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Kowloon City celebrates Songkran Festival

  • The Young Reporter
  • By: SIU Tsz Hang、CHENG Tsz Sen SeanEdited by: AO Wei Ying Vinci
  • 2025-04-24

Songkran Festival, a Thai New Year celebration, made its comeback in Kowloon City April 11 to 13. "Day X Night Vibes @ 18 Districts – Thai Festival: Songkran 2025", featured a water splashing, a pop up food market, Thai dance performances, Thai costume experiences, Muay Thai demonstration and boxing match. The highlight was a parade heading toward Tak Ku Ling Road. Reported by Henry Siu Tsz-hang, Sean Cheng Tsz-sen Edited by Vinci Ao Wei-ying

Largest Tin Hau Festival in Hong Kong Celebrated in Yuen Long

  • 2025-04-21
  • The Young Reporter
  • By: CAO Siyuan、YAM Long Hei JamieEdited by: HWANG Saewon
  • 2025-04-21

The Shap Pat Heung Tin Hau Festival parade, a three-hour procession from Yuen Long Town to Tai Shu Ha's Tin Hau Temple, featured 37 performing teams and attracted numerous visitors on April 20. The parade started at 10 a.m., featuring teams with paper flower tributes, as well as dragon and lion dances plus cultural performances. The parade, organised by Yuen Long's Shap Pat Heung village is the largest Tin Hau Festival celebrations in Hong Kong and is a tradition that dates back over half a century. Emily Yeung, a bank clerk, is a member of a temple performance team from Yuen Long. “I don’t live in Yuen Long, but I come to this temple to worship,” she said. This is her fourth year in this Tin Hau Festival parade. She volunteered because of her religious beliefs. “Because the movements are not very complicated, I don't need to practice for a long time every year. We only rehearsed two or three times,” she said. Spectators lined Hok Yip Road to watch the performance, and cheered from time to time. “This event is really colorful and interesting.We can even touch the dragon,”said Peter Schulz, a 57-year-old German visitor traveling with his family. “I also like the different movements of the dragons. They are very powerful,” Schulz said. “It is very colourful. I like the culture and it is very beautiful,” said Peter’s daughter, Clara Schulz. A 14-year-old lion dancer, Wu Yong-cong, has been learning the dance for two years. His lion dance teacher invited him to participate in the parade. “The festive atmosphere here really attracts me, and participating in the performance also brings me great satisfaction.” Wu said. A restaurant owner, Ms Ng, aged 80, wishes for peace and prosperity through this parade. “Although there are many visitors in Yuen Long, …

Society

Humanoid robots shines at InnoEX

A humanoid robot dances to music. Others clap to the beat, or make eye contact through vision sensors with the audience. These bots are all the rage at the third sci-tech exhibition InnoEX at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre from Apr.13 to 16 this year. Co-organized by the Technology and Industry Bureau and Hong Kong Trade Development Council and themed with “Innovate, Automate and Elevate”, this exhibition spotlights robotics, low-attitude economy, AI, smart mobility, and cybersecurity, according to the official news release. “These robots can already be applied in certain scenarios like playing football games. They can identify objects and take actions like shots and dribbling.” said Liu Weitong, 32, head of commercialization at Booster Robotics. “Humanoid robots can provide basic services like guidance and performance, but it will take at least two to three years for the industry to provide mature products for factories or families,” she added. She explained  the limited load-bearing weight of the robot's arm is such that they cannot be used in  large-scale industrial production. The algorithms at the current level also cannot fully guarantee the safe use of robots in the home. “Similar to human beings, robots set their goals based on basic logic, such as ‘who am I, where am I right now, and where I should go,” said Calvin Chiu, the COO of Novautek Autonomous Driving Limited, an exhibitor at InnoEX. “The AI algorithm helps humanoid robots understand the surroundings and connect the decoded information with their goal to guide their action,” Chiu said. Existing algorithms, he explained, can only let humanoid robots accomplish the goal based on training data. “We still need time to make humanoid robots more widely available to the public,” he said. Over 500 exhibitors from 17 countries and regions joined the exhibition this year. New …

