What does it mean to feel like you belong? Secondary school students Felix Tsui Yi-yat and Javen Wu Ku-man grappled with this question as they prepared for a speech competition for which “belonging” was their only prompt.
Ultimately, Felix’s story about grappling with a gaming addiction and Javen’s story about finding friendship through the debate team won them first and second place, respectively, at the Student Slam competition hosted by Hong Kong Stories in March. The teens from Ho Fung College (Sponsored by Sik Sik Yuen) won certificates and book vouchers.
“I’ve always been interested in telling stories ... and sharing my views with others,” said Javen, 17. Eighteen-year-old Felix added: “I’m just daring to be myself. I’m just telling my stories. I was [drawing] the audience into my story and into my world.”
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Telling true stories
Hong Kong Stories has hosted live storytelling shows – featuring true, first-person accounts – every month for about 12 years.
In 2019, Hong Kong Stories member and host Jennifer Horgos started the annual Student Slam competition, which has been part of the Hong Kong International Literary Festival for the last two years.
More than 30 students, including Felix and Javen, entered the competition this year, submitting recordings of themselves telling their tales. Volunteers from Hong Kong Stories reviewed their speeches, judging them based on their delivery, the connection to the theme, and the structure of the story. They also gave each pupil feedback. Ten students aged 12 to 18 were chosen for the finals, representing five different schools.
Niharika Aggarwal, an organiser for the Student Slam and a member of Hong Kong Stories, explained how storytelling could be encouraging for young Hongkongers: “English is not the first language for [most] Hongkongers, so there’s this phobia that if you stand up on stage, you’re going to make a fool of yourself, especially if you’re speaking in English,” Aggarwal said.
“First-person stories are a little bit more approachable because then you’re talking about your own experiences,” she noted, adding that this year was the first time that all of the shortlisted students came from local schools.
Aggarwal said that storytelling is a valuable skill: “When we tell stories ... we are actually creating chapters from our lives, like our own autobiography. And the value of that is we see our own growth.”
Channelling real life
In his story, Felix spoke about the role of video games in his life and how he eventually took a step back to spend more time with his family.
He used to be so immersed in gaming that he would forget to eat, and his mother would leave heated meals out for him. “The internet was like my drug. I couldn’t live without it,” he said.
His turning point came when his mother took away his computer and he realised how concerned she was. He asked himself: “Why am I still playing games when I can have joy with my family?”
Meanwhile, Javen’s speech was inspired by his participation in his school debate team, which helped him learn to live with dyslexia – a learning disability that can affect a person’s reading and writing – develop his confidence and find friends.
“I saw a debate competition, and I was impressed. [I thought] wow, how can they speak so confidently? How can they deliver their speech and ideas so fluently? My other friends encouraged me [to join],” he recalled.
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Javen ran into an issue submitting his story to the Student Slam thanks to an unexpected bout of Covid-19, turning it in past the deadline. So he was pleasantly surprised to learn he had been shortlisted for the finals.
“I couldn’t speak and couldn’t record,” he explained. “So I was expecting that I would not be able to join. However, my teachers helped me write an email to the organisers. So when I got the news that I’d be one of the finalists, I was shocked.”
Besides encouraging other students to take up activities like debate and storytelling, Javen shared his advice for building confidence in public speaking: “Whether you have good English or bad English, the important part is to actually use it in real life. As time passes, you get better.”
As for Felix, it’s all about having the courage to take the first step.
“If you want to be in a public speaking competition, I think the first thing you need is bravery,” he said.
