Understanding the Relationship between Media and Education in Post-War Asia

In the programme ‘Watch and Learn’, Wong Chi-fai’s Educational TV and Ho Rui An’s Student Bodies left a deep impression on me by probing into the relationship between media and education. 

Both Student Bodies and Educational TV touch on the Americanisation in East Asia, which began in the post-war period and soon became a geopolitical concern. The two films show the respective artists’ deep contemplation on the role of media in this process, which is reflected in their unique visual techniques.

The two filmmakers have made good use of distortion as a visual technique. In Educational TV, Wong distorted the imagery and adjusted the contrast, creating a ‘poor image quality’ effect. I see these intended ‘imperfections’ as his way of signalling education is moving in the wrong direction. Whereas in Student Bodies, Ho focused on processing the sounds in the film. It’s amazing to find out that he distorted some birds’ sounds and blended them with human voices. In this way, the voice was not visible but still somehow present in the work. If forms of knowledge are transmitted via conversations, then Ho’s distorted voices embody the students’ collective state of mind: they are aware of the changes in society but also unsure of how to position themselves.

Nowadays, people are receiving new information from all types of media platforms every day. The sharing with these two artists asks us to reflect on how we handle the explosive amount of information out there. How do we decide what to learn, and what is the ideal relationship to have with the media? These are among the many thought-provoking questions that have struck me after the screening.