The Language of You
"The Language of You", a Student-initiated Project organised by a team of Psychology students together with a Marketing student, provided a unique platform for students at CityUHK to explore creativity, self-exploration, and individuality through crafts and arts. The initiative is also an attempt to promote mental wellness among students.
Priyanka Rathi, one of the key project team members, shared, "The Language of You is an attempt to bring forward the idea that everyone has a different way of expressing and expressing oneself is the path to self-acceptance and mental well-being. We do that in a 3-step process: Creating by expressing yourself, sharing and expressing to others, and ultimately being appreciated through collaboration."
Throughout this 3-day event, participants had the opportunity to create and express themselves in 3 different ways:
🌷 The Flower of You: Engaging in the art of crafting dried flowers in glass tubes, each person had the chance to create a personalised botanical masterpiece.
🎶 The Lyrics of You: Anonymously sharing their favourite song lyrics, participants wrote verses on colourful paper and added them to a communal jar, exchanging lyrical treasures.
🎨 The Canvas of You: Collaborating on a shared canvas, artists of all skill levels contributed a single stroke using brushes of various sizes and colours, resulting in a mesmerising group artwork.
When asked about how the team came up with the project idea, Priyanka said, "when my friends and I met, we talked about what we could do to introduce positive well-being to students. I mean it’s not something people do not know about but as Psychology students, we understand that just knowing does not really make a difference, it is a step, for sure. But to truly inculcate something like this in your life, you must experience it. Our discussion somehow led to the importance of self-expression. So, when we sat to brainstorm how we could do this, we first tried to think about some activities that could engage people and possibly their thoughts. So, we thought about flowers, of course, as each and every one of it is different, and it was so inspiring. My team member, Sherry, shared with us the idea of 'Eternal flower' where you could preserve dried flower for a long time. We settled on that."
"With subsequent discussions, we realised that just one activity might not have as much impact, so we turned into a step process of three separate activities. I saw this artist on the internet do a huge mural where he let every passer-by fill one box with a colour. I was so intrigued by it that I wanted to incorporate it in the event somehow because it was such a brilliant idea of collaboration. So, my team and I talked about this and ultimately decided on a canvas where we let every participant paint a stroke of their choice of colour and their choice of space."
"Another team member, Stephanie contributed the idea of using lyrics as a way to connect with people. We had further discussions and came up with the idea of letting the participants exchange lyrics with each other. Music is such a huge part of everyone’s life, being able to share a part of a song is very much like expressing an emotion. That is how the Language of You came into being. After all, you are truly free when you are you. And you are truly happy when you are free."
When asked about what they wanted to achieve and what they learnt from doing this project, team members shared the following:
"I wanted to connect with people and help them understand themselves a bit better and express their creativity." - Michaela Jendrichovská
"I want to let people find out about their way to express what they feel or think. I learnt that all people have the capability to express themselves, but everyone has a different preference for it." - Jeffrey Darsono
"I learnt about how different people express their thoughts directly and indirectly through the activities. The lyrics that the participants wrote turned out to be more meaningful than I thought. Even though some lyrics are not instantly recognizable at first glance, by knowing the context or the name of the song, we can understand their thoughts. It is an interesting way for participants to express themselves indirectly. I also learnt how to communicate with participants in a more effective way." - Michael Yeung
"This event aims at not only assisting people in getting in touch with their true selves but also giving them an opportunity to open up, express, and mingle with other students, and to be able to relate to their peers more than ever. We wanted this event to be a medium to shed light on personal development and interpersonal experiences. We hope that people got the chance to experience the true joy of being able to express themselves." - Priyanka Rathi
“The Language of You: Be you, be free!” is one of the Student-initiated Projects (SIP) supported by the University to promote campus internationalisation and integration.
