How To Be Blind in Hong Kong
The Oscar-winning director who uncovered the plight of Chinese infants infected by HIV, has released a new film in a new city, Asia’s financial hub.
EDIT: New dates added. My Voice, My Life will also be showing in San Francisco March 17 and March 21, and added bonus, the blind student in the film, Lin Tsz-nok will be there!
EDIT TWO: I am editing to change the boy’s name to Lin Tsz-nok, since I have seen it written several ways but it seems most consistently to be this spelling in media.
Now, on to the movie and its message…
You might look at a crisis and think, “That’s it. It’s over.” But artists may disagree with you.
The psychologist Carl Jung believed that every crisis brings with it all the opportunities, tools and partners that help you live a remarkable life. It only takes a specific set of trials and your imagination to uncover the awakening that lies in the darkness.
China’s Oscar-winning film director, Ruby Yang, who rose to prominence when she released The Blood of Yingzhou District, a documentary revealing China’s infant AIDS epidemic, has produced another heart-breaking and inspiring documentary about Hong Kong teenagers, called “My Voice, My Life.”
Imagine this, while I set the context for you.
You’re blind. You want to be a singer, but you have crushing self-confidence issues. You say, “If you sing and it’s not any good, what’s the point?” Much to the bewilderment of your teachers.
And you live here.
Further, the city is not designed to help you. Schools are banded, meaning some of the older legacy institutions get a lot more money and prestige than your school. Your teachers have to scrap for resources and connections.
They have to constantly convince their students to embrace their self-respect.
And then there’s getting around the city. The MTR is super crowded.
Your school is miles away from easily accessible transport and infrastructure, meaning that you have to navigate Hong Kong every day to get educated and pursue your music.
To be clear, being blind in Hong Kong is a lot like being sent, blindfolded, into one of those scenes from TRON, when the protagonist has to dodge holograph cars and death lasers.
On your own, if you have this problem, you’d be in a bad place. But there is a way out, and one of the local Oscar-winning directors in Hong Kong has produced an incredibly moving documentary about how banding together in a group can literally change someone’s (everyone’s) life.
Ruby Yang, who won an Oscar for her documentary The Blood of Yingzhou District, which uncovered the AIDS epidemic in China’s infants, is taking to this year’s SXSW another film that chronicles youth struggles.
In this case, the struggles and challenges are of a group of misfit teenagers who become friends and awaken on their path to adulthood during the production of a new musical.
The film will be part of a series of SXSWedu talks about the role of development and arts in global education. It’s a cause and a challenge that is super critical to economic and personal success around the world.
The movie charts several characters, but perhaps the most intriguing one is Lin Tsz-nok, the young blind man.
The emotional message of Lin Tsz-nok’s journey is incredibly powerful.
The anxiety of starting something new does not feel good. the anxiety of being in high school is probably worse. Nothing feels more conflicted than being halfway between childhood and adulthood, when everyone expects you to act the part of a grown up, but you have none of the knowledge.
You inhabit a blank space. In Lin Tsz-nok’s case, he’s been blind for one year. He lost sight in both eyes to an unexplained illness.
On top of that, his mother refuses to accept he’s blind. Yang has an incredible knack for taking you deep into these characters’ emotional spaces.
You unflinchingly watch as Lin Tsz-nok tackles blindness, being in a new school, learning braille and dealing with his mother. The movie artfully unfolds over this blank space as we watch what Lin Tsz-nok eventually becomes, a very strong, noble young man.
There is a great epitaph at the end of this film, that sums up the journey of each of these students very nicely and explains why its so important to seek out the magic of success through enduring.
It reads:
“A journey of character and art unsettles and elevates each ordinary yet precious life.”
What’s remarkable about this film is that as you watch each person’s life collapse and unfold and then gather again, you realize that not a single one of these struggle is isolated.
While the symptoms of their struggles may be individual, the cure and the treatment of their causes is universal.
I won’t reveal the ending, but what you get at the end, I think, is a sense that not only is no man an island, but the water and the source of life that creates our successes is actually found in the people around you.
“My Voice, My Life” will be shown at SXSWedu at 8;30pm on March 10. Details can be found here: http://schedule.sxswedu.com/events/event_OEEDU0407
Douglas Crets is a business development executive and social media marketing professional. After developing global marketing programs for Starbucks and Microsoft, he set up his own agency offering social media marketing services for small brands. He currently lives in Hong Kong and Shanghai, where he develops large-scale marketing programs for several new ventures.
