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KK, who majored in Geography with a minor in History, has always been deeply drawn to both disciplines. "Growing up in a grassroots family," he recalls, "I had to walk from our home in Hung Hom to To Kwa Wan to pick up plastic flowers for piecework at home to help make ends meet. I remember earning ten dollars for each completed bag. Some of my classmates lived closer to the factories, so they had fewer blocks to walk when carrying the plastic flowers. We all earned the exact same ten dollars, so why did I have to work so much harder? That was when I first realised how distance creates disparity. On top of that, as the eldest son, I was always tasked by my parents to run errands or take my younger siblings around. Navigating the streets and remembering directions sparked my awareness of three-dimensional geographical space. Meanwhile, my love for idioms and historical stories added a fourth dimension—time—to that spatial awareness, making me aware where I stood in the grander scheme of things. Grasping both space and time is how my interest in geography and history slowly took root."
His choice of CUHK was tied to several of his secondary school teachers. "I went to St. Francis Xavier's College," he shares, "and a few of my favourite teachers were CUHK alumni. One of them, a mathematics teacher, was from New Asia College, whose campus was still on Farm Road back then. He took us on a campus tour and treated us to a meal at the canteen. That was the first time in my life that I got to finish a whole plate of stir-fried beef noodles by myself. Normally when our family went to a dim sum restaurant, my dad would order one plate of beef noodles and I'd only get a small bowl from it. But that day, being able to devour the whole plate gave me a beautiful longing for university life. I went back and poured myself into my studies. That plate of stir-fried beef noodles became the motivation behind my determination to get into CUHK. I decided very early on that it would be CUHK or nowhere. Looking back now, it does seem a bit amusing."
When asked about his most unforgettable experiences at CUHK, KK says there are simply too many to know where to begin, though most of his fond memories centre on the drama societies. "I was very active in both the University and Chung Chi College drama societies," he recalls. "The university campus was vast, meaning we could always find a spot to rehearse, and it allowed me to bond with friends from all corners of the university. One of my most unforgettable moments was the Inter-College Drama Competition. One year, it was Chung Chi Drama Society's turn to host, and Chung Chi Tang was already the largest venue available. We noticed that the stage set built by New Asia Drama Society looked a bit lacklustre, so we walked down to the shore of Tolo Harbour, convinced a boat-rental owner to lend us a small dinghy, painstakingly hauling it all the way up from the seashore to Chung Chi Tang. We flipped it upside down on the stage, gathered some reeds from the waterfront to decorate it, and the final effect was amazing—and it helped New Asia Drama Society clinch the Best Stage Design Award."
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It turns out his love for drama blossomed during his secondary school days. "Ko Tin-lung (79/CC/Sociology) and I were very close classmates," KK shares. "The summer after Form 3, he called me and said that the Joint School Drama Project was auditioning actors, suggesting we check it out together. Both of us ended up being cast in a play called Dust (《塵》). Even though we were actors, we also had to help move sets, and even source advertisements for the programme booklet to raise funds for the troupe—we discovered so many new possibilities along the way. When the new school term started, our principal heard about our stage experience and tasked us with organising a drama to promote The Clean Hong Kong Campaign. Tin-lung and I co-wrote our very first script, The Story of Garbage (《垃圾記》), which was eventually staged at a playground in Tai Kok Tsui. It was an experience that gave us an immense sense of fulfilment. For grassroots students, being able to collectively participate in an artistic activity without having to pay for singing, instrument, or dance lessons was a truly rare and precious opportunity."
Outside of drama, KK says that his most unforgettable memories at CUHK mostly come from hostel life and his professors. "During my third and fourth years, I stayed at Madam S.H. Ho Hall. One classmate lived in the New Territories, and every time he came back from home on weekends, he would bring a lot of fresh vegetables. On Monday nights, we'd cook them on an electric stove in the rooftop laundry room, eating while we revised. Our study style was very collaborative: we split up academic papers, each read one, then summarised and shared the content with the group. This spirit of teamwork made our revision incredibly efficient. The professors at CUHK were also exceptionally warm and approachable. Whenever students organized an event, they would accept our invitations and actively engage with us. As a history minor, I deliberately took a course on European history to study Europe's development after the Industrial Revolution. Since very few students enrolled in the class, Professor Kwok Siu-tong simply invited us to hold our sessions in his office, fostering a genuinely close teacher-student bond. Even after graduation, when I was acting in a Bertolt Brecht play about the Paris Commune and ran into things I didn't understand, I called Professor Kwok for help. He reeled off a wealth of details with ease and provided me with an abundance of reference materials."
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KK's transition to studying town planning after graduating from CUHK was also inspired by a CUHK professor. "Professor David Faure had the greatest influence on me. I talked to him at length when I graduated because I originally wished to further my studies in history. He analysed my situation carefully, suggesting that since my major was Geography and I was so intrigued by post-Industrial Revolution European history, I should look into town planning—a profession that emerged precisely in response to the massive population influx into cities and the myriad of problems generated during the Industrial Revolution. If he hadn't shared that with me, I truly wouldn't have known such a profession existed, let alone that a university was about to launch a postgraduate programme in town planning, or what path to take in the future. A teacher's advice can genuinely transform a student's entire life. The care CUHK professors showed to their students provided us with profound inspiration, which is incredibly precious."
