Quizzing Hong Kong's Gen Ys at the Millennial Quiz Night

Bailey Atkinson, a self-labelled geek and quiz-lover, has always been dissuaded participating in the expensive quizzes held in the city.

A small-town Canadian girl living in the British expat-dominant Hong Kong, Bailey grew frustrated at Hong Kong’s quiz nights catering to baby boomers.

“I have this running joke of not having fun at old men’s quizzes in Wan Chai because I don’t know anything about cricket. I am North American so it’s just not fun to go to a quiz when you don’t know anything,” Bailey jokes to The Beat Asia in an interview.

With a wealth of millennial-era pop culture knowledge that could rival a historian, Bailey created Millennial Quiz Night in 2019 to give millennial Hong Kongers in the city – those born between 1981 and 1997 – a night of trivia catered to their televisual needs!

Running now for three years in the neighbour basement and rooftop bars, Millennial Quiz Night has found its home at Sip Sip Rooftop in Causeway and The Aftermath Bar in Soho. Bailey hosts quizzes with her budding millennial pals on 90’s comedies, Friends, Pixar and Disney, sappy 2000s rom-coms, Mean Girls, and Clueless.

With events usually running Monday and Wednesday nights, Bailey has had to hold quizzes during Saturday and Sunday nights in recent weeks, accommodating for new COVID-19 restrictions.

Each weekly quiz has five rounds, with 10 questions per round: a picture round, a music round, and three knowledge-based category rounds. In the first round, quizzers are shown pictures of a series or movie and are tasked with guessing the correct scene.

“I come from a film theory background,” Bailey explained, “so my whole life I've been asking people, ‘have you seen this’? And being told, ‘no, I have not.’ And so, for me, [hosting Millennial Quiz Night] is a way to make people pay me to ask them that question,” Bailey said.

For HK$130 and with three friends accompanied, the quiz nights offer two to five hours' worth of quizzing entertainment, impromptu stand-up, and post-quizzing schmoozing.

“I have had people who have come literally since the first quiz in August 2019, who are still coming. I had a team win last week, and it was their seventh quiz. Whereas I had a guy win for the festive quiz, and he has been coming for two and a half years, and this was his first win.”

Bailey typically sources the themes through user-submitted suggestions on the Instagram account or through polls. She is meticulous about her research when it comes to hosting a quiz and will watch an entire series, movie franchise, or a select few titles in a genre when hosting an upcoming quiz night.

With no-questions pre-date 1981, most current quizzes relate around what is hot in Hong Kong now, with Bailey pointing to the top 10 on Netflix for a marker. “The theme has gotten to be simple enough that a whole friendship group can get it.”

“A quiz to me should be, ahh I know it, but I can’t remember it and it should eat at me.”

Bailey has hosted over 60 quizzes in the past three years and under five waves of COVID-19. It is a fun side-hustle for her that helps subsidise her rent and allows her to hang out with new friends.

"It's a love letter to my childhood and I know people love my event because it's affordable [and] quirky.”

To join up with three friends to battle it out quizzing other Hong Kongers, follow Millennial Quiz Night on Instagram or find their event information and ticketing on Zicket.