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The Young Reporter

Health & Environment

Hong Kong Sevens rolls out reusable pint cup initiative to combat plastic waste

The Hong Kong Rugby Union (HKRU) is set to introduce 250,000 reusable pint cups as part of its sixth annual "Green Rugby" campaign, with an aim to cut down on single-plastic use at this year’s Rugby Sevens tournament. According to the HKRU, around 200 tonnes of waste was produced at the three-day mega-event amongst the 120,000 spectator in attendance in 2013, but the number was down by 100 tonnes as of 2016. This year, patrons would be asked for a HK$10 deposit paid either through cash or Octopus card for a reusable stack cup produced from fully-recycled plastic, which would be subsequently assembled, cleaned, and sanitized for reuse by local social enterprise BottLess over the course of the game and other non-rugby events, according to the HKRU. The Green Rugby is focused on providing not just a green campaign, but to also aim to work with local companies like Diwash to handle all of their dishware cleaning. Aside from working with the Environmental Protection Department (EPD), the Leisure and Cultural Department (LCSD), as well as large mainstream beverage suppliers like Carlsberg and Swire Coco-Cola Hong Kong, the HKRU has also partnered with local sustainability consultancy The Purpose Business to streamline and monitor the operation of the campaign. Dr. Merrin Pearse represents The Purpose Business based in Hong Kong and the Philippines. One of their main aims is to  reduce waste at the Sevens in 2019. "This Green campaign is the 6th year running, every year we aim to do something more," said Dr. Pearse. In previous years, the Green Rugby campaign has tackled food waste and eliminated plastic straws. This year was the first year it aimed to eliminate single-use plastic. In 2018, 61 tonnes of general refuse was collected from the event, marking a 48% of reduction from 2017. …

Society

Percentage charge in handling fees for Sevens’ tickets on official sale platforms varies

  • The Young Reporter
  • By: Vanessa Yung、Anna Kam、Hailey ManEdited by: Phoebe Lai、Yetta Lam
  • 2019-04-05

It’s advertised as "where the world comes to play" by sponsors. This weekend, tens of thousands of rugby fans from around the world will cheer their teams at the annual on Hong Kong Rugby Sevens at Hong Kong stadium. According to the Rugby Union’s audit report, income from "entry and admission fees" raked in $1.3 million Hong Kong dollars. The finals on Sunday usually draw the largest number of spectators every year and tickets for those top team matches are sometimes hard to come by. For years, scalpers would approach fans, typically at Causeway Bay MTR station to offer tickets to those desperate to see the finals. This year, the Hong Kong Rugby Union announced in October 2018, that the tickets were going to remain the same price as last year staying at $1950 for a full three day tournament ticket. Currently, there are no laws in Hong Kong regulating ticket scalping. An online scalper who refused to give his name, claimed that he sold a three-day ticket package for $3600. That’s a 80% markup on the original price. "Few Hong Kong local fans would pay thousands dollars for the Sevens tickets. Buyers are mostly staff from insurance companies who want to offer tickets to their clients, [as a gift]," the anonymous seller explained. According to the Hong Kong Sevens official website, Hong Kong identity card holders can enter a ballot in which tickets would be randomly allocated. Each person can apply for up to two tickets and a total 9,000 tickets would be sold this way. Visitors from overseas can purchase the "Essential Sevens Travel package" from travel agents listed. There are also "hospitality packages" from, for example, Cathay Pacific, the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC). One of the travel agents on the website, Keith Prowse Travel, …

