COMMUNITY CENTRE(RT59)

In the 1960s and 1970s, when the community was not well off, many parents went out to work in order to make ends meet and neglected to take care of their children, who might not have access to education. They had nothing to do and wandered around all day long, and were easily recruited by the lawless elements to engage in various illegal activities. To alleviate these problems, the Government launched the Neighbourhood Level Scheme in the 1970s, which was implemented by NGOs in transitional communities with inadequate social facilities and welfare services. Community centres provide venues and facilities to encourage young people to participate in community activities. Chess games such as Xiangqi, Go, Backgammon and Poggle, as well as table-tennis, football and basketball are usually available in community centres for young people's enjoyment. In addition to this, various kinds of cultural and recreational competitions and performances are held from time to time, such as open chess tournaments, table-tennis competitions and singing contests. The most popular game among children is the recreational chess game, which is similar to billiard ball in that each side has 16 pieces with names similar to those of Chinese chess, and the players compete with each other in a battle of wits to get the opponent's pieces into the holes in the four corners of the table as quickly as possible. Although supplies were relatively scarce at that time, in order to play a game of recreational chess, often have to wait in long queues, but the children are still happy to enjoy the simple and pure joy of their youth.