CUHK raises awareness of youth mental health with guerilla cinema stunt

The Department of Psychiatry at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) has reminded parents to listen attentively to their children's voices with a guerilla stunt at a local cinema. 

This comes as Let’s Work Heart (畀心機), a research team developed by CUHK, has conducted a four-year research project involving listening to the voices of more than 6,000 children and adolescents.

The research found that one in four young individuals faces mental health challenges, while half of the parents are unaware. Meanwhile, some factors affecting children's mental health can be improved through early intervention, thereby reducing the risk of encountering mental health problems in children.

Also known as “The kids diary”, the campaign is created in collaboration with creative agency BYFA. The team conducted a social experiment and invited a group of parents to watch the local movie "Time still turns the pages" (年少日記) in March. Suddenly, the screening paused, and the screen displayed the children of the attending parents reading their diaries.

One of the girls expressed in the video, "I prefer swimming over practicing the piano. Swimming brings me the most joy. However, no matter how much effort I put into playing piano, my skills can never match those of my sister."

Another boy, who is teased by his classmates for not having a father, eventually gets into a fight and receives punishment from the school, said: "I didn't tell my mother the reason for the fight, I'm afraid it would upset her."

Following the screening of the video, Nick Cheuk, the director of "Time still turns the pages," addressed the audience, expressing that the "youth diary" they desire to witness might not necessarily be the film itself, but rather the daily events happening to their children.

The video is launched on Let’s Work Heart’s Facebook page and YouTube channel two weeks after the Hong Kong Film Academy Award. The video has generated over 8,000 likes, 8000 shares and 876k views via the local entertainment news Facebook page 娛壹.

Stephen Chung, director, BYFA, told MARKETING-INTERACTIVE that the campaign leverages the hype and sentiment of this year’s Hong Kong Film Awards. “The film ‘Time still turns the pages’ sheds light on the importance of mental health awareness among children, and we leverage this very same movie but incorporate a plot twist to bring you a profound solution - the art of listening to your children,” Chung said.

Established in 2019 by CUHK, Let’s Work Heart randomly selected over 6,000 local students and their parents to join the research. ​It aims to advance the holistic understanding towards child and adolescent mental health and development. 

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