KK completed his Master's degree in Town Planning in 1983, as part of the programme's first cohort, right in the middle of the Sino-British negotiations over Hong Kong's future. Market anxiety over the city's prospects had impacted development across the board. KK recalls sending applications to consultancies and developers, only to be met with dead silence. Fortunately, the Planning Department hired him. "To be honest, I never thought about switching jobs once I joined the government. Working there meant I could actually help members of the public and build a better living environment for them," KK shares. "I remember my first title was 'Assistant Town Planner/ Technical Information'. It sounded quite fancy, but my main duty was actually answering public hotlines—handling questions like 'What's all that digging across the street from my flat?' or 'When will the school next door be finished?' It turned out people associated almost everything around them with planning." In over a year that he held that post, he estimates that he took about 500 to 600 calls. "I gradually realised that a lot of citizens had already gone on a wild goose chase with other departments to no avail, before turning to us as a last resort. So, I secretly set myself a goal: I wanted to be the last stop. Even if a matter wasn't under our jurisdiction, I would help find the right department and pass their request on. My motive was really simple—I just wanted the government to get scolded one less time. But it brought an unexpected bonus: through those referrals, I got to know colleagues from all different departments. Years later, when I was working on real, large-scale planning projects, I knew exactly whom to turn to for collaboration."
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Reflecting on his planning career spanning several decades, KK says his guiding principle has always been straightforward: to maximise social well-being by making the absolute best use of limited land resources. "Hong Kong has scarce land and dense population, but we actually possess excellent systems and institutions to tackle this challenge," KK shares. "Precisely because we adopt high-density, compact planning and commit substantial resources to it, Hong Kong's infrastructure outperforms that of many other cities in terms of quality, resilience, and climate readiness. In areas like slope management, high-density urban development, and Transit-Oriented Development (TOD), Hong Kong pioneered successful models long ago, turning our local solutions into a global exemplar."
Needless to say, bringing any planning vision to life is never a simple feat; the level of coordination required is often mind-bogglingly complex. "Back when I was Director of Planning, we formulated the Outline Zoning Plans for the Kwu Tung North and Fanling North New Development Areas," KK recalls. "After they were published, we were hit with over 50,000 submissions—only seven supported the government, the rest were objections. The Town Planning Board ended up holding a gruelling 43-day public hearings to listen to voices from all sectors. "Through it all, I realised that many residents weren't actually against our planning per se. They were just expressing a deep-seated anxiety: they had lived in these squatter areas for decades, and were terrified about where they would end up after the government cleared the land for housing. Later, I spotted an open-air car park site on Pak Wo Road in Fanling. It got me thinking—could we turn this specific site into a special estate dedicated to rehousing those displaced by clearance? I picked up the phone and called Marco Wu Moon-hoi, then-Chairman of the Hong Kong Housing Society (HKHS). He didn't hesitate: No problem, let's give it a shot. I then pitched the idea to Michael Wong Wai-lun, who was Permanent Secretary of the Development Bureau at the time, and he found it viable too. That was how the concept of "Dedicated Rehousing Estates" was born. Today, that very spark has materialised as "Casa Sierra", the Housing Society's latest mixed development project in Fanling."
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KK adds that he always uses this example in interviews, as it perfectly captures the inherent dilemma of town planning. "Initiating any plan inevitably brings change, and change affects people's lives," KK explains. "More often than not, it takes a decade or more for residents to actually reap the benefits, which is why opponents always outnumber supporters at the outset. The ultimate test in planning is figuring out how to make a decision amidst a sea of objections. Whether a planning proposal truly works also relies on the government's systems and mechanisms to refine and propel society forward—and that is exactly where I find immense fulfilment."
Having been engaged in town planning for decades, KK reveals that he has encountered countless difficult cases, all of which were eventually resolved through the joint efforts of him and his colleagues. However, one specific issue has weighed on him for the past decade. "When I was Director of Planning, I felt it was my responsibility to draw up a new strategic plan for Hong Kong, which led to the launch of Hong Kong 2030+." KK shares. "After extensive research, my colleagues discovered that Hong Kong's population and its residential buildings were showing signs of rapid ageing simultaneously, with the latter accelerating at an even more alarming rate. As buildings fall into disrepair, owners face staggering maintenance bills, yet those living in these dilapidated properties are mostly elderly citizens. In short, it is a critical problem of 'elderly people living in elderly buildings'. I coined the term 'Double Ageing' for this phenomenon, and a solution remains elusive yet; it is a challenge we must continue to monitor and tackle with unrelenting effort."
