In Hong Kong, dissent has a female voice

Perhaps. But it isn't yet a phenomenon in the Chinese Asian world. On the mainland, men run government. The Communist Party did recently elevate the respected Wu Yi to the Politburo. But the ruling Standing Committee are all men. While Shanghai is known for strong females, they are famed for working behind the scenes, inside powerful families.

Taiwan is the other place in Chinese Asia with female reformers. But this is only in recent years, with the election of the Democratic People's Party (DPP).

"Like Hong Kong, Taiwan is an immigrant society," says DPP legislator Bi-Khim Hsiao, who won a seat two years ago. "In the 1970s, there were few women in Taiwanese politics, and they battled intense feelings of isolation. But I ran last year stressing my youth and gender."

The Hong Kong women have their own styles. Ms. Loh is an easy-going veteran organizer, whose hard hitting Internet letter belies a youthful demeanor. Ms. Lau, the first elected female here, is a self-described "tough cookie" - a throaty sharp dresser who one imagines would be comfortable in the Texas Statehouse, should she decide to switch passports. Diminutive Margaret Ng, a brilliant legal light, has a quiet Buddha-like expression, dexterously articulating fine points of law.

Few of the females have banded or bonded in anything like a political women's cooperative. Loh works outside the system. Lau sees political parties as the answer. Others, like Ms. Chan and Ms. Wu, emerged through the Oxford-training of the British civil servant.

Wu headed the equal opportunity office here. She recently lost her job after taking her government to court over a city policy of favoring males in college admissions. Females are qualifying for university seats in such great numbers that males were losing out. Wu said it was discrimination, and filed suit.

Women in Hong Kong say the identity of their city as a place of refuge and transit has also shaped their values.

Lau has a typical story: Her father and mother escaped from Canton in 1948. The father died. The mother had to take "domestic service," which in colonial Britain meant living with the family she served. Lau and her brothers bounced all over Hong Kong, living with relatives. "We were all apolitical, we just wanted to survive," Lau says.

But a kindly uncle made it possible for her to attend the University of Southern California. That landed her in Los Angeles in 1973 during the Watergate hearings.

Those hearings turned her world around. She became a journalist and made her first splash when standing up to Margaret Thatcher in 1984, during a press conference after the Sino-British declaration to hand over Hong Kong.

"I asked her, 'Two days ago you signed an agreement with China that will deliver five million people to the communists. Is this morally acceptable to you?'"

The next Hong Kong moment is in September when the Tung government unveils its "consultation document." Democrats worry the document may simply rehash the unwanted content of the earlier bill.

"What we are saying is, just pass Article 23 without slipping in all sorts of other things," says Ng. "Then we can discuss other security issues separately."

Looking back on the summer of dissent Loh says, "Guys have been important too. They sometimes don't get enough appreciation."

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