This week we are to generate an info graphic of our own, so lets start by describing the college I work at.
I actually earned my Higher Diploma at the same college (hmm..smart for me not to name), I was desoerate to go back to school for a bad case of depression has landed me back in Hong Kong from Canada empty handed of a degree. My parents are financially stable, and that it is actually sort of a shame to me that I have to end up in what is refered to as a “dead end college” (the shame adds to the fact that im an Asian in HK), but I pulled through the interview while I was still in my depression, cured myself from my depression with a couple months and am now very grateful to be doing my MAs. So I do have this college to thank as it accepted me during my time of need.
Working in it now gives me a whole new perspective in to the rooted problems of Hong Kong : Is it really the kids’ fault when they don’t do well with their studies? There are so many families in poverty here, and that a lot of marriage problems, gambling problems and neglecting of children happens, then the most “well known” result of that is for these kids to fall off the wagon at some point before or during their teens, I’ve had friends that claimed they’ve done drugs, join the triad and just drowning in credit card debt. Just how many are there? How many fail to find stability in our schooling system and potentially have to take on life pretty much on their own?
I refered to the Education Bureaus’ website for some statistics and was stunned by my discovery.
The DSEs are a stress filled, major exam determining paths of students in secondary 6 : You do well you have a shot of doing well in life here in HK; you do bad, you’re pretty much left with a life that is not as sucessful. Students pour their efforts in to these exams and when it comes to the month for results, suicide rates are higher than usual.
In my effort to do math and to shrink things to perspective, I decided to only focus on one major subject and decided to take the Chinese Language, and within my math: there are around a 100 DSE takers out of 437 day schools, I end up with percentages in which I could round up to about : 20% students smoothly move on to Secondary 7th (scoring 5+ or higher) and 80% are pretty much left with limited choices or even closer to none at all leading on to further education. The 80% are the students i’ve been working with at my college ; beat down, dis-couraged and rejected by the schooling system.
My first effort in conveying this data came in the form of housing : my original idea was to have the viewer scroll from left to right in finding out that all the lights left on in these apartment complexes are kids that are loosing sleep over their DSEs. Maybe a lil too abstract and would require explaination. So I illustrated something else.
Thus, my diagram of A Hundred Kids.
This time, there is explaining to do for viewers not familiar with Hong Kong culture. I based the 80% of DSE takers that didn’t do well to classroom punishment; the image of 80 kids being punished while the 20 seated signify class as normal (a smooth educational pathway). At first, I wanted to punish the kids like this:
But after a lil’ research, I did not find cone wearing and sitting at the detention corner a form of classroom punishment here in Hong Kong, so I decided to do this Hong Kong style, a way of punishment that still rings with me and my parent’s generation: to balance a chair on top of your head standing. I want this to appeal to a Hong Kong crowd, and that I based the illustration style off of 70s Hong Kong black and white comics.
I didn’t want to spoil the impact of the illustration and decided to leave the text out. Compared to Moon Landing by Accept and Proceed, I think mine is more comical and is relatable to Hong Kong citizens, a good reminder of the flaws of our education system and a reminder of the many unfortunate teens left with options, young, lost and confused.
ANDY WAS HERE
ANDY was here 🤓 