The work-life balance and finding the time to look after their parents seem to be difficult to achieve nowadays to many working people who live in a fast- pacing city. In Hong Kong, there are 32,394 homes for the aged in 2018. According to the all age population bar chart from the department of health in HK, the number of senior citizens from 1979 to 2016 was increasing gradually. Nonetheless, the reality of its preparation for this aging phenomenon is rather reactive. With insufficient equipment and facilities to accommodate the demands, the HK government negligently extended the 22-years-old elderly care policy to serve Hong kong people future needs. In present, many HK families, who can afford to pay the rent of residential cared homes, would send their old parents to one of these aged care centers so it relieves some of the burdens on their shoulders.
A lot of times though, these older adults live lonely in the center despite having the constant care from the nurse and a circle of new older people. Some of them want to see their children faces. The relationship between them and their families are irreplaceable.
The idea of visiting an elderly home to provide entertainment on a Saturday afternoon from my friend, Emily, interested me so I gave it a try. On that day I had to be a cameraman, who was not an expert in photography, to snap many presentable pictures for the charity, Yuen Tung Monastery of Hong Kong.
The cared home we visited was Kowloon Kam Wah Home for the Aged Ltd, located at Waterloo, Cambridge court.
The event consisted of small but multiple Cantonese operas and a magic performance along with gameplay to entertain the residents. For those of you who do not what a Cantonese opera is, it is a role play in singing to tell a story that based on the Chinese history or myth while sometimes involve martial art and acrobatics.
Mrs. anonymous, who did not want to be named, expressed that she missed her family from time to time, “ I feel happy when somebody talks to me.”
Through photographing, I had a chance to dive into their perspective to see the world that we would be sometimes forgetful about.
These seniors have lived to witness the changes of HongKong since they born in mostly 1940~1950s, the time when HK was still under the British rule. Who would think that they would one day dwell in an unfamiliar place to spend the rest of their life?
Cjwrites 