“No pain, no gain.” A famous Chinese saying tells that sacrifice is necessary in order to pursue success, but does it mean that we need to give up something precious before we can reach our goal? According to the four interviewees from different age groups, sacrifice could mean…

Choice

Two young ladies, in their final year of studying in University of Macau (UM), are so enthusiastic about drama. Abby Lei started to be the instructor of SHCC Drama Club and Hannah Ng is a freelancer of theater.

Abby Lei and Hannah Ng

Both of them spend much time on drama or other related activities, such as performance courses. Maybe many people will ask them why they spend most their time on drama, they are “sacrificing” or “losing” their own leisure time, their opportunity for earning money or the time for study. Their answer is as simple as that – I just love it.

Lei and Ng both devote their own time to drama. No matter how busy they are, they never complain a single word about it. While asked about their definition of “sacrifice”, “There are two things you love equally, but you can only choose one, the loss of that thing which you give up willingly is sacrifice,” Ng said. “Therefore, I don’t agree that I have sacrificed my own time of browsing websites, playing on my tablet, or watching TV for drama, because they are not better than it.”

Maybe others will blame them for not putting their time for academic work, or they are wasting their time. Lei replied that all of us have limited time and there is no exception. What they are doing is that they are making good use of their time and doing what they like. Although sometimes the schedule might not always be appropriate, they can still manage both their academic work and the drama activities.

Both of them have participated in local troupes or theaters. They agreed that the cultural and creative industry is developing in Macao, and citizens are paying more attention to it. However, they thought that the government places too little attention to the local troupes or even ignores their needs. They believed that if the government really wants to create the artistic atmosphere in Macao or to improve the cultural education of citizens, the government should develop the local troupes or give them support, such as subsidies. Let the local troupes to be in the lead so that local people can keep in touch with artistic activities.

Life process

Queenie Lee

“Salary is not so important for me and I just want to do what I really want,” Queenie Lee, 23 years old, is a graduate from UM with Bachelor in English Communication. She is now a journalist of Magazine “NEW GEN. Month”.

Lee has worked in “NEW GEN. Month” for almost one year and this job can bring her great satisfaction, “I am really touched by the interviewee who recognized me and called my name in the street telling me that she really appreciated my article,” Lee said. “You can only do better as long as you can gain the satisfaction in your job and I don’t think I would like that if I work in a hotel or casino.”

“Real estate, banks and hotels are the trades which most of my friends work in,” Lee said. “That is alright if you do these jobs, but the question is ‘Do you really love and enjoy the job?’” Lee encouraged graduates to identify their career interests and goals instead of aimlessly following the Macao employment trend in recent years.

Lee considered that sacrifice is a process, first you will lose something and then you can gain another thing. “As a youngster, we should be hopeful rather than having this concept of ‘sacrifice’,” she added.

Sacrifice is too serious for Lee and she disagreed with the suggestion that what she is doing now is “sacrifice”. “Perhaps my salary is lower than those people working in gambling industries but money is not the most significant,” said Lee. “I would like to learn more when I am young and that is really having meaning for me.”

“Is meaningful and valuable work a sacrifice?” she asked in the end of the interview.

Fulfillment

Chan Kin Meng

“It’s my choice, so I do not see it as a sacrifice.  I am just doing the things I like,” said Chan Kin Meng.

Chan, 55, assistant coach of the Macao Table Tennis Team , started to be a table tennis athlete since he was 15 and has been chosen as a member of the Macao Table Tennis Team to participate in the Asian Games for a few times.

In the morning, he goes to his day job like everyone else and at night he works as the assistant coach. He gets only an hour break between these two “jobs”. Asked why he still chose to be an assistant coach in such tight schedule, he replied, “I have been participating in this area for a long time, and I hope my experience could help the young generation.  I hope I could do something for them. Although there is less time I can spend with my family after I started to be a coach, still I chose to continue my way because I would like to fulfill my own dream.”

During the interview he also commented on the new generation. He said, “Macao is changing. It’s different from my generation. The new generation has more challenges to face, so it’s important that they can hold on to their choices. If you are sure what you are doing is your real choice, you will be able to continue it. So there’s nothing to blame on society saying that it is an unbalanced society that forces someone to give up something. So, if you have a dream or goal, just do it. Nothing will change if you do not even start it.”

Frankly there’s no right or wrong answer for what is sacrifice to various people. Everyone could have different viewpoints on the word “sacrifice”, the way you see “sacrifice” is what matters. Different people will have different answers to the question. So, what is your opinion?

