Getting to know Henry Fan

Henry Fan met head office employees on his first day as HA Chairman.

Just call me Henry

On his first day of work, Henry asked his HA colleagues not to call him Chairman – because the Cantonese sound of chairman or ‘zyu zik’ is a homonym carrying ominous meaning. Instead, he asked them to call him Fan Gor, Mr Fan, or just Henry.

Henry grew up in Fuk Lo Tsun Road, now lined with restaurants.

Warm flashback of a Kowloon City childhood

Henry Fan grew up and lived in Fuk Lo Tsun Road in Kowloon City for more than two decades. He can still recall the address of his old home. “I was a beneficiary of the public hospital service because I visited doctors at Lee Kee Memorial Dispensary every time I fell sick when I was young,” he recalls. “I recovered after one to two visits.” The ground floor of his past residence was a coffin shop and a dispensary, while today the street is lined with restaurants. Some old buildings on the street will be rebuilt soon. Recalling the neighbourhood where he spent his childhood, he says: “I welcome colleagues to have lunch with me in Kowloon City.”

Born in Shanghai, Henry moved to Hong Kong with his mother at the age of four.

The young Henry Fan wanted to be a gate controller for planes flying in and out of Kai Tak Airport.

High-flying ambitions

Henry’s family was not rich when he was a kid. He and his siblings used to help their mother make plastic flowers at home to earn extra money. He also has vivid memories of the nearby Clearwater Bay Road being closed as planes approached on the final flight path to Kai Tak Airport. As a boy, Henry wanted to be the gate controller when he grew up and closed the gate as planes flew in. It was until in secondary school some parents asked him to be a tutor for their kids that he stopped assembling plastic flowers at home.

Henry loved eating but was determined to lose weight later in secondary school.

Henry enjoys leisure lifestyle and tries out different sports such as scuba diving.

Shaping up for an active life

Henry weighed in at a hefty 184 pounds as a student at the Diocesan Boys’ School. “I had a hearty appetite and ate three bowls of rice with every meal. Simmered fried meat and pork meatballs were my favourites.” He represented his house in a tug of war contest, rolling embarrassingly to the ground in one bout. Later with determination to win girls’ hearts, he axed his body weight sharply to 150 pounds.

Today, Henry goes to the gym for an hour every day and enjoys hiking in Sai Kung at weekends to maintain his body weight and health. “The busier you get, the more important it is to take time to calm down,” he says. “It helps you keep your momentum up at work.”

Henry admits he is no good at ball game. “I can’t play basketball – it is more like the basketball playing me,” he remembers with a laugh. The only time he played football in an inter-class contest was when there were too few players to make up a team. “My classmates didn’t want to get disqualified, so they asked me to make up the numbers,” he explains.

Workplace nickname teaches lesson in respect

Working at a shipping company as an intern in Japan after he graduated, Henry was given the nickname ‘Tak Tak’. The supervisor never learnt his subordinates’ names and when summoning them, used a bell operated by a foot pedal, called one of them ‘Tak’, Henry ‘Tak Tak’, and his secretary ‘Tak Tak Tak’. “Nowadays, it would be regarded as workplace abuse,” Henry reflects. “If it happened at the HA, employees would complain and start a case at the HR department. I learned to respect my colleagues through this experience as an intern.”