Photo Essay

Art Review: The Stars Exhibition in Art Basel

This year, the 10th Chancery Lane Gallery especially displayed early artworks of a trio of avant-garde artists to commemorate the 40th anniversary of a historically important art event, which challenged official aesthetics and called for free artistic expression in the Post-Mao Era. Wandering at the colourful Art Basel, visitors could not help but slowed down their pace when a series of black and white photographic documentation came into sight. On an early morning in fall in 1979, the year after China initiated the economic reforms, a group of non-academy Chinese artists exhibited a total of 163 works with distinctive Modernist style and rebellious thoughts, displayed on the iron railings of The National Art Museum of China (NAMOC) after they were deprived the right to use an official exhibition space. Curators named exhibition with the word, Star, which means each star exists as an independent illuminator rather than the only illuminator during the Cultural Revolution when Mao Ze-dong was hailed as sun. This art exhibition without official permission gained huge supports from art students and famous artists at that time. On the following day of the opening, however, the police from the Dongcheng District of Beijing arrested two core curators, Huang Rui and Ma Deng-sheng, and acclaimed that The Star Exhibition affected the daily life of the masses and social order. After two months of demonstrations and negotiations, folk artists from The Stars Art Group eventually got legal permission to exhibit their artworks at the gallery of Beijing Artists Association, which attracted more than two hundred thousand audience. The second edition of The Stars Exhibition was successfully held in 1980, yet, it aroused the panic among senior figures of Chinese art field. An art exhibition jointly organized by Huang Rui, Ma Deng-sheng and Wang Ke-ping was banned due to the Anti-Spiritual-Pollution Campaign launched …

Society

Sevens' Week: Hong Kong Sevens takes off

Sevens' major sponsor Cathay Pacific started showcasing an array of rugby footballs in prints of Hong Kong signature items, such as crispy eggettes and neon street signs during a promotional event at Hysan Place in Causeway Bay last Friday. With less than a week left, the Sevens has been hyping up for the annual Hong Kong Rugby Sevens. Cathay Pacific is holding an exhibition of their featured collection for this year's event, the "Collectaballs". The "Collectaballs" are a series of ten rugby footballs decorated in prints of items that represent Hong Kong. Prints include Hong Kong's common household tile game Mahjong, blue and white prints on porcelain cups used in Hong Kong traditional restaurants, dragon dance costumes seen in Chinese New Year, sweet "pineapple" buns, Cheung Chau's "Ping On" buns, prints on nylon-canvas carrier bags, words in Chinese Kickass font created by Hong Kong designer kit Man and Cathay Pacific Airways' iconic sign can all been seen in ten rugby footballs shown at the shopping mall's entrance. Try out their interactive private preview of the games beside the iconic rugby footballs exhibit. The promotion will be last till April 7th at Hysan Place. Stay tuned to our coverage on other related events coming on the Sevens.

Culture & Leisure

Weekend Review: Contemporary art in the bloom in private

The 14th Asia Contemporary Art show Spring exhibition was held last weekend at Conrad Hotel in Admiralty. The Asia Contemporary Art Show offers art exhibitions two times per year, in spring and fall. It aims to support exhibitors all around the world, as well as providing a vibrant and diverse art experience for collectors and art buyers. This year, the show opens in a rather "private format" compared to other exhibitions happening. Over 2000 pieces of the most compelling contemporary art are on show, presented by 85 art galleries from over 20 countries of Asia and the rest of the world. The Show included original painting, limited editions, sculpture and photography. The majority of the works of art were from emerging and mid-career artists, with few pieces of those who had achieved recognition at auction and were held in private and public collections before. Prize draw and freebie like postcards were used to attract traffic by the art galleries, including Carré d’artistes, which created a new concept of public accessible painting and sculpture art gallery to break down the grid barriers of fine art.

Expanding sports opportunities for youths with disabilities

  • 2019-04-01
  • The Young Reporter
  • By: Rachel Yeo、Wallis Wang、Anna Kam、Phoebe Lai、Katherine LiEdited by: Dorothy Ma、Sammi Chan、Vanessa Yung、Nadia Lam
  • 2019-04-01

During a rugby tournament held in Happy Valley, 24-year-old coach Winnie Cheung Wing-yin gathered her team to discuss a variety of strategies to win the match. Crowding together at the side of the field, the members watched intently as Ms. Cheung demonstrated strategies verbally, while also flailing her arms and mimicking ball throwing movements. Standing next to her was an interpreter helping to translate her spoken points through sign language. Ms. Cheung is partially deaf and she's one of the Hong Kong Rugby Union's oldest members and now coaches for the deaf rugby team, which has 20 members. She was one of the first deaf participants to join the deaf rugby programme back in 2009. Back then, she was still a pupil at Chun Tok School, one of the local deaf schools that cooperated with HKRU. Ms. Cheung currently receives funding from Laureus, a sports organisation that honours individuals and teams along with sporting achievements. Her efforts throughout the years have landed her a career to work as a coach and develop the next generation of players for the deaf rugby team. "Deaf rugby has changed me in many ways because I was able to meet more people," said Ms. Cheung. Deaf rugby coach Winnie Cheung strategies how her team members can win a rugby tournament in Happy Valley. She believes that hard work and effort is the key to overcome her adversities. According to the United Nations, engaging in sports has the potential to reduce such barriers as it can showcase an individual's skill sets, which makes others take note of their disabilities less. However, people with disabilities are more likely to face discrimination and negative perceptions in society. Through these stigmas, they may be excluded from opportunities which is vital for their social and physical development, including participating …

