Stories and knowledge of responding to hard times

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF NARRATIVE THERAPY AND COMMUNITY WORK | 2020 | No.3 www.dulwichcentre.com.au 32©2020 Dulwich Centre Publications

Jack is a social work supervisor in Hong Kong who specialises in youth work. Jack is especially passionate about collective practice with communities, and about organising with therapeutic groups and community programs to respond to oppression. Jack can be contacted by email: [email protected]

AbstractThis paper describes the application of collective narrative practices with people affected by the recent political turmoil in Hong Kong. It presents considerations for working with people experiencing psychological pain and distress while the traumatic events are still unfolding. By documenting and sharing people’s insider knowledges, partnerships were formed. In particular, the insider knowledges of community participants contributed to helping professionals who were dealing with their own hardships and seeking ways to support community members facing trauma and oppression.

Key words: collective narrative practice; Hong Kong; co-research; insider knowledge; enabling contribution

Stories a nd knowledge of responding to ha rd times: A narrative approach to collective hea ling in Hong K ong

by (Ja ck) CHIU Ta k Choi


BackgroundFollowing the announcement of extradition plans in June 2019, people in Hong Kong faced some of the most difficult times in the past 50 years as extreme violence and turmoil shook the streets. People – protesters, passers-by, workers – were charged indiscriminately. Many people were threatened, insulted or even beaten on the street. Still more people suffered from rounds and rounds of teargas. Some were affected even while at home as over 10,000 teargas canisters were released.

At the time of writing, many people were still experiencing the effects of this extreme violence and intimidation in their daily lives. People in Hong Kong remained under tremendous pressure physically, psychologically, socially and spiritually. Many were having nightmares and were unable to sleep. Some experienced strong feelings of hopelessness and despair. Others experienced profound sorrow, anger and helplessness. A survey conducted by the University of Hong Kong during the extradition bill crisis showed a significantly increased incidence of depression: nearly one in 10 people in Hong Kong were likely to have depression (see Cheung, 2019). This rate was almost double that experienced during the umbrella movement in 2014. In such situations, people need support from as many sources as possible.

As a narrative practitioner, I wanted to examine whether the community practices I had used in working with underprivileged groups (ethnic minorities, teenagers working in the sex industry, people with specific learning needs) could also be helpful in exploring the healing knowledges and solidarity of those resisting or responding to violence and injustice. I wondered whether these practices might be used to identify values, hopes and skills of survival through the sharing of collective experiences and promoting support among communities affected by the violence on Hong Kong’s streets.

In this paper, I will discuss some insights that I have drawn from the community healing project I have pursued over the past five months with two groups of people affected by the turmoil in Hong Kong. Among them are seven people recruited from the community and four groups of helping professionals. I will also share a little bit about the extension projects that arose from this work.

Initiatives and insider knowledgesCommunities that have experienced suffering develop particular knowledge, skills, values and strengths. According to America Bracho (2000. p. 3), ‘every person and every community has skills and knowledges, strengths and assets which when mobilised can contribute to the creation of healthy communities’. I set out to create a platform for the community of people experiencing the impacts of this unprecedented situation to explore and share among themselves their particular knowledges and skills. I sought to facilitate the identification and recognition of values, hopes and dreams that may not have been widely recognised. Through this, I wanted to draw on the insider knowledges of this community:

Within any community that is facing difficult times, community members will be responding to these difficulties, they will be taking whatever action is possible, in their own ways, based on particular skills and knowledges, to try to address the effects of the problem(s) on their lives and the lives of those they love and care about. These initiatives may not currently be widely recognised … These initiatives are, however, highly significant. (We seek to make) it possible for community members to identify these initiatives, to richly describe them so that the skills and knowledges implicit within them become more visible to themselves and to others. (Denborough, Koolmatrie, Mununggirritj, Marika, Dhurrkay, & Yunupingu, 2006, p. 20)

Recruiting community participantsIn early July 2019, I distributed a message through friends, contacts and social media to ask if anyone would like to talk with a social worker/narrative practitioner about the effects of the turmoil. I spoke with people I met on the streets and at the protests to see if they would like to participate in my project and to share their stories about this movement. I received seven responses, including two women who were doing street theatre, two people from my community healing groups, someone introduced by a former colleague, someone referred by a friend, and someone referred by another social worker.

