ABOUT
The Humanities Research Symposium for Youth (HRSY) is an annual week-long event targeting select students from four schools in four different countries. Each member school takes turns to host the Symposium. This year, the 9th HRSY is organized by Diocesan Girls' School and is taking place in Hong Kong.
OBJECTIVES The objectives of the venture are seven-fold:
THEME The theme for this year is "Cries and Whispers". In the era of big data, noise is at the forefront of our senses - in social media, in propaganda, in daily news, in gossip. Silence, or relative quietness, the first indicator of hopelessness and dread, is often neglected. Many of the worrying undercurrents of our society fall into this category, and we hope participants may unearth, ponder over, and take home insights on these pressing issues. HRSY aims to catalyze the growth of society's future leaders, and we have enclosed an excerpt from our launch letter to better explain the reasoning behind this theme with regards to this goal: Cries and whispers encapsulate the agonizing social divide experienced by the disenfranchised – unbeknownst to the echo-chamber of piercing bigotry, xenophobia and hateful pride. They are heard at the crumbling borders of Europe, in trafficking havens eerily lit by their blinding neon, and from abandoned homes plagued by civil strife and sectarian violence. They are the results of failed policies and toxic politics. In tragedies, heroes are toppled by the outcry of the people, while villainous knaves plot, conspire and usurp. As the heat of the moment subsides, prophets’ resounding wisdom – or the lit lantern by Nietzsche’s madman – could dissipate into the thin air of nonchalance. Writers call it the vacuum of apathy, both hollowing and despairing in nature. When it comes to verbalizing human’s inner contours, stutters and ellipses are as compelling as raucous hollers and frantic screams, for they signify the foregoing of hope in a hapless future: the paradox of silence's audacity. |