Culture & Leisure

Art review: Inside Art Basel Hong Kong 2019

Take one day off busy work, and enjoy a chance to stroll the art world. The seventh edition of Art Basel Hong Kong launched on this Friday in the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre. 242 galleries from 35 countries participate in this annual art event, displaying a variety of contemporary art through the diverse mediums, including installation, paintings, sculptures, prints, photography, videos, and digital art.

Society

Real-life Quidditch: More than Just a Harry Potter By-Product

The much-anticipated match commenced with "Brooms Up!" Players darted towards the balls in the centre of the field, makeshift broomsticks held between their legs.  On both sides of the pitch stood three ring-shaped, silver goalposts of different heights. Quidditch is a familiar sport for Harry Potter fans, but now, the fictional game has been brought to life. Full-contact and physically intense, the magical sport leaped off the pages in 2005 when freshmen Xander Manshel and Alex Benepe of Middlebury College in Vermont, US, co-created the rules of land-based Quidditch and dubbed it "Muggle Quidditch". A myriad of university teams are playing the sport from UC Berkeley in the US and McGill University and Carleton University in Canada  to recently in Asia, the University of Hong Kong. J.K. Rowling's wizarding world of Harry Potter continues to strike a chord with aficionados across the world, though the last installment of the fantasy series was in 2011. Fusing together a variety of elements from rugby, dodgeball, volleyball and tag, a Quidditch team has seven players per team on the field, who must keep a makeshift broomstick - usually a plastic bar or light metal stick - between their legs at all times during the game. In order to score, chasers of each team throw the quaffle (a volleyball) through the hoops as the keepers race to ward off their attacks. Beaters can attack players' of the opposing team using bludgers (two dodgeballs). The job of the seeker, the position that Harry Potter himself held, is to catch the "golden snitch" - a neutral player who has a yellow tennis ball attached to the back of his or her pants. The International Quidditch Association says the sport is gender inclusive with no more than than four players of the same sex allowed on the …

Culture & Leisure

Beyond the flair of Hong Kong's streetwear

For student Nie Yu-heng, 20, his obsession with the world of streetwear all started with a simple scroll through Instagram. Famous celebrities like rapper Kanye West and fashion icon Virgil Abloh often appear in his Instagram feed. Baffled by how simple combinations of sneakers, sweatpants and logo tees could look so good, he decided to find out more. Today, Mr. Nie frequently queues up as early as 7am when brands like A Bathing Ape release designs he likes and collects. Streetwear, which started with skateboarders and surfers in the United States, is embraced by locals, with many stores here ranging from big labels like Off-White to entire shopping complexes dedicated to selling streetwear such as Trendy Zone in Mong Kok. Fashion conglomerate I.T that distributes European and Japanese street labels across Asia is also based in Hong Kong. Expensive streetwear fashion has surged in popularity in Hong Kong in recent years, particularly among young people who do not mind paying top dollar because they feel a connection with brands and regard them as an extension of their personality. "When I look at myself in the mirror every morning, I will always look lively in clothes that I like," said Mr. Nie. "It's not about how expensive or how rare my clothing is." Samantha Setokusumo, 18, a freshman at the Savannah College of Art and Design Hong Kong, said that her streetwear collection allows her to showcase herself, regardless of how unique her style may be. "Because my friends and I always like to joke about being 'hobo' or 'failing in life', we made that into a fashion statement," said Ms. Setokusumo. "It's just the freedom to express ourselves through streetwear." However, buying clothes and accessories from renowned streetwear brands is not cheap. Prices are inflated as soon as they hit …

Society

Weekend Review: Handwritten signboards reveal Hong Kong's culture and history

Two of our reporters joined traditional signboard calligrapher Lee Kin-ming on a tour to rediscover the hidden gems of Hong Kong on signboards along streets in San Po Kong.