- Narratives of Connection in Many Accents

The Hong Kong University Knowledge Exchange Impact Project “Narratives of Connections in Many Accents” encourages the sharing of stories across differences in culture and language. We live in a city with people coming from many different parts of the world and we speak languages with different accents. Along with the accents are the stories of connection to particular places in the city and to persons in various encounters. With interactive workshops in which participating students and community members engage in the process of creative writing, we inspire diverse forms of creative narratives. The website serves as a platform to exhibit creative work of some of the participants. We encourage beginning and experienced writers to start a people’s archive of stories of connections to enrich the cultural memory in this city.

Our project objectives:

To empower creative expressions of meaningful connections across languages and nationalities in a cosmopolitan city through sharing knowledge of selected works of literature, film, and visual culture.
To involve non-Chinese speakers and non-native speakers of Cantonese in communicative and creative acts of a personal and public nature.
To establish a growing creative space for sharing and dialogue across cultural differences and possible social barriers.
To use digital sound to register the sonic presence of many accents coming from contributors whose backgrounds signify a city’s links to places in the world.

Participants of the Creative Narrative Workshop shall be able to:

Integrate experiences of meaningful connections in Hong Kong with story-telling activities
Develop talents in creative writing and visual expressions through workshops, completion of narratives, and web exhibition
Connect ideas and experiences with the local community
Recognize creative efforts on a university website

香港，多元的語音，相連的足跡

香港這個多元混雜的國際都會，有不少人在這裏默默生活過、建設過、貢獻過，在我城留下了獨特的足跡。本計劃旨在建立一個網絡平台，透過互動工作坊閱讀及討論相關文學、電影、視覺藝術等，激發參加者的創意思維，從而鼓勵以書寫、影像戓語音，呈現他們在香港的生活和相連的點滴。不同的語言，或同一語言下不同的語音及文化背景，構成了大大小小的多元的相連的故事。作品將透過數碼平台分享，達到知識交流、資源共享之目的，讓不同文化背景的人，包括社區人仕、老師、學生，以及非華語家庭，了解大家生活在香港相連的足跡。

我們的理念:
我們尊重每一個人的文化背景 經歷和記憶；
我們相信每一個人都能夠寫出有創意的故事；
個人和群體的故事是香港文化記憶的重要組成部份；
毎個人創作的故事都是有價值的。

《多元的語音，相連的足跡》
主持人 丘靜美博士
香港大學文學院副院長比較文學系副教授

Project Supervisor (PI)

Dr. Esther Yau, Associate Professor, The University of Hong Kong Department of Comparative Literature; Associate Dean, HKU Faculty of Arts

Workshop Leaders
Ivy Wong, M. Phil student, The University of Hong Kong Department of Comparative Literature
Florence Lo, (M.A. University of Leeds); part-time staff, the University of Hong Kong Department of Comparative Literature
Jenny Wong, (M. Phil, The University of Hong Kong); part-time staff, the University of Hong Kong Department of Comparative Literature

Creative Mentors
Amrita Daryanani, Tiffany Tam, Christie Lin,
Walter Ng, Ellen So, Michelle Lam,
Shadow Tam, Daisy Chan, Sophya Lo, Kathy Yip

Contact Person:
Florence Lo
florencedream@gmail.com

Dr. Esther C.M. Yau
yaue@hku.hk

Room 939, Run Run Shaw Tower
Centennial Campus
University of Hong Kong
Pokfulam, Hong Kong SAR
Office: (852) 3917-5110

Florence Lo
florencedream@gmail.com