STUDENTS, POWER, PRIVILEGE AND CULTURAL VALUES

My 4 days of teaching (8 hours a day) here in Hong Kong are finished and we have two more days to explore a bit before we return home. I wanted to talk about the students here as well as some of the things I have learned from them. The class was held in the Expressive Arts Therapy Department of Hong Kong University. HKU is located in a south west corner of Hong Kong island with many different views of islands, mountains and the harbor. It is a beautiful campus, with tall buildings meandering up and down the lush hills sides of Hong Kong Island. Many of the buildings have covered open air areas that catch breezes and provide amazing views (both important in this land of hot humid weather and highly overloaded and driven students).

The department itself is impressive, with well-equipped rooms, walls covered with various art works and posters of research on the efficacy of Expressive Arts in Healing. They are doing some amazing work here, especially since it is so new. The class was small and was made up of a mix of people who are already working as therapists (most of them social workers or expressive arts therapists) and two students who were completely new to dance/movement therapy. Despite big differences in student background, they worked together beautifully, supporting and affirming each other throughout the four days.  

Last Day Lunch

I also learned alot about HK culture and traditions from them. In one exercise, a student wanted to practice saying no, felt ashamed for saying no out loud, but was able to feel better by bowing in apology. Students also talked about the stress of the high expectations put on necessary in Hong Kong. Their population is large, and the space is small. Apartment buildings rise tall and thin from anywhere they can be built. Apartments are small and most families have live in help- from the Philippines or Malaysia, since both parents MUST work for basic necessities as well as to provide for unending extracurricular programs for their children.  My student’s dreams of working with art and healing is viewed as a hobby but nothing more. In discussing the application of DMT to their clients, it became clear to me that women are extremely stressed, often because they have both a job and are responsible for most of the rest of the housework not done by the live-in help.  I was also struck by the deep connections they felt toward their families. Tear were plentiful when memories of departed parents or examples of child abuse were discussed.  Underneath their driven life style, they shared hearts that were open, big and tender. 

 

Class Picture with 'Sacred Watermelon'

We also had fun. I was struck by how often food came up in our group exercises: making soups, sharing fruit, gathering watermelons, gestures of eating, and digestions were frequent, confirming for me that important role that food - let me correct that-good and delicious food  - plays in their lives. The food also became metaphors in the class as we used our imagination to buy, throw, plant and eat watermelon. In our closing movement exercise, a student brought in a real watermelon that was ceremonially placed in the center of the final circle to become the recipient and also the provider of energy and hope. 

Tall Apartment Buildings

We also had some interesting discussions about multiculturalism, diversity, power and privilege. At first, I didn’t know where that discussion might go, since although I have observed a lot, I am an outsider and don’t know what their level of awareness is or the appropriateness of me taking the lead on that conversation. As a group, there was a brief discussion of economic privilege with some clients, no mention of diversity awareness (I actually have no idea if they, as Hong Kongers,  work with people from Malaysia, Philippines or members of the Muslim or Sikh communities here). The conversation ended up focusing on their own experiences as victims of Hong Kong cultural values related to money and success. While I also know that it is often easier to focus on experiences of victimization rather than those of power, I also wonder the relevance of conversations about power and privilege, when the culture itself is embedded with hierarchies.  We (Bruce and I) are constantly being given seats in the subway (perhaps because we are older or foreigners or both).  Doors are constantly being held for us;  if I am carrying something, the person walking with me will offer to carry it for me. Each day of class,  fresh tea was made for me in the morning, refreshed at lunch and in afternoon (I guess drinking old or cool tea is not OK here). If I need some type of class room supplies, they are immediately provided. People seem to be valued based on their role and financial status, men seem to have more power than women (they take up more space and move more powerfully). Is this kindness, respect, cultural values (and I am an outsider) or something a bit more odiously related to power and privilege? What is my role as a white American, in a country that has been colonized both by Great Britain and China and is predominant Asian?  I don’t have any answers to these questions., but they became crystalized in our class discussions. 

Hong Kong Island from Kowloon (not relevant but beautiful) 

Finally, in a culture where there is an absence of physical touching in public (except for the elderly and infirm who are often supported by maids or family members), our final class session was filled with both hugs and lots of photo taking. I will miss them and hope to be able to at least follow their growth as professionals in the future, and maybe even work with them in the future.