Chin Wan is the founder and leader of the Hong Kong Resurgence Order and is the ideological leader of the "Hong Kong Autonomy Movement," dubbed as the "godfather of localism" in Hong Kong.
23 Facts About Chin Wan
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Until mid-2016, Chin was an assistant professor at the Department of Chinese of Lingnan University.
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Chin Wan's father, a Traditional Chinese medicine practitioner, was born in Malaysia and came to Hong Kong in 1950.
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Chin Wan received a Bachelor of Arts degree in English at the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 1986.
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Chin Wan later studied in Germany, obtaining a doctorate in ethnology from the University of Gottingen in 1995.
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Chin Wan returned to Hong Kong and worked at the Policy Research Institute between 1995 and 1996 and was a senior advisor to the HKSAR government on cultural, arts, and civic affairs from 1997 and worked as research director in the Home Affairs Bureau until 2007.
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Chin Wan became one of the leading critical intellectual voices against the destruction of local communities and historical edifices that occurred in the course of urban redevelopment.
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Many of the newspaper columns, which he wrote under the pen name Chin Wan, supported the young radicals who took an increasingly militant stance against Hong Kong and Chinese real estate tycoons and Beijing's intervention in Hong Kong.
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Chin Wan held his teaching post until mid-2016 when his contract was not renewed, allegedly due to his localist views.
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In 2011, Chin Wan published the book On the Hong Kong City-State.
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Chin Wan emphasised the significance of Hong Kong autonomy for the sake of Hongkongers.
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Chin Wan suggested that Hongkongers should push for a "Chinese Confederation" consisting of separate and parallel states in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau.
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Chin Wan strongly criticised the candle vigil for the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests organised by the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China in 2013 for their Chinese patriotic sentiment in their slogan.
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Chin Wan blamed the mainstream pro-democrat politicians for the failure of the Hong Kong democracy movement, accusing them of betraying the Hong Kong people by colluding with the United States and China.
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Chin Wan strongly criticised the left-leaning activists, stating them as the reason of the failure of the social movements and their pro-immigrant and cosmopolitan stance.
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Chin Wan called for actions from the radical activists against the tourists and advocated violent actions as the means for defending Hong Kong's autonomy.
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Chin Wan's opinions triggered huge arguments within the pro-democracy activists and he was condemned "xenophobic" and "nativist" by the mainstream activists and the government.
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Chin Wan became well known for his inflammatory remarks on Facebook and enjoyed a growing, loyal following on the Internet as of 2012.
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Chin Wan had criticised the Occupy organisers even before the protests, stating their peaceful approaches would achieve nothing but their own personal moral high ground.
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Chin Wan was later on asked to report to the police on suspicion of inciting and organising an unauthorised assembly.
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Chin Wan joined an electoral alliance with Civic Passion led by Wong Yeung-tat and incumbent legislator Wong Yuk-man to contest in the 2016 Legislative Council election after a localist activist Edward Leung of Hong Kong Indigenous received a better-than-expected result in the 2016 New Territories East by-election in which Leung grabbed more than 66,000 votes.
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Chin Wan contested in the New Territories East with the slogan of "creating a de facto referendum in five constituencies; allow all citizens to participate in the creation of constitution".
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Chin Wan's list received 23,635 votes, four percent of the total votes, ranking 13th place and was not elected.