Founding director of the BA (Hons) Cultural Studies programme at Lingnan in 1999, Chan headed the department from 2000 to 2003, and again from 2008 to 2010. Concurrently, from 2003 to 2008, he was the inaugural Director of the Master of Cultural Studies, a self-financed programme taught primarily to cultural practitioners in education, media, and NGO services. In 2008 he received the Dr. and Mrs. James Tak Wu Award for Outstanding Service. He served as Academic Dean of Arts from 2010 to 2013, and Associate Vice President (Academic Affairs) cum Registrar, and Director of Core Curriculum & General Education from 2013 to 2015. Before coming to Lingnan’s Tuen Mun campus, Chan taught English, Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies at The Chinese University of Hong Kong, where he directed the UGC-funded Hong Kong Cultural Studies Programme from 1994 to 1997.

He is Chair of the international Association for Cultural Studies (registered in Finland). He convened the Steering Committee of the Consortium for Inter-Asia Cultural Studies Institutions (registered in Seoul) from 2010 to 2013), responsible for running the biennial IACS Summer School.

Active in civil society, Chan is chair of the Board of The House of Hong Kong Literature. He was elected to the Hong Kong Arts Development Council as a member representing the Criticism constituency (2008-2010). With a core group of local academics he founded the Scholars’ Alliance for Academic Freedom in light of the escalating threats to freedom of expression and academic autonomy faced by critics, academics and intellectuals in present-day Hong Kong.

Published on Hong Kong culture, film, literature, education and cultural studies, Chan’s current interests are cultural politics and identity narratives; martial arts cinema; pedagogy, performance and creativity studies.