Culture & Leisure

Preserve the collective memories of public housing estates

The percentage of the Hong Kong population currently living in public housing estates is 33.5%, and some of them are scheduled for redevelopment in the coming years. A series of initiatives have been triggered to preserve the memories, stories, and uniqueness associated with the estates before they are redeveloped. Aiko Kan Pui-shan, 35, who grew up in Yat Tung Estate in Tung Chung, has travelled to 230 public housing estates so far. Believing the most important and nostalgic thing about public housing estates is their memories, she set up a social media account to share her travels with the public. “I hope to make more videos of the public housing before they are redeveloped. It would be a pity if nothing is left and we forget what the estate looks like,” said Kan. Kan is also the author of Exploring Hong Kong’s Public Housing, a book that tells the history and anecdotes of the estates’ origins. She uses hand-drawn maps to portray the scenery and introduce it to a wider audience. “I published the book to share what I have seen and heard from my travels to public housing because I believe that books are something that can be passed on forever,” said Kan. “It is a good opportunity to present to the public what I have in mind for the housing estates.” “I believe that every era has a collective memory. If it has to be torn down in the future, or if it has to face redevelopment, I can say it symbolises the end of an era,” she added. In 1954, following the devastating Shek Kip Mei shantytown fire that left 53,000 residents without a home, the Hong Kong government took its initial step towards providing housing solutions. It commenced the construction of bungalows and resettlement blocks, which …

Culture & Leisure

Snap Back in Time: The Film Photography Craze Sweeping Hong Kong

  • The Young Reporter
  • By: LEUNG Chi Ngai、CHEN ZiyuEdited by: CHAN Wing Yiu、CHEN Yik Nam
  • 2025-04-16

Old fashioned roll film cameras are the new craze among young people in Hong Kong. Social Media Posts that carried the hashtag of “film photography” reached over 86,000 in total.  Film cameras, first sold and popularised by the American company, Eastman-Kodak Co. In 1888, images captured by a roll film camera needed to be processed in a dark room.  The process is called albumen print, papers need to be printed with a layer with egg white and salt to ensure the smoothness of the surface. After the chemical reaction between silver nitrate and salt is exposed to the sun, a print is finally complete. Tang Pik-san has been using film photography since 2022 . It costs him HK$500 every month. “The biggest difference between film and digital cameras is that you can’t check the photo result immediately, which makes the photograph process mindful to me. I can simply focus on the composition of the photograph,”  Tang said. The cheapest digital camera is around HK$3,000, while a disposable film camera costs around HK$100.  Developing the film costs around HK$50, Tang said starting  film photography is relatively cheaper.   College student, Stephen Fu, 20, tried film photography for the first time four years ago. “At first it was just for fun, then I realized that film photography is completely different from digital photography. It was slower, quieter, which I love,” Fu said. For Fu, the biggest charm of the film camera is the connection between the user and the camera. “Film cameras make me think carefully every time when I press the shutter, making the time of shooting more precious,” he said. The sale of film cameras in the Chinese market increased by 3.6% over the past two years, according to The Film Camera Report 2025. The sale of products related to photographic …

Society

Popularity soars amid the venue challenge for local pickleball and padel

Chu Fuk-ling and Jack Zhu vigorously swung their paddles, and the ball swiftly crossed the net. They secured third place in the men's doubles at the Hong Kong round of the 2024 Pickleball World Championships in December. “Pickleball has evolved in terms of speed and technical variety in recent years, and players now not only master the standard forehand and backhand shots but also frequently employ techniques such as drop shots, which are used to surprise opponents,” said Ho King-choi, a coach with the Pickleball Association of Hong Kong, China.  Racket sports, such as pickleball and padel, are gaining popularity among people of all ages, leading to an increase in various programmes and clubs aimed at promoting these emerging sports in Hong Kong. However, when it comes to venue allocation, pickleball benefits from government support, which provides more accessible public venues, while padel does not. Pickleball has been around since 1965, but it has picked up in popularity over the last few years. A bit like a combination of tennis and badminton, two or four players use a smooth-faced paddle to hit a hollow plastic ball over an 86-centimetre-high net until someone wins. In the US, pickleball is the fastest-growing sport, with more than one million children playing and has the largest participation rate from those aged 25 to 34, according to the Sports and Fitness Industry Association report in 2024. Hong Kong has more than 12 public venues for playing pickleball, and the city ranked among the top 11 in regional search popularity for pickleball, according to Google Trends.  Joanna Hiew, a pickleball player, was watching the finals of a pickleball tournament and said anyone can participate in the competition as long as they form a team. “The tournament of pickleball is usually flexible, with the team of the …

