Blind Hongkonger who began theatre group helps others put visually impaired people in different light
Theatre in the Dark produces performances by disabled actors to express themselves and the difficulties they’ve been through
When Comma Chan Hin-wang lost his sight to glaucoma in his 30s, he could barely come to terms with it. “Helplessness, fear, the feeling of not being able to solve it – I had suicidal thoughts,” he recalled. “I had no one to turn to.”
Chan worked in property management at the time. He said everyone thought his life would never be the same again.
Eventually, though, Chan, now 41, picked himself up and got involved with a society for the visually impaired. The community taught him to do daily tasks such as walking with a stick, ironing and using a computer.
He stopped isolating himself and began working at City Hall, telling stories to children. He also developed interactive voice games and theatre pieces that appealed to the non-visual senses.
During one story session, Chan correctly guessed the colour of the clothes the children were wearing – blue – because he sensed the way they acted reminded him of the ocean, as they ran to him in waves.
From then on, Chan knew that art had a way of helping him “see”. He wanted others like him to also experience this, so in 2013, he founded Theatre in the Dark.