WHO better to host a serious new youth programme than Crystal Kwok Kam-yan? She knows the problems of combining an acting and TV presenting career with the rigours of getting an education.
The Radio Television Hongkong show, to air in the next few weeks, will focus on the plight of the territory's teenage population and offer help and suggestions on the basic problems of life, such as love, sex, family, school and social problems.
Giving up offers from the Canto-film and music world to chase a degree at Hongkong University, Kwok believes she can give hope to the young guns of the future.
''Time wise, I shouldn't have accepted this job because I'm so over-burdened with work. But it's a good thing because I believe the kids desperately need something like this.'' ''The idea of the show came from a special one-off show I hosted with Andy Lau last year. That was a show encouraging healthy values with some dramas enacted to show the problems and situations of youths in Hongkong. It was quite successful, so they (RTHK) have now decided to make a series of shows promoting the value of life to the kids here.'' The 10-part series, being recorded, is expected to air from the middle of the month. Scripted in Cantonese, the series will take on the role of tapping good habits and attitudes into the minds of teenagers through methods that they will find not only educational, but entertaining and fun.
''We've already done three shows. The first episode they wanted to launch off with has a very strong idea of education,'' Kwok said. ''It focused on what kids can do if they have problems at home or at school or whatever, can they go to somebody other than their teachers, and where can they play and not go out and get into trouble, and things like that.'' The second episode in the series features Kwok and her special guests on stage in front of a special effects blue-screen, dressed up like characters from popular arcade games. ''Doing things like that can make the show more interesting for kids to watch and attract their attention to the issue at hand,'' she said.
''That episode we did with the blue-screens was about kids who play games and don't develop that type of inter-communicative skills with people and friends. You know, they can't go up and talk to people, they stay home glued to their computer screens.'' With Hongkong's youngsters under pressure to perform at school, the show's producers are also using another new strategy for getting the right message across - idols.
