Fan was born to
Malaysian Chinese parents on 12 May 1942 in
Kampar,
Perak on the west coast of the
Malay Peninsula. He was the eldest of nine children. He received a
Certificate in Education (CertEd) from the
University of Birmingham in 1962, after attending and graduating from the
Malayan Teacher Training College in
Featherstone, near
Wolverhampton,
England, United Kingdom. Following his certification, Fan returned to the
Federation of Malaya – which would become the modern state of Malaysia the following year, in 1963 – and began teaching in
Kuala Lumpur. He became active in the National Union of Teachers (NUT; reconfigured as the National Union of the Teaching Profession (NUTP) in 1974) and, due to his involvement in the NUT, he was sent off from
Kuala Lumpur to teach at schools in rural areas, including
Kuala Lipis and
Temerloh in
Pahang and
Tanah Merah in
Kelantan. He was a co-organiser of the 1967 nationwide teachers' strike, which helped to bring about equal pay for women, as well as pension, housing, and health benefits for all teachers. In 1967, he was appointed as the editor of the NUTP's official organ,
The Educator. Under his editorship,
The Educator became focused on raising issues and awareness, not just among teachers but also the general public, about the challenges experienced by teachers in Malaysia and elsewhere around the world. In addition to staunch and often sharp criticism against the government, the publication included articles from prominent scholars and educators to refresh and improve the knowledge of teachers and featured a column called "Issues in Parliament," which kept teachers up-to-date on pertinent debates raised in Parliament. During the 1976–77 academic year, he was a Parvin Fellow at the
Woodrow Wilson School of Public Policy and International Affairs at
Princeton University. He received a
Diploma in Education (DipEd) from the
University of London in 1980 and a
Master of Arts in Education (MAEd) from the
University of Sussex in 1981. ==Political career==