The People’s Lawyer

November 17, 2015

Jeffrey Tam Chun-kit defends political ideals by practising law

By Mavis Wong
On Sunday afternoons in Admiralty’s Pacific Place, the usual crowds of determined looking professionals and business people in suits give way to more relaxed shoppers and diners. Casually dressed in a smart purple polo shirt, cargo shorts and wearing yellow flip-flops, Jeffrey Tam Chun-kit could be one of them, except the 31-year-old barrister is not here for an afternoon of leisure.

Instead, he skips the mall and strides confidently to his office in Denis Chang’s Chambers where he immediately immerses himself in bundles of paperwork. The exclusive location and prestigious chambers signal how far Tam has come from his humble beginnings as the son of Mong Kok street vendors who grew up in a Tuen Mun public housing estate. But Tam is not interested in the superficial trappings of success.

For him, practising law is a way to keep watching over the government of the day, which is why he has chosen to specialise in public law. An important process in this branch of law is judicial review, which is a proceeding in which the way a decision is made by a public body can be challenged in court.

Tam thinks judicial review is a powerful mechanism through which citizens can monitor the government’s work. It is especially important to him because he believes Hong Kong’s political system is twisted in such a way that citizens cannot fully participate in the election of the government.

Tam says he has chosen the direction he has taken in order to pursue his “political” goal of ensuring the government acts in accordance with the law. He wants to make sure that prisoners and all minorities are given the fundamental rights guaranteed by the government.

This goal has kept him busy, particularly during last year’s Occupy Movement. Like other lawyers who volunteered to do pro bono work for the originally envisioned Occupy Central, Tam says he had expected the action would last three to four days. He never imagined it would become the Occupy Movement and last for 79 days. During the movement, Tam performed multiple roles. In those 79 days, he arranged bail for more than 200 demonstrators who had been arrested. Almost every night, he went to various police stations with his team and gave free legal advice. He accompanied protesters as they gave witness statements and referred them to the Duty Lawyer Service in Hong Kong. Tam also represented some of the demonstrators in the Magistrates’ Courts and High Court.

Tam recalls his exhaustion from that time but also his heartbreak at seeing police firing tear gas at the crowds. “People were only there to fight for democracy,” he says. “I have never heard of, and it’s not in my memory, that the police officers fired any tear gas in recent times.”
Apart from the work he did during the Occupy Movement, Tam says there is another case etched into his memory.

Tam represented the family of Hong Kong tour guide Masa Tse Ting-chunn in the inquest into the killing of Tse and seven Hong Kong tourists in the Manila hostage crisis of 2010. The eight Hongkongers were shot by a disgruntled former Philippines police officer, Rolando Mendoza, and the Coroner’s Court was tasked with finding out who was responsible for their deaths.

It was a harrowing experience – during the process, Tam had to listen to all the audio recordings of the incident over and over again. “You heard the gunshot, then you heard a lot of people screaming,” he says, still visibly shaken by the memory. Tam says he wanted to but he could hardly bear to look at the survivors while they were in court giving their accounts of the incident.

Tse’s mother Lee Mei-chun played a key part in encouraging Tam to stay on the case. Lee’s persistence in going to court every day for 28 consecutive days with one single-minded purpose – to understand the cause of her son’s death – impressed Tam. “She only wants to know the truth, nothing but the truth,” he says sadly.

Eventually, the court ruled that Filipino officials had contributed to or caused the deaths in their botched handling of the crisis. Tam was touched when he saw how relieved Tse’s family members were after learning the result. “I was convinced that I had chosen the right career path,” Tam says.

Taking on such cases and specialising in public law means Tam earns less than he would have by taking on commercial cases but he has no regrets. He never worries that listed companies in Hong Kong may not hire him because of his political stance. “I prefer to have my freedom of speech than working for the rich,” he says.

Neither does he have concerns about his own safety in Hong Kong despite being involved in numerous social movements. However, he is not sure if he could enter mainland China or Macau and he has not attempted to do so after the Occupy Movement.

