James Shing Pan-yu sees Hong Kong's youths as being among the city's most valuable assets. "They are our future office bearers," he says.

As a Standing Committee member of the Hong Kong Youth Association (HKYA), he thinks his role ahead is immeasurable - in helping to put the younger generation back on the right track and getting them to understand more about Hong Kong and the mainland.

He admits that his own youthfulness is one of the key reasons that prodded him to take up the post as executive director at ATV "because to young people, it's fun to be in the media industry."

The HKYA was launched in 1995, comprising the "princelings" of Hong Kong society, with National People's Congress deputy and former secretary for justice, Elsie Leung Oi-sie, among its honorary advisers. It aims to instill greater vigor and vitality among youths to enable them to contribute to the community, educate them on national moral values and step up social exchanges between youths of Hong Kong and the mainland.

Shing says many of Hong Kong's young people lack a vision and farsightedness. "They have no dream and no confidence in the future. But, they're wrong. They only need to look afar to broaden their horizons. Then, they'll understand."

"Besides being a good social platform, the HKYA helps to inculcate a positive thinking in youths who have been led astray," says Shing.

He criticized those young people who raised the UK flag in protests as being in the minority. "I don't understand their aims. I suspect they have been manipulated to act like kids, to rebel, to so something anti-social and anti-Hong Kong. I just want these people to think about the future and get a better understanding of Hong Kong and the motherland."

He offered this advice to the dissident youths who have been swept up by the opposition: "Try to be more positive in your thinking."

(China Daily 04/05/2013 page8)