Before starting the interviews, it was important to brief the participants about the risks and benefits of this project. This practice was crucial because the


information shared by the participants may have been highly sensitive, especially within a movement experiencing indiscriminate persecution. It was made clear that participation was entirely voluntary and they were free to withdraw at any time. In discussion with participants, further protections were implemented, including the use of hand-written records instead of any audiovisual recording, and the use of pseudonyms. Participants were briefed about the purpose of this project and the contribution they were being invited to make as consultants collaborating to identify the needs of people during this time and the initiatives and actions that people have been taking to respond to the turmoil.

I sought to situate myself as someone who wanted to understand the issues affecting my community, rather than as a professional with special knowledge. I was an ‘insider’ in that I was affected by the turmoil taking place, and like others I was trying to figure out what was happening, what would happen next, and how I should respond. In co-research, participants are positioned as consultants to a project, rather than research subjects. Epston’s (1999) coresearch metaphor ‘brought together the very respectable notion of research with the rather odd ideas of co-production of knowledge by sufferers and therapist’ (Epston, 1999, pp. 141–142). Following the belief that individuals and communities have insider knowledges and take initiatives to usefully respond to hardship, co-research seeks to identify and give value to these knowledges through exploring them in partnership with the individual or community. In this project, participants’ voices shaped not only the findings, but the design of the project itself.

Engaging colleagues as witnessesMany of my social worker colleagues have been trying to identify any actions they might take to respond to the suffering in our communities. Like me, these colleagues are part of the community that has been affected by the turmoil and have been suffering themselves.

Many believed that, as trained professionals, they should have the answers about how to best respond. This preferencing of professional knowledge led them to ignore both the insider knowledges of those affected and their own personal suffering. In order to invite a different perspective, and to provide access to insider knowledges about responding to the turmoil, I invited a number of social workers to become an audience to the participants’ stories. However, only four accepted my initial invitation. The others wished to contribute

by offering professional services to those affected, especially those still on the frontlines.

The purpose in inviting my colleagues to witness the participants’ stories was not merely to deepen the professionals’ knowledge of the difficulties being faced in the community, and the skills of resistance that were being deployed by them, but also to enable the participants to make a contribution to the lives of others going through similar experiences (Denborough, 2008).

Arranging the sessionsThere were difficulties with bringing the community participants together during the turmoil, so I began by meeting with participants individually. Even arranging this took a long time. Collaboration among participants was furthered through the exchange of letters and responses to letters among participants and outsider witnesses.

Informed by narrative ideas about questioning, I asked the community participants about their expressions of distress, fear and anger, and about what had been violated or devaluated. In particular, I sought to explore the values, beliefs, principles, ideas, hopes and dreams that had been attacked through the turmoil. Through this, I tried to uncover the commitments that were ‘absent but implicit’ in the expression of their stories, and to make these values, beliefs, principles, hopes and dreams more available to the person.

I also set out to explore the ways the participants had responded to or survived the difficult or distressing experiences they described. This involved asking questions about the thoughts and actions the participants had adopted to sustain themselves throughout the difficult time.

Below are the stories of two of the participants, Kai and Priscilla. I met with them each individually, and later the three of us met together.

Kai’s storyKai was a freelance worker in her early 30s. She described herself as a typical ‘HK pig’, meaning a Hong Kong resident who works hard, spends money on good food, travelling and entertainment, and is not very engaged with politics.


To understand Kai’s situation, and to help Kai to speak about such a heavy issue, I began by suggesting we use the narrative ‘viewer cards’ (Chiu, Chan, Wu, & Kwok, 2015) that I designed with my partners. I asked Kai to find pictures that resonated with her present problems or situation. Kai chose four cards and began to share her story.

