with a grin.
“What about you then?” I asked him.
“I am an exception. I am mediocre in everything I do. But people of my kind are facing extinction. There is too much pressure on us.” Alex answers.
“Haha, I like the word extinction.” I replied, “I think it is really cool that people want to be good at what they are doing. But it is very unfortunate that if you are not the best, what you do will be considered a waste of time.” I think they need to learn the art of balance.
Alex agreed: “Totally. This change is going to be rather radical. It needs to start with the change of trust level between generations. So many people didn’t even make their own choice about their life. Consider that pianist who won’t be allowed to play basketball. It actually happens in our life. The worst of all is that their choice is based on their parents' decision.”
In mainland China, we call it filling the duck. I think the ideology here is quite similar. Instead of teaching and guiding a conscious being. The educational system in Hong Kong sounds like putting cotton to the paper duck in order to make the duck alive. However, as soon as we treat kids like ducks instead of humans, our education will be on the wrong path.
In Alex’s imagination, education should be liberal. For him, there needs to be a room for all people exploring different areas of knowledge, trying out different “languages”.
Alex protested: “I am 18, I don’t need spoon feed anymore, nor do other young people in Hong Kong. The new education needs to allow us, allow them to pick up the spoon and feed themselves.”
