Wu Tingfang

Ng Choy (Wu Tingfang)
Chinese Unofficial Member of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong
In office
1880–1882
Appointed by Sir John Pope Hennessy
Succeeded by Wong Shing
Premier of State Council of the Republic of China
In office
May 23, 1917
President Li Yuanhong
Feng Guozhang
Preceded by Duan Qirui
Succeeded by Li Jingxi
Personal details
Born 30 July 1842
Malacca, Straits Settlements
Died 23 June 1922(1922-06-23) (aged 79)
Canton, Kwangtung, Republic of China
Political party Republican Party
Progressive Party
Children Wu Chaoshu
Alma mater St. Paul's College
University College London
Lincoln's Inn
Profession Lawyer
Diplomat
Calligraphist
Wu Tingfang
Chinese 伍廷芳
Ng Choy
Chinese 伍才

Wu Tingfang (Chinese: 伍廷芳, also known as Ng Choy (Chinese: 伍才; pinyin: Wǔ Cái); 30 July 1842 – 23 June 1922) was a Chinese diplomat and politician who served as Minister of Foreign Affairs and briefly as Acting Premier during the early years of the Republic of China.

Career in Hong Kong

1908 photograph

Wu was born in the Straits Settlement, now modern day Malacca in 1842 and was sent to China in 1846 to be schooled.[1] He studied at the Anglican St. Paul's College, in Hong Kong where he learned to read and write in English. After serving as an interpreter in the Magistrate's Court from 1861 to 1874,[2] marrying Ho Miu-ling (sister of Sir Kai Ho) in 1864.

He studied Law in the United Kingdom at University College London and was called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn (1876). Wu became the first ethnic Chinese barrister in history. After being called to the bar in England, he returned to Hong Kong in 1877 to practise law. He was admitted as a barrister in Hong Kong in a ceremony before Chief Justice John Smale welcomed him to the bar and said:

"In England every office becomes open to talent without favour of affection. A distinguished American statesman has become, and now is an ornament of the English bar, and all the Bar will gladly hail the time when a Chinaman shall distinguish himself as much as the eminent counsel to whom I refer. I have seen stranger things happen."[3]

Later, Wu became the first ethnic Chinese Unofficial member of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong (appointed 1880).[4]

Service under the Qing Dynasty

The former residence of Envoy Wu and the Office of the Qing Legation to the United States, located in the Dupont Circle neighborhood of Washington, D.C.

He served under the Qing Dynasty as Minister to the United States, Spain, and Peru from 1896 to 1902 and from 1907 to 1909. In this role he lectured widely about Chinese culture and history, in part working to counter discrimination against Chinese emigrants by increasing foreign appreciation of their background. [5] To further this end, he published America, through the spectacles of an Oriental diplomat in English in 1914[6] (published by Stokes).[7]

Wu is mentioned several times in the diaries of Sir Ernest Satow who was British Envoy in China, 1900-06. For example, on 21 November 1903: "Wu Tingfang came in the afternoon, and stopped talking for an hour and a half about his commercial code and connected subjects. His idea is to draft also a new criminal code, and put both into force at the outset in the open ports." [8]

Service post Xinhai Revolution

He supported the Xinhai Revolution and negotiated on the revolutionaries' behalf in Shanghai. He served briefly in early 1912 as Minister of Justice for the Nanjing Provisional Government, where he argued strongly for an independent judiciary, based on his experience studying law and travelling overseas.[9] After this brief posting, Wu became Minister of Foreign Affairs for the ROC. He served briefly in 1917 as Acting Premier of the Republic of China.

He joined Sun Yat-sen's Constitutional Protection Movement and became a member of its governing committee. He advised Sun against becoming the "extraordinary president" but stuck with Sun after the election. He then served as Sun's foreign minister and as acting president when Sun was absent. He died shortly after Chen Jiongming rebelled against Sun.

References

Notes

  1. ↑ http://www.thechinastory.org/ritp/wu-ting-fang-伍廷芳/
  2. ↑ . Chinese Unofficial Members of the Legislative and Executive Councils in Hong Kong up to 1941, T C Cheng
  3. ↑ Re Ng Choy, [1842-1910] HKC 109
  4. ↑ "Hong Kong Yearbook 2004".
  5. ↑ Wong, K. Scott. (1995) Chinatown: conflicting images, contested terrain. MELUS 20(1):3-15.
  6. ↑ Wu Tingfang, America, through the spectacles of an Oriental diplomat Stokes (1914); Bastian Books (2008) ISBN 0-554-32616-7.
  7. ↑ "People who write". The Independent. Jul 6, 1914. Retrieved August 1, 2012.
  8. ↑ Ian Ruxton, ed. The Diaries of Sir Ernest Satow, British Envoy in Peking (1900-06), Lulu Press Inc., April 2006 ISBN 978-1-4116-8804-9 (Volume One, 1900-03, p. 389)
  9. ↑ Xu Xiaoqun. (1997) The fate of judicial independence in Republican China, 1912-37. The China Quarterly 149:1-28.

Further reading

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Wu Tingfang.
Legislative Council of Hong Kong
Preceded by
Hugh Bold Gibb		 Unofficial Member
1880–1882 		Succeeded by
Frederick Stewart
as unofficial
New office Senior Chinese Unofficial Member
1880–1882 		Vacant
Title next held by
Wong Shing
Political offices
Preceded by
Duan Qirui		 Premier of the Republic of China
23–25 May 1917 		Succeeded by
Li Jingxi
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