Ten Outstanding Young Persons awardee and alumna Gigi Cheng Gi-gi shares her views on valuing achievements in life.

Gigi Cheng, alumna of the School of Drama and artistic director of iStage, is still moved to tears when talking about her times at the Academy. 

 

"What is your greatest achievement in life?" When she was asked this question at last year’s Ten Outstanding Young Persons Selection awards interview, School of Drama alumna Gigi Cheng’s mind initially drew a blank. Despite having successfully established theatre group iStage, garnering a Best Actress nomination at the Hong Kong Drama Awards for The Miracle Worker and actively contributing to promoting the arts among people with disabilities, the humble artiste doesn’t really consider herself to be a successful person. Yet she shares, “my thoughts turned to the recommendations my friends and colleagues wrote for my nomination of the award. I was so moved by them. So I told the judges that my greatest achievement in life is having people who trust, support and love me." 

Sharing of love and care is indeed a great source of happiness and inspiration for her in life. Cheng is still moved to tears when recollecting memories of her days at HKAPA. “On the day of our graduation, the junior students threw us a farewell party. I cried until my nose bled because I knew I would really miss everyone. We saw each other more than our family. We came together for the love of performing arts, and gave all we had for it."

 

Cheng takes comfort from those who continue to pursue this path and their support for one another. "Tony Wong (currently a lecturer of the School of Drama), a senior student during my study at the Academy, directed A Midsummer Night's Dream for the School in 2015. I saw how he tried to teach everything he knew to the students and it really moved me. Who would have thought that someone who used to play jokes on me all the time now would become a great mentor, paying forward our love for the theatre?"

 

The Academy is a place full of loving memories to Cheng and holds a special place in her heart. The day after the assessment interview for the Ten Outstanding Young Persons Selection awards, Cheng was in South Korea for the tour of Waiting for the Match. That was where she was told of her selection. And she always wants to come back to HKAPA for interviews, simply because she wants to share the glory with everyone at the Academy. In recent years, Cheng has been active in promoting a more inclusive society through the arts. She has worked with the Hong Kong Theatre for the Deaf and Hong Kong Federation of the Blind, providing drama education and recording of radio drama for the disabled. If she were asked what is the greatest thing she had done in life that may be it. “To be able to help people from different walks of life to express themselves and live a different life is a great blessing for me," she believes.

 

And through working with these people, she has gained invaluable insights about herself. “I always thought I was an articulate person. But after working with the blind of all ages, I realised that I need to apply different methods to communicate with them. For example when I say ‘you’, they may have no idea who I am talking to. So I need to do better than that." 

 

To better equip herself and not to compare with others is what Cheng generally aims to do in life. Being named as one of the Ten Outstanding Young Persons of the year gave her pressure initially and she feared that she would disappoint those who trust her. “But then, I spoke with other awardees and realised that we all have the same goals of contributing more to society. I am not alone." She is in talks with some other awardees to establish other projects, and her future plans include launching new drama works on social inclusion to spread love in the society. She draws inspiration from what she has learnt in a career in performing arts. “The theatre industry is tough but I wish everyone will hang in there. Whatever you learn from theatre, you can use them in life."

 

(The article was published in the Jan 2018 issue of Academy News. Click here to read the original story.)

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