Shiu Ka-chun, a former social employee and pro-democracy lawmaker in Hong Kong who devoted his final years to serving to protesters imprisoned after a crackdown on dissent, died Friday in Hong Kong. He was 55.
His spouse, Kelly Hui, mentioned his demise, in a hospital, was as a result of abdomen most cancers.
As a social employee, civil rights activist and for a time as a legislator, Mr. Shiu pushed for the rights of the marginalized, however his participation in a protest motion landed him in jail. He later emerged as an important supporter of these incarcerated within the aftermath of a nationwide safety crackdown that started in late 2019.
Mr. Shiu was born in June 3, 1969, to a working-class household in Hong Kong. He studied social work at Hong Kong Baptist College, and after graduating began his profession as a social employee supporting younger folks. In 2007, he began educating social work on the college, the place he grew to become recognized for his partaking lectures. He additionally honed his voice as a commentator, writing newspaper columns that analyzed social points by way of the lens of philosophy and sociology.
Mr. Shiu received concerned early on within the 2014 civil disobedience motion, Occupy Central with Love and Peace, which demanded democratic elections for Hong Kong, a semiautonomous Chinese language territory. He mobilized different social employees to participate within the protests that blocked site visitors within the coronary heart of Hong Kong’s enterprise district. He reached out to folks with disabilities or power diseases, or who had been homeless, serving to to arrange dialogues the place they mentioned what democracy meant for them.
In 2016, he was elected as a lawmaker. He targeted on welfare points comparable to poverty, homelessness and the circumstances at houses for the aged and other people with disabilities.
In 2019, Mr. Shiu was convicted of public nuisance expenses for his function in Occupy Central and sentenced to eight months in jail.
“I need to remind those that reside at midnight to not get used to darkish, to not defend darkness out of behavior, and to not scoff at those that seek for the sunshine,” he mentioned outdoors of the courthouse forward of his sentencing.
Chan Kin Man, a sociology professor who led the Occupy Central Motion, recalled sharing a cell with Mr. Shiu on the day they had been convicted and seeing how his well being had deteriorated. He mentioned he had recognized that Mr. Shiu had diabetes and hypertension, and had been hospitalized in 2014 in the course of the avenue occupations.
“I watched him lie in mattress, unconscious and vomiting,” Mr. Chan mentioned in a cellphone interview from Taipei, the place he lives now.
“Together with his well being in such a poor state, he nonetheless took half in so many political actions. I actually revered him,” Mr. Chan mentioned.
When he was behind bars, Mr. Shiu filed complaints about jail circumstances, even on the danger of constructing himself a goal of the authorities. His efforts led to some marginal change: Prisoners had been allowed paper followers within the warmth of the summer season.
Mr. Shiu’s educating contract at Baptist College was not renewed after his launch from jail. He based a nonprofit, Wall-fare, targeted on serving to folks imprisoned after the 2019 protests. The group paired inmates with pen buddies to ease their isolation, and helped provide them with prison-approved toiletries and snacks.
Wall-fare was compelled to shut in 2021, as activism grew extra dangerous. Mr. Shiu deflected questions from reporters in regards to the cause for the closure and what it could imply for prisoners. “Tears are our widespread language,” he mentioned.
Within the years that adopted, he wrote a number of books in regards to the situation of Hong Kong’s prisons and the psychological toll of incarceration, drawing from his personal expertise. He continued to put up updates on social media, relaying snippets from his visits to former lawmakers and activists who had been in jail.
In November, he posted a {photograph} of himself in a hospital mattress sporting a mortar board, saying that he had needed to miss his commencement from a grasp’s diploma program in Christian research for well being causes. Later, he wrote that he had been recognized with most cancers, and that a part of his abdomen had been eliminated.
In his closing weeks, he posted essays that he titled as musings from a “stomach-less” individual. He wryly noticed that tube feeding was tough for somebody like him, who beloved meals. He additionally shared his reflections on struggling.
“Resilient persons are in a position to preserve a constructive angle and develop coping methods regardless of the ache of sickness, regulate their feelings, keep constructive, and study to reside as usually and ordinarily as potential,” he wrote in mid-November.
“Nevertheless, I additionally want so as to add a caveat: My physique is out of kinds, I want area for relaxation. I’ll cease if I’ve to; please forgive me.”
