The “Nanny”, the “Fighter,” and the “Puppet”: a Brief Political Biographical History of Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor Including the Earliest Days of Her Chief Executive Appointment

Abstract

Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor has broken many ceilings as Hong Kong’s first female Chief Executive and the first post-Occupy Central leader. The mission of the political biographer is to contextualize Lam’s policies in the circumstances that she was put into and/or inherited from previous administrations without any value judgments (or highly minimized ones). The purpose is to recognize Lam as a complex entity characterized by a triad of images that include caring a senior civil servant, a tough-talking iron lady (nicknamed “The Fighter”) and a compliant Beijing loyalist (nicknamed “The Puppet” or “CY Leung 2.0”). The readers are the ultimate arbiters and evaluators of these narratives and perceptions to craft their own impression of Lam. The writing is organized into sections analyzing Lam’s family background, her rise in the civil service, her appointment as Chief Secretary, and her current tenure as the Chief Executive. The significance of this writing is an early assessment of Lam’s achievements and policy direction and a recount of her initiatives when she was Chief Secretary that can later be compared to post-administration retirement biographical writings for a full understanding of her political achievements and failures. Taken together, these accounts can then be a combined diachronic and synchronic historical biographical accounts of Lam.