The post What is Sacrifice to You? appeared first on Umac Bridges Spring 2014.

When we are talking about the cultural and creative industry in Macao, one person will rush into our mind. That is Fortes Pakeong Sequeira, mostly known as Pakeong.

Fortes Pakeong Sequeira

Pakeong, a local artist, is famous for his distinctive drawing. After graduation he worked as full time graphic designer and attended different art events, local and oversea. Seven years later, he decided to become a freelancer. He is considered an icon of live show painting. His works are being bought and collected by collectors.

His life wasn’t always so glorious and blessed. He left home when he was 13, and became a drop-out. He had worked as a construction worker and a kitchen helper for a living. He was also in a detention center in Hong Kong for misconduct. After his mother bailed him out, he swore to God that he would turn over a new leaf in life.

Pakeong gained his reputation from his distinctive talent in drawing and his dedication. He is highly regarded both in Macao and overseas. Art events invite Pakeong as guest or even the principal guest. People see him as a representative of Macao’s art industry. Despite his background, he was also stuck somewhere, as we were. Looking for solutions, Pakeong spent his nights in parks.

When asked about his perspective of the development of Macao’s cultural and creative industry, Pakeong holds an optimistic attitude and believes it’s going well. Though there are complaints about Macao SAR only focusing on the tourism and gaming industry, he believes that it will be a good resource for Macao, if we can make good use of that, in developing the local cultural and creative industry.

People ask him why he chose to be an artist and keeps on drawing. His answer is simple – he just loves it. He doesn’t think about it as tough work or a sacrifice for not earning as much as he could. “It’s my dream and I am happy to be doing all this,” he said.

“Dream is just like a seed, but an ambition is something with which you can succeed and you can make it real,” he said. “If you find your dream, then keep practicing it and find a way to make it your ambition.”

At the end of the interview, Pakeong commented that the cultural and creative industry will keep on developing. “We just need a group of talented and passionate people to work it out together. Macao would be different, not the one which is labeled with ‘casino’, but with ‘culture and creativity’.”

The post Dream is Just Like A Seed appeared first on Umac Bridges Spring 2014.

“Follow”, a local hand-craft brand founded in 2012, conveys that it is a brand that can suit and follow you in daily life. And its founder, i.Be Kwong was just 23, who graduated from Macao Polytechnic Institute (IPM) last year, majoring in multimedia design.

Kwong first started handcrafting in 2012 because she planned to participate in the Art Fair with her friends and she needed products for sale. “I decided to make hand-made purses at that time, but because I did not get a sewing machine, I could just sew it one by one by hand. It was very time consuming and I was only able to finish six of them,” she said.

She was able sell out three purses in the fair, but she was still happy about that. What gave her so much satisfaction was not the sale but the appreciation from customers.

And finally this year, she opened her own shop in the Ginza Plaza. It isn’t the final destination for her brand, it’s just a beginning. “Follow” and her store are still in the stage of developing. So at the moment 10% of the products are from “Follow” and the remaining are clothing she has purchased that match the theme of the collection line.

When asked whether she thinks a local brand can survive from the mainstream industry, she commented, “It’s always the survival of the fittest. So instead of keeping on blaming the public for neglecting ‘you’, I will try to find ways to cope with this situation. It’s not about the society or how the public acts in the situation, it’s about how you treat the situation. Like now, tourism is growing rapidly, so I am planning to open a new collection line, which targets tourists’ demand for souvenirs.”

Kwong also added, “Some may feel that it is not necessary to make changes in order to cope with the current situation. But coping does not mean you are denying what you have done, it’s just opening up new possibilities. What does matter is your thought.”

In her opinion, “Follow” has a long way to go and there are still many challenges waiting for her in the future. She explained that she is the one taking the whole responsibility for her brand, not the government. The government is just an external source she can reach out for help. So being always prepared and persistent in learning is also very important.

“And now, although I do not earn much, but I believe that the experience and satisfaction I achieve after 10 years will make me different from those who are just working in casinos. Lastly, you will never know what you can achieve if you do not take the first step to try,” she said proudly.

The post What Does Matter is Your Thought appeared first on Umac Bridges Spring 2014.

“If you can dream it, you can do it. Always remember that this whole thing was started with a dream and a mouse.” This quote from Walt Disney best describes the protagonists in the following story.

(From the right) Daniel Cheong and his two friends, Kene Cheang and Conrad Ip.

