Research study details
Navigating Youth Narratives: The Transformative Discourse of RTHK from the 1980s to 2010s
Description
Dr. Tsang Chung-kin presented the research project on RTHK’s documentary series, Hong Kong Connection (鏗鏘集), under the title “Navigating Youth Narratives: The Transformative Discourse of RTHK from the 1980s to 2010s” at the Annual Conference of the Society for Hong Kong Studies (SHKS) on 15 June 2024.
Summary
In the presentation, he reviewed the youth discourses in Hong Kong Connection (鏗鏘集) and discussed two discursive frameworks, namely, “Youth at Risk” and “Youth and Mainstreaming.” Both discourses understand the relationship between youth and gaming as one kind of material enjoyment differently. The former assumes that gaming and other material enjoyment is harmful to the younger generation and that youth must be guided and rescued by adults since the 1980s, which can still be identified in the episode “Hidden Youth Ah Ming” in 2018.
Meanwhile, in another episode of Hong Kong Connection in the same year, Life in Esports (2018), we can identify another relationship between youth and gaming. Youth are now struggling in the industry of gaming with the efforts of making gaming recognized by the mainstream as a kind of proper and appropriate business.
Finally, Dr. Tsang concluded that being aware of these discursive frameworks and paying attention to the assumptions within them can help us reflect from different perspectives when discussing the relationship between Hong Kong’s youth and gaming.