Time goes by fast; it was like yesterday that I came across in the company library an issue of MIT student newspaper from ’96.  There was an article on Chan Fong Anson giving a speech about Hong Kong ’97 and beyond.  At the time she was number 2 after the Governor with a title like “Bo-Jane-See”, or Chief Administrator...  She gave the speech in the Wang Auditorium of the Tang Center.  The former is donated by An Wang (founder of Wang Laboratories), or his family.  The latter is given by Jack C. Tang and the Tang siblings.  Earlier on they donated a 28 storey dormitory for students in remembrance of P. Y. Tang, the father.  The reason for why they favored MIT is simply that three generations of Tang went there (i.e., P. Y., Jack, and Jack’s son Martin).  With the center, they also set up a rich scholarship fund for students of Chinese descent.  Later on the requirement of Chinese descent was removed.  As an aside, I found that HKUST, Business School, gave Martin some kind of an award in 2002 which Jack went to pick up.  Jack himself didn’t get anything from the school, although he was one of the urban council members sitting on the committee to start HKUST way back. 

Moving back to the present, I learned from a Hong Kong paper (The Standard) that there was a march of 20,000 to 35,000 people to demand “one man/woman, one vote”.  The most prominent marchers were Chan Fong Anson and the Roman Catholic Cardinal on July 1, 2007.  I hope the march will remind Beijing that the first ten years went smoothly does not mean they can modify the promise of “no change for fifty years”.  Most of the lighters will not live to see the end of the fifty years, but another twenty, twenty-five years seem possible for most of us.  Let us hope that the next decade, or a score from now, the marches will be for fun and not for any message carrying serious stuff.  J/L  You guys pick!