His dedication to liberal causes and to serving the public is no surprise considering that he has aspired to be a politician since childhood. As a student, Tam believed politics could bring substantial changes to society. He joined the student division of Civil Human Rights Front when he was a Form Seven student in secondary school.

In 2003, at the height of public opposition to government proposals to draft a controversial national security law, Tam threw himself into helping to organise the annual July 1 demonstration and resolved to study politics at university.

However, Tam’s mother changed his mind and the course his life would take. He recalls that she asked him to read the résumés of the Legislative Council members at that time. “How many of them are lawyers? How many of them study politics?” After counting the numbers, Tam realised that more than 10 lawmakers had studied law and none of them had studied politics.

This convinced Tam that studying law could help him prepare to get involved in local politics. Still, his academic path did not go as smoothly as he would have envisaged. Due to his heavy involvement in the July 1 demonstration while he was preparing for his Hong Kong Advanced Level Examinations, he failed to perform his best. Luckily, he was admitted to the undergraduate law programme at the City University of Hong Kong.

Although the law school at City University might not be regarded as the most prestigious in Hong Kong, Tam never looked down on himself. He worked hard and seized every opportunity to learn.

In his first year of undergraduate study, he won the Hong Kong Lawyers Essay Competition with a piece commenting on the goal of universal suffrage for the Chief Executive and Legislative Council. The essay was subsequently published in a renowned monthly magazine for lawyers, Hong Kong Lawyer. It led to other opportunities too. While he was in his second year, the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies and University College invited him to give a speech on the functional constituencies in Hong Kong.

Tam’s hard work paid off and he was offered a place and a scholarship to study in a post-graduate programme in Civil Law at the University of Oxford. “I think in the end, people look at your ability, not where you are from,” he says.

After practising law for six years, Tam is confident that he has chosen the right path in studying law rather than politics “because lawyers can do more than politicians in Hong Kong”. He believes legislators play a vital role in society, but pro-democracy members are in the minority and the legislature’s structure and rules means it is hard for them to change outcomes.
Instead, he thinks lawyers can uphold social justice in a more direct way, citing a successful judicial review in 2008 that granted all prisoners the right to vote in elections. “Now I have to say that I am more interested to become a lawyer than a politician.”

The sleepless nights he experienced throughout the Occupy Movement may be over but Tam still works six days a week and does not see it as a hardship. “I enjoy my career a lot. That’s why I don’t see it as a burden coming to the office six days a week.”

Whatever the issue is, if Tam believes he can help the public interest, he will be there. He has travelled back and forth from different public housing estates to explain to residents about their legal rights in claiming reasonable compensation after lead was found in their water supply. He is also keen to pass on his knowledge and mentor young lawyers, so he teaches tort law and constitutional and administrative law at the University of Hong Kong.

Tam is a devoted supervisor to his pupils, often leaving the office with them when they all finish work. One of his pupils in the chambers, Duncan Ma Ming-chun characterises Tam as “friendly and helpful.” As if to illustrate the point, Tam immediately takes out a packet of cookies from his bag and passes it to his pupils after their meeting.

Although he has come to believe that the law may be a more effective way to safeguard freedom, justice and democracy in Hong Kong, he does not think he has managed to achieve his political aims through his legal career. “I think it’s on the right track,” he says. “I do not really see it as mission accomplished.”

Tam says he will continue to work on changing society, step by step, starting with his work on judicial review cases.

“I think it’s far from seeing the other end of the tunnel,” he says with a self-deprecating smile.

Edited by Total Lam

Waiting for the Final Frame

November 17, 2015

Old photographer Lam Kwok-shing at Jim Jim Studio

Film photographer Lam Kwok-shing holds the fort at his studio for old time’s sake

By Joey Kwan

A collection of old cameras sits in the corner of a Kowloon photo studio. They belong to the 66-year-old film photographer, Lam Kwok-shing, the proprietor of Sammy Photo Studio, located on the second floor of an old walk-up building in Yau Ma Tei and one of the few film photo studios left in Hong Kong.

