Tong the target at Cheung Chau Bun Festival parade
Former ICAC head is mocked along with a few other political figures in the annual procession on Cheung Chau, which draws 32,000 people
A float mocking the embattled former ICAC boss was the centrepiece of yesterday's Cheung Chau Bun Festival parade.
But the annual tradition of sending up political figures may have seen its last incarnation, with the island's sole float-maker announcing his retirement.
Tens of thousands of Hongkongers and tourists turned out for the Piu Sik (Floating Colours) parade and bun scrambling competition, undeterred by the unpredictable weather. Rain began to fall at 2pm, just as the parade was about to start, but soon gave way to sunshine.
The main attraction was the float by Wong Sing-chau mocking former graft-buster chief Timothy Tong Hin-ming, currently the focus of three investigations over spending during his five-year tenure.
At the top of the float, supported by a network of metal bars, was a three-year-old boy impersonating Tong. A young girl, who appeared to be standing on top of him, was Tong's female partner, whose identity, Wong said, was open for guessing. Several girls danced behind the float, carrying fans with the Chinese characters for anti-corruption on one side and greed on the other.
Wong decorated the float with, among other items, a bowl of dried seafood and a bottle of wine - references to Tong's alleged expensive gifts of meals and wine to mainland officials - and eight HK$1,000 notes. "They should have given the money to the public instead of spending it on corruption," Wong, 69, said. Wong is an iron smith who has been making the traditional structures of metal bars the floats use for the past half century.
