Hilton Cheong-Leen
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Hilton Cheong-Leen,
CBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...
, JP (; 6 August 1922 – 4 January 2022) was a Hong Kong politician and businessman. He is the longest uninterrupted serving elected officeholder in Hong Kong history as an elected member of the
Urban Council of Hong Kong The Urban Council (UrbCo) was a municipal council in Hong Kong responsible for municipal services on Hong Kong Island and in Kowloon (including New Kowloon). These services were provided by the council's executive arm, the Urban Services ...
for 34 years from 1957 to 1991. He was also the first Chinese chairman of the council from 1981 to 1986. He had been a long-time chairman of the Hong Kong Civic Association, one of the two quasi-opposition political groups in the post-war Urban Council. From 1973 to 1979, he was appointed unofficial member of the
Legislative Council of Hong Kong The Legislative Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (LegCo) is the unicameral legislature of Hong Kong. It sits under China's " one country, two systems" constitutional arrangement, and is the power centre of Hong Ko ...
. From 1985 to 1988, he was again among the first elected members of the Legislative Council through Urban Council constituency in the first Legislative Council election in 1985.


Early life and business career

Cheong-Leen was born in Georgetown, British Guiana, on 6 August 1922 to a third-generation Chinese mother Elvira Cheong-Leen and father Edward Cheong-Leen who came through Hong Kong from China to join an uncle in Guyana. He was educated at Central High School in Georgetown. He moved to
Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...
when he was around nine and went to
La Salle College La Salle College (LSC) (, Demonym: Lasallian) is a boys' secondary school in Hong Kong. It was established in 1932 by the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools, a Roman Catholic religious teaching order founded by St. John Ba ...
in Hong Kong. He had worked in a law firm, an import and export company and as a banker after school. After the fall of Hong Kong, he moved from Japanese-occupied Hong Kong to unoccupied territory in China, living with his family in
Kweilin Guilin (Standard Zhuang: ''Gveilinz''; alternatively romanized as Kweilin) is a prefecture-level city in the northeast of China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. It is situated on the west bank of the Li River and borders Hunan to the north ...
where he worked for the American consulate, and also Kunming, finally returning to Hong Kong after the war. He was a journalist for a period of time, having been the Hong Kong correspondent of
Fox News The Fox News Channel, abbreviated FNC, commonly known as Fox News, and stylized in all caps, is an American multinational conservative cable news television channel based in New York City. It is owned by Fox News Media, which itself is owne ...
and the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
. He was offered a job with the '' South China Morning Post'' but he followed his family's wish to go into commerce and set up his own import and export firm H. Cheong-Leen & Co. in 1945, importing gifts, premiums and watches. As a publisher, he also joined the Junior Chamber in 1953 and represented the chamber in the international conference of the Junior Chamber in San Francisco. He was for many years chairman of the Hong Kong Watch Importers Association. He continues to be the honorary life president of the Hong Kong Watch Manufacturers Association.


Early political career

At the time the
Urban Council The Urban Council (UrbCo) was a municipal council in Hong Kong responsible for municipal services on Hong Kong Island and in Kowloon (including New Kowloon). These services were provided by the council's executive arm, the Urban Servic ...
elections, the only direct elections in the colony at the time, were dominated by
Brook Bernacchi Brook Antony Bernacchi (; 22 January 1922 – 22 September 1996) was a lawyer and politician in Hong Kong. He was the long-time chairman of the Reform Club of Hong Kong, the then quasi-opposition party in the colony and the longest serving ele ...
's
Reform Club of Hong Kong The Reform Club of Hong Kong was one of the oldest political organisations in Hong Kong, existing from 1949 until the mid-1990s. Established by expatriates who were concerned about the Young Plan proposed by Governor Mark Aitchison Young in 1 ...
, Cheong-Leen founded the Hong Kong Civic Association in 1954 with
Roger Lobo Sir Rogério Hyndman Lobo, CBE, JP (15 September 1923 – 18 April 2015), generally known as Roger Lobo, was a British Hong Kong businessman, philanthropist and politician. He was a member of the Urban Council, Executive Council and Legisla ...
and
A. de O. Sales Arnaldo Augusto de Oliveira Sales, GBM, CBE, GCIH, JP, (; 13 January 1920 – 6 March 2020) was a Hong Kong/Portuguese sports figure who was chairman of the Hong Kong Olympic Academy and president of the Sports Federation and Olympic Commi ...
, as well as Rev. Brigant Cassian and Dr.
Woo Pak-foo Dr Woo Pak Foo, OBE, JP was the medical participator and member of the Urban Council in Hong Kong between 1956 and 1969. He graduated from the University of Edinburgh with bachelor's degree of Medicine and Surgery and a Licentiate in Midwife ...
. Cheong-Leen was the founding secretary-general of the association and was in the first meeting at a bar on the mezzanine floor of Jimmy's Kitchen in
Theatre Lane Theatre Lane ( Chinese: 戲院里) is a street in Central, Hong Kong Island, Hong Kong. It was named after the Queen's Theatre, which was located at the southern end of the street from 1924 to 2007. Notable buildings along the street The followin ...
, Central. As the representative of the association, he visited London and New York and met with the
Colonial Office The Colonial Office was a government department of the Kingdom of Great Britain and later of the United Kingdom, first created to deal with the colonial affairs of British North America but required also to oversee the increasing number of c ...
officials and
Members of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...
(MPs) of different parties including William John Peel, son of Hong Kong Governor Sir William Peel, and United Nations officials Ralph Bunche and
Benjamin Victor Cohen Benjamin Victor Cohen (September 23, 1894 – August 15, 1983), a member of the administrations of Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman, had a public service career that spanned from the early New Deal to after the Vietnam War. Educatio ...
over constitutional reform and other issues respectively in the 1950s. He was also vice-chairman of the United Nations Association of Hong Kong led by
Ma Man-fai Ma Man-fai (; 1905–1994) was a Hong Kong politician and social activist active in the 1950s and 1960s. He was the founder and the chairman of the United Nations Association of Hong Kong (UNAHK) from its establishment in 1953 to 1983. Biography ...
, whom he befriended during their lives in Kunming. He represented the association in the international conference of the United Nations Association in Bangkok in 1955. As a secretary of the International Association of the Chinese Refugees, he also visited
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is a United Nations agency mandated to aid and protect refugees, forcibly displaced communities, and stateless people, and to assist in their voluntary repatriation, local integrati ...
in Geneva and New York on the refuge issues in Hong Kong.


