Tanya Chan (; born 14 September 1971) is a Hong Kong politician who served as a Legislative Councillor representing

Hong Kong Island Hong Kong Island () is an island in the southern part of Hong Kong. The island, known originally and on road signs simply as "Hong Kong", had a population of 1,289,500 and a population density of , . It is the second largest island in Hong Kon ...

from 2008 to 2012, and again from 2016 to 2020. She is a founding member of the

Civic Party The Civic Party (CP) was a pro-democracy camp, pro-democracy liberalism in Hong Kong, liberal political party from March 2006 to May 2023 in Hong Kong. The party was formed in 2006 on the basis of the Article 45 Concern Group, Basic Law Ar ...

. Chan is sometimes known as the " Zhou Xun of the Civic Party"."Tanya Chan of the Civic Party", '' Next Magazine'', 18 January 2007 On 29 September 2020, Chan announced that she would quit politics.

Early life and education

Chan's ancestral origin is Shanghai and she was educated at Sacred Heart Canossian College. Chan received

Bachelor of Laws A Bachelor of Laws (; LLB) is an undergraduate law degree offered in most common law countries as the primary law degree and serves as the first professional qualification for legal practitioners. This degree requires the study of core legal subje ...

degree from the

University of Hong Kong The University of Hong Kong (HKU) is a public research university in Pokfulam, Hong Kong. It was founded in 1887 as the Hong Kong College of Medicine for Chinese by the London Missionary Society and formally established as the University of ...

, where she also studied the

Postgraduate Certificate in Laws In Hong Kong, the Postgraduate Certificate in Laws (PCLL; zh, t=法學專業證書) is an intensive one-year, full-time (or two-year, part-time) professional legal qualification programme. It allows graduates to proceed to legal training in or ...

.HK LegCo
. Legislative Council of Hong Kong. Retrieved 21 June 2011.

Political career

In the 2008 LegCo elections, Chan was elected into and became a member of, the

Hong Kong Legislative Council The Legislative Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, colloquially known as LegCo, is the unicameral legislature of Hong Kong. It sits under China's " one country, two systems" constitutional arrangement, and is the pow ...

to represent

, along with Civic Party leader Audrey Eu. In January 2010, Chan and other four lawmakers,

Albert Chan Albert Chan Wai-yip (born 3 March 1955, Hong Kong), also known by his nickname "Big Piece", is a former member of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong representing the New Territories West constituency. He has served as a legislator from 199 ...

Alan Leong Alan Leong Kah-kit ( zh, c=梁家傑; born 22 February 1958), SC is a former member of the Hong Kong Legislative Council, representing the Kowloon East geographical constituency and former chairman of the now-disbanded Civic Party. He was ...

Leung Kwok-hung Leung Kwok-hung ( zh, t=梁國雄; born 27 March 1956), also known by his nickname "Long Hair" (), is a Hong Kong politician and social activist. He was a member of the Legislative Council, representing the New Territories East. A Trotskyist ...

and Wong Yuk-man resigned from LegCo, forcing a

by-election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, or a bypoll in India, is an election used to fill an office that has become vacant between general elections. A vacancy may arise as a result of an incumben ...

, which they would treat as a " ''de facto'' referendum" to press the Chinese Government into allowing universal suffrage in Hong Kong. On 16 May 2010, she was re-elected as a lawmaker in the by-election. Until 2011, she was a member of Central and Western District Council. In the 2012 legislative election, she stood as the second candidate in Kenneth Chan's list in Hong Kong Island, in an attempt to boost Civic Party's votes and seats. Although Kenneth Chan was elected, she lost re-election under the

party-list proportional representation Party-list proportional representation (list-PR) is a system of proportional representation based on preregistered Political party, political parties, with each party being Apportionment (politics), allocated a certain number of seats Apportionm ...

system. In the 2016 legislative election, she was returned to the Legislative Council, succeeding outgoing Kenneth Chan's seat.

Trial at West Kowloon Court

On 9 April 2019, at West Kowloon Court, Chan and eight others were found guilty of

public nuisance In English criminal law, public nuisance is an act, condition or thing that is illegal because it interferes with the rights of the general public. In Australia In ''Kent v Johnson'', the Supreme Court of the ACT held that public nuisance is ...

and

incitement In criminal law, incitement is the encouragement of another person to commit a crime. Depending on the jurisdiction, some or all types of incitement may be illegal. Where illegal, it is known as an inchoate offense, where harm is intended but ma ...

over their roles in the

2014 Hong Kong protests A series of sit-in street protests, often called the Umbrella Revolution and sometimes used interchangeably with Umbrella Movement, or Occupy Movement, occurred in Hong Kong from 26 September to 15 December 2014. The protests began after th ...

