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"Fat Peng" gets warm welcome in Hong Kong

Chris Patten's cheerful, avuncular nature endeared him to many

HONG KONG: Hundreds of fans line up to get his autograph. The media goes crazy as he bites into an oven-fresh egg tart. Housewives yell out his name and chase him down the mall, desperate to get a snapshot.

He is not a movie star. He is Chris Patten, a pudgy British man in his 60s with puffy bags under his eyes. Yet, many Hong Kongers still have fond memories of his term as this city's last colonial governor eight years ago.

Nostalgic locals were more happy than ever to see Mr. Patten during his return to Hong Kong the past week to promote his new book, Not Quite the Diplomat.

Retiree Ho Shook-lee (60) joined the crowds with her husband on Friday to see Patten officiate the opening of a branch of his favourite bakery, which makes the egg tarts he often craved when he was Governor.

"We read in the papers that he has come back. So we came especially to take a look. He has such a great sense of humour," Mr. Ho said.

After biting into a tart while surrounded by TV cameras, Mr. Patten told reporters that his days in Hong Kong were "the best days of his life."

"It makes me very emotional," he said about returning to the city.

Like Mr. Ho, many here remember Mr. Patten less as an aloof foreign ruler and more as a cheerful, avuncular character adept at winning the hearts of locals with his warm demeanour and flair for public speaking.

Locals refer to their last governor affectionately as "Fat Peng," a play on the official Chinese translation of his name, Peng Dingkang. — AP

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