Social Service - Visit Home for Elderly in Kwun Tong

12th March (Buddhism) service 

Home for elderly in Kwun Tong

On the 12th of March 2018, our group went to the elderly center together which is located in Kwun Tong to do social service. We needed to plan some activities for the elderly and talk with them. It was the first time to visit an elderly center so all of us were quite excited, so we decided that we would sing "獅子山下" together as a performance. At first, we were not familiar with how elderly center work and we were worried can we spent our time with the elderly nicely. Lucky, we had a great time with the elderly and we learned a lot from this experience.

During the preparation, we introduced ourselves and tried to build up a harmonious environment. To be surprised, some elderly were quite funny. When we asked them, "Do you know which university do we study in?", they replied lots of interesting answers, such as Cambridge University. After that, we started to sing the song. Many of them knew Lo Man(羅文) and "獅子山下" and they enjoyed the song. Some of them sang together with us. The responsible person told us, they usually liked listening Cantonese Opera, so we decided to sing "Princess Chang Ping"(帝女花) for them. Even though we were not quite familiar with this song, we tried our best to perform, some of the elderly also sang with us and we had a great time together. 

This photo was taken in the singing performance and games were finished. 

This was a meaningful experience that we could know more about the living environment of the elderly. Although some of them were not able to answer the questions in words, they listened to our performance carefully. All of us had a great time in that day. Also, giving the elderly more could make the elderly feel warm and happy. Living in the center alone for a long time may make them feel lonely. It was a good chance for us to  better not to help them. I feel satisfied in the process of service and I also realized that care the elderly is one of our social responsibilities. One day, our parents or even us will grow old and may also need to stay in the elderly center, we need to spend our life properly and live a meaningful life.

Samuel: During the service, I have sung the “Never Say Goodbye: The Fragrant Death”(帝女花之香夭) to the elderly.

I am a lover of Cantonese Opera, and a fan of Mr. TONG Tik-sang(唐滌生). According to the description of Hong Kong government, Tong Tik-sang (1917-1959) is widely regarded as the greatest playwright to have graced the world of Cantonese opera in the 20th century Hong Kong. In a career that was cut tragically short, he wrote more than 400 scripts, many of which are noted for their rhetoric and in-depth depictions of the emotional lives of the characters.

“Never Say Goodbye” is a Chinese fictional story about Princess Changping of Ming Dynasty and her /lover Zhou Shixian. And TONG’s version is the most famous version to all Cantonese of the previous generation in the world. The last chapter of “Never Say Goodbye” is “The Fragrant Death” that is the most famous chapter of “Never Say Goodbye”. So I chose this to sing on the show.

Frank: I am more than happy and honored that I could have the opportunity to go to the Home for Elderly in Kwun Tong and. As a citizen, I find it important that we should be grateful toward the society and the world around us. This service experience gives me the chance to visit the elderly and give back to the community. We sang some classic songs and operas in the Home for Elderly and when we saw the smiles on their faces, we were all delighted. I hope that we, as students, could know more about how the elderly in our society are living and do more for them.