A's Story
Phase 1 @ CFR
Research context, question & methodology, participants and collaborators, expected outcomes
South Asians in Hong Kong face discrimination and minoritisation in many ways, such as unequal access to education, employment, and public services, and barriers to participation in civic activities .
The pandemic and recent political upheaval has worsened the minoritisation they face. For Hong Kong’s South Asians, Where or how do you belong? becomes a difficult question to answer. This is because in policy and in practice, they are often said to not belong in Hong Kong. Belonging(s), however can be…
- Translocal (belongings in and across multiple places)…
- Dynamic (changing with time, circumstances, or environment)…
- Intersectional (different sense of belonging can overlap and affect one another)
Our project hopes to gain some understanding of this complexity. This will enable us and our participants to challenge dominant and simplistic ideas of belonging and non-belonging.
>
/ understanding the
background context
Our project uses a few research methods to answer our core questions:
- narrative research: studying the issue through stories, or in other words, narratives, told by our participants
- photovoice: listening to the “voices” and stories told by our participants through photos they take
- digital storytelling: creating stories that include text, images, audio, and other sensorial elements on a digital space (i.e. website)
We also ask three core research questions:
- How does belonging emerge and show up, in, and through, narrative and photography?
- How can this project inform us about developing innovative approaches to researching belonging?
- How can our understandings of belonging be used to inform policies, practices and public debate on social integration?
>
/ research questions:
the 'hands-on'
The project team works with three groups of participants, in three phases of activity. Our partner for the first phase of the project (January-April 2023) is the Christian Action Centre for Refugees, Chungking Mansions, Tsim Sha Tsui, and our participants are clients from the Centre.
The second phase took place at Hong Kong University of Science & Technology. Participants in this phase were all undergraduate students at HKUST.
The participants in the third phase were from a range of backgrounds, ages and stages of life. Two were coming towards the end of their time in secondary school, while the other two were young adults in professional careers. We met in the space of the social enterprise Dream Impact.
In weekly workshops we learned some principles of photography, and practised these on photovoice walks, investigating the local area around the workshop venues with our cameras. We took photographs relating to our sense of belonging, around Hong Kong and at home. Then we talked about these in our sessions. Much time in our workshops involved telling the stories that lay behind the photographs.
From these photographs and narratives we developed the Digital Stories that you can see on this website.
>
/ the people of the project:
participants & co-hosts
The project will provide evidence to inform social policy, promoting equity for South Asians in Hong Kong. In addition to this digital space, we have held a physical exhibition featuring photographs and narrative texts from the project on 16 March 2024, at the "Seated With Strangers" event hosted by be/longing at the Eaton Hotel Hong Kong. There will also be a public-facing report and an online symposium.
>
/ goals & visions:
expected outcomes
Research context, question & methodology, participants and collaborators, expected outcomes
South Asians in Hong Kong face discrimination and minoritisation in many ways, such as unequal access to education, employment, and public services, and barriers to participation in civic activities .
The pandemic and recent political upheaval has worsened the minoritisation they face. For Hong Kong’s South Asians, Where or how do you belong? becomes a difficult question to answer. This is because in policy and in practice, they are often said to not belong in Hong Kong. Belonging(s), however can be…
- Translocal (belongings in and across multiple places)…
- Dynamic (changing with time, circumstances, or environment)…
- Intersectional (different sense of belonging can overlap and affect one another)
Our project hopes to gain some understanding of this complexity. This will enable us and our participants to challenge dominant and simplistic ideas of belonging and non-belonging.
> Why South Asians in Hong Kong, and why belonging?
/ understanding the
background context
We use a few research methods to answer our core questions:
- narrative research: studying the issue through stories, or in other words, narratives, told by our participants
- photovoice: listening to the “voices” and stories told by our participants through photos they take
- digital storytelling: creating stories that include text, images, audio, and other sensorial elements on a digital space (i.e. website)
We also ask three core research questions:
- How does belonging emerge and show up, in, and through, narrative and photography?
- How can this project inform us about developing innovative approaches to researching belonging?
- How can our understandings of belonging be used to inform policies, practices and public debate on social integration?
> What exactly do you explore in this project, and how?
/ research questions:
the 'hands-on'
The project team works with three groups of participants, in three phases of activity. Our partner for the first phase of the project (January-April 2023) is the Christian Action Centre for Refugees, Chungking Mansions, Tsim Sha Tsui, and our participants are clients from the Centre.
The second phase took place at Hong Kong University of Science & Technology. Participants in this phase were all undergraduate students at HKUST.
The participants in the third phase were from a range of backgrounds, ages and stages of life. Two were coming towards the end of their time in secondary school, while the other two were young adults in professional careers. We met in the space of the social enterprise Dream Impact.
In weekly workshops we learned some principles of photography, and practised these on photovoice walks, investigating the local area around the workshop venues with our cameras. We took photographs relating to our sense of belonging, around Hong Kong and at home. Then we talked about these in our sessions. Much time in our workshops involved telling the stories that lay behind the photographs.
From these photographs and narratives we developed the Digital Stories that you can see on this website.
> Who are you working with?
/ the people of the project: participants & co-hosts
The project will provide evidence to inform social policy, promoting equity for South Asians in Hong Kong. In addition to this digital space, we have held a physical exhibition featuring photographs and narrative texts from the project on 16 March 2024, at the "Seated With Strangers" event hosted by be/longing at the Eaton Hotel Hong Kong. There will also be a public-facing report and an online symposium.
> What will be the future of this project?
/ goals & visions:
expected outcomes
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