People

Cici Fan, 21, a university student, darts between various luxury handbag stores in Tsim Sha Tsui after receiving a last-minute notification to attend an important business dinner. She paced and occasionally looked inside from the shop window. Finally, she entered a store and secured a Dior handbag for HK$800. “I finally feel at ease because it solved my problem of not having enough money to buy a fancy tote bag for a dinner party,” Fan said. But from the moment she walked out of the store, she had to carefully look after the bag until it was safely returned to the store because it was rented. Fan is the small epitome of the Hong Kong clothing rental craze. More Hongkongers have started trying rental services in different boutiques in recent years. Renting clothing and accessories from luxury brands allows consumers to display high-end lifestyles in social settings without spending much money. It provides a cost-effective way for people to keep up with fashion trends. Some overseas luxury rental brands, such as Rent the Runway and Style Theory, are starting to emphasise the local market by offering online services for Hong Kong consumers. Kimi Lee, the owner of the 37-year-old luxury bag rental store Huiyuan, has been running it for six years. He said it was tough for the store to operate in its early days. “Very few people came to try this business at first because most people were not familiar with the concept of renting a bag,” he said. Lee said things have started to look different in recent years.  “Now the number of monthly rental orders is more stable at more than 100, and the customer base has expanded from local Hong Kong office workers and fashion enthusiasts to mainland tourists,” Lee said. To satisfy the needs of …

Golden Horse Film Awards Best Actress, Chung Suet-ying of the film The Way We Talk returned to her alma mater, Hong Kong Baptist University, to share her career experiences with journalism students on Friday. Chung played Sophie Fong in The Way We Talk, an optimistic deaf girl who faces difficulties in life but tries to be seen as “normal”. She won best actress at the 61st Golden Horse Awards and was nominated best actress for the 43rd Hong Kong Film Awards. Chung was a graduate of the financial journalism stream at the School of Communication. She said that the Journalism Department enhanced her nosy and curious nature.“Being nosy is not shameful, but a way to absorb knowledge and enjoy learning, just like reading and asking questions,” she said. She added that what’s common between  journalism and movies is that they're both about stories. “I can extract the ideas from stories told by others, and convert them to become my motivation,” Chung said. “I think it's amazing that she went from financial journalism to acting. Everyone has their own path to success, and I believe her experience will also inspire my future career planning,” said Zhang Jiahe, a freshman at Hong Kong Baptist University, who aims to study financial journalism in the future. Chung first became a disc jockey after graduation. After that, she was in several on-screen performances, including films, TV series and music videos.In Time, she played Wat Tsz-ying, and she was nominated 40th Hong Kong Film Awards best supporting actress for her debut performance in a feature-length film. In The Lyricist Wannabe, she was the female-lead, and was nominated for the 60th Golden Horse Film Awards for best actress. She also wrote song lyrics for singers such as Eason Chan, Jace Chan and Kaho Hung. Many students were …

Suna Limbu is an ethnic Nepali who lives in Hong Kong. Her five-year-old son, Abhinvadil Tamang, is enrolled in Integrated Brilliant Education Limited’s IBEL Rusy and Purviz Shroff Charitable Foundation Kindergarten, where they largely teach children from non-Chinese backgrounds. “When my son first started here, he was introverted and struggled to socialise with others. But now, he communicates with his friends and teachers,” she said. Limbu and her family rarely spoke English or Chinese at home. They speak Nepali. “His ability to speak and understand Cantonese has developed a lot. Before, he would only speak a few words. Now, he participates in class discussions and interacts more confidently with his classmates. I’m grateful to see him so happy,” she said. Hong Kong is home to over 600,000 people from ethnic minority backgrounds, including about 30,000 students. Yet, the education landscape is challenging for many of these students because of language barriers and social disparities. Manoj Dhar is an ethnic Indian. He came to Hong Kong in 1999 and saw how ethnic minority children struggled through school. In 2015, he and his wife founded Integrated Brilliant Education Limited (IBEL) to provide subsidised Chinese-language tuition to students from non-Chinese backgrounds. Today, IBEL supports more than 260 individuals across the organisation’s two tutoring centres in Jordan and Sham Shui Po. “We cannot ignore the fact that language is not just a skill but a key that opens doors," said Dhar. “Back then, I saw these kids being left behind because of a lack of resources and support. I wanted to create a space where they could thrive, receive a quality education and feel valued.” After operating two tutoring centres for underprivileged children for over seven years, Dhar realised they needed to start proper schools to influence the education system and introduce mainstream Chinese …