Hong Kong is full of unlikely stories hidden in everyday neighborhood life—and Fakhrul Islam Babu's is one of the most vivid. A Bangladeshi who has called the city home for years, Babu even chose a Chinese name that everyone recognizes: "Sun Yat-sen." When his wife needed a Chinese name for her naturalization, they went with "Soong Ching-ling"—a pairing that once made immigration officers laugh and left some friends from Taiwan joking, "How is there another Sun Yat-sen in the world?"
Dr. Babu came under the spotlight during the 2023 District Council election. Running as an independent, he won 253 votes—less than 3%—the lowest tally in the city, and lost his election deposit. Critics questioned how he could serve residents without speaking Cantonese. But Dr. Babu stayed calm: the Bangladeshi community in Hong Kong is small, he wasn't well known before the campaign, and even a handful of supporters meant something. To him, losing isn't failure—it's proof that some neighbors heard him, and that's reason enough to run again.
What many people don't see is that "serving the community" is already part of his daily life. A small-business owner, Dr. Babu spends his own time helping ethnic-minority families navigate paperwork—student financial aid, public housing applications, and government subsidies. From that experience, he coined his own "New Three Principles of the People": ethnic harmony, public opinion at its root, and people's livelihood as its foundation.
His care shows up most in challenging times. During COVID-19, he supported vaccination efforts and distributed over 100,000 masks. When typhoons hit, he kept coordinating and sharing updates online. People who know him say the same thing: if you ask Dr. Babu for help, he rarely says no. In his eyes, Indians, Bangladeshis, and Pakistanis in Hong Kong are "real brothers"—a simple line that captures what coexistence means to him.
From a modest upbringing in Bangladesh to years of travel and work across Asia, Dr. Babu ultimately chose Hong Kong for its stability and opportunity under "one country, two systems." With his wife, Amor, by his side, this "Sun Yat-sen" and "Soong Ching-ling" have built a life here—one small act of kindness at a time—showing how a city's openness is often written by ordinary people.
(Reporter: Liu Yu | Videographer: Jack Wang, Ian Lau, Zoey Sun | Video Editor: Felicia Li | Editor: Kiki)
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