Hong Kong youth tennis delegation comes to Blackpool in December

A cultural exchange programme aimed at supporting underprivileged but talented young Chinese tennis players, will be taking place in Blackpool over the festive period.

Creating an opportunity for the children to travel from Hong Kong and train in the UK, the exchange programme is funded by local restaurateur Alan Choi, whose family has run the Jade Garden Chinese restaurant in Poulton since 2008.

Ten children, mostly from low income families in Hong Kong, ranging in age from eight to eighteen will take part in a series of tennis matches across the North West aimed at challenging their sporting abilities whilst widening their cultural horizons.

The inspirational concept is the brainchild of Alan, a promising tennis player in his youth, who came up with the idea to give children from his homeland the opportunity to improve their sporting ability whilst experiencing UK culture. Supported by his sister who is a renowned tennis coach in Hong Kong and local businesswoman Angela Man, Alan has worked tirelessly to turn his dream into reality.

Alan Choi said: “I came up with this idea because as a child growing up in Hong Kong I always loved tennis. It was my dream to play in tournaments all over the world. My career however took a different path because of my poor family background. Tennis was an expensive sport during that time, and my family could not afford to fund my dream. But I still love the sport and wanted to offer children from Hong Kong an experience that they would not normally be able to achieve. I hope this big Christmas present can give them the dream for their future that I had when I was their age.

"Wonderful sport as a catalyst to encourage the local children to take part in the tournament with the children from overseas for a true cultural exchange. In the very near future I would like to get other sports involved, like football, badminton and basketball.” Learning from the experience of this first tournament, Alan’s plan is to recreate the project on a much wider scale for summer 2017 with help from the YES programme (Young Entrepreneur Start), an initiative planned for the New Year, which aims to offer support and guidance to young Chinese entrepreneurs across the region who have an idea that they could develop during the 90 day programme. The YES project has the backing of Blackpool Council’s Enterprise team and the China UK Business Centre, based at Lancaster House, Blackpool.