Women are increasingly on their own as they now receive more education, attain financial self-reliance and no longer believe in traditional values such as marriage and children.
Self-empowerment allows women these days in Hong Kong to lead their own life, and there is no necessity to seek male partnerships for protection, support or stability.
Single women, like any human being, also experience loneliness because it is natural to desire romance. Many societies still emphasize a “complete” family as the path to true happiness, making single women easily feel isolated or pressurized.
Kearen Pang (彭秀慧) is an absolutely successful cross-media creative talent who has written and directed many stage plays. She is also a popular actress. She graduated from the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts in 1997, and joined theatre company in Hong Kong. In 2000s, she ventured into the film world for multiple roles. Kearen won numerous awards for her achievements.
I have been acquainted with Kearen for many years. I quietly appreciated the good points of this lady. Kearen is very creative and continuously improving herself. She is willing to explore new ideas. Insisting on taste and standards is what she has thoroughly impressed me.
Now, she is at the mid-age of 51. She stressed, “I am still single!” Kearen went on with her joke on the stage, “Worst of all, people call me ‘Director Pang’. That puts me high above other women. It drives away my male targets for dating. I ask myself, ‘What do I want?’ Do I want to be a ‘west’ (pronounced in Cantonese as ‘sai’ which, in slang, means a capable but difficult person) lady? Do I want to be a ‘7’ (pronounced in Cantonese ‘chat’ which, in slang, means ordinary and stupid) woman?”
Roughly speaking, there were 800 males per 1,100 females, highlighting a significant gender imbalance in Hong Kong. There are about 1,000,000 never-married females ages 15 and over in Hong Kong that has a population of 7.5 million. The proportion of women living alone keeps increasing. This is why Hong Kong is experiencing a rapid development of single women’s entertainment market, driven by factors such as women’s rising economic independence, delayed marriage or no marriage at all, and a desire for self-care like travel and wellness. This market segment welcomes drama contents that consciously celebrate the freedom and wisdom of single women.
Kearen, as an actress, was also good at body language skills. When she was doing the stand-up comedy. She talked but her body moved, covering the whole stage. She even went down to the floor to interact with the laughing audience. Her energy pushed the mood of the show to the highest point. The open posture, gestures and confident eye contact all reinforced emotionally her spoken words and naturally, the credibility of what Kearen said. She was like the spiritual leader of all female supporters in the theatre. Occasionally, I was however disturbed by the foul language used in the show.
Kearen is a seasoned stage producer. She knows what the audience want by mixing feelings of joy and sorrow. She lamented in the show, “Ugh! The most terrible thing about being single is that you don’t know what name to put down when you are requested to state ‘person for emergency contact’ in respect of official documents. Oh! There is another sadness: in our ‘sisters chat group’ on mobile, I am now the only one who now notoriously remains single!”
“One Mic Stand” is a signature stage work of Kearen Pang. This amusing stand-up comedy has a number of episodes with different themes. Make sure you do not miss it next time!
I also have to say I like the new performing venue: “TIDES”. TIDES is a 1500-capacity purpose-built theatre located at Whampoa in Hung Hom. It is well-designed and very iconic with the good sound and lighting facilities provided for concerts and shows. Again, don’t miss the place! You should visit it one day and by doing so, make Whampoa an interesting theatre area in Hong Kong!
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