Every day, Lam commutes from Tseung Kwan O to Pak Hoi Street, unlocks the glass door of the studio, and starts waiting for his customers to come. However, there are days when the customers do not come, days that are becoming more common with each passing year. Today, Lam has waited for a whole day but no one has arrived. “It is like waiting for a friend. They have promised that they would come back to take photos, but you don’t know when they will come,” says Lam. “The waiting process is cruel.”

Lam describes operating a film photography studio in this day and age as “painful”. He says the age of film technology has passed, yet he continues to run the business just so he can wait for his customers to return.

“This industry was so vibrant,” he says. “Nowadays, digital cameras have become mainstream. It is like a mighty torrent washing away film cameras.” Since the development of digital cameras, many studios have switched to using modern photography technologies. Film photography, being more expensive and time-consuming, does not appeal to the new generation.

Of those who do use film these days, many will back them up in digital form but Lam thinks it is a waste of film if you do not process it in the dark room. “I told them if they are outputting the photos on CD, it’s digital already; why don’t they use digital [cameras] instead of wasting the film?” Lam says.

Film photography means more than the physical photographs themselves, its value is linked to the memories and feelings those photos elicit. Lam recalls how people used to prepare to have their photographs taken, getting dressed up to pose for family photos.

He remembers the first time he had his photo taken in a studio in 1954. The photographer’s antique wooden camera captured the five-year-old Lam with his eyes half-shut.“ I didn’t like the photo at first because my father started calling me a moron when we received the photo,” Lam says.

Lam says that in the past people had a stronger sense of family than now. Cameras were luxury items and few families had their own, so they would have their photos taken in studios, especially during festivals. To illustrate the point, Lam takes out a stack of black and white photos from his wooden cabinet and carefully selects one. The picture freezes the memorable moment when Lam fought with his older brother over the bicycle prop in the renowned Jim Jim Studio on his younger sister’s birthday. This photo was later hung in Lam’s home.

The picture was taken by the studio’s boss, who later became Lam’s boss. At the time, Lam could never imagine he would one day take over Jim Jim studio and rename it as Sammy Photo Studio. Lam had been at Jim Jim for 24 years, working his way up from a darkroom apprentice, when his former boss retired and left for Canada in 1995. Now, he not only runs the studio but is also the photographer.

But being a photographer was never Lam’s goal. “Because I didn’t want to deal with people. The world is malicious but the dark room is where you can escape from it,” says Lam. The anonymous comfort and magic of the darkroom were among the reasons he chose to enter the trade.
Lam was not a good student in his school days, he got a ‘G’ for English Language the first time he took the Hong Kong Certificate of Education Examination. Although he retook the exam, he did not do much better. After two rounds of disappointment, Lam followed the prevailing thinking of the time which was: “If you can’t make it in school, learn a trade.”

This was the era when technical skills in most industries were learnt through apprenticeships. As an apprentice, Lam worked at the studio from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. every day, he ate his meals and slept there with other apprentices too. “Spending so much time in the studio, I felt like I had become a part of photography,” Lam recalls.

Lam mentions that many people in the 1970s believed in the dictum “respect your job and enjoy it”. For Lam, his boss epitomised that spirit. As the photographer-owner of Jim Jim, it was his goal to capture the moment when customers were smiling the most beautifully and naturally. He even took a child psychology course to understand more about how children think so that he could take a perfect picture of them.

The boss required all his staff to pay meticulous attention to detail in producing perfect photos. He separated the work of producing a single photo into four stages including photo-taking, photo-printing, photo-amending and film-amending. His exacting requirements produced high-quality photos that kept customers coming back. They are still coming back, even now.

Lam stands by the old working methods and standards although the field of studio film photography keeps shrinking. Many have left the industry and have switched to other fields of work to make their living. As a result, Lam’s studio lost its photographers and photo-amendment and film-amendment technicians.

This is why Lam started working outside the darkroom as a photographer and doubles up as a photo-amendment technician, leaving the work in the darkroom to his apprentice, Shek Kwai-nam, who still works in the studio as a part-time darkroom technician.

“Nobody teaches you how to do it. You have to fumble for the techniques. The work itself teaches you how to do it,” says Lam.

