Sensing Cinema
Cinema is an experience of sound and vision but that doesn't mean the blind and deaf can't enjoy it too. As Varsity learns, audio descriptions can bring the cinema-going experience alive for the blind. While subtitles that go beyond dialogue to descriptions of other sounds in a film enrich cinema for the deaf.
Differing Fortunes Await Young Politicians Across Political Divide
More and more young people are entering politics in Hong Kong, but what kind of support can they expect? Varsity learns young politicians in the pro-establishment camp have access to far more resources than their pan-demoracy counterparts.
A Wordy Debate
An official signboard in the New Territories written in simplified Chinese sparked a backlash against the writing system. Purists fear simplified characters will replace traditional characters in Hong Kong.
Doulas in Demand
Parents of Dragon Year babies can expect competition for many services and goods. From hospital beds to baby formula and down the road, school places. But for the new parents, there is also a scramble for the services of doulas who give specialised help to new mums.
Time to be a Dad
Hong Kong lags behind other developed economies in providing paternity leave for new fathers but the government is hoping to set an example by giving male civil servants paid paternity leave. Varsity talks to some fathers about what being home during the first days of the children's lives means to them.
Peel Off the Label
The recent court-cases over whether foreign domestic workers should have the right to apply for the right of abode in Hong Kong has sparked heated debate. Filipinos and Indonesians have borne the brunt of emotional rhetoric warning and doomsday predictions. But while most Filipinos are working as domestic helpers in Hong Kong, the territory is also home to a Filipino community that includes professionals and business people. Varsity meets some of them.
Remembering or Re-imagining British Hong Kong?
Why would young people who were in kindergarten when Hong Kong was handed over from Britain to China feel nostalgic about colonial Hong Kong? Is nostalgia for a seemingly rose-tinted past a kind of escape from disatisfaction with the present? Varsity explores.
Dead Confusing
Government policy on columbaria and funeral niches leaves public in the dark when it comes to finding resting places for their departed loved ones.
A Place called Home?
Patchy service in Hong Kong's private elderly homes and the long waiting list for subsidised public homes are rooted in the lack of a comprehensive elderly care policy.
Stepping down from the podium
The Hong Kong Athletes Career & Education Programme was set up to help retired athletes further their studies and find jobs. But critics worry the criteria for eligibility are too stringent for most to benefit and only the medallists will qualify.
