Vancouver City Councillor Kerry Jang poses for a photograph in Chinatown in Vancouver.DARRYL DYCK
For this feature, Globe B.C. borrows from Marcel Proust (and other media who have popularized the French author’s questionnaire) as a way to get to know important people around this province when they’re not making headlines. Here is Kerry Jang, a three-term Vancouver city councillor and professor of psychiatry at the University of B.C. Dr. Jang – whose major files as councillor include marijuana dispensaries, homeless shelters and mental health – announced in January that he will not be seeking re-election this fall.
What is your idea of perfect happiness?
As I say to my wife: “All I need is you, Bunny … and maybe a toothbrush.”
What is your current state of mind?
Reflective as I leave politics and pondering what should I be when I grow up?
Which living person do you most admire?
Nurses. In 2014, I spent several weeks at Vancouver General Hospital recovering from a bleeding brain aneurysm. I was in awe of the ward nurses who worked tirelessly with consummate dedication, professionalism and kindness no matter what they had to encounter.
Which living person do you most despise?
Donald Trump, Junior, and Eric Trump, who embody the worst in humankind.
What was your first paying job?
In 1972 I picked blueberries at Bos’ Blueberry Farm in Richmond. I was 10 years old and was paid 10 cents a pound.
What is your greatest extravagance?
Bespoke suits made by one of Hong Kong’s top tailors, W.W. Chan & Sons.
What is the best present you’ve ever been given?
The birth of my son and daughter, and whenever the cat moves out of my spot on the couch so I can sit down after a long day.
If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
Get rid of the “love handles” around my waist that no amount of healthy eating and exercise have been able to get rid of.
What do you consider your greatest achievement?
Persuading my wife to marry me and then to have children by me.
If you were to die and come back as a person or a thing, what would it be?
A Chinese baked BBQ pork bun. They are warm, tasty, fragrant, bring great joy and everybody loves them.
What is your guiltiest pleasure?
Sugar-coated gumdrops, despite what my blood glucose reading is.
What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?
I don’t suffer fools very well.
What is the trait you most deplore in others?
Selfishness and self-entitlement.
If you could be a fictional character for one day, who would it be?
The dapper, wise-cracking retired detective Nick Charles made popular in the 1930s Thin Man movies played by the actor William Powell along with Myrna Loy playing his clever wife, Nora.
What is your greatest regret?
Getting impatient and frustrated with my 85-year-old mother.
An object you still own from your childhood?
Hundreds of plastic model soldiers of the armies that fought at the Battle of Waterloo. My elementary school mates and I played out the battle hundreds of times in someone’s front room and sometimes Napoleon beat Wellington!
Who are your heroes in real life?
Lin Zexu (林則徐) also known as Commissioner Lin Tse-hsu. He was a Chinese scholar-official of the Qing dynasty best known for his role in the First Opium War of 1839-42.
His aggressive moral stance and hard-line actions to seize and destroy imports of British opium to curb growing opium addiction in China is regarded as virtuous but ended in failure demonstrating the futility of inflexible approaches to dealing with addiction. His story is one I remember today as we look for solutions to the overdose crisis.
On what occasion do you lie?
I don’t lie because I forget my lies and get caught anyway. It’s just easier to tell the truth, no matter how painful or embarrassing it may be.
What is your most treasured possession?
The artwork and crafts my children made for me when in elementary school.
Which talent would you most like to have?
I wish I could draw a straight line without a ruler.
Andrea Woo