In the city center, there is a small pastry shop with the “open” sign gently hanging up on the door. “I love to eat desserts, and am passionate in making these exquisite delicacies too!” said a young man busy making a cup of cappuccino for his guest, who purposely came for his desserts. This pastry shop, named Cakez Café, is located in the alley of the downtown. It has elegant surroundings, as if the presence of this little shop does not belong to the area it is in.

Daniel Cheong is one of the owners of this pastry shop. Cheong and his two friends have worked in local five-star hotels as pastry chefs. The passion for desserts and pastries has made them come together, and hatched an idea to start their own pastry shop someday. “We thought that making desserts was much more flexible than cooking other kinds of food such as Western cuisines. We could add our imagination and creativity in each cake, to make it more attractive and delicious.” In 2012, their long-standing dream finally came true, and this is Cakez Café, the first pastry shop of their own.

In Macao, the gaming industry has occupied the biggest portion of the economy. Under this circumstance, other industries have been underdeveloped. As a solution, the Macao government provides subsides for local people to start their own business. “I think it is not that difficult to start a business in Macao, as the Macao government has provided subsides for start-up businesses. This is important to people who want to open up their business and is the advantage in Macao,” said Cheong.

Having a dream in mind is easy, while it is not easy to keep the passion for the dream and to really take action to fulfill it, but Cheong made it. “In the beginning, I was just accidentally introduced by my friends to enter the field of dessert and pastry making. I’ve found out that I actually love making desserts very much. As I also enjoy eating desserts, I will continue to work hard in my business and hope to share the joy of desserts with more people,” he said.

Although Cheong and his friends are the owners of the shop, they still insist on making every piece of the pastries by themselves. “I’m fond of making pastries and desserts, imagine that I can create and make my own desserts, adding my cute and special designs for each of them, I really love this kind of artworks.” He also pointed out that making desserts is quite different from cooking, which requires lots of training before a satisfactory outcome is produced, and there are not enough experts in this area in Macao at the moment. While talking about their future plans, Cheong was excited, “We hope that we can open two or more branches in the future. While at this moment, we pay most of our attention to the quality of our desserts as well as our customers’ demand and opinion towards our products.”

“When we first started our shop, there wasn’t enough staff. I remembered one time three of us went to the mainland to buy a huge quantity of bowls and dishes ourselves. It was a funny scene to see three guys carrying several hundreds dishes, with some falling out of the boxes while we kept on repacking them,” he laughed. “But all these were good and remarkable memories to all of us.” A smile touched the corners of his lips.

For Cheong, his wonderful world started with a dream, and probably, a piece of cake.

The post Sweet Dream… appeared first on Umac Bridges Spring 2014.

In recent years, more independent bands appeared in Macao as more youngsters became interested in pop music. For almost all of these musicians, playing music is just their avocation. Unlike the neighboring city Hong Kong or some other cities in South Korea, Japan, mainland China, which have their own pop scene, Macao’s music stage is dim and dark. Delving into the reason why Macao’s music cannot take shape, we have traced back to the problems of the shortage of governmental support and a lack of opportunities for young musicians to perform.

(Second from the right) Ellison Lau and his group members of WhyOceans.

“Macao’s economy has developed faster in recent few years, the rental charges for band rooms have also grown more expensive, such as some factory estates we used to rent for performance, so the burden becomes heavier,” Ellison Lau, a 23 years old audio engineer in Macao and a member of a local independent band WhyOceans said. Independent bands (commonly known as indie-bands) produce their music by their own on a low budget. As the rent keeps increasing, they need to consider the site problem. They have great difficulty in finding places to perform and practice, to share their music. “Though there are some associations providing some places that allow musicians to share their music like the Live Music Association, most bands in Macao lack performing opportunities,” Lau added.

“My dream is to share my music with others all over the world,” Lau said. Apart from the place problem, the Macao government does not give enough support for the musicians. Although the government has some financial plans to support musicians, it is far from enough. It involves a complicated procedure and was carried out only recently. Bands also compete for the chance of performing overseas to achieve their dream of standing on the stage and sharing their music. But it is difficult for all bands to perform overseas, most of them still are struggling for chances of public performance. The government doesn’t allocate enough resources to promote the music industry in the city. It is falling far behind, said Lau.

Additionally, the development of music in Macao also lacks a channel of communication between the government and musicians. “I wish the government can provide some fixed performing locations to independent bands in Macao and offer more support and promotion. The venue is the biggest problem in Macao for us now,” Lau emphasized.  If the Macao government can pay more attention to the music development, the music in Macao will be a new career and more people will have a chance to experience the power of music, said Lau.

