Wu Tingfang (also referred to as Ng Choy) 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. He studied at
St. Paul's College in
Hong Kong (a
British colony at the time), where he learnt to read and write
English, and later studied law in
England at
University College London and was
called to the bar at
Lincoln's Inn in 1876, becoming the first ethnically
Chinese
barrister in history. After returning to Hong Kong, he became the first ethnically Chinese
unofficial member of the
Legislative Council of Hong Kong.Photo credit:
Frances Benjamin Johnston