Lee Chin Hei (Hei), who has been a social worker for 14 years, describes his keywords as ‘Internet addict’, ‘e-sports’ and 'technology applications’. The first photo introduced to us at GenuineCafe is a photo from Facebook reminding him that he travelled to Britain to participate in a cyber social work exchange tour 9 years ago. Hei says that today's sharing started from the exchange tour in the UK.

Hei getting connected with science and technology 9 years ago when he was a network addiction counsellor. Later he kept in touch with e-sports companies which were his business partner that influenced his career planning. Furthermore, Hei’s two elder brothers are programmers, and he observed their lives and work since childhood, such as writing code all night long and the communication patterns of IT workers.

The social worker's perspective is very simple. Internet addiction is only a superficial problem. What social workers want to do is to understand the needs of young people or their families.

Hei emphasizes the combination of social work and technology. We ask him to describe his ‘social work perspective’. ‘The social worker's perspective is very simple. Internet addiction is only a superficial problem. What social workers want to do is to understand the needs of the young people or their families.’ Hei replies. In some cases, playing games (online games) may give young people a sense of success or involvement allowing them to make friends in another world and be themselves. In one of his most profound experiences, Hei saw a wall in the house that was filled with the words ‘I want to kill my mother’ during a home visit. Whereas Hei realized that the problem was far more profound than crazy gaming on the surface.

In another case, a youth who liked Japanese culture a lot, performed well in school during childhood, but later became addicted to gaming. After his parents could trust their son, the son was gradually getting better, and went to night school to retake the public examination, finally, he was admitted to the university majoring in Japanese culture. Hei sees that young people are capable, the problem is how to transform the organization and communication skills of online games into daily lives.

In the hope of bridging social work and technology, my friends and I established the Society, so that the profession of social work will be more diversified.

Hei is committed to combining technology and social work, describing that if the profession of social work is to draw a big circle on the paper, technology is to draw a smaller circle inside. Hei points out that if one doesn't understand technology, he will be afraid and uneasy. ‘In the hope of bridging social work and technology, my friends and I established the Society, so that the profession of social work will be more diversified.’ Hei says frankly that he has failed before. Once he set up an online forum to discuss Internet indulgence, hoping to attract parents to leave messages and learn about Internet culture. However, less than 10 parents participated. ‘No matter how thorny the road is, we will continue to do it.’ In today’s Hong Kong we can see the importance of their persistence. During the epidemic, we must rely on information technology for information transmission and decision-making. Hei also pointed out that with the development of science and technology, things on the internet are real, and there is no difference between the virtual and real world.

We asked what made Hei insist on doing it? ‘I like the Japanese manga “One Piece” very much, it cherishes passion and the attitude that ‘one must fulfil his dream’. It is difficult, but if I want to do it, I won't give up easily.’ Hei believes technology will have a more significant role in the future. If social workers are related to social change, they should know more about technology. That's why Hei hopes that he can do something by gathering a group of like-minded friends.

My hope for the future is that there can be a wide lens where more people can be taken into the lens, and the Society can gather more people to do things together. This is the picture I want to see.

Hei likes technology so much, why did he choose to work as a social worker instead of changing careers? Hei says that he started volunteering in Form 2 and grew up in a community centre. He likes to communicate with others, likes to see people's changes, so he has committed himself to the job of youth social worker. The profession of social work can satisfy him. On the contrary, he can't bear to work with computers as a programmer. ‘When I was young, I was pessimistic. Later, I participated in the project “Life is beautiful because of you”. I met a group of good friends and let myself see the bright side of life again. I understood that many people around the world need more [help] than me. The experience with the old and the mentally handicapped made Hei more aware that he wanted to devote himself to the profession of social work.

Finally, we asked Hei, which picture he wanted to see the most? Axi shares a photo, which is a group photo of five people. ‘As I said, the establishment of the Society has gone through many conversations and gatherings.’ The photo which was taken during the exchange tour to Britain showed two persons and Hei who co-founded the Society. ‘My hope for the future is that there can be a wide lens where more people can be taken into the lens, and the Society can gather more people to do things together. This is the picture I want to see.’

Written by: Lau Kim Ling
Original story in Chinese, English translation by: Daniel Leung & Sharon Huang