Figure 1: The four picture cards chosen by Kai

Jack: Can you tell me about what is represented in these pictures?

Kai (Pointing at Picture 10) I am like the person hiding in the tree looking out. I am hiding in my room

but I keep browsing online to see what is happening in the protests. I feel like I should have the big passion (fire) in Picture 3, but actually I am the small one with little power to do anything. I am nobody. I can’t change anything. I’m just like a piece of trash. (Pointing at Picture 1) I should speak out for the protesters but actually I cover my eyes pretending I don’t see anything, which violates my heart and ideas of justice (indicates Picture 8).

Jack: Can you tell me more about your story during this movement?

Kai: I am not an activist in politics and the movement. I am one of the peaceful, rational and nonviolent type of people, and I fear bloodshed. I watched one of the early protests with my friends. A sudden shot of teargas made many people fall and seriously hurt. I felt so scared and sorry. I felt especially sad to hear my parents blaming the protesters on the TV and using harsh words about them. I tried to convince them of the intentions of the protests but failed, and eventually I totally gave up talking with them.

Jack: What made you care so much about convincing your parents?

Kai: I learnt about justice from my parents but now they are not showing any conscience and support for justice. I hoped they would support rather that vilify the young people. I should be fighting for justice with the protesters outside, but I can’t even fight for justice at home. I am so useless, and I am a real ‘old trash’ ( meaning not young, not daring and not active; making little contribution to the movement). I can’t do anything. I can just keep checking the issues through livestream broadcasting.

Externalising ‘old trash’

Having the belief that the person is not the problem, I asked questions to make it possible for Kai to experience an identity separate from the idea of ‘old trash’.

Jack: My questions may seem strange, but it seems like this ‘old trash’ has made you feel useless. Has old trash affected your perception of yourself?

Kai: Very much. I feel like I’m being very useless, depressed and helpless.

Jack: Did old trash make you give up on talking with your parents too?

Kai: Yes. We used to talk a lot about life before this turmoil. But they changed, and I can’t understand. I can’t even make them watch the videos about the suffering of the protesters under the police violence.

Jack: It is so sad. But if old trash can stop you from connecting with your parents, why doesn’t it stop you from following the updates about the issues?

Kai: I can’t sleep at night. I worry that something serious might happen while I’m asleep. I worry about the protesters very much.

Jack: So, do you mean that old trash can’t stop you from caring about the protesters?

Kai: Yes. I guess we all should care about the protesters when we see the police are so crazy attacking people. I totally can’t accept that! I know what is right and wrong.


Jack: Right. It is very crazy and terrible. And it seems that this old trash can’t even stop you from coming to talk with me about the issue during this time, is that right?

Kai: Yes. I really need to talk with someone who can understand my situation.

Jack: Has old trash affected your relationships with other people?

Kai: I have avoided expressing myself online. I’ve been staying away from friends and my parents, avoiding talking about the injustices that happen every day, sometimes right below my housing block. My parents stopped me from going to protest since the early event. Some of my friends seem so disconnected and keep thinking about shopping and travelling abroad, which is so crazy. But some of my friends have been going out to support the protests. They have witnessed many young people being beaten and feel sad about the young people’s suffering. Some friends have asked how people can ignore such important issues that relate so much to the future of Hong Kong. I felt so sorry and ashamed as I was one of those who stayed away and didn’t make a contribution.

It was really sad to hear that Kai’s connections with others were being affected, and that her story had been written by the judgement of others. It was important to let Kai rewrite her stories about her identity and reclaim her storytelling rights.

Seeking out alternative storiesI used absent but implicit enquiries (Carey, Walther, & Russell, 2009) to elicit the values, skills and hopes in Kai’s story. It was important that my attention to the absent but implicit didn’t limit Kai’s expressions of ‘despair, hardship, and injustice’ but instead allowed Kai to ‘give fuller expression to the experiences’ (White, 2003, p. 37).

