Fri May 18, 2012
Jane Zhan
Salvation Army Tuen Mun East Integrate Centre for Young People, with a twins Pakistan brothera. (
Lost in the Darkness of Hong Kong
By Shallven Young (Yang Xiaofan), China – November 2006
Yellowish light from the street lamps squeezes through heavy leaves, illuminating my body, and then instantly passing me by. I hold my head in my palm and lean against the window of the microbus. The street is empty – no cars, no pedestrians not even a policeman. It is 4:00 am in Hong Kong, and I am on duty for Young Night Drifters with some experienced social workers.
In the garden of a residential section of the city, we find our target— three boys and a girl, all about 15 or 16 years old. As a service supported by the Hong Kong government, Young Night Drifters interacts with adolescents who wander the streets after midnight offering support and assistance, and so we approach these youth without hesitation.
Our conversations are pretty typical. They have dropped out of school because they didn’t do well in their studies. Embarrassed, they find comfort under the cloak of darkness where they hang out playing ball or cards, or just stand around drinking and smoking. Strangely, they think it is cool to be together when everybody else is sleeping.
I have a chat with one of the boys. Although I am a stranger to him, he doesn’t hide anything. While he has just graduated from Form Five (the equivalent of 11th grade in the U.S.), poor grades have made it impossible for him to matriculate. He has a part-time job two or three days a week where he earns little money – hardly enough to satisfy his needs. Most of the week he is free, but he is bored. The pressure from society and his family drive him crazy, and so with his new group of friends, he wanders about at night as his release. He doesn’t hate sleeping at home but wandering the streets late at night has become a habit.
He tells me that a growing number of adolescents wander the streets like him, although not many are out this late. He confides it is not easy for him and his friends to find stable work because of their low level of education. Even at the age of 15, his future seems grim. He is lost in the darkness of Hong Kong.
Perhaps to some people, these youth are dangerous threats to the society – intent on doing evil deeds. To me, groups of adolescents like this one are merely trying to survive and they desperately need our help. Ashamed, deeply lonely and unconfident, these youth are outsiders of society by day finding refuge at night when they share their failed status with a group of like-minded friends. The dark of the night shields them from having to cope with society’s rules or class discrimination.
We must help these young people step out into the light of the world. The government, NGOs and social organizations must establish vocational training programs to help these lost youth develop skills and abilities. Their future needn’t be bleak. It is the responsibility of large corporations and privately held companies to eliminate discrimination and obstacles these young men and women confront when searching for employment. Everybody can contribute to society when afforded opportunity and respect.
After an hour, we leave the group – four shadows under the lights of the street lamps. To me, the brighter the lamps shine, the darker this night appears. In the east, the sky brightens a bit and in short a brand new day will come. The sincere hope in my heart is that just like the sunrise we can encourage a brighter future for these youth. With a meaningful purpose in life I believe these young people will relinquish the shelter of darkness and come back to live in the sunshine.
*Shallven Young is a student at Sun Yat-sen University in China. Last summer the Lingnan Foundation sponsored an internship for him to work with troubled youths at the Salvation Army C&Y Centre in Tuen Mun, Hong Kong,
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