Wong Sau Ying

Wong Sau Ying
黃素英
Wong (c. 1925)
Born	c. 1898 China
Died	25 March 1927(1927-03-25) (aged 28–29) Pudu Prison, Kuala Lumpur, British Malaya
Cause of death	Suicide by hanging
Other names	Wong Sang
Movement	Anarchism
Motive	Unclear
Conviction(s)	10 years imprisonment
Criminal charge	Attempted murder
Details
Date	23 January 1925
Country	British Malaya
Location(s)	Chinese Protectorate, Kuala Lumpur
Injured	2–3[a]
Weapons	Improvised explosive device
Imprisoned at	Pudu Prison

Wong Sau Ying (Chinese: 黃素英;^[b] c. 1898 – 1927), also known by her alias Wong Sang,^[c] was a Chinese anarchist, known for her attempt to assassinate colonial officials in British Malaya.

Born in Imperial China, she moved in 1919 to British Malaya, where she became involved in the Malayan anarchist movement. Her lover, a Malayan anarchist, was deported by the British authorities and shot by order of the Chinese authorities. By 1925, she was plotting to assassinate Laurence Guillemard, the British High Commissioner of Malaya, but missed her opportunity. She then went to the Chinese Protectorate in Kuala Lumpur, where she detonated a bomb, injuring a colonial official and herself.

Her trial became a spectacle, in part due to the fixation of both the press and the British administration on her bob cut. She was reported to have smiled calmly through the proceedings, pleading guilty and refusing to explain her actions. Although the prosecution understood her to have had vague anarchist political motivations, the British authorities were unable to provide a clear explanation for her motives. She was sentenced to 10 years in prison, where she committed suicide by hanging.

In the wake of the bombing case, the Malayan anarchist movement came under heavy political repression, severely weakening it. Chinese women with bob cuts also came under suspicion, as press and state authorities began to associate the haircut with anarchist political motivations.

Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).