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Friday, May 09, 2025
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Animated over $300k award
An animation producer wannabe has won a HK$300,000 scholarship to study animation at the University of Southern California, a step closer to her dream of owning a production house in Hong Kong, where she hopes to produce opening sequences for international films.
Crystal Tai Chung-yee is this year's Sir Edward Youde Memorial Fund fellowship awardee for overseas studies among 244 applicants.
After working for Wall Street Journal for four years until 2021, Crystal Tai Chung-yee, a former journalist, said she wants to bring joy to Hongkongers through her animations.
Last year, Tai participated in Animation Support Program, funded by the government's CreateHK, and made her first short animation - the 5.5-minute Monkey on My Back will premiere on May 27.
"During my four years working in Wall Street Journal as a video journalist, I sometimes need to produce motion graphics to visualize the news, and over time, I want to use animation as a new medium, to tell my own stories," Tai said.
When asked about the differences between journalistic videos and animations, Tai said: "When making a fictional animation, for me, the plots are ultimately important. But for journalistic videos, what I consider is to use different angles to deliver the information."
She added that as a journalist she was able to gain experience in communicating with others and gathering resources.
Apart from Tai, awardees included Jeffrey Chang Man-hei, one of three postgraduate students' fellowships and Donald Shek Kam-ming, who was among the six undergraduate student scholarship recipients.
Chang is a geography doctorate student at the University of Hong Kong focusing on microclimate, where his research team has been working with secondary students to create sensors and conduct experiments.
"People seldom think geography is a science, but actually understanding scientific theories behind geography can help us solve many problems in real life," Chang said.
Meanwhile, Shek, a final-year Chinese education student at the Chinese University, said he would use his HK$40,000 scholarship to support his voluntary tutoring program to eliminate knowledge gap between students and those from the grassroots.
Established in 1987, Sir Edward Youde Memorial Fund was set up to help local young talent to achieve their best results, and encourage secondary students and working adults to strive for excellence.
This year, the fund has disbursed a total of HK$2.63 million to some 940 people.
Among them are: six medals for students who obtained outstanding results in the HKDSE exam, 911 prizes for senior secondary students, 12 prizes for students of the Vocational Training Council, four awards for apprentices, and five awards for working adults who underwent retraining.
After working for Wall Street Journal for four years until 2021, Crystal Tai Chung-yee, a former journalist, said she wants to bring joy to Hongkongers through her animations.
Last year, Tai participated in Animation Support Program, funded by the government's CreateHK, and made her first short animation - the 5.5-minute Monkey on My Back will premiere on May 27.
"During my four years working in Wall Street Journal as a video journalist, I sometimes need to produce motion graphics to visualize the news, and over time, I want to use animation as a new medium, to tell my own stories," Tai said.
When asked about the differences between journalistic videos and animations, Tai said: "When making a fictional animation, for me, the plots are ultimately important. But for journalistic videos, what I consider is to use different angles to deliver the information."
She added that as a journalist she was able to gain experience in communicating with others and gathering resources.
Apart from Tai, awardees included Jeffrey Chang Man-hei, one of three postgraduate students' fellowships and Donald Shek Kam-ming, who was among the six undergraduate student scholarship recipients.
Chang is a geography doctorate student at the University of Hong Kong focusing on microclimate, where his research team has been working with secondary students to create sensors and conduct experiments.
"People seldom think geography is a science, but actually understanding scientific theories behind geography can help us solve many problems in real life," Chang said.
Meanwhile, Shek, a final-year Chinese education student at the Chinese University, said he would use his HK$40,000 scholarship to support his voluntary tutoring program to eliminate knowledge gap between students and those from the grassroots.
Established in 1987, Sir Edward Youde Memorial Fund was set up to help local young talent to achieve their best results, and encourage secondary students and working adults to strive for excellence.
This year, the fund has disbursed a total of HK$2.63 million to some 940 people.
Among them are: six medals for students who obtained outstanding results in the HKDSE exam, 911 prizes for senior secondary students, 12 prizes for students of the Vocational Training Council, four awards for apprentices, and five awards for working adults who underwent retraining.
