YHKCC students visit Hung Sing Yeh, Lamma to learn about environmental challenges through the Art of Awareness

YHKCC students hold up paintings to create a circular exhibition on Hung Sing Yeh beach

Thirty Year 10 and Year 11 students from the YMCA of Hong Kong Christian College (YHKCC) in Tung Chung visited Lamma as part of Service Outreach activities exploring pollution issues in Hong Kong. Paul Wong led the expedition to Lamma’s most popular gazetted beach at Hung Sing Yeh, where they met with Living Lamma Chair Roz Keep.

Roz Keep explains her new “canvas”

Roz is a painter and art educator. Recently, she has experimented with painting on a material she hates to find on beaches and coastlines – polystyrene (Styrofoam). She calls this project ‘’The Art Of Awareness.”

Mount Stenhouse from Hung Sing Yeh

However, it turns out the polystyrene box lids are the perfect ‘canvas’ to paint onto as they are white and the rim around the inside looks like a frame. Acrylic paint is used in the same way it would be on canvas and some of the paintings depict scenes from every day along Hong Kong shores.

Wildlife struggles to survive among include swathes of broken polystyrene covering shorelines and clogging the undergrowth of natural beaches and inlets where government cleaning teams are not asked to go.

The students discussed the extensive use of polystyrene boxes in the fishing industry in Hong Kong and the problem of polystyrene and plastic polluting the marine environment. They also discussed ideas about they could do as individuals to combat this growing problem of toxic materials in the natural world threatening wildlife and poisoning our lives.

Suggestions YHKCC students discussed

• • Citizens can write to Legco members urging them to address these issues
  • Create events that address the problems with other groups
  • Join beach cleanups
  • Reduce our use of single-use plastics in daily routines.

Students said it’s not too late to change and make a difference, but the world needs to act together -industry leaders, governments and consumers.

Living Lamma would like to thank the YHCC students for visiting Lamma Island.