I began with questions about how Kai had reacted to those unacceptable scenes on the news, and about the beliefs and values these reactions suggested.

Jack: You said that you care very much about the protesters but cannot do anything. How can you manage these feelings when you can’t protect them?

Kai: Just like this picture (Picture 10), I hide in my room and avoid listening to my parents speaking bad words about the protesters. If there is too much violence, I stop watching the news for a while to let myself feel more peaceful. I’ve found that I can’t digest too much violence at a time.

Jack: So, you try to let yourself feel peaceful? Is there any specific thing you do to make yourself feel peace?

Kai: I used to draw inside my room. It helped me to focus and take time out from the trouble. A peaceful mind is important during this time of turmoil.

I asked Kai how she knew about the importance of a peaceful mind. Kai said that she had learnt about this from her grandmother who loved stitching and had told Kai that stitching helped her concentrate and have a clear mind to think well. Kai was taught to ‘focus on something I love when I am confused’. She also described her grandmother’s teaching about being helpful, caring, considerate to others and doing things with wisdom. Kai though that her grandma was a respectable person as she did what she said.

I asked if that ‘peaceful mind’ had helped her recently. Kai remembered a night when her sister wrote about the events of 21 July on social media saying that the protesters were crazy for attacking innocent passengers inside a train in Yuen Long station. Kai felt angry because she believed that it was fake news, and in fact the incident involved people travelling home after the protest being attacked by local gangs. Kai tried to calm herself down and suggested that her sister ‘fact check’ the issue online. She felt very angry that innocent citizens were being attacked and the police were not upholding the law and justice in this incident. ‘They (the government) said that they upheld the law but actually they didn’t.’ Kai ‘respected’ what the protesters were contributing and thought that she should ‘speak for them’ when they were treated unfairly. Kai felt happy about her response to her sister’s post. It prompted Kai’s sister to change and started to influence her friends to ‘fact check’ online stories. She had never seen this ‘minor’ action as anything important before. But the uncovering of this unique outcome brought Kai’s attention to the actions she had taken to enact the beliefs, values, purposes and commitments (justice, respect and genuine) that she had learnt from her grandmother and wanted to uphold.

I asked Kai if there had been other initiatives, however big or small, that might have been helpful to people


still suffering in this turmoil. Kai described a number of informal protests she had participated in, including fact checking messages on social media, changing the name of her social media accounts to avoid political ‘white terror’ unveiling, using her good thinking, and taking care of herself through writing, exercise and a good diet for a strong heart. I asked Kai’s permission to write down all these initiatives to share with the other participants and audiences. Later, Kai said that although the movement for change may fail, she would try to stand firm in her position and resist the fear of white terror. Kai concluded that ‘everywhere can be a venue for resistance. Everyone can do it from their own position. The battlefield is not only on the street. I can do something even at home!’ Kai pointed to one of the slogans and said, ‘I agree with the slogan of this movement very much: “brothers can climb the same mountain but in different ways”’. Kai continued, ‘We accept other protesters making efforts in ways that may differ from mine. We should never segregate from each other’. Kai suddenly exclaimed, ‘I know why I have been so worried recently! I think that the oppressor is trying to keep us from coming together to become a big force against them. We should be patient, stay connected – never be segregated’.

Kai described a night when she was off duty and saw people holding hands in the ‘HK Way’ demonstration. She was invited by two women to join them and she felt touched to connect with others all through Hong Kong. She was especially impressed with the people who climbed Lion Rock (a place representing the spirit of Hong Kong) and lit up the mountain. She felt she was connected with other people even though she was doing things in a different way. This encouraged her to maintain her commitment to the movement.

