Yau-Man Chan

Yau-Man Chan is a contestant from and.

One of the series most popular contestants, Chan is regarded as one of the new pioneers of Survivor by utilizing his skills in physics to complete tasks that stronger contestants would not be able to accomplish.

Profile
Originally from Malaysian Borneo, Yau-Man Chan attended All Saints Secondary School in Kota Kinabalu. He moved to the U.S. where he received a Bachelor of Science degree from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He went on to receive his Master of Science degree from the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Yau-Man Chan is the Chief Technology Officer for the College of Chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley. In this position, he manages and runs the information systems infrastructure for administrative, research and teaching units of the college. This includes setting up networks, computers and managing business database systems. He previously worked designing electronic circuits for scientific instruments to collect data. He's also been a housepainter, cook and dishwasher.

Chan enjoys playing table tennis, bicycling, woodworking and reading. He is a member of the USA Table Tennis Association. He describes himself as intellectual and contemplative. He considers himself a natural leader, a good organizer, very skilled with his hands, very resourceful and feels he possesses a keen intellect.

Chan currently resides in Martinez, California with his wife of 24 years, Jennifer. They have two children, Penelope and Ione. They also have a dog, Tucker, and two rabbits, Ruby and Cupid. His birth date is August 26, 1952.

Survivor: Micronesia
Yau-Man returned as one of ten returning contestants who competed against ten Survivor "superfans" who gave him the most tremendous response of his return. At the first individual Immunity Challenge, where the castaways were to locate an individual Immunity Idol (one per tribe) that would only be effective the first time they go to Tribal Council. Villain Jon Dalton found one of the two idols, but mistakenly picked the Fans' Immunity Idol. Yau-man caught him, and rushed to their boat and accidentally slammed Dalton at the hull of the boat, to the latter's chagrin.

Yau-Man formed an alliance with Eliza Orlins, Jonathan Penner and Ami Cusack to usurp a budding "Couples Alliance" made by Amanda Kimmel, Ozzy Lusth, James Clement and Parvati Shallow. While both voting blocs were vying for Jon and Cirie Fields' votes, all plans were put on hold when Jon suddenly decided that he wanted to go home to be with his expectant wife; and after winning the next Immunity Challenge.

In I Should Be Carried on the Chariot-Type Thing!, both alliances again battled for Cirie's crucial swing vote, but Cirie eventually joined Parvati's alliance on the condition that Yau-Man would be the first eliminated despite the alliance's desire to eliminate Eliza (for her weak challenge performances) because she made an argument that if Yau-Man went to Exile Island once, he would definitely find the Hidden Immunity Idol. Parvati's alliance agreed, sending Yau-Man home in a 6-2-1 vote.

Post-Survivor
Chan was asked to return in the the 20th season special, Heroes vs. Villains; however, he had to decline due to insufficient leave.

Trivia

 * Yau-Man was the oldest contestant on Micronesia.
 * Yau-Man was the only original Ravu member to win Individual Immunity.
 * Yau-Man outlasted all the other Asian-Americans on Fiji
 * Yau-Man is the only representative of Fiji to return for another season.
 * He was the second asian contestant to compete multiple times after Shii Ann Huang, and Brenda Lowe would later become the third. Coincidentally, they are the first and currently only people to represent their original season.
 * The three, along with Malcolm Freberg are the only contestants to be the sole representatives of a season.
 * Yau-Man is the first contestant to send himself to Exile Island.
 * Yau-Man is also the first player to make and plant a fake Hidden Immunity Idol after finding a real one. His fake idol was never found, though.
 * Yau-Man is the first player to save himself from certain elimination by playing a Hidden Immunity Idol. In the Fiji episode I Wanna See If I Can Make A Deal, four votes were cast against Yau-Man (which were nullified) and two for Stacy Kimball, who wound up going home as a result. It is assumed that Gary Hogeboom's playing of his idol in Guatemala saved him, but it is not certain since, under the rules of the game then, the idol was played before the vote, and the user was immune.
 * Yau-Man is the fourth player to find the Hidden Immunity Idol.
 * Yau-Man was asked to compete on, but due work obligations, he was forced to decline.
 * For placing fourth on Survivor: Fiji, Chan won $60,000.
 * Yau-man is the first Asian American male to return.