Anson Chan - Biography

Biography

Born one of twins in Shanghai, China, Anson Chan was educated at Hong Kong's Sacred Heart Canossian College (formerly known as Italian Convent School and Sacred Heart School) and the University of Hong Kong. She also studied at Tufts University in Massachusetts in the United States.

Chan's father, Fang Shin-hau 方心誥, a textile manufacturer, moved the family to Hong Kong in 1948. Her mother Fang Zhaoling was a well-known painter. Her grandfather, Fang Zhenwu, was a Kuomintang general who fought against the Japanese invasion. Her uncle, Sir Harry Fang Sin-yang is a well-known orthopaedic surgeon. When she was only ten, Chan's father died suddenly aged 36, leaving her mother with eight young children: twins Anson and Ninson and six brothers. With the support of Chan's grandmother, her mother not only shouldered the responsibility of raising her children, but also tried to pursue her career as an artist. She took two of her sons to study in England, leaving Chan and her five other siblings in Hong Kong with their grandmother and Uncle Harry.

Under her grandmother's strict discipline and high expectations, Chan learned that she had a duty towards the family and the community and was expected to be upright, diligent and righteous. She put herself through university by working as a private tutor and for a year as a clerk at Queen Mary Hospital. In 1959, Chan entered the University of Hong Kong to study English literature. Along with studies, she was keen on amateur dramatics, and it was through this that she met her future husband, Archibald (Archie) Chan Tai-wing.

She began work on a social work diploma, but later changed her mind and joined the Civil Service in 1962, one of only two women to join the civil service at that time. The following year, she married Archie, who became a science teacher at St Joseph's College. After standing for the Legco seat it was revealed that she had also taken a seat in the board of Richemont, (where a board member is former legionnaire Taipan Simon Murray) the manufacturer of name brand luxury items, but which at that time also owned a 23% share of British American Tobacco. When this news of her board membership was revealed she immediately resigned from the board of Richemont.