Figure 2: Kai’s insight from people’s words

I asked Kai if she would like to share some words to this community project. Kai responded:

I have shared many things including my grievances, hopes, prayers and encouragement

to others. But the young people are so tough, posting hundreds of times more after the walls are destroyed. They have strong cohesiveness. When some young people were being assaulted near the walls, more people came out to protect them as their guardians. I feel that Hong Kong people are very persistent, brave and warm. People in Hong Kong are so connected. I feel so proud to be a ‘Hongkonger’. I love HK so much. Hong Kong is my home, but I feel so sad to see my home being destroyed for political reasons I can’t understand.

It was getting late, so we stopped here, and I helped Kai to archive the words she had written down on memos and papers.

Priscilla ’s storyPriscilla was a retired woman in her late 60s. She was separated from her husband and lived alone. Priscilla felt sorry about the situation and the future of young people in Hong Kong and tried to help. However, Priscilla thought that she was too old and could do very little. She kept going out to the protests by herself because she believed that every person counts. But she didn’t go with her friends as they all opposed the protesters. Priscilla said she felt like a ‘lonely transparent spirit’, a ghost in the wild with no home ( ). She needed to ‘stay transparent’ and remain silent when meeting with her old friends who spoke ill of the young people about whom Priscilla cared so much. Priscilla found herself becoming uncomfortable about spending time with her friends, feeling that she had discovered a different aspect of them.

Externalising the ‘lonely transparent spirit’

Priscilla’s nephew suggested that Priscilla talk with me as she felt unable to talk to her friends. When asked about the effects of the lonely transparent spirit, Priscilla said that it made her feel lonely and depressed and she cried a lot. Seeing the young people suffering in a political situation that was so unfair and very wrong, and remaining silent like a lonely transparent spirit, made Priscilla feel ‘suffocated’. Priscilla felt empty, and that she had lost direction. She felt like she was being ‘stabbed in my heart’ when she heard her friends speaking negatively about the protesters, especially the young generation. Priscilla felt sad to think that her friends cared more about the stock market and their


wealth than the lives of young people. Priscilla used to enjoy gathering with her friends, but she had started to feel uneasy about talking with them. She didn’t know where to go.

Priscilla had also witnessed violence directed at the young protesters, and many people in her neighbourhood vilified the protesters. Priscilla had to become like a lonely transparent spirit again because she disagreed but wanted to avoid conflict. Priscilla described going to the very frontline of the protest, and how the young protesters had ensured that she had protective equipment and helped her to a safer place. She appreciated the young people’s creativity in coming up with different methods to prevent people being harmed by the police.

I was curious about what the lonely transparent spirit wanted for Priscilla. Priscilla thought for a while and responded that it might want to protect the young people and also protect her friendships. Priscilla explained that she wanted to speak up in support of the young people, but she knew that this would create conflict with her friends, so she had remained silent and simply avoided echoing the harsh words of her friends. However, she was not comfortable about remaining silent. I asked Priscilla about what made her care so much about the young people. Priscilla said that she had been brought up in the time of Cultural Revolution, during which she had witnessed people treating each other very badly. This made Priscilla worry about how the young people were being treated. During the Cultural Revolution, Priscilla had also witnessed how her mother had taken risks to help others and had saved some lives. She found that the young protesters shared some of the qualities she treasured in her mother, and she wanted them to hold on to their commitments. At the end of our conversation, Priscilla said it had helped her to identify the direction she would take.

Meeting Kai and Priscilla together and developing co-research questionsWhen it seemed like Kai and Priscilla were available on the same day, I asked if they would like to meet to share and respond to each other’s stories. This would also be a good chance to have these two consultants advise on the co-research questions. They both agreed.

To elicit responses about their experiences of the project so far, I introduced the Tree of Life metaphor (Denborough, 2008, 2018; Ncube, 2006). After

I described what the different parts of the tree represented, Kai reminded me about the metaphor of home that she had shared in our previous meeting. ‘I love Hong Kong very much. It is my home. Seeing Hong Kong in trouble is like seeing my home being raged and robbed. I want to draw a house to represent my home and my situation now.’ Priscilla agreed to this proposition.

