[中][ENG]溫柔的城市文化小革命——身體遊樂場的隨想 A Gentle Revolution In Urban Culture — On Moving Playground

舞跡可尋

In Search of a Dance Story

攝Photo: Ronnie Lam

身體遊樂場成立於2017年，以創意律動為主軸，定期舉辦活動，活動包含了不少身體意識開發的遊戲。除了為幼兒至小學生而設的工作坊外，亦有供親子、夫婦、三代共同參與的身體工作坊。就在超強颱風山竹襲港後的週末，我出席了身體遊樂場的一場理念分享會和中秋前的親子活動。

Founded in 2017, Moving Playground organizes regular activities with Creative Movement as the backbone, which include games to develop body awareness. Apart from workshops designed for kindergarten to primary school children, it also holds physical workshops for couples, parents and children, and even for three generations to participate together. On the weekend after the super typhoon Mangkhut, I attended one of Moving Playground’s concept-sharing sessions and a pre-Mid-Autumn parent-child workshop.

9月22日，身體遊樂場的創辦人小月老師在香港兆基創意書院舉辦了一場分享會，談她在過去一年半以來的心路歷程，以及她在兒童創意律動及身體教育的理念。小月老師以「遊樂場」比喻身體作為分享會的開始，遊樂場可以令人快樂，但每人亦有對不同遊戲玩法的喜好；亦可以是一個社交的場合，遊樂場有可能會令你疲倦，但卻不足以令你離開。及後她播放了數個課堂的練習的影片並作解說，其中一個練習把一班小學生分「領袖」和「跟隨者」兩類角色，其中三個飾領袖的小孩可以各自決定做甚麼動作，而其他飾跟隨者的小孩則可以選擇模仿哪一位領袖。影片中可見不同領袖面對相同問題而作出不同決擇，其中一位領袖因為沒有跟隨者選擇模仿自己，便放棄自己的動作，轉而模仿另一位領袖。過了一陣子，另一位領袖面對剛才出現的同一情況，他卻選擇繼續堅持自己的動作，直至有跟隨者決定模仿自己。作為成年人，我們不正是都曾面對相似的猶疑和掙扎，躊躇要否堅持不被認同的選擇嗎？這個簡單的練習，讓小孩透過身體去經歷在與他人出現分岐時，學習聆聽自己內心，並作出選擇。

On September 22, Moving Playground founder Miss Siu Yuet (meaning “the little moon in the sky” in Cantonese) held a sharing session in HKICC Lee Shau Kee School of Creativity, talking about her experience in the past year and a half, and her philosophy in Creative Movement and children’s physical education. She started the session by comparing the body to a playground — a playground makes us happy, but each person has his own preference on how to play each game; it can be an arena for social get-together, and it may wear you out but not enough to make you leave. Later on, she explained and played videos of exercises they had done in a few of their classes. In one of the exercises, three “leaders” were chosen from a group of primary school children, and the rest of the group were “followers”. “Leaders” could decide what movements to do and “followers” could choose to follow either leader. In the video recording, the leaders made different choices facing the same situation. One of the leaders gave up on his own movement and instead followed the other leader when none of the followers imitated him. A while later, the other leader encountered the same situation but insisted on his own moves until there were followers deciding to follow him. Haven’t we, as adults, all come across similar occasions where we struggled between compromising and persisting on choices nobody approved of? This simple exercise, through physical experience, allowed children to learn to listen to their hearts and to make decisions accordingly.

攝Photo: Ronnie Lam

（左起）雨晴老師、創辦人小月老師、一一老師; (left to right) Tutor Miss Yu Ching, Founder and Tutor Miss Siu Yuet, Tutor Miss Yat Yat) 攝Photo: Ronnie Lam

