International Inclusion

Translating practice to new contexts is always interesting and the ten years of working in Hong Kong and southern China have been an interesting journey.

The work started as a response to the Morecambe Bay tragedy in 2004 when 23 chinese cocklepickers were drowned in the see on a cold February night. More Music developed work in the Uk with Chinese communities and then in 2006 started a range of international programmes and projects in order to try and bring some postive resonance. 16 trips later, hundreds of workshops, various performances and lots of training and the power of the inclusion agenda is really understood by many of the new community musicians that I work with in Hong Kong. In the mainland it is almost impossible to develop the same consistent work but here in HK there is a real scene developing and a monthly network meeting led by our partner CCCD (Centre for Community Cultural Development). In this trip I have been into a high security young offenders prison, SLD school and a school for girls with severe emotional and behavioural issues. The understanding that music and culture can help is shared by the people in all of these places and the story that I tell to the people I am running for training for helps to deepen understanding of our practice. 

The stories and pictures are here www.moremusic.org.uk/HK-2016.

I hope you find it interesting.