As they drew their houses, I thought about what to ask first. I decided on: ‘What do you especially want to protect in your home?’ Kai thought that the roof could be used to represent protection, and she wrote down words like justice, peace, fair system, core values, heart, future generation.

Together, we discussed and decided on what the different parts of the houses would represent, translating some of the areas addressed in the Tree of Life process. We named it the ‘House of Life’1. Kai said that because people had lost the freedom to open their windows because teargas could come at any time, the windows could represent the problem.

Figure 3: Kai’s House of Life

I asked Kai and Priscilla about the initiatives that they had taken and the skills and knowledge they had developed. I asked for their permission to record these initiatives so they could be shared with others. Here are some of the initiatives, skills and knowledges we identified:

Figure 4: Knowledges and initiatives identified by Kai and Priscilla through the House of Life metaphor


The house metaphor that Kai proposed was later developed and refined with other participants. This co-created tool became a way for people to write and tell their stories by adding information to different parts of a house.

Outsider-witness practice – inviting a supportive audienceOutsider witnesses can contribute to ‘the authentication of the preferred developments and identity claims of people’s lives’ (White, 2004, p.116). Invited colleagues to become an outsider-witnessing team to hear and respond to the community participants’ stories.

I sought the participants’ permission to share their stories with this audience. My original plan was to gather the witnesses together, read them each story, and invite their responses. The ideas, practices, skills and knowledge that the witnessing team identified in the stories would then be recorded to add to our archive.

The gathering of the outsider-witness team took place after the participants co-created the House of Life process, so I decided to depart from my original plan and instead give my colleagues a taste of what the community participants had experienced. I started by letting my colleagues choose one of the viewer cards to represent their recent experience. Then, I introduced the audience members to the House of Life and invited

Figure 5: Areas for discussion through the House of Life metaphor

Figure 6: Examples of other participants’ Houses of Life


them to draw their own. After drawing their houses and sharing something of their own stories, I read the stories of each community participant and invited the witnesses to respond with a short letter guided by the following questions with reference to the 4 categories of outsider-witness response (White, 2002):

• As you listened to the story, what stood out for you, or what were you were drawn to?

• Did any particular words or expressions catch your attention?

• What did the story suggest might be significant to the person?

• What do you think the person stands for?

• What images were evoked for you?

• What in your own life might have drawn you to the expressions that stood out for you?

• Where do you think this conversation has taken you?

• What might be possible as a result of hearing the person’s story?

I hoped that my colleagues’ responses would authenticate and support the preferred developments and identity claims of the participants. However, something more than this happened. As my colleagues experienced similar hardship and distress as members of the same community, the initiatives shared by the participants had additional meaning and impact on my colleagues. This created a great sense of solidarity ( ). For example, after listening to Kai’s story, one colleague said that, like Kai, he had taken many informal steps to support those being oppressed, even though he chose not to go to the frontline.

He felt similar pressures to those Kai had experienced because some radical peers blamed others for being selfish and not going out to support the protesters. This blaming from other peers had made my colleague feel very guilty. But Kai’s story reminded him of the saying ‘brothers can climb the same mountain but in different ways’. This reassured him about his own choices and actions.

Figure 7: Letters from the outsider witnesses to the community participants

Generating a sense of solidarity

My colleagues’ letters were sent to the community participants. In order to further a sense of solidarity and support, the community participants were invited to send messages back to the outsider-witnessing team. The community members felt very touched by the letters they received, and gained a great sense of support. The following is Priscilla’s reply to those who wrote to her:

Dear friends,

Thank you very much for all your letters. I have never received so many letters from different people before. However, reading your letters didn’t feel strange. On the contrary, reading your letters made me feel really close and connected.

I feel so lucky to be able to read so that l can keep learning things from the internet and make connections with people like you all. Many people of my age can’t read and just hear about things from their friends, which may be distorted. Not many people of my age were able to go to school. I feel grateful to have known Mr Lam who taught me reading and writing when l was working in a plastic factory in the early days when l had just arrived in Hong Kong. I think reading is very important because l can distinguish right and wrong, and choose to be the person l want to be.

