He was born in Hong Kong in 1905 into a merchant family of
Ma Ying-piu, an
Australian Chinese who founded the
Sincere Department Store in Hong Kong in 1900, and his wife
Fok Hing-tong. Ma Ying-piu also a supporter of the
anti-Qing revolution and funded
Sun Yat-sen's revolutionary activities. Ma attributed his father and his time in London as a buyer of his father's company as the inspirations of his liberal values. His mother was a social reformer, founder of the
Chinese YWCA of Hong Kong and an
anti-mui tsai movement leader. Ma Man-fai was educated at the
Lingnan College in
Canton and lived in
mainland China during the
Japanese occupation of Hong Kong. In 1932, he was a director of the
Tung Wah Hospital. He also held various public positions including vice-chairman of the
Hong Kong City Hall, vice-chairman of the
Sports Federation & Olympic Committee of Hong Kong and secretary of the
Hong Kong Arts Festival. He was also a founder of various civic organisations including the
Sino-British Club of Hong Kong,
Hong Kong City Hall Committee,
Hong Kong Music Association and
Hong Kong Caritas Career Association. He served as an
interpreter for
Governor Alexander Grantham. In January 1949, he co-founded the
Reform Club of Hong Kong with other expatriates to push for constitutional reform as initiated by the
Young Plan and the
Hong Kong Chinese Reform Association with a Chinese-oriented membership. In 1953, he founded the
United Nations Association of Hong Kong (UNAHK) to promoted the
United Nations values to Hong Kong residents, especially the rights of
self-government of the colonised people. He also held the "Hyde Park Forum" and the "Public Opinion Forum" weekly at the City Hall. In 1963, he and other self-government advocates founded the
Democratic Self-Government Party of Hong Kong to call for the internal self-government in Hong Kong. He was soon squeezed out from the party leadership. Without any result, the self-government party became less active in the 1970s. In 1983, his position in the UNAHK was squeezed out and replaced by a
pro-Beijing leadership. Afterwards, he left the association. He continued to hold the "Hyde Park Forum" at the City Hall until his death in 1994. He was remembered with his iconic long beard and
cheongsam. ==References==