Born in November, 1949, Joseph Cheng Yu-shek has always known that the road to democracy is long and winding, and at times lonely.
After graduating from the University of Hong Kong with a bachelor degree in social science in 1972, he won a scholarship to New Zealand, where he got a bachelor of arts at the Victoria University of Wellington. He completed his PhD at Flinders University in South Australia in 1979.
Along with a number of prominent academics and social activists, he became a familiar face at the series of rallies held at the Ko Shan Theatre during the 1980s to push for greater democracy ahead of Hong Kong's return to Chinese sovereignty in 1997.
From 1980 to 1982, he headed the Hong Kong Observers - an organisation made up of local professionals pushing for debate on issues ranging from the flaws of the Hong Kong government to greater democracy for the city.
He was one of the leading academic representatives at the protests and marches by hundreds of thousands of people mourning the death of pro-democracy students in Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989.
Professor Cheng was also a respected figure in the colonial government, where he was appointed a member of the Central Policy Unit, serving from January 1991 to June 1992.
