From LGBT struggles to mental health, Hong Kong’s Human Library shares stories from city’s margins to promote empathy
- Pong Yat-ming started the project in 2011 to defy stereotypes and embrace diversity, and now he’s training a new generation of students to become ‘life story interpreters’
- Every week, Talking Points gives you a worksheet to practise your reading comprehension with questions and exercises about the story we’ve written
Life story interpreters Yani Chan (left) and Summer Kwong are responsible for helping “human books” share their experiences and thoughts. Photo: Xiaomei ChenIn 2019, Summer Kwong saw an email recruiting volunteers to help transgender people tell their life stories. Intrigued, she applied immediately.
“Some of my friends or family members will casually call them ‘ladyboys’, which I find extremely offensive,” said the 21-year-old student at City University.
“I want to change that and be an ally.”
Kwong’s role as a life story interpreter is a central part of Hong Kong’s Human Library, introduced by Pong Yat-ming in 2011. The project gives a platform for those from stigmatised groups to share their life stories, defy stereotypes and promote inclusion.
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At the Human Library, people are “open books” with stories to tell; listeners can respond and ask questions.
“I wanted to learn more about Hong Kong because I felt like a ‘Hong Kong pig’ before getting into university,” Kwong said, referring to a term for those who care more about material things than social issues.
Pong’s Human Library is the city’s only registered group under the Human Library Organisation. The movement, which began in Denmark in 2000, has now spread to more than 85 countries.
New perspectives from human books
Another life story interpreter from CityU, Yani Chan Ying-wai, 23, said her duties included helping the human books put words to their thoughts.
“We remind them when necessary to ensure they are on track with the story,” said the final-year student.
The first human book event Kwong – a double major in linguistics as well as media and communication – organised featured a transgender woman discussing her struggle to live according to her gender identity. When she would see her family, she had to dress as a man because they did not accept her identity.
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“In Hong Kong, the first thing that pops up in people’s minds about the transgender community is usually the specifics of the [gender-affirming] surgery. But seldom do we ask about their life after it ... their identity should not be just around their sex organs,” said Kwong, who has helped “interpret” six human books in the past three years with the Human Library.
“Empathy is what the Human Library imparts ... this is not something we can easily teach young people through textbooks,” she emphasised.
Open space for dialogue
Pong, 48, established the Human Library after noticing the prominence of one-way communication in the city.
Since 2011, he has organised about 300 Human Library sessions, covering a range of topics from sexuality to mental health.
Now, he is coaching Hong Kong’s youth to implement the Human Library in schools and NGOs.
One of the founder’s most memorable “human books” includes a dissociative identity disorder patient, who shared about living with multiple identities.
“Everyone learned the disorder was not as horrifying as it is portrayed in shows and films,” Pong said, adding that the speaker even brought her partner to the event.
“This ... created the impact we want to have: you make a friend here, and next time when you see someone with this disorder, you won’t think they are scary.”
Destigmatising mental health
Ally Cheung, 27, a social anxiety patient who spoke at Kwong’s Human Library session in October, agreed that this project allowed the public to get a full, in-depth understanding of people with mental health disorders.
“When you can meet a mental health patient in person, especially those with serious illnesses, you may get a totally different perspective about them,” she said.
In secondary school, Cheung was diagnosed with social anxiety and quit school twice because of her catastrophising, hyperventilation and panic attacks.
“I was afraid of talking with people or simply leaving the door of my room,” said Cheung. In 2015, she started an Instagram page called Fairies Heart, where she shares content to destigmatise mental health disorders.
In her Human Library session, Cheung recalled how readers wanted to discuss the challenges underaged teens faced in accessing mental health treatment.
“Some parents think their children are possessed by evil and ask them to drink charm paper water instead of going to psychologists,” she said.
Kwong believes the library responds to society’s needs, and she is confident in its transformative power.
“It serves as a tiny seed to let people understand that there are others out there in similar plights, and [shows] how we as the public can help and walk with them.”
Click here for a printable worksheet and interactive exercises about this story.