Reading your letters makes me feel that I am visible and connected with other people. I had chosen to avoid talking about the protest and to stay away from people saying bad things about the young people. I felt lonely in this place. But your letters let me know that there are other people with similar feelings of loneliness during this hard time and who are willing to listen to other’s struggles.


I was struck with a few letters where people told me that they couldn’t sleep because every time they tried to sleep, memories of violent scenes came in flashbacks. I have the same condition whenever I close my eyes. That’s why I sometimes go down the street to the waterfront to watch the peaceful harbour. I have found it really helpful and suggest you try it if you are living close to the waterfront like me. Another writer told me that she used to look at her cats playing and sleeping, which offered her a peaceful moment like what I found at the harbour. I guess you might try paying attention to something you are interested in and take a break from the unbearable violent scenes on the street. I think there are other people like me who have been feeling lonely during this period. I will try to open my ears and listen to others’ needs and try to write to other people who need support, like what you all did. Thank you very much for your understanding and encouragement.

Warmly, Priscilla

The original plan for this project was to invite my colleagues to serve as audiences and supports for people under stress from the recent turmoil, and to offer my colleagues the chance to understand what people were suffering and the insider knowledges they had been applying. In practice, the process also provided support and ‘unexpected solidarity’ (Denborough, 2018) to my colleagues. They suggested that I plan more opportunities for workers to share their experiences and offer each other mutual support. In response to these

requests, and with the permission of the community participants, I have shared their stories with other professionals and also with the Hong Kong Council of Social Services (HKCSS). By early December 2019, over 80 helping professionals had participated and the sessions offered very positive feedback. An extended group was formed in HKCSS to further develop this work to serve more people facing similar distress in the community.

Ref lectionsThe project began in early July, just one month after the mass protest on 9 June 2019. This was a difficult time in Hong Kong. Whatever their political position, people could not avoid being affected by the turmoil. This project was carried out while the situation developed. There were issues of violence. Many were killed. There were also people who died by suicide or lost the will to live. This project did not focus on the needs of any specific political position, but a majority of the participants felt strongly about the issues, especially the improper policing practices that were so prevalent.

The turmoil in Hong Kong left many people feeling distressed. Exploring the values, beliefs and purposes that were expressed through people’s stories of distress created opportunities to elicit people’s insider knowledges about how to cope with and respond to the turmoil. Coresearching and recording the skills and knowledges that people had developed made new information available to benefit other community members. My colleagues were among those who

Figure 8: Professional participants in a HKCSS workshop forming a village with their houses showing knowledges and skills.


benefited from the community participants’ stories and knowledges. Engaging community members as consultants (White & Epston, 1986) meant that their experiences could be made available to help others facing similar issues. The participants’ experiences resonated strongly with the outsider witnesses, and reminded us that social workers and health professionals were also affected by the turmoil and needed support. The therapeutic letters (Freeman, Epston, & Lobovits, 1997) that were exchanged among the community participants and outsider witnesses not only documented people’s values, skills and initiatives, but also engendered mutual support and a strong sense of solidarity.

AcknowledgmentsThank you very much to the people who were willing to keep moving towards their dreams during this very tough time when people were suffering, feeling

disappointed and being affected in their daily lives. It is very important that people don’t lose faith.

Thank you to the people who joined my project and my friends who introduced their friends to me. I am wholeheartedly grateful to all those who participated because I understand that I was a stranger and participating in this project demanded trust and risk.

Lastly, I appreciate my colleagues’ commitment to offering support to people who are still suffering. It is important that we keep discussing the issues and keep learning from people’s insider knowledges.

Note1. Although most people in Hong Kong live in apartments

rather than houses, a house is a common dream and is often used to represent the idea of ‘home’.

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Stories and knowledge of responding to hard times

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