After five failed attempts, 59-year-old Fong finally clinches Legco seat with 58,828 votes
Earning her nickname “Ne Zha”, the little fire prince in Chinese folklore, from a role she played as a young actress nearly four decades ago, Hong Kong district councillor Christine Fong Kwok-shan has forged her political career with every bit of feistiness and stubbornness found in the mythical character.
Her persistence has finally paid off, as the 59-year-old won her bid for a Legislative Council seat in the early hours of Monday after five failed attempts.
Nothing was more vindicating for the regular comeback contender to be crowned the “Queen of Votes” with 58,828 ballots in the New Territories South East geographical constituency after years of bitter defeats.
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“There are no miracles, actually. There are only accumulated results. I sincerely thank all voters for witnessing this miracle with me, which is the fruit of my accumulated efforts,” Fong said after learning of her win.
“I’ve waited for so long, and have run for so many elections. Winning this time isn’t about the number of votes, but about residents’ trust in me.”
An engineer by training, Fong entered the city’s political scene in 2004 as a member of the business-leaning Liberal Party and was appointed as a Sai Kung district councillor in 2008, an area that became the bedrock of her career.
She quit the Liberal Party in 2010 and decided to run in a direct election in the district council poll the next year. She scored a landslide victory via the Wan Po constituency covering several new residential projects near the Tseung Kwan O landfill such as Lohas Park, and has been re-elected since.
But her road to the legislature was not as smooth. She had her first taste of a Legco election alongside the Liberal Party’s James Tien Pei-chun via New Territories East in 2008, and had run as an independent in the subsequent two general polls and by-elections.
Her bids had consistently been in vain, until this year.
She gave the previous Legco election a miss, citing the need to take care of her ailing mother, before making a robust comeback this year.
Fong on Monday expressed gratitude to her late parents but lamented that it was a pity they could not see her victory.
Recalling how her parents had put up her past campaign posters at their home, she said: “[I want to tell them] your daughter has finally made it.”
She also headed down to Tseung Kwan O immediately to thank voters for their support.
Vera Song, a retiree in her sixties who voted for Fong, said her main hope was for the incoming lawmaker to truly help ordinary residents.
“I know she’s been in this district for many years and has done quite good,” she said.
Fong has repeatedly emphasised her unique position over the years – not belonging to either the pro-establishment camp or opposition bloc but someone who prioritises livelihood issues in the absence of “institutional support”.
Her acting background has lingered even after she had ditched the screen for votes. She is known to be the goddaughter of nonagenarian actor Bowie Wu Fung and former lawmaker and Heung Yee Kuk chair Benton Cheung Yan-lung.
She has also been living out her fiery persona on the political stage, making the headlines for her theatrical protest acts and outspoken remarks.
Fong’s way of expressing her constituency’s discontent over a proposal to expand a landfill in Tseung Kwan O was to jump into Victoria Harbour from a Central pier to display a red-and-white banner emblazoned with the slogan “Stop the landfill extension” during a protest in 2011.
Three years later, when the legislature was debating a funding request to expand the landfill, Fong decided to douse herself in “blood” mixed from red pigment and water outside the Legco building as a symbol of resistance against the potentially “murderous” expansion.
But her protest tactics have also mired her in legal controversies.
She was convicted twice of violating administrative instructions under the Legislative Council (Powers and Privileges) Ordinance as she yelled and displayed a Nazi banner during a Legco subcommittee meeting in May 2014 as she protested against the landfill plan. She was found yelling in the public gallery in a similar protest a week later.
Fong was also charged with assaulting lawmaker Elizabeth Quat during a protest in 2014, a ruckus sparked by the latter’s failure to indicate her voting intention on a funding proposal for expanding the landfill. Fong eventually cleared her name two years later in court.
An analysis of the votes Fong garnered on Sunday found that she led in 37 out of 55 general polling stations across her constituency, stretching from Sai Kung district to parts of Sha Tin district.
Sai Kung, particularly the Tseung Kwan O neighbourhood, has emerged as her stronghold. The five stations where Fong had the highest vote share were located there.
At the Creative Secondary School polling station, located near Lohas Park, Fong won a landslide and captured more than 85 per cent of the ballots.
In 2021, Fong, who by then had already experienced five defeats, saw her protege Connie Lam So-wai take a Legco seat in New Territories South East.
Lam earlier announced she would join Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee’s New People’s Party after declaring she would not seek a second term.
Results show that Fong received over 20,000 votes more in 2025 than Lam did four years ago.
The Post’s analysis found that she outperformed Lam at nearly every polling station, with the most significant gains at PLK Fung Ching Memorial Primary School in Hang Hau and Tsui Lam Sports Centre in Tsui Lam Estate, where she won about 3,400 votes more than Lam.
Of the five stations where Fong trailed Lam’s 2021 results, three were in Sha Tin, including Kwong Yuen Community Hall and St Rose of Lima’s College polling stations. Both were won by New People’s Party candidate Victor Chan Chi-ho, who received an endorsement from Lam after she joined the party last month.
With a four-year term as a lawmaker ahead, Fong has pledged to crack down on bid-rigging, improve building maintenance mechanisms and improve fire safety in the city.
Additional reporting by Matthew Cheng and Susan Su
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