9 February 2009

Mr Cheung Tat-ming and Dr. Tsang Fan-kwong jointly offer the Funniest Strategy to overcome Adversity in their first comedy show! (2)

“Stand-Up for Mental Health” Talk Show – presented by veteran stand-up comedian Mr. Cheung Tat-ming and renowned psychiatrist Dr. Tsang Fan-kwong, was successfully held at the Shouson Theatre of Hong Kong Arts Centre last Friday and Saturday (6, 7 February). More than a hilarious talk show, it delivered messages about positive mental health, so that the audience left not only with a “lightened-heart”, but also an “enlightened-mind” about what mental health really is.

“To us, this new endeavor was an encouraging and successful one, as the tickets were sold out within the first week of public selling, and the audience’s feedback it received was enthusiastic,” said Ms Deborah Wan, Chief Executive Officer of New Life Psychiatric Rehabilitation Association (New Life), “It also reflects that in the society there exists a growing concern about mental health, especially in face of the recent financial turmoil. To satisfy this rising need, New Life is committed to bringing even more exciting programmes with topics on mental health innovatively and effectively to Hong Kong people.”

Hosted by New Life and sponsored by the Labour and Welfare Bureau, “Stand-Up for Mental Health” Talk Show is one of the three-programme series of “The Torch of Happiness Mental Health Promotion Campaign”. This talk show is designed to be a thought-provoking stand-up comedy while the audience enjoys a night of fun good show. New Life hopes that in a soft, humorous tone, the message of mental health would be more readily accepted by the audience and help to lead them to a better mental health ultimately.

At the first night (6 February), the Talk Show began with the new comedian star – Mr Vivek Mahbubani, the 2007 Funniest Person in Hong Kong (Chinese) and the 2008 Funniest Person in Hong Kong (English), who delivered a funny talk on “Stress” in Cantonese. It then followed by Mr. Cheung Tat-ming’s solo and relaxing exercises. Being led by Mr. Cheung, the audience became “human massage machines” and through which they tasted the joy of breaking the ice among a bunch of strangers; while transforming into “water grass” they experienced some kind of stress relief. As for Dr. Tsang Fan-kwong’s knowledge-packed performance and self-assessment, audience learned the importance of taking care of their mental health. The climax of both nights came when Mr. Cheung and Dr. Tsang appeared on the stage together to deliver their magical crossover. Not only the audience’s feedback was enthusiastic, some of them even expressed great appreciation of the show and further suggested that more similar shows or program should continue to provide to Hong Kong people.

On Saturday night (7 February), the champions of the “Happy Today” Short Film Competition also publicly presented their artistic views of “happiness” in the award-giving ceremony which was held briefly before the show commenced. Chairman of the association, Professor Fanny Cheung, who is also the Professor of Psychology and Chairperson of the Department of Psychology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong,and Chief Executive Officer Ms Deborah Wan gave awards to the winners.

Sponsored by the Labour and Welfare Bureau, “The Torch of Happiness Mental Health Promotion Campaign” aims to raise awareness about positive mental health through 3 innovative programs, they are Positive Power Workshops which focus on helping attendees create a psychologically positive and healthy workplace and life through interesting and interactive activities like egg tart making, handicraft making and eco-tourism; “Happy Today” Short Film Competition which invites participants to express their ways to happiness via a 30-sec to 2-min short film; and also the first ever “Stand-Up for Mental Health” Talk Show. The Association wishes to extend its heartfelt thanks to the following corporations for their valuable support towards the campaign: City Professional Management Ltd, EP Venture Co. Ltd., Goodwell Property Management Ltd., NWS Holdings Limited, Parc Palais Property Management Limited, PCCW Limited, Pfizer Corporation Hong Kong Ltd, Shiu Hang Cleaning Services Co. Ltd., The Dairy Farm Company Ltd – IKEA Division and UPS Parcel Delivery Service Limited.

New Life Psychiatric Rehabilitation Association is a non-profit making welfare organization established in 1965 aiming at providing comprehensive community rehabilitation services to facilitate self-reliance and social integration of people with psychiatric disability. The Association operates 29 service units serving more than 6,000 service users every day, catering their residential, vocational and social needs. Starting from 1994, the Association has been playing a pioneer role in developing diversified social enterprises to provide work and training opportunities for people with psychiatric disability. Up till now, 20 social enterprises have been developed including vegetable stall, fruit stall, convenience stores, restaurants, light refreshment kiosk, healthy living specialty / organic shops, souvenir shop, eco-tourism, cleansing service, property management service and coffee shop. In addition to direct services, the Association has been actively providing mental health education for the general public. For details, please visit www.nlpra.org.hk.

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For media inquiries, please contact:
Ms. Loretta Poon, Corporate Affairs Manager, or
Mr. Keith Lau, Corporate Affairs Executive Officer
New Life Psychiatric Rehabilitation Association
Tel: (852) 2332 4343           Fax: (852) 2770 9345
Email：loretta@nlpra.org.hk or keithlau@nlpra.org.hk
Web site：http://www.nlpra.org.hk