Tam Tak-chi

Tam Tak-chi (Chinese: 譚得志; Jyutping: taam4 dak1 zi3; born 2 February 1973), also called "Fast Beat" (Chinese: 快必) in his radio career, is a former Hong Kong radio presenter, actor and currently a social activist. He is currently the vice chairman of the radical democratic party People Power.

Tam Tak-chi
譚得志
Vice Chairman of the People Power
Assumed office
May 2016
Preceded byYan Sun-kong
Personal details
Born (1973-02-02) 2 February 1973
British Hong Kong
Political partyPeople Power
Alma materChinese University of Hong Kong
OccupationPresenter
Radio commentator
Politician

Early career

Tam graduated from the Chinese University of Hong Kong with a bachelor degree in Chinese Language. In the early 1990s, under the stage name "Fast Beat", he teamed up with Ray Chan (aka Slow Beat) hosting a radio show on Commercial Radio Hong Kong known as Fast Slow Beats with help from Winnie Yu. The duo gained popularity when they hosted Challengers of Fire on Asia Television in 1997, but left the show one year later. They remained partners after joining Metro Showbiz in 2000 until Tam quit his career as radio host in 2007 and worked at Asia Television until 2011.[1][2]

Political career

Tam has been active in the social activism since then. Tam joined the Citizens' Radio in 2009 and became an online radio show host. In 2011, he founded the Narrow Church to promote the social justice among Christian community. He also joined the Hong Kong People Reporter, an online radio platform founded by Stephen Shiu.[3] He also joined the Power Voters, a group of activists who were disenfranchised by the Democratic Party compromise with the Beijing authorities over the constitutional reform package and ran against the Democratic Party in the 2011 District Council election.

Tam joined the People Power in 2013 after Wong Yuk-man quit the party. Tam Tak-chi took a leading supporting role in the Occupy Central with Love and Peace movement initiated by legal scholar Benny Tai.[4][5][6] He stayed in the occupation zone in Mong Kok throughout the protests in 2014. In October, Tam refused Stephen Shiu's demand of ending the Mong Kok occupation which led to Tam's departure of Shiu's online radio platform Memehk in 2016.

On 29 May 2015, Tam was arrested for "incited others to commit illegal acts" by suggesting online that the hearse carrying the body of recently died Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions (FTU) leader Yeung Kwong of the 1967 Hong Kong Leftist riots would be welcomed by "home-made pineapples" – a code that referred to bombs during the turmoil.[7]

Tam ran in the elections in several levels on many occasions. In the 2015 District Council election, he ran against incumbent legislator Wong Kwok-hing of FTU in Siu Sai Wan but lost by a wide margin. In the 2016 Legislative Council election, Tam ran in Kowloon East but finished in seventh place in a five-member constituency.[8][9]

In the 2019 District Council election, he ran against incumbent legislator Wilson Or of the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB) in Kwong Tak but lost only by a narrow margin of 187 votes.[10]

On 24 May 2020, Tam was arrested opposite Sogo Hong Kong in Causeway Bay for participating in illegal assembly to protest against the national security law.[11] He ran in the 2020 pro-democracy primaries for the 2020 Legislative Council election in Kowloon East and received 10,980 votes, ranking the fourth place and thus secured the nomination to run in the general election.[12]

On 17 July 2020, Tam was again arrested, this time on charges of incitement to participate in unlawful assembly in relation to a protest in January, seditious intention, and disorder in public places. As the national security law is not retroactive, it was not immediately clear what had incurred the last of these charges, while sedition is covered by British colonial era legislation.[13]

References
  1. 〈快必鬧爆亞視博炒out出新劇〉，《東方日報》，2011年6月4日。
  2. 快必爆(((Seed)))數臭亞視罪証 on YouTube(節錄)，青台《得罪人多稱呼人小》，2011年5月31日。
  3. "存档副本". Archived from the original on 2017-03-19. Retrieved 2015-01-25.
  4. 快必請願爭「堅搞普選」，《蘋果日報》，2013年06月10日。
  5. 「佔中後援會起動大會：梁國雄長毛發言 on YouTube，2013年10月13日]
  6. 〈政改三個字：全民提名〉，《壹週刊》，第1232期，2013年10月17日。
  7. "People Power radical arrested over Facebook post about 1967 riot leader's hearse". South China Morning Post. 30 May 2019.
  8. 〈人民力量與社民連合組名單出選〉，NOW新聞網頁，2016年4月10日 (19:00)。
  9. 〈袁彌明快慢必出選　陳偉業退〉，《明報》，2016年4月11日。
  10. 〈快必撼柯創盛：點都贏〉，《蘋果日報》，2019年11月25日。
  11. "Tam Tak-Chi, vice President of People Power arrested opposite Sogo in Causeway Bay for participating in illegal assembly, tear gas rounds fired (Updated: 9.40pm)". Dimsumdaily Hong Kong. 24 May 2020.
  12. "Hong Kong's traditional opposition parties lose out to localist challengers in fierce weekend primary for coming Legislative Council election". South China Morning Post. 13 July 2020.
  13. Chow, Yanni; Mang, Carol; Pang, Jessie; Richardson, Marius; Richardson, Alex (17 July 2020). "Hong Kong police arrest pro-democracy politician set to run for legislature". reuters.com. Retrieved 19 July 2020.
Party political offices
Preceded by
Yan Sun-kong		 Vice Chairman of People Power
2016–present		 Incumbent
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