He explains that job satisfaction comes from his customers’ appreciation. It is why he waits. When Lam’s customers come to pick up the developed photos, their smiles and satisfaction bring him happiness.

He is eager to share the stories behind the photos. One of the pictures he points to shows a couple who had their wedding photos taken at the studio. The groom said his parents’ wedding photo had been taken at the same studio with a red background. He wanted to use the same background and posed in the same way for his own wedding photo.

“The couple said the photos taken by other firms in outdoor scenes looked as if they were photoshopped into the scene,” says a smiling and satisfied Lam.

Another time Varsity visited Sammy Photo Studio, Alice Lam Chui-lin, a member of the Eastern District Council1, came all the way from the Eastern District to Yau Ma Tei to find Lam Kwok-shing. She wanted him to take her publicity photos for the upcoming district council elections. Lam said she did try other digital photo studios after her last visit to Lam, but was dissatisfied with the quality of the photos.

On her last visit four years ago, Lam had already told her how hard it was to run a business in a sunset industry. He has to pay for water, electricity, wages for his part-time employee who helps in the dark room and rent to his old boss. Every customer is crucial to the studio’s survival, Lam says. “Boss says that if no one comes any more, the studio will be turned into subdivided flats. The reality is just like this.”

Lam did once consider changing his job. He attended a training course and obtained a license to be a security guard. However, people were reluctant to hire a new employee of Lam’s age. “You need to at least get another industry to accept you,” Lam sighs. “It was heart-breaking.”

Many people find it romantic that Lam insists on using film cameras and darkroom developing in his studio. But he says the reasons are more mundane – there are still old customers looking for film photo studios and he does not have enough gear to switch to digital photo-taking.

Lam keeps going back to his aim of “waiting for his customers”, some of whom still refer to the studio as “Jim Jim”. He knows the glory days are gone, and will not train any new apprentices. There is little market demand and film technology is becoming obsolete, he says. But for now, he will keep on waiting for his customers, until they stop coming back.

Edited by Total Lam

Stepping up to the Plate

November 17, 2015

Vicky Lau Wan-ki describes her journey from graphic designer to award winning chef
By Cindy Gu

Standing behind the counter of the open kitchen, Vicky Lau Wan-ki rolls up the sleeves of her white snap-front chef’s coat, and inspects the dishes for the night’s dinner menu at Tate Dining Room and Bar . The chef-proprietor has arrived at the restaurant straight from two previous meetings but shows no sign of fatigue.

Lau’s work rate and achievements have been impressive since opening Tate in 2012. Just six months after its opening, the restaurant was listed in the Michelin Guide to Hong Kong , making Lau the first female chef in the city to own a one-star Michelin restaurant. At the beginning of 2015, she won the annual accolade of Veuve Clicquot Asia’s Best Female Chef, bringing the 35-year-old rising culinary star more fame, and more diners.

It may come as a surprise that Lau never set out to be a chef, let alone a restauranteur. Her background was in design and she has a degree in graphic communications from New York University. After graduating she worked as an art director in New York for a few years, then returned to Hong Kong and started her own design firm. But after a while, she felt the work could not fulfill her.

“I was designing, but I felt something was missing,” Lau says. She needed a break, and some inspiration. A friend suggested she try cooking, so she decided to go back to school and explore a different aspect of design.

That is how Lau found herself embarking on a journey from graphic design to creating works with food by way of a recreational excursion at the prestigious culinary school, Le Cordon Bleu in Bangkok. She initially intended to take a three-month course with her friends, but ended up so engrossed in the world of cuisine that she decided to attain the Grand Diplôme in both patisserie and cuisine.

Enrolling on the Le Cordon Bleu programme does not require previous cooking experience but getting the diploma is no piece of cake. Lau says she found patisserie the hardest.

“Pastry can be a disaster,” she recalls. “If you didn’t set the time and heat of the oven right, or you miss one simple step, it can just go really wrong. I’ve seen people who just cannot make it.”

To pass the test, students are given a dish to prepare for the final exam, and are graded on criteria such as technique, organisation, taste and presentation. Lau’s skills and talents got her through the exam with the highest grade in the history of Le Cordon Bleu.

