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Research dossier · People & Ideas

Ma Man-fai

politician

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 13, 2026
Entity authorityQ19854054 ↗
Source-derived summary

Ma Man-fai (Chinese: 馬文輝; 1905–1994) was a Hong Kong politician and social activist active in the 1950s and 1960s. He was the founder and the chairman of the United Nations Association of Hong Kong (UNAHK) from its establishment in 1953 to 1983.

Biography

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.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Ma Man-fai” as politician. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewStrongest as a route into the people, institutions and dated events that shaped the subject’s public record. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1905, 1994, 1953, 1983—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1905. The account is most persuasive where Man-fai and politician can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as politician. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 13, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q19854054. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1905, 1994, 1953 and 1983.

Critical limits

A concise life account rarely captures disputed attribution, private networks or the changing language used to describe a career. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Ma Man-fai”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Ma Man-fai primary sources, Ma Man-fai archive and Man-fai research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Ma Man-fai”?
  2. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
  3. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Ma Man-fai” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.