Simon Wong Tim Keung
Simon Wong Tim Keung, the director and founding member of Ming Ri Institute for Arts Education. With the expertise of drama and children theatre, Mr. Wong had worked with the Hong Kong Repertory Theatre, then the School of Technical Arts of the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, and the Theatre Workshop since 1983. To serve the society through drama, he found the former institute of Ming Ri institute for Arts Education with other theatre arts lovers. He led the institute to be the first troupe with full time administrators and then became an art education institute who are committed to serve children and family.
He has been dedicated to develop children's theatre arts, educational drama and preserve puppets. In 1993, he was awarded an Asian Cultural Council grant for going on attachment in the USA to study children's theatres and its development. In 1997, he went to the United States for the research on arts education and puppetry with the subsidy granted by the Hong Kong Arts Development Council. With the recognition of his contribution to the development of arts education, he attained the "Best Artist Award for the Year, Drama" which was delivered by the Hong Kong Arts Development Council in 1999. In 2008, Wong was elected to be a member of the Executive Committee of UNIMA (Union Internationale de la Marionette), this appointment made him the first ever ethnic Chinese to be elected to such a post and as a key person between the East and the West. He is also one of the Directors of the China Puppetry and Shadow Arts Association as well as the Deputy Presidents of UNIMA-China Centre.
He serves on the Advisory Council of the Center for Child Development of the Hong Kong Baptist University and is being engaged as the part-time lecturer in the School of Continuing Education of Hong Kong Baptist University as well as the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts.