Dame Rosanna Wong Yick-ming (, born 15 August 1952) also known by her married name, Rosanna Tam Wong Yick-ming, in her former marriage from 1979 lasting until 1992, and primarily known as Dr Rosanna Wong in public occasions after 1997, is a Hong Kong social work administrator and politician who has served as the Executive Director of the Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups since 1980.
Before the transfer of sovereignty over Hong Kong, she was appointed as unofficial member of the Legislative Council from 1985 to 1991 and of the Executive Council from 1988 to 1991. She briefly retired from politics in 1991 but was successful to return as unofficial Executive Councillor for a second time in 1992, and was also appointed chairperson of the Hong Kong Housing Authority in the following year. Wong was trusted by the last British colonial Governor of Hong Kong, Chris Patten (later Lord), who chose her to replace Baroness Dunn as the Convenor of the Executive Council (equivalent to the Senior Unofficial Member of the Executive Council) in 1995, thus rising as an influential figure in the final years of the colonial government. In 1997, she was made Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire and became the second Chinese woman, after Baroness Dunn, to be made a Dame in history.
After the transfer of sovereignty over Hong Kong in 1997, Wong was one of the two colonial unofficial members who remained in the new Executive Council under the Government of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. Nevertheless, when the Housing Authority Short-piling Scandal broke out in 1999, Wong, as the chairperson of the Housing Authority, was heavily blamed by the general public of not taking any responsibility. Under public pressure, she subsequently decided to resign from the Housing Authority four days before the Legislative Council passing the motion of no confidence on her and the Director of Housing, Tony Miller in June 2000. However, her resignation did not prevent her and some other government officials from receiving censure in the short-piling scandal investigation report released by the Legislative Council later in January 2003. Following the scandal, Wong ceased to be an unofficial member of the Executive Council in 2002 but was appointed chairperson of the Education Commission from 2001 to 2007. Since 2003, she has also been a Hong Kong member of the CPPCC National Committee of the People's Republic of China.
Besides, Wong plays a role in the business sector in Hong Kong. She has been a non-executive director of the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation since 1996 and has also been an independent non-executive director of Sir Ka-shing Li's Cheung Kong Holdings since 2001.
Biography
Early years
Wong was born on 15 August 1952 in Hong Kong to a family descended from Anxi County of Fujian Province in China. Her father Wong Chun Chung was an overseas Chinese from Singapore. Her mother Poon Chor Ying had been a journalist in Vietnam and in Hong Kong was a teacher at St. Stephen's Girls' College. Both had graduated from mainland China universities and were considered well-educated.
Wong is the fourth child in the family. She has three elder sisters and two younger sister and brother. She spent her early years with her family in Shatin and later moved to Kowloon. After entering secondary school, Wong's family resided on Lyttelton Road in Mid-levels on Hong Kong Island.
Wong entered St. Stephen's Girls' Primary School in 1962 and followed her sisters to enter St. Stephen's Girls' College, where their mother taught, in 1965. Wong had some classes with her mother, who also taught Regina Ip and Rita Fan, later Secretary for Security of the Hong Kong government and the President of the Legislative Council respectively. Wong once recalled that her mother's knowledge and attitude to life had deeply inspired her thinking that since secondary three, she had become a volunteer and once joined a gospel rehabilitation group for drug addicts to pay visit to the Kowloon Walled City.
In 1972, Wong graduated from the school and was soon successfully enrolled at the University of Hong Kong studying social work. At first, she was not given a room in any of the residential colleges because she lived too near to the campus. Only when she became a social secretary of St John's College Students' Association in year three of study, she had the chance to move into St John's College. In the university, Wong was something of a student activist and in 1973 joined a university visit the mainland China. All these experiences influenced her deeply and she decided to commit herself to the field of social work upon graduation.
