Hong Kong’s attitude to sport is changing for the better, insists first government official solely dedicated to it
When I played, I couldn’t even tell my parents, says sports commissioner
Perhaps you’re nobody in Hong Kong politics until you’ve been harangued on the floor of the Legislative Council by Leung Kwok-hung, aka ‘Long Hair’.
If that’s the case, then Yeung Tak-keung, the city’s first civil servant whose sole remit is sport, finally arrived last month.
“You pretend to be a sports commissioner, what do you know about sport?” blasted Leung, before issuing what sounded – at least via the simultaneous translation – like a vaguely threatening invitation: “Why don’t you come to Kowloon Tsai with me this weekend, and if you’re able to come out safely I salute you!”
With some 10 years in the Criminal Investigation Department, the former chief inspector has probably heard plenty worse.
But at an interview in Government HQ last week he was still keen to reinforce his ‘jock’ credentials to Leung – and anyone else in a city not famed for its recognition of sport’s importance.
