Gary Chan

The Honourable Gary Chan Hak-kan 陳克勤
Member of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong
Incumbent
Assumed office 2008
Personal details
Born	13 July 1976 Fujian, People's Republic of China
Nationality	Hong Kong Chinese
Political party	Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong
Residence	Hong Kong
Alma mater	Syracuse University, Chinese University of Hong Kong
Profession	Legislative Councillor

Gary Chan Hak-kan (simplified Chinese: 陈克勤; traditional Chinese: 陳克勤; pinyin: Chén Kèqíng; born 13 July 1976, Fujian, People's Republic of China) is currently the youngest member of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong. He represents the New Territories East constituency. He is also a member of the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB) political party.

Chan graduated from the Department of Government and Public Administration at Chinese University of Hong Kong, and studied in Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University. He was a member of Sha Tin District Council from 1999 to 2003. He was appointed as special assistant to the Chief Executive of Hong Kong, Sir Donald Tsang, from 2006 to 2008, with the salary of HK$77,000.^[1][2]

In 2008, Chan followed Lau Kong Wah to run for a seat in the Hong Kong legislative election, 2008 after resigning from special assistant to Chief Executive.^[3] Under the party-list proportional representation voting system, Lau's team got a total of about 100,000 votes in New Territories East constituency, brought Chan into the Council. Both Lau and Chan won the seats.^[4] Chan was admonished by Leung Kwok-hung for his poor English - he is quoted as saying during his acceptance speech that the party would "try our breast not to just criticize the government policy".^[5]

Controversies

Urine inspection

In a pre-election debate, Chan proposed to impose mandatory drug tests on teenagers returning from Mainland China, so as to fight against abusing narcotics by them. The plan was criticised as abusing human rights.^[6]

Libel

In another pre-election debate, Chan questioned Leung Kwok-hung for his "one-minute attendance" in each LegCo meeting. Leung denied the accusation and considered that it is a libel on him. Then replied with the fact of over 95% attendance and asked for apology.^[6]

Inadequate English proficiency for a Councillor

Shortly after the result of the Legislative Council was announced and Chan's victory into the Council was confirmed, Chan was interviewed by the press on live TV, where he was asked by one of the English-speaking reporter that:

“

Mr Chan, you are able to get a seat, but the government-friendly camp is losing one seat (because of that), does that (come) to your surprise? [7]

”

Chan replied:

“

It is a little bit surprise for us, but we will try our breast to….(stuttering with 5 consecutive “ers”)…still, er, try our breast to, er, not just, er, criticize the government’s policy, but also make some, er, good suggestions in order to improve the people’s livinghood. Ok?[7]

”

His mistake regarding the word "breast" for "best", in particularly was criticised in the media and the general public in Hong Kong for lack of English language proficiency as a Legislative Councilor. ^[8][9] The clip from that interview was uploaded on youtube.com and subtitled to enhanced those stutters and the phrase "try our breast".^[10]

References

1. ^ Young DAB star set to join Tsang office
2. ^ Political parties look to young guns
3. ^ 29 DAB candidates to contest LegCo Election 9 July 2008
4. ^ DAB retains top spot in HK election, 9 September 2008
5. ^ "Not the breast of starts for Gary Chan", The Standard, 11 September 2008
6. ^ ^{a b} [1]
7. ^ ^{a b} Television Broadcasts Limited, 7 September 2008, Legislative Council Election live interview, Hong Kong.
8. ^ 克勤叫人試胸？碩士學歷 英文答問出事 Ming Pao Newspaper, Hong Kong
9. ^ 隔牆有耳：網民恥笑陳克勤, Apple Daily, Hong Kong
10. ^ (陳克勤) "er...er...er...try our BREAST"

Legislative Council of Hong Kong
Preceded by James Tien	Member of Legislative Council Representative for New Territories East constituency 2008 – present Served alongside: Emily Lau, Andrew Cheng, Lau Kong-wah, Nelson Wong, Ronny Tong, Leung Kwok-hung	Incumbent
Order of precedence
Preceded by Lam Tai-fai Member of the Legislative Council	Hong Kong order of precedence Member of the Legislative Council	Succeeded by Paul Chan Member of the Legislative Council

Persondata
Name	Chan, Gary
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	13 July 1976
Place of birth	Fujian, People's Republic of China
Date of death
Place of death