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Study your mistakes, actor tells students

Failure haunts Hong Kong parents but celebrity comedian Jim Chim Sui-man tells students to embrace it, promising them a life-changing experience in return.

His message was presented at a seminar called 'Play!' at Hong Kong Baptist University's college of international education in Shek Mun last weekend.

It might be the comedian's charisma that did it, but Chim did well to attract 550 people, comprising 330 senior secondary pupils from 30 schools, Baptist sub-degree students, teachers and parents, to the remote campus on a Saturday morning.

Founder of Theatre Ensemble - about to become privately-run PIP Cultural Industries - and director of the Pleasure In Play art school, Wan Chai, Chim was voted the third most popular comedian among local students in a survey last June.

What, you might well ask, does such a successful actor know about failure? Chim says it helped him get where he is today.

'We often equate mistakes with failure,' he told his audience. 'It is not something people like to come across all that often in life, but it is a very important teacher.'

His recipe for embracing failure was presented using an adaptation of the old 'Simon says' game, recast as 'Italiano Falafino Dagadino says'.

'It's a game I picked up from the international very-good-actor workshop festival in Milan years ago,' Chim joked with students. 'So don't mistake it for any average kindergarten stuff.'

And just when they thought their reactions were being tested with a childish game, they soon realised it was more of a soul-searching exercise.

Chim both amused and confused students by mixing invalid commands with those actually from Italiano Falafino Dagadino. 'Do you keep lots of goldfish at home?' he asked one student who made the mistake of pouting after following a wrong command.

In the space of a few minutes, everyone was clapping, stamping their feet and laughing at their mistakes. But just a few minutes later, the audience was silent when it realised the game's purpose. Chim said people reacted most spontaneously when making mistakes. It was when you saw their 'real' and unique selves.

Crawling on the stage while mimicking a baby learning how to walk, he giggled after toppling over. 'Have you seen any baby curse and give up after falling over?' he asked. 'Babies always get back up happily until they learn how to walk.'

It was a case of failure as teacher.

People were born with the ability to capitalise on failure, he said, because human bodies generated the energy needed to go that extra distance when posed with hurdles. 'There are going to be many unknowns ahead for young people like you,' he said. 'But you must find your unique sense of self, what you love most in life, and stick to your goals.'

Chim told students to embrace failure because it could help them move forward in life. 'Imagine yourself in 10 years' time and execute your goals with persistent action. That's how you find the ultimate pleasures in life.'

Speaking after the seminar, Chim said the values of Hong Kong students were heavily distorted by materialism and the prospect of short-term gain, mostly financial.

'Many students are gearing their life goals towards expectations imposed upon them by others,' he said.

The expectations of parents, teachers and society at large pushed young people to score well in exams, aim to get well-paid jobs and take on mortgages, which could be very suffocating later.

'Students are not often encouraged to discuss their ideas in class because they are expected to give model answers in exams,' Chim said. 'Their individuality is buried as a result and that is very sad. In the end, I hope they can be inspired to be creative and identify what they love in life.

'I don't expect every one of them to understand what I just said to them, but if the idea is planted in their hearts, they will understand one day and it will be life-changing.'

Chim said his comments were based on his own experience as young, aspiring actor.

Senior lecturer in Chinese language at the university's college of international education Liang Man-yu said he hoped students would be inspired by Chim's vision of pleasure and play.

'I hope students on sub-degrees can discover more about themselves as they often think they are inferior to degree students,' he said. 'Their views of life are overshadowed by their academic results, but scores can't represent everything about them.'

Head of educational psychology, counselling and learning needs at the Hong Kong Institute of Education, Trevor Bond, said Hong Kong needed to balance academic achievement with making students feel better about themselves.

'Play is a powerful tool where children can construct a very deep and meaningful relationship with the world,' he said. 'They can build their own understanding of the world by interacting and reflecting on the consequences of the interactions.'

However, he said this philosophy went against traditional Chinese beliefs that 'work brings success, but play is of no benefit'. But Professor Bond said it was important that the difficult relationship between students achieving good academic scores and enjoying themselves was resolved.

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