小月老師的分享結束之後，其中一位家長談到她發現自己兒子的身體表達能力比說話能力高，所以很樂意讓孩子繼續參與身體遊樂場的活動，亦因與兒子一同參與活動而增進親子關係。我在席上聽到這位家長對自己孩子的了解，非常震撼，同時亦很感動。從學校到職場，一個人的說話能力都被視為在面試、考試、工作時獲得晉升機會的重要能力和指標。香港的主流家長對小孩子說話能力通常付諸很高的要求，但這種看重說話能力的風氣，卻令我們忽略身體亦能表達。聽到有家長不單沒有因為孩子的說話表達能力不勝身體表達能力而逼孩子改變，反而看到小孩子擅於身體表達的好處。這種對溝通方式和孩子的開放態度，或許是身體遊樂場悄悄在家長心裡栽種的變化。

After Miss Siu Yuet’s sharing, one of the parents shared that she noticed her son communicates better using the body than through speech, hence she is willing to let her son continue in Moving Playground’s activities, and that the parent-child workshops enhanced their relationship. As I sat in the audience, I was surprised and touched by how much this parent understood his child. In school and at work, one’s verbal communication skills are regarded as the crucial ability and an important metric in interviews, exams, and whether or not one will get promoted. The majority of Hong Kong parents have high expectations on their children’s verbal communication skills, but in such a culture, we overlook how the body can also be used to communicate. Not only did this parent not force her son to catch up on his speech; rather, she saw the benefits of her child being good at communicating using his body. Perhaps this open-mindedness toward children and communication methods is the change that Moving Playground silently plants into parents’ hearts.

「我很想建立到這種文化。」分享會翌日，我和小月老師坐在南昌公園的草地上談到她對身體遊樂場的憧憬：「人與人之間、親子之間，攬攬錫錫，多點人情味。如果可以改變香港的冷漠，這不是很好嗎？」看著身體遊樂場另外兩位導師雨晴和一一在烈日下帶領工作坊，十數位家長此起彼落地抱起小孩子往想像中的大樹摘水果。幾位導師實驗另類的教育方式，單單從活動選址就花了不少心思，身體遊樂場的活動很多時候在戶外和大自然進行，想要將小孩子從學校的課室環境帶出來。

“I really want to build this culture.” On the day after the sharing, Miss Siu Yuet and I sat on the grass in Nam Cheong Park and talked about her vision of Moving Playground. “Between people, between parents and children, hugging and kissing each other, loving and having compassion. Wouldn’t it be great if we can change the indifference in Hong Kong?” Meanwhile, two other tutors of Moving Playground, Miss Yu Ching (“rain and sun” in Cantonese) and Miss Yat Yat (simply the number “1” in Cantonese) were leading a workshop under the scorching sun, and ten or more parents were holding their kids high to pick fruits from imaginary trees. These tutors experimented with atypical educational methods, putting great consideration in even the choice of the workshop venue. Most Moving Playground activities are held outdoors and in nature, aiming to pull children away from the classroom environment.

攝Photo: Ronnie Lam

攝Photo: Ronnie Lam

雖說想透過活動讓小孩子暫時離開從學校環境，但長遠而言小月老師寄望有一日可以影響主流的教育方式，「我希望創意律動的身體教育可以在香港普及，人們不再陌生。因為身體是屬於自己的，跟隨一生，要與自己的身體做朋友。一個人跟自己身體的關係良好，就會欣賞自己、接受自己。我們的城市實在太多人勉強自己、委屈自己......生命好重要，所以如何去連結生命是很重要的問題。」從身體教育、城市文化，到人對自身及其他人的關係，身體遊樂場觀察到主流教育的不足，並透過活動去補足。縱然微小，卻是為這城市的未來種下一棵棵小樹苗，待他們紮根、成長、成蔭。

Although the workshops succeeded in temporarily bringing children away from schools, in the future, Miss Siu Yuet still hoped to bring a change to mainstream education. “I wish to popularize Creative Movement as physical education in Hong Kong. Since our bodies belong to us and stay with us the whole life, we should be friends with our bodies. If you maintain a good relationship with your body, you will appreciate and accept yourself. There are too many people in this city who force and bend themselves… Life is important, therefore how to connect lives is an important question.” From physical education and urban culture to the relationship with oneself and to others, Moving Playground notices deficiencies in the mainstream education and makes up for this lack by organizing activities. Whilst being tiny, it is planting little seedlings for this city, and waiting for them to take root, grow, and mature.