Sweet Survival

November 17, 2015

Mysterious Movies

November 17, 2015

Be amazed by the movie, and where it’s shown
By Tiffany Tsim

Nowadays, people are too well prepared before watching a movie; some go in with full knowledge of the plot and characters. Secret Movie makes the moviegoing experience new again.

The participants buy tickets but they have no clue when and where the screening is. Everything is kept secret, and the movies are usually shown at unusual places.

The very first activity in March this year was held in Choi Hung, because of all the chatter about a redevelopment project. Participants met at Choi Hung MTR station and were given an envelope with some hints about the location.

To find out where to go, they had to finish tasks, such as talking to the owner of a store at a specific time. At the end, they watched the movie at a Shanghai-style barber shop. It’s a different place each time: Secret Movie was once held at the Sunbeam Theatre in North Point. Participants had to wear 1980s costumes to match the theme of “Hong Kong nostalgia” and were offered special 80’s beers.

Participants can explore different districts through these activites, as well as enjoy a more immersive cinematic experience.

Secret Movie is organised by GOOOOOD, which is in turn inspired by the British company Secret Cinema. Secret Movie combines charity with commerce: once the group has recouped their costs, 50 percent of the proceeds go to charity.

For film and mystery lovers, Secret Movie is not to be missed. Tickets cost between HK$150 and HK$250. The more expensive tickets come with drinks and transport to the venue.

To investigate Secret Movie further, go to http://www.goooood.com/ for more details.

Edited by Zoe So

Forgotten Memories

November 17, 2015

Hide and Seek tour; Hong Kong history; heritage tours - Varsity's Choice

Discover hidden and overlooked treasures on Hide and Seek Tour
By Julian Ng

Memories of Hong Kong’s past are fading, so four Hongkongers are showing locals the stories and hidden treasures in both historic and urban parts of the city, from walled villages and temples to shopping centres.

Chan Yee-tak, Rosita Chan Hei-ming, Tiffany Chan Hoi-ni and George Wan, who have been good friends since college, founded Hide and Seek Tour in December last year. They run the tours without any support, but they only hold one tour per month because they all have full-time jobs.

George Wan says the tours are about showing people the heritage sites while they’re still there.

“There are a lot of heritage sites in Hong Kong that no one cares about,” he says. “We want to bring people to these places, so that when another one gets demolished, people won’t form concern groups without knowing where they are.”

He adds that they don’t limit themselves to famous sites; what is more important is that the sites reflect local culture. They take you to places like walled villages next to the Tai Wai MTR station and the Wholesale Fruit Market in Yau Ma Tei. The first tour was in January this year and it showed visitors some little-known temples in Sheung Wan.

Apart from visiting older and more traditional places, Hide and Seek Tour also brings people to skyscrapers or even shopping malls in Causeway Bay. Chan Yee-tak studied urban planning at university and he tells visitors the stories of urban development in the city. Chan wants to remind people that you can see the story of a neighbourhood from these skyscrapers.

The tours all take two hours and most of them are close to MTR stations to make it convenient for visitors. They now charge HK$50 per person to cover operating costs, for instance the costs of printing notes for visitors. Wan shows visitors the historic parts of the city, Chan takes care of the urban development tours, and Rosita Chan and Tiffany Chan do the administrative work.

If you feel like escaping the familiar commercial side of the city and getting a taste of the colourful and storied Hong Kong, check out their Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/hideandseektour/

Edited Zoe So

The Battlefield – Interview with Professor Ma Ngok

November 17, 2015

The Head of CUHK’s Government and Public Administration Department says running for the District Council takes years of effort, and even that might not be enough.

By Karen Yu

The upcoming District Council elections on November 22 come a year after the Occupy Central or Umbrella movement, and some candidates brand themselves as “umbrella soldiers” who were active in the movement. But, that won’t make as much of a difference on this particular battlefield, says Ma Ngok, associate professor and head of the Department of Government and Public Administration at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Traditionally, voters decide whom to vote for in the district council elections based on what the candidates have done for the neighborhood. Political parties that have contributed on hot button issues, like the recent lead water scandal, might gain a slight advantage, but Ma says that although this could help, it is not the key to winning.

