‘When people respect each other, society is united’: Hong Kong painter’s canvases express her hope for harmony in protest-hit city

As a child growing up in Yuen Long, Chan Chi-hin spent hours watching her mother indulge in her hobby of Chinese painting.

“For years I enjoyed watching her paint – it nurtured my interest in art,” she says of her mother who also worked with people with special needs, inspiring her daughter to pursue nursing.

In 2008, with a stable career working in an operating theatre at a private hospital and encouraged by a church friend and fellow artist, Frank Kwok Chi-lap, Chan turned her focus to painting.

“He’s a fine artist and art teacher who helped me develop my style and my subject matter,” she says.