Yau-Man Chan appeared in the reality television series Survivor: Fiji. He finished fourth and was the last person to be voted out. He appeared on the jury at the end of the season and voted for Earl Cole to win the game and one million dollars.
An atypical Survivor contestant, he achieved much success through his knowledge and utilization of basic physics. This was evident from the first episode. After the repeated efforts of much more muscular contestants, he was the only one able to open a box of supplies the tribe received. While others had used various brute force methods to open the box, Chan simply dropped it on its corner onto a rock, opening it immediately. In this way he was also able to beat younger, fitter and theoretically stronger players in challenges.
While not shown on the series, Chan was also instrumental in the creation of fire using spectacles (something not normally possible with concave lenses).
Chan also used his smarts to find the Hidden Immunity Idol. While Earl kept the tribe at bay, Chan found the idol. It was shaped like a turtle. Immediately after, he created a false idol. This way, if anyone found where the idol was, they would not suspect that he had in fact found it. He constructed the false idol out of coconut shell and painted a face on it. He also painted the letters "I.I.," for Immunity Idol.
Chan was noted to be part of one of the largest controversies in Survivor history. In a challenge where the reward was a new truck, Chan won, and immediately offered a deal to Dreamz. He would give Dreamz the truck if Dreamz, should both he and Chan be in the final four and the former won individual immunity, would give his immunity to Chan, securing a place for him in the final three.
Dreamz accepted, and Chan sent himself to Exile Island, the first to do so in Survivor history. Chan said in a confessional during the episode that it was because "Cassandra would never survive, and there was no one else to send."
After two more people were voted out, the exact conditions of this bargain were set up, with Dreamz winning immunity in the final four. However, Dreamz reneged on the deal and Chan was voted off. In the reunion after the finale, it was revealed by the members of the jury that Chan might have won with six out of nine votes had he made it to the final three. He has stated that he holds no grudge against what Dreamz did, as it was a risk he took.
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