“I think for District Council Election, they [candidates] probably won’t gain voters’ support by promoting issues on city-wide level, because it’s not effective in their [the pan-democracy camp and the pro-government camp] eyes,” says Ma, “…overall it [the results] depends on district level factors.”

In other words, big issues like fighting for universal suffrage or environment protection are less likely to appeal to voters in the DC election. Ma says what really matters is the relationship between candidates and residents, and how candidates have performed in the district. It’s not like the Legislative Council elections where people “want legislators to safeguard the rule of law,” says Ma.

Appealing to voters on issues of social welfare requires time and effort from the candidate. To start with, you need someone who has been willing to contribute to the community for four years or more to establish a relationship with residents, according to Ma.

He adds that more people have been serving as full-time rather than part-time district councilors, but for those who already have a job and need to make a living, it may not be easy to quit.

Even if the candidates dedicate themselves to serving the district, it does not guarantee a victory due to the huge difference in resources between the Pan-democrats and the Pro-government camp. In general, the pro-establishment camp has more capital and human resources, so they can afford to build relationships in a particular region for a longer time.

“The people in the pan-democracy camp would probably think, even if they won, would they like to stick with the job in the upcoming years? And there’s no guarantee in winning. Four years [‘contributions] resulting in losing, will they spend eight more years [for the next election]? Twelve more years? How many decades does one have in life?”

However, some pan-democrats and independent candidates are making a stand despite the slim chances of success, because they don’t want the pro-establishment camps to dominate all districts.

“It’s people’s sentiment to support their campaign. [They came out] not because that’s meaningful or has a promising future, but because they see themselves as responsible for withstanding the shrinkage in district councils,” says Ma.

And even if a candidate makes it in the DC election, it could still be a long way to climb up the political ladder to the Legislative Council through the five “Super District Councillor” seats. Ma says it’s just a game between high-profile district councilors. With more new political parties emerging in recent years, Ma says it will be harder for political parties to coordinate within their own camp, so there might be infighting within the same camp in the same district.

The District Council (DC) elections will be held on 22^nd November.

Edited by Stella Tsang

What you should know about the District Council – Part One

November 16, 2015

In the first of a series of infographics, we present a brief outline of what the District Councils are, their composition and their functions.

Varsity’s Coverage of the District Council Elections 2015

November 15, 2015

Watch this space for news, views and more. Like our Facebook page and follow @varsitycuhk on Twitter

Plug in and drive on

May 6, 2015

Car owners say promotion of and infrastructure for electric vehicles is insufficient

Editors: Macau Mak, Jeffrey Loa

Reporters: Brian Yu, Emily Man, Kelly Wong, Teenie Ho

The government has waived the First Registration Tax, Section 5(4) of the Motor Vehicles Ordinance, of electric vehicles (EV) since 1994 to encourage the use of electric vehicles (EV). But as of last year, fewer than two out of 1000 cars on Hong Kong’s roads run on batteries instead of petrol.

An electric car can be recharged within an hour using a quick charger and does not emit pollutants.

But despite being cost-efficient and eco-friendly, electric vehicles are still not popular in Hong Kong. Alex Poon Kwok-wai, an owner of an EV, believes this is mainly because of lack of quick chargers. There are three types of chargers differentiated by charging speeds, namely standard, medium, and quick.

Poon says there are an adequate number of overall parking facilities with chargers, but not all of them are efficient.

Price is another issue. In general, electric vehicles cost around twice as expensive as similar conventional cars that run on petrol.

Financial Secretary John Tsang Chun-wah, who chairs the Steering Committee on the Promotion of Electric Vehicles, says the government has been actively promoting the use of EV, but it needs to be cautious when spending public money to install chargers in private car parks.

Tsang says the government is working on a guideline which will require private building car parks to spare 3 per cent of their parking spaces for electric cars, as well as a gross floor area incentive scheme to encourage private buildings to allocate more EV parking spaces.

Eric Cheng Ka-wai, the professor at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, believes that more promotion is needed.