Remembering Uncle Kiu

Chan Kiu (right), a veteran photojournalist who captured some of Hong Kong’s watershed moments for the South China Morning Post, has died at the age of 96.

Chan, who had 40,000 rolls of film to his name, died peacefully on Saturday in the company of his loved ones at a hospital in Vancouver, Canada.

The photojournalist captured for the Post major events in the city such as the 1967 riots, superstar Bruce Lee’s funeral and the first visit to Hong Kong of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth.

His daughter, Theresa Chan Lai-kuen, yesterday said her father was remembered as a staunch professional who was “always persistent, punctual and well prepared”.

Chan joined the Post in 1959 and remained there for 28 years until his retirement.

He once said his favourite assignments were those that carried an element of danger, such as the riots that gripped Hong Kong for nearly a year in 1967. In an interview in 2018, Chan recalled being surrounded by rioters who assaulted him and attempted to destroy his camera, until a protest leader intervened, acknowledging his role as a journalist.

Chan also had a soft spot for personal stories. One of his favourites was the tale of British soldier Tony Caller and his Chinese partner, Dorothy So Yun-mai. He first captured them in a 1961 photo, where Caller is seen bidding farewell to So on the wharf at Tsim Sha Tsui. The couple later got married and started a family in Britain, reuniting with Chan again nearly two decades later.

He won more than 30 awards in Hong Kong and abroad. In 1985 he was the first local press photographer awarded the Badge of Honour by Queen Elizabeth for his service and contribution to the city’s media industry.

Born in Hong Kong in 1927 to a working class family, it was not until the early 1950s that Chan turned to photography. It was also about this time he got married, in 1952.

Known in Hong Kong’s media circles as “Uncle Kiu”, Chan remained modest about his achievements. “You wouldn’t have time to think about recording history at the time when you pressed the shutter button. They were just history caught in a hurry,” he said.

Chan emigrated to Canada in 1993. He is survived by his seven children, seven grandchildren and two great-grandchildren, most of whom live in Vancouver.

Here is a selection of Chan’s work.

Clockwise from above left: commuters jostle to get on a bus in 1978 as a severe tropical storm approaches; a woman gestures at a police officer as workers besiege the Labour Department office during a 1972 pay dispute; The Philippine Pine cargo ship aground in Hong Kong waters in 1982; a football match; women wearing Mao badges shout slogans during the 1967 unrest; and British soldier Tony Caller bids farewell to Dorothy So Yun-mai in July 1961.

From top left: a metal worker and his wife in 1962 weep after being told she had to return to the mainland after crossing the border illegally; anti-British posters are pasted on a wall at Government House in 1967; and a woman falls into floodwater in Sai Ying Pun in 1966.