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Eva Wong pioneered coaching in China from the mid-1990’s. At the time, according to Catherine Ng, coaching was “viewed as a Western management tool.” According to Wong herself, the mission of her company, Top Human, was “to help China . . . [by] expanding the ability of people to communicate differently within their cultures.”
Chinese born in Hong Kong, from 1986 to 1991, Wong was a commercial officer in the Canadian Embassy for China. She left that job to become a leadership and communications trainer, and then began coaching in 1995 because she wanted to do something for China.
Registering her company, Top Human Technology Ltd., in Canada, she looked at the Internet and found several companies in North America who were doing coaching, including Coach University. Based in Hong Kong, Top Human began coach training in China in 1997.
She designed her own Coach Training program grounded in experiental learning, skills used in management and counseling. Wong found that the skills of shifting paradigm, thinking out of the box, and making distinctions could be assets used to help others while being a coach for themselves. Tai Chi, Zen, Confuscious and Taoism elements are included in her coaching program, which was accredited by the International Coach Federation. Also, Eva was continually upgrading the program.
In 2004, with government permission, Eva founded the China Coach Association as a non-profit – in China the legal system says the government is the only place to initiate a professional organization. That same year she initiated an annual black tie event for coaching – with awards given and 100+ people in attendance. By 2006 Top Human Technology Ltd. had 100 faculty and 12 offices.
According to John Wiley & Sons who published The Power of Ren, “working in the world’s fastest growing economy, largest population and most ancient culture, Eva Wong, Chairman and President of Top Human Technology Ltd., has spent 10 years developing, practicing and refining the Ren Coaching Model. (In 2007, however, following publication of The Power of Ren, her coaching company disappeared from the Internet and she disappeared from the coaching field.)
What can you share about Eva Wong?
Vikki G. Brock, Ph.D., EMBA, MCC
History and Archive Division Director
The Coaching Commons
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There are 4 Responses so far...
How interesting, Vikki! I hadn’t heard about EW before. Whatever happened to her, why was she arrested? What an amazing story!
Hi Zarine,
I don’t know the rest of the story. I expect the coaching field will hear when she resurfaces – and it will be reported here at The Coaching Commons.
Hi Coaches,
I’ve just received word that Eva was released in September and is currently in Hong Kong.
Eva is free. I met her at the International Consortium of Coaching in Organizations conference in Washington, DC last June. Her company was shut down by the government and she spent some years in prison. When I asked her the charges she just shrugged and said something to the effect that in China if the government wants you in prison, you are in prison.