Selina Chow

Selina Chow Liang Shuk-yee (born 25 January 1945) is a former Hong Kong television executive and politician.

She was a member of the Legislative Council for nearly three decades, and was also a member of the Executive Council.

She is honorary chairwoman of the Liberal Party, having formerly been its chairwoman.

Joining Television Broadcasts Limited (TVB) after graduating from the University of Hong Kong (HKU), she was Hong Kong's first weather girl.

Selina was born Liang Shuk-yee on 25 January 1945 in Hong Kong.

She was educated at St. Paul's Co-educational College and earned a bachelor's degree in English from the University of Hong Kong in 1965.

She later obtained a postgraduate diploma from the Rose Bruford College of Speech and Drama and Licentiateship in Drama (Teacher and Performer) of the Royal Academy of Music in the United Kingdom.

She went on to executive roles at all three of Hong Kong's major television broadcasting companies: TVB from 1967 to 1977, general manager of Commercial Television (CTV) from 1977 to 1978 and chief executive of Asia Television (ATV) from 1988 to 1991.

Liang started her career in Hong Kong's television broadcasting industry as the first weather girl in Hong Kong at the first wireless TV station Television Broadcasts Limited (TVB) in 1967.

She was an assistant producer at TVB in Broadcast Drive for the English and Chinese channels under general manager Colin Bednall before being promoted to Assistant General Manager to run the entire programming section.

Thinking her career in TVB had reached the glass ceiling, Chow left TVB in 1977 and joined Commercial Television (CTV) as general manager in an attempt to resurrect the ailing station, along with around 200 former TVB personnel including Tsui Hark, Patrick Tam and Ringo Lam in a bidding war between CTV and TVB.

However, despite spending HK$50 million on production in just three years, CTV was unable to survive in the highly competitive television broadcasting industry and ceased transmissions in 1978.

After she left CTV, Chow codirected her only feature film, No Big Deal in 1979, a teen comedy, with Po-Chih Leong.

Chow first stepped into politics when she was appointed to the Urban Council in 1980.

She was first appointed to the Legislative Council in 1981 and the Executive Council in 1991.

She was subsequently appointed to the Legislative Council in 1981 by Governor Murray MacLehose.

She also held numerous public offices at the time, including the membership of the Law Reform Commission, the Housing Authority and the Education Commission, a well as the chairmanship of the Consumer Council.

In August 1988, Lai Sun Group founder Lim Por-yen took over Asia Television (ATV) and hired Chow as the station's chief executive.

Chow proceeded in the same month to unveil a $233 million six-year investment plan to improve ATV's competitive edge against TVB.

Chow's first year in office saw ATV's annual budget rocket to an estimated $300–350 million, just $100–150 million less than TVB.

It also poached many talents from TVB, including comedy stars Lydia Shum and Eric Tsang, as well as producers, technical staff and administrators.

The growing deficit sapped Chow's power as chief executive and in March 1991 she was formally dismissed and replaced by Lam Por-yen himself.

In 1991, she was appointed to the Executive Council, the top advisory board in the government, by Governor David Wilson.

She resigned the following year after the arrival of the last Governor Chris Patten who wanted to reshuffle the council.

Chow was also a member of the Co-operative Resources Centre (CRC) headed by Senior Member of the Legislative Council Allen Lee consisting of the appointed members who aimed to counter the rise of the United Democrats of Hong Kong (UDHK) in the legislature after their landslide victory in the first ever direct election in 1991.

The CRC soon transformed into the Liberal Party to actively lobby against Chris Patten's constitutional reform proposal, which they thought would damaged the smooth transfer of sovereignty of Hong Kong due to Beijing's strong opposition.

In the 1995 Legislative Council election, Chow contested in the Wholesale and Retail functional constituency and won the seat against Wong Kwok-hing of the Beijing-loyalist Democratic Alliance for the Betterment of Hong Kong (DAB).

She was later elected to the Beijing-controlled Provisional Legislative Council (PLC) after the dismantling of the "through train" of the last colonial Legislative Council.

After 1997, the Liberal Party became the partner in Tung Chee-hwa's "governing coalition" which saw Chow being appointed to the Hong Kong Tourist Association before it was transformed into the Hong Kong Tourism Board in 2001.

She has also been a board member of the Hong Kong Airport Authority, honorary adviser to Against Child Abuse, and director of the Hong Kong Intellectual Property Society.

She was the founding member of the pro-business Liberal Party and the vice-chairwoman from 1998 to 2008.

In the first SAR Legislative Council election in 1998, Allen Lee resigned as Liberal Party chairman lost in the direct election.

James Tien succeeded as chairman and Chow became party vice-chairwoman.

As the most senior member in the Legislative Council, she was also the chairwoman of the House Committee of the Legislative Council from 2000 to 2003.

She was appointed to the Executive Council for the second time in 2003.

From 2003 to 2008, she was also a member of the 10th National Committee of Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC).

Public opposition to the national security legislation of the Basic Law Article 23, and the historic 2003 July 1st protest against it, led to the resignation of Liberal Party chairman James Tien from the Executive Council on 6 July.

Without Liberal support in the legislature, the government was short of sufficient votes to pass the bill, which it later shelved.

In 2004, she won a directly elected seat in New Territories West but lost in her re-election in 2008.

She continued to serve as party chairwoman from 2011 to 2012 and chairwoman from 2012 to 2014.