STORY started as an informal, work group within MCCM Creations, pulling together like-minded creative practitioners to explore various narrative approaches. Over the last few years, we had initiated and steered several multi-disciplinary, cultural events with an educational and ideas-exchange orientation.
// In 2010, a 10-day event Ten Slow Days at the Fringe Club, with two photography exhibitions, a mini-exhibition on the making and physical structure of a book, book-binding workshops, and a discussion forum on issues facing small independent publishers, with editors, book designers, booksellers, distributors, publishers. This was the first occasion gathering publishing executives of different disciplines in a discussion.
// From June 2010, an 18-month storytelling event 傳說我城 Our City Our Legends together with storyteller Uncle Hung was hosted at MCCM Bookshop at the Hong Kong Arts Centre. The event has not only resulted in the publishing of a book of the same name, but also trigger awareness of ‘storytelling’ as a form of literary arts; a form of social therapy for the communities; and the importance of urban stories collection as part of the cultural legacy.
// In July 2013, a 26-day event Creative Ventures into Publishing, Design, Crafts, and Coffee Farms with a mini-exhibition and pop-up bookshop gallery at the Fringe Club. The event celebrates 8 Hong Kong stories whose creative projects are driven by a strong sense of mission to explore ways of creative regeneration, and to re-engage and reconnect different local and Asian communities. Part of ‘Asia On the Edge’ programme.
// From October 2012 to January 2014, together with Arts Promotion Office and the Fringe Club, we steered Leung Ping-kwan (1949-2013), A Retrospective - a series of multi-disciplinary events to celebrate the many journeys of Yasi’s life, and to arouse public interest in Hong Kong writers, literature and poetry. The program includes two literary/visual art exhibitions at the Central Library and Fringe Club, a multi-lingual poetry reading, and creative poetry workshops at schools. The project was renamed ‘Journeys of Leung Ping Kwan (1949-2013) which was exhibited in Taipei as part of Hong Kong Week 2014 in October. We were actively involved in managing the project.
// In October 2013, STORY was formally registered as a non-profit cultural organisation.
// STORY together with MCCM Creations are the supporting publisher for the British Council (Hong Kong) writer programs 'Mugwump — Peter Suart on Books, Illustration and Memory' at Hong Kong Book Fair 2014 in July. We proposed UK author and advised on the enrichment of the various programmes held at the HK Convention Centre, PMQ (the new Police Married Quarter), Comix Home Base during the book fair period.
// STORY was the collaborating partner of Hong Kong Goethe Institut to stage the discussion (March 2015) 'Too Many Books or is the Digital Revolution Changing the Game?' with Dr Andreas Rotzer, publisher and managing director of Matthes & Seitz publishing house in Berlin.