. Earlier, Chan scheduled a full-body health check-up to reassure her mother that she was physically ready to endure a jail term if this were to happen. Her physical examination was conducted in a private hospital on 4 April. Chan received the results of her health check on 11 April, followed by a consultation in Canossa Hospital on 17 April. The test results revealed there was something unclear with her brain. On 18 April, Dr Edmund Woo Kin-wai, a

neurologist Neurology (from , "string, nerve" and the suffix -logia, "study of") is the branch of medicine dealing with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of conditions and disease involving the nervous system, which comprises the brain, the ...

, found that Tanya Chan had a

meningioma Meningioma, also known as meningeal tumor, is typically a slow-growing tumor that forms from the meninges, the membranous layers surrounding the brain and spinal cord. Symptoms depend on the location and occur as a result of the tumor pressing ...

, a type of brain tumour larger than a ping-pong ball. The tumour was considered dangerous as it pressed on Chan's

brain stem The brainstem (or brain stem) is the posterior stalk-like part of the brain that connects the cerebrum with the spinal cord. In the human brain the brainstem is composed of the midbrain, the pons, and the medulla oblongata. The midbrain is co ...

nerve A nerve is an enclosed, cable-like bundle of nerve fibers (called axons). Nerves have historically been considered the basic units of the peripheral nervous system. A nerve provides a common pathway for the Electrochemistry, electrochemical nerv ...

s, and

blood vessel Blood vessels are the tubular structures of a circulatory system that transport blood throughout many Animal, animals’ bodies. Blood vessels transport blood cells, nutrients, and oxygen to most of the Tissue (biology), tissues of a Body (bi ...

s. On 23 April, medics stated that Chan needed open brain surgery to remove the tumour as soon as possible, followed by

radiotherapy Radiation therapy or radiotherapy (RT, RTx, or XRT) is a treatment using ionizing radiation, generally provided as part of cancer therapy to either kill or control the growth of malignant cells. It is normally delivered by a linear particle ...

sessions. According to medics, there was no clarity whether the tumour was caused by cancer, and an open

brain surgery Neurosurgery or neurological surgery, known in common parlance as brain surgery, is the medical specialty that focuses on the surgical treatment or rehabilitation of disorders which affect any portion of the nervous system including the brain, s ...

would be necessary for additional medical insights. On 24 April, the trial at West Kowloon Court adjourned her sentencing to 10 June, since Chan required brain surgery within two weeks. The other eight Occupy Central leaders were sentenced to different punishments, ranging from 200 hours

community service Community service is unpaid work performed by a person or group of people for the benefit and betterment of their community contributing to a noble cause. In many cases, people doing community service are compensated in other ways, such as gettin ...

to 16 months of jail time. In the same day, Chan asked Legislative Council president

Andrew Leung Andrew Leung Kwan-yuen (; born 24 February 1951) is a Hong Kong politician who is the current President of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong (Legco), representing the Industrial (First) functional constituency. From October 2012 to Octobe ...

for leave from her legislative duties while she sought further treatment. Before speaking about her illness, she also asked

Hongkongers Hongkongers (), Hong Kongers, Hong Kong citizens and Hong Kong people are demonyms that refer to a resident of Hong Kong, although they may also refer to others who were born and/or raised in the territory. The earliest inhabitants of Hon ...

to continue their fight for democracy and to believe in their faith. On 10 June 2019, Chan was handed a sentence of eight months suspended for two years, after the court was told that she would require radiotherapy treatment and will experience

double vision Diplopia is the simultaneous perception of two images of a single object that may be displaced in relation to each other. Also called double vision, it is a loss of visual focus under regular conditions, and is often voluntary. However, when occ ...

for six months. Her brain tumour was found to be

benign Malignancy () is the tendency of a medical condition to become progressively worse; the term is most familiar as a characterization of cancer. A ''malignant'' tumor contrasts with a non-cancerous benign tumor, ''benign'' tumor in that a malig ...

, but had not been completely removed, and needed further therapy. The court was also asked to consider her record of public service since 2006.

Later career

Chan moved to Taiwan, and in 2024, opened a restaurant in

Taipei , nickname = The City of Azaleas , image_map = , map_caption = , pushpin_map = Taiwan#Asia#Pacific Ocean#Earth , coordinates = , subdivision_type = Country ...

's Songshan District.

Bibliography

* ''政．戲．伊人'' olitics. play. Yiren Ming Chuang Publishing Co., Ltd., 2008, ISBN 9789628994663 * My Journeys for Food and Justice (邊走邊吃邊抗爭), Red Publishing (Round Table Culture), 2014, ISBN 9789888270644

References

External links

Tanya Chan's official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chan, Tanya 1971 births Alumni of the University of Hong Kong Barristers of Hong Kong District councillors of Central and Western District Charter 08 signatories Living people Civic Party politicians HK LegCo Members 2008–2012 HK LegCo Members 2016–2021 Members of the Election Committee of Hong Kong, 2007–2012 Hong Kong women lawyers Political prisoners held by Hong Kong 21st-century Hong Kong women politicians Hong Kong chefs Hong Kong expatriates in Taiwan