Urban Councillor

Cheong-Leen first contested on the Civic Association ticket in 1956 Urban Council election but was not elected. He ran again in the
election An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has opera ...
in the following year and took the last of the four seats. He remained in the Urban Council for 34 years until he retired in 1991. He took over as the Civic Association chairman in 1968 and had held the position for many years until 2004. The Civic Association at the time positioned itself as more pro-middle-class and moderate as compared to the Reform Club. As the progress of constitutional reform halted when the
Young Plan The Young Plan was a program for settling Germany's World War I reparations. It was written in August 1929 and formally adopted in 1930. It was presented by the committee headed (1929–30) by American industrialist Owen D. Young, founder and for ...
was shelved, the Civic Association and the Reform Club formed a coalition in 1960 to fight for constitutional reform. In the same year, Cheong-Leen led a delegation to London to make their case to British officials, but their call was not heeded by the government. Cheong-Leen contested the chairmanship of the Urban Council in 1973 when the post was elected by the council for the first time. He lost to
A. de O. Sales Arnaldo Augusto de Oliveira Sales, GBM, CBE, GCIH, JP, (; 13 January 1920 – 6 March 2020) was a Hong Kong/Portuguese sports figure who was chairman of the Hong Kong Olympic Academy and president of the Sports Federation and Olympic Commi ...
but was elected vice-chairman. He went on to become the first Chinese chairman of the council in 1981 after defeating
Denny Huang Dr. Denny Mong-hwa Huang OBE (; 24 July 1920 – 1 August 2007) was a Hong Kong doctor and politician. He was elected member of the Urban Council of Hong Kong from 1967 to 1986 and Hong Kong member to the Chinese People's Political Consultat ...
when A. de. O. Sales stepped down. He held the position until 1986. He had also many other public positions including the chairman of the Hong Kong Girl Guides Island Regional Association, deputy chairman of the council of the
Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts (HKAPA) (Chinese: 香港演藝學院) is a provider of tertiary education in Hong Kong. Located near the north coast of Wan Chai on Hong Kong Island, the main campus also functions as a venue for pe ...
, member of the Fight Crime Committee, board of governors of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Society and the Hong Kong Academy of Ballet. He was also member of the Wan Chai District Board as an ex officio member. For his public services, he was awarded
Commander of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established ...
(CBE) in 1984. After 34 years of service, Cheong-Leen stepped down as the second longest-serving elected officeholder in Hong Kong history, behind
Brook Bernacchi Brook Antony Bernacchi (; 22 January 1922 – 22 September 1996) was a lawyer and politician in Hong Kong. He was the long-time chairman of the Reform Club of Hong Kong, the then quasi-opposition party in the colony and the longest serving ele ...
's 41 years, and the longest-uninterrupted-serving elected officeholder, after he decided not to seek re-election of the Urban Council in 1991.


