Crushing creativity: photographer turns focus on Hong Kong’s tiger mums in new exhibition
- Photographer Saskia Wesseling is trying to find a balance between allowing her daughter to be a child, and to succeed at school
Dutch photographer Saskia Wesseling is no stranger to achieving the right balance in her craft – but, lately, she has been searching for a different kind of balance.
For the past year, she has been trying to enrol her 11-year-old daughter in a secondary school in Hong Kong. During an interview at an international school, her daughter was asked how many medals she had won, and how many hours she had dedicated to charity work.
“My children are not tutoring every day, so they’re not as advanced academically as the other kids,” says Wesseling, who has been living in the city for the past five years with her husband and two daughters aged 9 and 11.
“How can I keep them happy by allowing them to play, but at the same time get them accepted at school?”
Hoping to inspire people to reconsider the roles of parents and schools in children’s education, Wesseling created her photography series, “Time to tame the tigers?”, which secured her a nomination as one of seven finalists in the WMA Masters 2018-19, a local photography award.
“We put so much pressure on children to remember things that they can easily look up online, when instead we should be encouraging them to be creative, take up hobbies and engage in sports. Without creativity, computers will be smarter than we are,” she says.
Through her work, Wesseling hopes to capture the feeling of helplessness shared among schools, parents and students.
Third of Hong Kong pupils aged 10 to 14 identified as potential suicide risk
“We all want to push the students to do better for their futures, but everybody is struggling, and nobody can step out on their own,” says Wesseling, referring to the rising number of student suicides in recent years. Just last month, researchers at City University identified almost a third of 1,500 pupils aged between 10 and 14 as a potential suicide risk.
“I believe there is an opportunity for change, for students to get their happiness back, and for schools to open up education to different ways of learning.”
The faces of her subjects are all hidden, some behind books. Wesseling says this conveys that the issue affects all children – not just a single child.
“It also shows how the education system makes them anonymous. All students need to do is conform to the system and produce results, which is all society sees. We don’t see any personality.”
May Fung, a juror for the WMA Masters award, said of Wesseling’s entry: “This series of photos reflects the existence of conformity and uniformity among students today, which hinders the development of individuality.”
Despite the pressure to perform, Wesseling does not regret the decision to raise her children here. School stress aside, Wesseling says Hong Kong is able to offer her children all kinds of experiences, including learning about Chinese culture.
“Utopia doesn’t exist, although sometimes I do wonder if I should be taking them somewhere with less stress. This keeps me awake at night,” she says.
Wesseling’s series is now on display at Hong Kong City Hall in Central.
