Anson Chan

Anson Fang was born in Shanghai into an affluent family in 1940. Her father Fang Shin-hau was a banker and textile businessman who moved his family to the British colony of Hong Kong in 1948 on the eve of the Communist victory of the Chinese Civil War. Fang Shin-hau died suddenly in 1950 aged 36 when Anson was only ten, leaving eight children to her mother Fang Zhaoling. Anson's mother took the eldest sons off to England to oversee their education, leaving the rest in the hands of Anson's paternal grandmother and some uncles and aunts. Her paternal grandfather, Fang Zhenwu, was a Kuomintang general who fought in the Second Sino-Japanese War, while her uncle, Sir Harry Fang Sin-yang was a well-known orthopaedic surgeon and served as an appointed member of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong from 1974 to 1985. Her mother Fang Zhaoling who was also a Chinese painting master not only shouldered the responsibility of raising her children, but also tried to pursue her career as an artist. Anson was educated at the Sacred Heart Canossian College and studied English literature at the University of Hong Kong. She put herself through university by working as a private tutor and for a year as a clerk at Queen Mary Hospital. Along with studies, she was keen on amateur dramatics, and it was through this that she met her future husband, Archibald Chan Tai-wing. She began work on a social work diploma, but later changed her mind and joined the Hong Kong Civil Service in 1962. The following year, she married Archie, who became a science teacher at St Joseph's College. When Chan joined the administrative service cadet in 1962, she was one of only two women to join the civil service at that time. Her salary was reportedly one-quarter that paid to men of equivalent grade. Afterwards, she progressed to the Economics Section of the Finance Branch in 1962, followed by the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries, then the Department of Commerce and Industry, and later back to Finance. In 1970, she became Assistant Financial Secretary in the Finance Branch of the Colonial Secretary, the first woman to attain that post. She became a senior administrative officer in 1970. During this period she helped set up the Association of Female Senior Government Officers to fight for better rights for women civil servants, notably pushing for wage parity with men. After Hong Kong's handover to China on 1 July 1997, Chan stayed on as head of the civil service under then Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa, a valuable sign of stability and continuity for the new administration. She was always highly regarded: one British-born civil servant said that "nothing would work without her", also noting that "Tung needs her more than she needs him." Chan was loyal in the main but her public utterances were occasionally at odds with Tung. It was enough to earn her a certain independence and the epithet of "Hong Kong's Conscience". In contrast to the more conservative Tung, Chan showed the greater support for democracy and freedom, and advocated a faster pace of democratisation. In 1998, Chan was somewhat criticised for her role in the monitoring of the new Hong Kong International Airport construction at Chek Lap Kok. The airport had logistical difficulties upon its opening, and some blamed Chan for her lack of supervision. After retiring from the civil service, Chan did not often show up in public. However, in December 2005, Chan participated in the protest march for democracy, against Donald Tsang's constitutional reform package and has since participated in subsequent marches for universal suffrage. In July 2006, she criticised the Commission on Strategic Development, chaired by Donald Tsang, for being "rather slow and unsatisfactory", and announced her intention to start a "Core Group" to push for taking forward the debate on Hong Kong's constitutional reforms. It was later announced that the group would consist of heavyweights including Allen Lee, Christine Loh, Elizabeth Bosher, Professor Johannes Chan, Chandran Nair and Lily Yam Kwan Pui-ying. On 23 September 2006, in a news conference, Chan proclaimed that she would not run for the position of Chief Executive in 2007.