The post A Way Out For Musicians appeared first on Umac Bridges Spring 2014.

It is a typical Sunday night. A young man looks at his watch, it says 10:30 pm. He speeds up to work on his motorbike. At 7 o’clock next morning, when his colleagues head home for a good sleep after a long night shift, he rides home to pick up his stuff for school. He stays there till late afternoon finishing all his classes before finally going home to catch up on a few hours of sleep. This young man is a work-study student, working his way through college.

“I’ve made friends with other work-study students in my workplace. They’re like my spiritual support. If they don’t give up, why should I?”

Orca Pun, 26, is a Year 3 Arts student at the Macau University of Science and Technology (MUST). He is also a part-time casino pit supervisor. “I love arts and design. I want to be a professional designer,” Pun said dreamily, then with a frown and a change of tone, “I don’t want to end up wasting my whole life working in a casino,” Pun repented.

Pun didn’t want to work in a casino in the first place, but he had no choice. Pun didn’t do well at school as a child, and had repeated the same grade a couple of times. As soon as he reached 18, his parents urged him to drop out of school. Despite his hard persuasion, sadly enough, Pun just had to yield in. “There was nothing I could do about it, I didn’t even have a single dime!” Pun recalled with a sigh.

With such low education profile, like any other drop-out teens in Macao, Pun started working in a casino for “fast money”. “They don’t care if you’ve just finished high school or primary school, as long as you’re 21(the legal age for working in a casino was 18 back then), and have a BIR (Macao Resident Identity Card), you’re in the game,” Pun smirked, sarcastically.

“Although a majority of the population in Macao is working in the gaming industry, people generally hold a bad impression or even look down upon drop-outs and casino workers,” Pun revealed. “They say ‘birds of a feather flock together’. They think that we’re just a group of uncivilized boors who like swearing, smoking, drinking, clubbing and gambling, but I want to prove them wrong!”

After working and saving up for a year, Pun started his back-breaking journey as a work-study student. “My parents couldn’t say no this time, ‘cos I’m paying for my own tuition fees,” Pun smiled satisfactorily. “But don’t get me wrong, I don’t blame or resent them. I even give half of what I earn to them. Family will always be family.”

Pun first spent some years at a night school to complete his high school study, then with much hard work, he finally got admitted to MUST. “I’m a Bachelor of Arts student now!” Pun exclaimed, knowing that he is one step closer to fulfilling his own dream. Though it is really hard studying and working at the same time, Pun expressed that it’s all worth it in the end. His eyes were all lit up “When I graduate, I want to set up my own design company!”

The post No Dream is Ever Too Big appeared first on Umac Bridges Spring 2014.

John Choi, Design Instructor in IFT.

“The gaming industry is not everything, we could survive under it,” said John Choi, 46, a design instructor specializing in paper carving, modeling and art drawing for nearly eight years. He is currently promoting the creative industry at the Institute for Tourism (IFT).

“The creative industry is no longer an unfamiliar name, due to the proliferation of knowledge, these short term courses are increasingly popular. Take my paper carving program as an example. My students are always pleased by the outlook of their design and have curiosity with further extension of paper dimensions, I am happy that this art is being loved by people,” Choi added.

Choi claimed that he discovered his interest since secondary school and that it is the love of arts that has guided him till today. In recalling the years when he was still a design student, money was considered to be an important thing for him since expenses on design courses were high. He recalled that he often had to sacrifice his time on part-time jobs or on freelancing in order to cope with his needs. Choi commented, “Being a teacher for so many years, although not many students will inherit this kind of art, but I still urge the young generation to participate more in outside activities, try to find out more about themselves and their interest instead of working immediately.”

John Choi‘s work of
paper arts.

And asked about the imbalance in Macao which has occurred recently, he claimed that there is certainly an “imbalance” going on as Macao is focusing more on the gaming industry, people might think that it is constraining the development of other industries. However, thinking in another way round, the gaming industry did help indirectly. “Because of this rapid growth in the gaming industry, extra resources can be placed to help in the development of other industries, so, to me, the gaming industry results in both pros and cons,” remarked Choi.

“In my opinion, with the help from the government and the rapid growth of the gaming industry, I suppose the creative industry could lead to success one day,” Choi concluded.

The post Surface Does Not Shape Everything appeared first on Umac Bridges Spring 2014.