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 dying, in a hospital, was attributable to 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 a vital 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 individuals. In 2007, he began educating social work on the college, the place he turned identified 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 bought concerned early on within the 2014 civil disobedience movement, Occupy Central with Love and Peace, which demanded democratic elections for Hong Kong, a semiautonomous Chinese language territory. He mobilized different social staff to participate within the protests that blocked site visitors within the coronary heart of Hong Kong’s enterprise district. He reached out to individuals with disabilities or power diseases, or who had been homeless, serving to to prepare dialogues the place they mentioned what democracy meant for them.
In 2016, he was elected as a lawmaker. He centered on welfare points reminiscent of poverty, homelessness and the circumstances at properties for the aged and folks with disabilities.
In 2019, Mr. Shiu was convicted of public nuisance charges for his position in Occupy Central and sentenced to eight months in jail.
“I wish to remind those that dwell in the dead of night 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 exterior 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 identified that Mr. Shiu had diabetes and hypertension, and had been hospitalized in 2014 through the road occupations.
“I watched him lie in mattress, unconscious and vomiting,” Mr. Chan mentioned in a cellphone interview from Taipei, the place he lives now.
“Along 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 creating 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 time.
Mr. Shiu’s educating contract at Baptist College was not renewed after his launch from jail. He based a nonprofit, Wall-fare, centered on serving to individuals imprisoned after the 2019 protests. The group paired inmates with pen friends 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 concerning the cause for the closure and what it could imply for prisoners. “Tears are our frequent language,” he mentioned.
Within the years that adopted, he wrote a number of books concerning the situation of Hong Kong’s prisons and the psychological toll of incarceration, drawing from his personal expertise. He continued to submit 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 identified with most cancers, and that a part of his abdomen had been eliminated.
In his last 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 cherished meals. He additionally shared his reflections on struggling.
“Resilient individuals are capable of preserve a optimistic perspective and develop coping methods regardless of the ache of sickness, regulate their feelings, keep optimistic, and study to dwell as usually and ordinarily as doable,” he wrote in mid-November.
“Nevertheless, I additionally want so as to add a caveat: My physique is out of types, I want area for relaxation. I’ll cease if I’ve to; please forgive me.”
