Emily Lau Wai-hing, born in Hong Kong on 21 January 1952 with family roots in Nanhai, Guangdong, is a former Hong Kong politician and journalist and a Justice of the Peace. She studied television journalism at the University of Southern California and later took a master's degree in international relations at the London School of Economics, working for the BBC's television division and the Far Eastern Economic Review, as well as lecturing in journalism at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and from 1976 to 1991 she built a career in local journalism. In 1985 she became an executive committee member and vice-chairperson of the Hong Kong Journalists Association, and from 1989 to 1991 served as its chairperson, working for press freedom and journalists' rights. In 1991, when Hong Kong's Legislative Council held its first direct elections, she resigned her posts as a journalist and as chairperson of the journalists' association, raised campaign funds publicly and ran in New Territories East as an independent, presenting herself as a new breed of politician and reaching out to a broad cross-section of the population; in a landslide victory for the liberals she became the first woman directly elected to Hong Kong's legislature, and was re-elected in 1995. She helped found the political group The Frontier in 1996 and served as its convener, refused to join the Provisional Legislative Council when Hong Kong returned to Chinese sovereignty in 1997, and regained her seat in 1998, holding New Territories East over successive terms until 2016 — seven terms in all. The Frontier merged into the Democratic Party in 2008, and from 2012 to 2016 she was chairperson of the Democratic Party, its first woman leader. She also served as vice-chairperson of the Legislative Council's Finance Committee, advocated the peaceful and rational pursuit of democracy, human rights and press freedom, and published several books on her years in politics. She stood down in 2016 after twenty-five years in the legislature.
In 1991 Emily Lau became the first woman directly elected to Hong Kong's legislature, breaking the male dominance of the chamber; she went on to found The Frontier and to serve as the Democratic Party's first woman leader, speaking out over many years on press freedom, human rights and constitutional reform.
Achievements
- 1989 · Became chairperson of the Hong Kong Journalists Association, serving until 1991.
- 1991 · Was elected in New Territories East, becoming the first woman directly elected to Hong Kong's legislature.
- 2012 · Became chairperson of the Democratic Party, its first woman leader.