Legislative Councillor

He was first appointed an unofficial member of the
Legislative Council of Hong Kong The Legislative Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (LegCo) is the unicameral legislature of Hong Kong. It sits under China's " one country, two systems" constitutional arrangement, and is the power centre of Hong Ko ...
on 1 May 1973 by
Governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...
Sir
Murray MacLehose Crawford Murray MacLehose, Baron MacLehose of Beoch, (; 16 October 1917 – 27 May 2000), was a British politician, diplomat and the 25th Governor of Hong Kong, from 1971 to 1982. He was the longest-serving governor of the colony, with four ...
with
Guy Sayer Guy Mowbray Sayer, CBE, JP (18 June 1924 – 14 April 2009) was the chief manager of the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation from 1972 to 1977, and an unofficial member of the Legislative A legislature is an assembly with the aut ...
to fill the vacancies left by retired H. J. C. Browne and deceased Mary Wong Wing-cheung. In his first term in the council, he made a major speech advocating nine years of free compulsory education and followed up all the way to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, which made it eventually realised. He retired from the Legislative Council on 31 August 1979 along with James Wu Man-hon after six years of service and were succeeded by
Hu Fa-kuang Hu Fa-kuang (, 14 February 1924 – 4 June 2022) was a Hong Kong businessman and politician. He was the unofficial member of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong and was chairman of the Liberal Democratic Federation of Hong Kong, a conservati ...
and
Wong Po-yan Wong Po-yan (, 5 May 1923 – 21 July 2019) was a Hong Kong industrialist and politician. He was the first chairman of Airport Authority Hong Kong from 1995 to 1999. Biography Wong Po-yan was born in and brought up in Hwei-An, Fujien, C ...
. In the 1980s, the colonial government carried out the constitutional reform as the
Sino-British Joint Declaration The Sino-British Joint Declaration is a treaty between the governments of the United Kingdom and China signed in 1984 setting the conditions in which Hong Kong was transferred to Chinese control and for the governance of the territory after ...
was finalised. The first indirect election was introduced in 1985 when 24 seats of the Legislative Council were elected by electoral colleges and functional constituencies. Cheong-Leen defeated
Elsie Tu Elsie Tu (; ; 2 June 1913 – 8 December 2015), known as Elsie Elliott in her earlier life, was an English-born Hong Kong social activist, elected member of the Urban Council of Hong Kong from 1963 to 1995, and member of the Legislative Counc ...
in the Urban Council electoral college which was composed of all members of the Urban Council and became member of the Legislative Council for the second time. He held the position until 1988.


Personal life and death

Hilton Cheong-Leen's first wife, Pauline Chow, was a soprano known as "the nightingale of China". Pauline was born in
Peking } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...
and was educated at the Bridgman Academy and National Peking University. The couple met in
Guilin Guilin (Standard Zhuang: ''Gveilinz''; alternatively romanized as Kweilin) is a prefecture-level city in the northeast of China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. It is situated on the west bank of the Li River and borders Hunan to the nort ...
and Hilton even fancied becoming a base baritone because of her. They married in 1945 until her death in 1979. The couple had two sons and two daughters, Reginald (born in 1951), Susan (born in 1953), Franklin (born in 1958) and Flora (born in 1959). Their fourth child,
Flora Cheong-Leen Flora Zeta Elizabeth Cheong-Leen (born November 20, 1959) is a Hong Kong actress and fashion designer. Biography Cheong-Leen is an Australian who was born in Hong Kong. Her father Hilton Cheong-Leen was born in Georgetown, British Guyana a ...
is a famous ballerina and designer who was married to actor
Russell Wong Russell Wong (; born March 1, 1963) is an American actor of film and television. He was one of the first actors of Chinese descent to hold a leading role in a primetime American television series, portraying Jian-Wa with Chi Muoi Lo portraying W ...
. He married his second wife, Nancy Gan Wan Geok, in 1988 but later divorced. Gan was a classical pianist and porcelain painter educated at
Trinity College London Trinity College London (TCL) is an examination board based in London, United Kingdom, which offers graded and diploma qualifications (up to postgraduate level) across a range of disciplines in the performing arts and English language learning and ...
and had held exhibitions of her porcelain paintings in Hong Kong from 1988 to 1992. Gan was found dead at the age of 69 in the swimming pool of her bungalow in
Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bor ...
on 19 March 2014. Dewi Suko Wati, her 18-year-old Indonesian helper from Central Java, was charged with murder. More than a year later, on 21 April 2015, the murder charge was reduced to one of culpable homicide not amounting to murder (or manslaughter). Another year later, on 31 May 2016, Dewi pleaded guilty to the manslaughter charge at the start of her trial. 8 days later, on 7 June 2016, the
High Court of Singapore The High Court of Singapore is the lower division of the Supreme Court of Singapore, the upper division being the Court of Appeal of Singapore, Court of Appeal. It consists of the Chief Justice of Singapore, chief justice and the judicial offic ...
sentenced Dewi to 18 years' imprisonment for her unlawful killing of Nancy Gan. Cheong-Leen died on 4 January 2022, at the age of 99.
Chief Executive A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...
Carrie Lam Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor ( Cheng; ; born 13 May 1957) is a retired Hong Kong politician who served as the 4th Chief Executive of Hong Kong from 2017 to 2022. She served as Chief Secretary for Administration between 2012 and 2017 and Sec ...
, among others, paid tribute to his life.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cheong-Leen, Hilton 1922 births 2022 deaths Members of the Urban Council of Hong Kong Hong Kong businesspeople Hong Kong journalists Hong Kong Civic Association politicians Hong Kong people of Guyanese descent United Nations Association of Hong Kong politicians Guyanese people of Chinese descent People from Georgetown, Guyana District councillors of Wan Chai District HK LegCo Members 1985–1988 Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Guyanese emigrants to Hong Kong