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Hongkonger becomes voice of Dalian men

By Zhang Xiaomin
Updated: 2010-01-21 00:00

DALIAN: Ask Derek Lee Yau-Wai, the youngest of eight Hong Kong and Macao members of the Dalian Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), what he liked most about this year’s recently concluded meeting, and he will tell you it was meeting his father.

“We live in the same city, but our businesses take up most of our time. We don’t get to see each other much,” Derek, 33, said on the sidelines of last week’s annual conference.

Derek’s father, Fred Lee Show-Kiong, is a standing member of the CPPCC Dalian committee. This was the fourth time the father-son duo attended the conference in Dalian, a port city in northeast China’s Liaoning province.

Starting this month, provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions across the country kick off their annual “two sessions”, a Chinese term used to describe the annual conferences of the people’s congresses - the legislative bodies - and of the CPPCC, the political advisory body.

The two meetings are seen as the most important political gatherings for local officials and elites to draft their economic and social blueprints for the year ahead.

Derek said the conference was a good chance for him to communicate with his father and learn a few things from the “walking encyclopedia”.

Fred Lee, a native of Hong Kong, set up a real estate company in Dalian in 1993, following which he was invited to be a member of the Dalian CPPCC as a representative of Hong Kong and Macao.

Derek, who was born in Hong Kong and raised in Canada, is the CEO of a marine and shipbuilding accessories industrial park, a subsidiary of Dalian Gold Coast Enterprises Co Ltd.

According to Fred Lee, when his son first came to work in Dalian in 2002, he frequently raised issues, especially social problems the city’s teenagers were facing.

After Derek made public his recommendations through the local media, he was invited to be a CPPCC member in 2006.

Melvin Wong Gam-Sam, a barrister-at-law in the UK and Hong Kong, who is also a member of the Dalian CPPCC, said Derek, like his father, is eager to contribute to the community.

“Derek has made Dalian his home with his newly wedded wife and I’m confident he’ll also prove a valuable asset to the Dalian community,” Wong said.

Derek is known to seek suggestions from ordinary people around him. The employees of his company often e-mail him their complaints and suggestions so that he can bring them up in the annual conferences.

Once, residents complained to him about a street vendor who sells fried beans near their apartment building, saying the odor of the dish was overwhelming.

“I had to check if the problem represented a general phenomenon… Only the biggest concerns should be put forward for further discussion,” he said.

Since his inclusion in the CPPCC, Derek has submitted more than 10 proposals, covering  issues from environmental to tourism and those concerning the creative industry.

This year, he was more concerned with the future of the youth, especially college graduates born after 1980.

Derek found fresh graduates were complaining a lot about low wages and lack of suitable jobs.

He suggested that the local government provide more opportunities for the young to integrate into society.

The graduates were also advised to lower their expectations in tough times.

After graduating, Derek himself worked for a big Canadian firm without any pay.

“If fresh graduates get a chance to work at big companies, it is something they should be proud of even if they make little or no money,” he said.