Claudia Mo

The Honourable Claudia Mo
毛孟靜
Claudia Mo in 2013
Member of the Legislative Council
Incumbent
Assumed office 1 October 2012
Preceded by	Frederick Fung
Constituency	Kowloon West
Personal details
Born	18 January 1957 Hong Kong
Nationality	Hong Kong Chinese
Political party	Civic Party (2006–2016) HK First (2013–present)
Spouse(s)	Philip Bowring
Children	Two sons
Residence	Repulse Bay, Hong Kong Island
Alma mater	Carleton University
Occupation	Legislative councillor Journalist Columnist Television presenter

Claudia Mo
Traditional Chinese	毛孟靜
Simplified Chinese	毛孟静
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Máo Mèngjìng Yue: Cantonese Jyutping Mou^4 Maang^6 zing^6 Yale Romanization Mòuh Maahng jihng

Claudia Mo (born Mo Man-ching on 18 January 1957), also known as Claudia Bowring, is a Hong Kong journalist and politician, a member of Pan-democracy camp. She is a member of Hong Kong Legislative Council, representing the Kowloon West geographical constituency.

Personal life and education

Mo was born in Hong Kong and has family roots in Ningbo, Zhejiang. Mo is married to journalist Philip Bowring, former editor of the Far Eastern Economic Review, and they have two sons.^[1] She is also known as Claudia Bowring.

She attended high school in Toronto, and in 1979 graduated from Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada with a Bachelor's degree in journalism with English studies. After graduating she worked at Agence France-Presse (AFP) translating French wires into Chinese. She was later promoted to chief Hong Kong correspondent for AFP, covering in this role the Tiananmen Square massacre, an event which she describes as a "watershed [...] that cemented my journalistic principles and political beliefs".^[2]

Mo is a former journalist, having worked at Agence France-Presse, The Standard and TVB.^[3] She also hosted a number of RTHK TV and radio programmes, including "Media Watch" and "City Forum".^[4][5]

Mo wrote a book called "We Want True Democracy" published in 2015, and has also authored English language learning books.^[6][3]

Television career

• News at 6:30 – TVB, 1982–85
• Media Watch – RTHK, 1991–2008
• City Forum – RTHK, 1993–95
• All-Primary Schools Inter-school Quiz – RTHK, 1992–94
• We're All Parents – Cable Television

Politics

Mo is a founding member of the Civic Party in 2006. She first ran in the Kowloon West geographical constituency in the 2008 Legislative Council election but unsuccessful.^[7]

In the 2012 election, she won one of the constituency's five available seats. She ran with the slogan "Against Mainlandisation" which spilled controversy within the party (Civic Party use the slogan Against Communistisation). After she was elected, she was considered more pro-localist within the party. she formed the "HK First" with Neo Democrats' Gary Fan to work on localist agenda.

In the 2016 election, she was re-elected with the slogan of "self-determination". She later quit the Civic Party on 14 November 2016, citing the differences with the party on localism, filibuster and other issues. She said she would continue serving the legislature as an "independent democrat" under the label "HK First".^[8]

See also

• Localism in Hong Kong
• Neo Democrats
• Gary Fan

References

1. Chan, Yannie (13 March 2014). "Philip Bowring". HK Magazine.
2. Chan, Yannie (7 November 2013). "Claudia Mo". HK Magazine.
3. Kwok, Ben (17 June 2015). "Ms. Mo speaks up in English for true democracy". Hong Kong Economic Journal.
4. Executive Committee of Civic Party Archived 21 December 2007 at the Wayback Machine.
5. "Ms MO, Claudia Man Ching 毛孟靜". Chinese University. Retrieved 2 April 2012.
6. Heung, Charis (16 July 2015). "Would you spend HK$50,000 on a set of English learning books?". Hong Kong Economic Journal.
7. 2008 Legislative Council Election
8. "Hong Kong lawmaker Claudia Mo resigns from Civic Party citing 'differences' over localism and other issues". South China Morning Post. 14 November 2016.

External links

• Official website