Sir Sze-yuen Chung (1917–2018), nicknamed 'Big Sir', was born in Hong Kong on 3 November 1917 with family roots in Nanhai, Guangdong. He attended King's College and St Paul's College, briefly studied at St John's University in Shanghai and then transferred to the University of Hong Kong, graduating with first-class honours in mechanical engineering in 1941. He joined the Taikoo Dockyard as one of only two Chinese engineers there; in 1948 he went to Sheffield University, took his engineering doctorate in 1951, returned home and set up his own consulting practice in 1952, co-founding the Sung Kai Industrial Company in 1956. Entering public service in the 1960s, he was appointed an unofficial member of the Legislative Council in 1965 and of the Executive Council in 1972, became Senior Unofficial Member of the Legislative Council in 1974 and of the Executive Council in 1980, then the highest office a Chinese could hold in the colony, and retired in 1988 at the age of seventy-one. He chaired the Productivity Council and the Federation of Hong Kong Industries, oversaw the founding of the Hong Kong Polytechnic, City Polytechnic and the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, and was the first chairman of the Hospital Authority. Knighted in 1978, he received the GBE in 1989. In June 1984 he visited Beijing and was received by Deng Xiaoping, and he later served as a Hong Kong Affairs Adviser and a member of the Preliminary Working Committee and the Preparatory Committee. On 1 July 1997 he received the Grand Bauhinia Medal and became the first Convenor of the Executive Council of the HKSAR, retiring in 1999, when Leung Chun-ying succeeded him. His memoir was published by the Chinese University Press in 2001, and he died at St Teresa's Hospital on 14 November 2018, aged 101.
Chung moved from engineering into public life and occupied the most senior unofficial posts in both colonial councils, personifying the rise of Chinese elites into the government's inner circle. He helped create three tertiary institutions and the Hospital Authority, and later served in bodies handling the handover transition.
Achievements
- 1974 · Became Senior Unofficial Member of the Legislative Council in 1974.
- 1980 · Became Senior Unofficial Member of the Executive Council in 1980, then the highest office open to a Chinese in the colony.
- 1997 · Received the Grand Bauhinia Medal on 1 July 1997 and became the first Convenor of the HKSAR Executive Council.