Culture & Leisure

Divination or scam? The rising popularity of tarot cards reading

Nineteen-year-old Kimmy Wu Ching-tung was listening to her love prophecy at the Tarot Centre in Mongkok. “The Tarot reader said I will meet my next boyfriend in March,” Wu laughed, “He will be 175cm tall, meticulous in character, and have a tattoo on his left shoulder.”  Wu is a barista at a coffee shop in Tai Wai, and this is the fourth year since she has started seeking tarot readings. “I usually seek metaphysical help for relationship issues or career paths,” said Wu.  Wu is not alone. On Instagram, there are 29.9 million posts under the hashtag “tarot”, nearly 121,000 posts in #hktarot, and over 5,000 posts offering Tarot interpretation services in Hong Kong. The most popular divination bloggers on Instagram have over 40 million followers. Mani Cheung, 47, is the founder of the Hong Kong Tarot Association. The number of divination courses provided within her association has doubled since 2022.  “Course services we offer are always full, with around 60 to 100 students a year,” she said, “and people from 20 to 50 years old love to participate in it.”   The principle of tarot card interpretation is the customer’s subconscious projection. Usually, the tarotist would ask the client to randomly choose one of the Tarot cards spread out on the table based on their subconscious mind, and then the tarotist would interpret the card according to the pattern on it. The more cards drawn, the more information will be interpreted. “Tarot reading involves frequency. The cards customers pick can already reflect a certain state of their mind, which is similar to subconscious projection,” said by Diva Chugani, a 40-year-old Indian Tarot reader in Hong Kong. She is also the owner of a tarot shop l in Tsim Sha Tsui.  Each card, the reader claims, can represent different meanings according …

Society

Social media fuels check-in culture

Dora Liu, 22, a check-in blogger, adjusts her camera angle to photograph the dishes at a restaurant in Central. It is her third year as a store blogger, and she spends her weekends experiencing different restaurants. “I usually post these photos on Instagram and RedNote,” said Liu. “The shop owner invited me to help them with publicity.” According to the Census and Statistics Department, 88% of the 465.2 billion respondents indicated that they frequently browsed social media for content related to restaurants and entertainment. A 2023 report on the Chinese video site Douyin, shows that the number of check-in bloggers has increased 2.89 times in 2023, and they helped physical merchants increase their revenue by HK$101.3 billion. “Shops will directly message me on social media platforms such as Instagram,” said Liu. “Normally, I receive restaurant promotions through a barter system, meaning the restaurant invites me to eat for free, and in return, I help them gain online exposure.” Chan Yan-ying, 28, a nurse, would look for restaurants based on bloggers' recommendations.  “It is a great time saver for me,” said Chan. “I do not have to spend time searching for restaurants.”  Restaurants can either offer free meals to bloggers in exchange for publicity or paid extra publicity fees, which will give bloggers extra publicity costs, usually in video publicity.Liu prefers to have free meals.  “Because the shooting style and content is decided by the restaurant, it is very limited for me,” she said. “I prefer the work shown within my account to be my style as well as my true feelings.”  Zhang Ziming, 25, a consultant for ComeTrue Cultural Communication, which helps local restaurants operate as agents on RedNote, said the bloggers are often more convincing to the public than the advertisements. “One of the advantages of working with bloggers …

Culture & Leisure

Buskers bring rhythm to public regardless of restrictions

  • The Young Reporter
  • By: CHENG Tsz Sen Sean、XU JingyiEdited by: LI Sin Tung、CHEN Yik Nam
  • 2025-04-14

Contrary to the definition, buskers in Hong Kong are not as free as their occupation, which requires them to apply for permission before performing in public. But with the delayed approval from the police, most of the buskers have chosen to bear the risks of charges and voicing for themselves.  

Culture & Leisure

AI innovations at Art Central 2025

Art Central 2025 offered AI-powered digital tours to visitors plus  AI artwork   Reporters: Audrey FU Rong, Richard CHEN Xiyun Editor: Connie WONG Hong-ni