Early Life
Born in Hong Kong on May 19, 1939, and growing up in Kowloon Tong, Nancy Kwan is the daughter of Kwan Wing Hong, a Cantonese architect, and Marquita Scott, a model of English and Scottish ancestry. The son of a Chinese lawyer, Kwan Wing Hong attended Cambridge University and became an eminent architect in Hong Kong. After he met Marquita Scott in London, the two married and moved to Hong Kong. During the era, society held a dim view of miscegenation. Kwan has an older brother, Ka Keung.
Under fear of the Japanese invasion of Hong Kong during World War II, Wing Hong, under the guise of a coolie, escaped from Hong Kong to North China in Christmas 1941 with his two children, whom he hid in wicker baskets. Kwan and her brother were transported by servants, evading Japanese sentries. They remained in exile in Western China for five years until the war ended, after which they returned to Hong Kong and lived in a spacious, contemporary home her father designed. Marquita Scott escaped to England and never rejoined the family. Kwan's parents divorced when she was two years old. Later traveling to New York, her mother married an American. Remaining in Hong Kong with the children, her father married a Chinese woman, whom Kwan called "Mother". Her father and her step-mother gave her brother and her five half-brothers and half-sisters. Five of Kwan's siblings became lawyers.
Except for during World War II, Kwan had a comfortable early life. Cared for by an amah (阿嬤), a woman who looks after children, Kwan owned a pony and passed the summer months in resorts in Borneo, Macao, and Japan. An affluent man, her father owned a several-acre hilltop property in Kowloon. In her youth, she was called "Ka Shen". She wrote in 1960 that as an eight-year-old, her fortune-teller "predicted travel, fame and fortune for me". The Associated Press called the fortune-teller "either a gifted or lucky" one.
She attended the Catholic Maryknoll Convent School until she was 13 years old, after which she traveled to Kingsmoore, an English boarding school her brother, Ka Keung, was currently attending. Her brother studied to become an architect, and she studied to become a dancer. Her four years of studying at the school earned her the General Certificate of Secondary Education.
Her introduction to tai chi sparked a desire to learn ballet. When Kwan was 18 years old, she pursued her dream of becoming of a ballet dancer by attending Royal Ballet School in London. She studied performing arts subjects such as stage make-up and danced every day for four hours. Her studies at the Royal Ballet School ran concurrently with her high school studies. Because Kwan's high school had deep connections with nearby theater groups, Kwan was able to perform small parts in several of their productions. Upon graduating from her scholastic studies, she sojourned to France, Italy, and Switzerland on a luxury trip. Afterwards, she traveled back to Hong Kong, where she started a ballet school.
Read more about this topic: Nancy Kwan, Biography
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