Legislators called on Chief Executive-designate Tung Chee-hwa yesterday to consider changing the birthday recorded on his ID card. The call came after Mr Tung's revelation that he provided Hong Kong authorities with his Chinese lunar date of birth rather than the Western date when applying for an identity document in 1949. He had just arrived from Shanghai as a 12-year-old with his family. At Mr Tung's 60th 'birthday' celebration on Thursday, he admitted giving authorities the May 29 lunar date - as used on the mainland - 'but it should have been July 7'. That is the date of his birth according to the Gregorian calendar used in Hong Kong and preferred by the Immigration Department. Mr Tung made no attempt to correct the date. By law, any person who has provided 'incorrect' particulars for their ID card has a duty to report corrections. But a spokesman for Mr Tung denied yesterday the information was incorrect as it was his birthday according to the Chinese calendar used by 'half of Hong Kong'. 'It's not incorrect, it's different,' he said. Lawyer and Democrat legislator Andrew Cheng Kar-foo said the future leader should change the birth date on his identity card if he had documentary proof of its date on the Western calendar such as an extract of a birth certificate. Mr Cheng said: 'As a politician I treat C. H. Tung as a very old man who believes in lunar birthdays and feng shui.' Many elderly Chinese who had emigrated from the mainland only knew when their birth occurred on the lunar calendar, said lawyers. Some had sought to change their age upon arriving in Hong Kong to get a job or enter school. An Immigration Department spokesman, who would not comment on Mr Tung's case, said lunar birthdays were recorded during the 1940s and 1950s if people did not know when their birthdays occurred in Western terms. But officers now sought to convert the lunar date into the Gregorian calendar, he said. Anybody with proof of their Western birthday could apply to have their lunar date changed. Independent legislator Emily Lau Wai-hing said: 'He should change it back unless he thinks that he is above the law, above the rules'.
