If you have ever watched a reality television series like MasterChef, you will have noticed that quarrels are almost inevitable in group competitions—even if the group size is only two. Can you imagine a group of around 40 people working together on the same project?

This scenario was tested as students of the Cultural Heritage stream of CAH curated Performing Our City: Mask ON-Theatre, an online arts festival held from 1 to 16 April 2021 to introduce local artists to the public and explain the difficulties they have faced during the pandemic.

Teamwork Ability Tested
Close to 20 music, dance, Chinese opera and drama programmes were presented online. The music programmes featured “Voices in the City”, a three-episode series that recorded the stories of six local musicians and music groups, and the showing of two archives about Chinese popular and classical music.

The highlights of the Chinese opera programmes were the sharing, performance and workshop by the Department’s alumna and an emerging Chinese opera actress LEUNG Fei-tung, and interviews with veteran Chinese opera practitioners.

The drama programmes included a live sharing session and a two-episode audio drama, “20?40”. The performances and demonstration lectures by Heiman HO, a representative of the Hong Kong Dance Sports Elite team, and Emily WONG and Vanessa LUNG, two award-winning Chinese dance performers, formed the core of the dance programmes.

While organising a performing arts event was the decision of CAH’s senior tutor Dr Marianne WONG and instructor WONG King-chung, course coordinators of the Festival and Cultural Events Management and Advanced Management for Cultural Professionals courses, it was the courses’ Year 3 and 4 students who were the driving force of the festival. They were divided into teams responsible for the programmes of one of the four art forms, or supportive works such as social media promotion; webpage building and documentation; design and printing; and media relations. Four students took up festival coordinator roles to oversee the entire event.

All Started from Scratch
The students worked through all the steps required in cultural event planning including defining objectives; drafting proposals; soliciting sponsorship; drawing up a budget; inviting and liaising with performers; scheduling various programmes; promoting the event through social media; handling technical issues and media enquiries; and so on.

“A major aim of the Cultural Heritage stream is to prepare students for careers in the cultural field… Students are expected to put the theories they have learnt into practice,” Dr Wong says.

Though the teachers were always ready to lend a helping hand, the students had to proactively solve any problems they encountered. Emily CHAN Ying-tung, one of the festival coordinators, believes the experience resembled an actual workplace scenario. The teachers were like supervisors, and the junior members had to give their best to meet their expectations.

Communications and Compromise are Gold
The fact that students could not meet in person added difficulties to an already demanding task. They had to resort to online tools for discussions. Arguments were unavoidable. Fortunately, the CityU courses the students had taken before equipped them with a solid knowledge foundation and the soft skills necessary for tackling these challenges.

Yet, they had to be humble and flexible when dealing with others too. “I had to adjust my mindset and attitude,” Chan shares. “Being more patient and considerate towards each other, more active in expressing and exchanging ideas, and being more responsible when requesting help are keys to overcoming barriers.”

Evaluating Successes, Challenges and Lessons Learnt
Professor CHING May-bo, Head of CAH, says that she was proud to see students doing their best to put on an online event and show their respect for local artists. The course coordinators also commended the students for their hard work and creativity. They appreciated their efforts in using academic knowledge, connections with the performers and social platforms to meet their aims.

“But there is always room for improvement,” cautions Dr Wong. “During the last lesson, we had a post-event evaluation. Students all agreed they need to improve their communication, time management and risk management skills.”

Chan concurs and reveals that communicating with different parties posed the biggest challenge. But overall, she found the experience valuable and thinks it could help her build the skills she requires for her future career.

Chan will also never forget the experience of working alongside passionate young artists, and when she and her teammates burst into laughter when they made silly mistakes during the recording of the opening ceremony in front of the camera. All these vivid memories have made her university life unforgettable.