Promoting Local History through Drama—The Oral History Theatre of the Chung Ying Theatre Company

In recent years, the genre of “oral history theatre” has become more familiar to the local community. In particular the Chung Ying Theatre Company (Chung Ying) has put a lot of effort into presenting works of this genre. I had always wanted to watch this type of drama. Over two years ago, in a discussion with Chung Ying about research studies, I learnt that they were applying to the Hong Kong Jockey Club (HKJC) for funding of a three-year programme on oral history theatre, and that they planned to conduct a research project as part of the programme. Without a second thought, we decided to include efficacy evaluation in the programme proposal, which also fulfilled the requirements of the HKJC.