Anna Manwah Lo (born 17 June 1950) is an Alliance Party politician in

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label=Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is #Descriptions, variously described as ...

."Belfast politician defies racists"
''

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broadc ...

'', 26 March 2007. She was a

Member of the Legislative Assembly A member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) is a representative elected by the voters of a constituency to a legislative assembly. Most often, the term refers to a subnational assembly such as that of a state, province, or territory of a country. S ...

(MLA) for Belfast South from 2007 to 2016. She is a former president of the Alliance Party.

Early life

Lo was born in

North Point North Point is a mixed-use urban area in the Eastern District of Hong Kong. Located in the northeastern part of Hong Kong Island, the area is named after a cape between Causeway Bay and Tsat Tsz Mui that projects toward Kowloon Bay. Locat ...

British Hong Kong Hong Kong was a colony and later a dependent territory of the British Empire from 1841 to 1997, apart from a period of occupation under the Japanese Empire from 1941 to 1945 during the Pacific War. The colonial period began with the British ...

Cantonese Cantonese ( zh, t=廣東話, s=广东话, first=t, cy=Gwóngdūng wá) is a language within the Chinese (Sinitic) branch of the Sino-Tibetan languages originating from the city of Guangzhou (historically known as Canton) and its surrounding a ...

Chinese parents. She attended

Shau Kei Wan East Government Secondary School Shau Kei Wan East Government Secondary School (SKWEGSS, ) is a co-educational secondary school operated by the Government of Hong Kong in Hong Kong. Located in Shau Kei Wan, there are a total of 25 classrooms and 17 special rooms with a student ...

. She moved to Northern Ireland in 1974 after meeting journalist David Watson. She spent her early years in the country working for the BBC and the

Royal Ulster Constabulary The Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) was the police force in Northern Ireland from 1922 to 2001. It was founded on 1 June 1922 as a successor to the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC)Richard Doherty, ''The Thin Green Line – The History of the Roya ...

as an interpreter. In 1978, she started an English evening class for Chinese people in Northern Ireland.

Career

Political career

Lo was elected to the

Northern Ireland Assembly sco-ulster, Norlin Airlan Assemblie , legislature = Seventh Assembly , coa_pic = File:NI_Assembly.svg , coa_res = 250px , house_type = Unicameral , house1 = , leader1_type = S ...

for Belfast South in the 2007 assembly election. She is the first and, to date, only ethnic-minority politician elected at a regional level in Northern Ireland and the first politician born in East Asia elected to any legislative body in the United Kingdom. Lo stood as an Alliance Party candidate at the

2007 Northern Ireland Assembly election The 2007 Northern Ireland Assembly election was held on Wednesday, 7 March 2007. It was the third election to take place since the devolved assembly was established in 1998. The election saw endorsement of the St Andrews Agreement and the two ...

and was elected in Belfast South. After her re-election in 2011, Lo was appointed as the chair of the Northern Ireland Assembly's Environment Committee. She used this role to influence the Local Government Bill. As a result of her amendments, the new Councils have greater levels of openness and transparency as the audio of the main Council meetings is now recorded and Council papers are placed online. She further improved the freedom of the press at the new Councils by ensuring that journalists and the public can use social media during meetings. She was selected as the Alliance Party's candidate for the

constituency in the

2014 European Parliament election The 2014 European Parliament election was held in the European Union, from 22 to 25 May 2014. It was the 8th parliamentary election since the first direct elections in 1979, and the first in which the European political parties fielded candid ...

. She won the best ever European election performance for the party. Lo has been the target of racial abuse by Ulster loyalists and did not stand for re-election as MLA in 2016 as a result.

Personal life

Lo is a social worker and former chair of the Northern Ireland Chinese Welfare Association. She was awarded an MBE for services to Ethnic Minorities in the

2000 New Year Honours The New Year Honours 2000 for the United Kingdom and New Zealand were announced on 31 December 1999, to celebrate the year passed and mark the beginning of 2000. The ''Honours list'' is a list of people who have been awarded one of the various ...

. Since 2007 Lo has suffered from

non-Hodgkin lymphoma Non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL), also known as non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, is a group of blood cancers that includes all types of lymphomas except Hodgkin lymphomas. Symptoms include enlarged lymph nodes, fever, night sweats, weight loss, and tiredne ...

and must maintain a

vegetarian Vegetarianism is the practice of abstaining from the consumption of meat (red meat, poultry, seafood, insects, and the flesh of any other animal). It may also include abstaining from eating all by-products of animal slaughter. Vegetariani ...

diet to combat the illness.

Political views

Lo has declared her preference for Irish unification. She describes herself as anti-colonial and has said the partition of Ireland was "artificial". Lo also refers to herself as "a

socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the ...

and a republican in the international sense"). She expressed her outrage at First Minister Peter Robinson's defence of Pastor James McConnell, who was accused of making Islamophobic remarks. She has stated that she views the

Democratic Unionist Party The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) is a unionist, loyalist, and national conservative political party in Northern Ireland. It was founded in 1971 during the Troubles by Ian Paisley, who led the party for the next 37 years. Currently led by J ...

to be racist because of decisions like those. Lo supported moves to liberalise abortion laws in Northern Ireland and voted to extend the Abortion Act 1967, which already extends the rest of the United Kingdom, to Northern Ireland.

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lo, Anna 1950 births Alliance Party of Northern Ireland MLAs Alumni of Ulster University British social workers Female members of the Northern Ireland Assembly Hong Kong Taoists Hong Kong emigrants to Northern Ireland Interpreters Irish republicans Living people Members of the Order of the British Empire Naturalised citizens of the United Kingdom Northern Ireland MLAs 2007–2011 Northern Ireland MLAs 2011–2016 Northern Ireland politicians of Chinese descent People of British Hong Kong Socialists from Northern Ireland