Precisely because "Double Ageing" remains an unanswered riddle, it has become one of the driving forces keeping KK active in his retirement. However, he set himself two quiet rules for this new chapter of his life: first, never proactively look for work; second, never join commercial entities—after all, town planning matters are inherently too sensitive. "After I retired, the Hong Kong Polytechnic University reached out via a headhunter to invite me to interview for the position of Director of Jockey Club Design Institute for Social Innovation (J.C.DISI)," KK recalls. "Initially, I had no clue what social innovation even entailed. But as I did some desktop research, I found it highly intriguing. During the interview, I directly raised the issue of 'Double Ageing'. Upon hearing this, the Council members and Vice-Presidents present immediately recognised the gravity of the issue, which perhaps paved the way for my appointment as Director. The most significant achievement of my eight-year tenure was raising widespread awareness about this very phenomenon. This is crucial; the 'Double Ageing' dilemma can't be resolved overnight. But the more people acknowledge its existence and rally together for sustained research, the more likely it will be to unlock concrete solutions and confront the challenge from multiple dimensions."
KK believes that the university environment allows for far greater space for research and experimentation. "The beauty of a university is that when people discuss issues, they are often better able to set aside personal interests and entrenched values to engage in genuinely open dialogue," KK reflects. "This creates a powerful space for exchange, granting me the unique opportunity to initiate cross-sector, cross-disciplinary, and cross-professional collaborations. We were even able to consolidate these ideas into tangible prototypes—a process that has been an incredibly valuable learning experience for me as well."
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Later, his election as HKHS Chairman provided a testing ground for the fruits of these discussions. "I'd previously observed a phenomenon: where you enter a park, you would always see a bright, colourful children's playground, whereas the seating area for the elderly was invariably arranged on the opposite side. I pondered why the design of park facilities always adopted an age-segregated mindset." HKHS has long been known as a "Housing Laboratory". KK says that he first set his sights on Prosperous Garden in Yau Ma Tei under the HKHS. "As an early Comprehensive Development Area, the planning conditions back then required a garden open to the public. Since Yau Ma Tei has a significant elderly population, it was the perfect place to test the idea. The results proved that this small-scale experiment was feasible, so we lobbied the Hong Kong Jockey Club for sponsorship, and subsequently drove collaboration between HKHS and the PolyU J.C.DISI to further formulate a more concrete proposal. Eventually, we successfully created Hong Kong's first purposed-designed Intergenerational Play Space at Jat Min Chuen. One key design principle was visual connectivity—ensuring users can see each other. While the elderly and parents exercise in the park, they can see children playing on the trampolines or rope course in the playground. This visual connection allows multiple generations to use the space with peace of mind."
It is also worth mentioning that the term "Northern Metropolis" actually came from KK. "I remember it was 2021 when I suddenly received a phone call from the Chief Executive's secretary, saying that the then-Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor wanted to meet me. During our meeting, Mrs Lam expressed that Hong Kong and Shenzhen needed closer cooperation and that we should contemplate how to utilise the land along the border. She therefore invited me to serve as Strategic Planning Advisor for Hong Kong-Shenzhen Cooperation, and I agreed immediately. My first thought was to draft a policy paper and suggest including it into the Chief Executive's Policy Address, so that the entire government could move forward in the same direction. However, there were only a few months left before the release of the Policy Address. Fortunately, the Planning Department deployed several outstanding colleagues to assist with the research, and we ultimately managed to release on time my very first policy document written in Chinese throughout my career in the government. I recalled that the term 'Northern Economic Belt' had already appeared in Hong Kong 2030+, but transforming it into 'Northern Metropolis' made it more substantial, and this name has been consistently utilised ever since."
Looking back on his decades of service to society, KK credits his achievements entirely to the education he received at CUHK. "The General Education classes at Chung Chi College taught us that as intellectuals, we must possess a strong sense of social responsibility and contribute to our nation and country," KK reflects. "I believe that for any CUHK student, the two most important things are: first, play hard, pursue your own interests, and build lasting friendships; second, study hard, and make the most of the exceptional learning environment CUHK offers. True balance is achieved only when you can excel at both." He adds that this mindset is equally vital when transitioning into the professional world. "Upon entering society, there are another two principles to keep in mind. First, never fear losing out or taking on extra workloads. Growth opportunities stem directly from work opportunities—the tougher the challenges you encounter, the more you gain. Just as the Chung Chi motto goes, "In Pursuit of Excellence": always do a little more and do it better, constantly striving for the best. Second, place immense emphasis on nurturing teamwork and coordination skills. In this day and age, tasks can rarely be accomplished by a single individual, no matter how brilliant a genius they may be. The ability to establish cohesive teams and collaborative networks is of paramount importance."
"CU Alumni Magazine" Video Interview: https://youtu.be/NPQofDEflac?si=HhTK74YKrDfIGcRC
Published on CU Alumni Magazine Issue 126 by Alumni Affairs Office 2026
Read online: CU Alumni Magazine Issue 126 (Chinese Version Only)
PDF: http://www.alumni.cuhk.edu.hk/magazine/202606/pdf/CUAM_202606.pdf
ISSUU: http://www.alumni.cuhk.edu.hk/magazine/issuu/