陳鑑林

English

Chan Kam-lam was born in Chaoyang, Shantou, Guangdong, on 22 January 1949, and holds the Gold Bauhinia Star and the rank of Justice of the Peace. He grew up in the Wong Tai Sin resettlement estate and the Lower Ngau Tau Kok Estate, left the Salvation Army Kwong Ming School in 1964, studied at Chung Sai English College in Kowloon City and later at the Hong Kong Technical College, and worked for a time as a seaman. His political career began in 1988, when he was elected to the Kwun Tong District Council for the Chung Ngau Tau Kok constituency. In 1995 he stood for the Urban Council and was defeated by the district councillor Au Yuk-har, but the same year he entered the Legislative Council for the Election Committee constituency, and in 1996 he was chosen for the Provisional Legislative Council. He was one of the founding members of the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB), serving as the first chairman of its Kowloon East branch. Returned to the first Legislative Council in 1998 for the Election Committee constituency, he kept his Kwun Tong District Council seat for Ping Shek in 1999 and 2003. In 2000 he ran in the Kowloon East geographical constituency alongside Chan Yuen-han, and both were elected; he was returned again in 2004, 2008 and 2012 for four consecutive terms before stepping down in 2016, when Wilson Or took the seat. In the chamber he chaired the Housing Panel in three sessions and served as deputy chairman of the Finance Committee and chairman of the Trade and Industry Panel, as well as on the Housing Authority, the Urban Renewal Authority, the Hong Kong Mortgage Corporation and the Securities and Futures Commission. In 2016, as chairman of the Bills Committee scrutinising the Copyright (Amendment) Bill, he ended the debate and put it to a vote amid controversy. In 2018 the Hong Kong Polytechnic University awarded him a University Fellowship.