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Ellen Li

Vietnamese politician

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMar 29, 2026
Entity authorityQ11096914 ↗
Source-derived summary

Ellen Li Shu-pui (Chinese: 李樹培夫人; born Ts'o Sau-kuan; 22 July 1908 – 2 June 2005) was a politician in Hong Kong. She is best known as the first woman to be appointed to the Legislative Council of Hong Kong.

Early life and education

Li was born Ts'o Sau-kuan in 1908 in Saigon, Vietnam. She was educated at the St. Stephen's Girls' College and was among the first women to study business administration at the University of Shanghai. After her education, she worked at the Chinese Maritime Customs before she moved to Hong Kong in 1934. She married Dr. Li Shu-pui, younger brother of Dr. Li Shu-fan, in 1936.

Public life

During the depression years of the 1930s Hong Kong, she worked in the social services and founded the Hong Kong Chinese Women's Club and the Hong Kong Council of Women.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Ellen Li” as vietnamese politician. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Ellen, Vietnamese and politician.

Editorial reviewA useful biographical orientation record, particularly for establishing names, roles and a first chronology. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1908, 2005, 1934, 1936—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1908-07-22. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Ellen, Vietnamese and politician providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Ellen Li”, the useful work is to connect “vietnamese politician” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 29, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q11096914. VIAF identifies the subject as 34245224. The Library of Congress control number is no2007111653. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1908, 2005, 1934 and 1936.

Critical limits

A concise life account rarely captures disputed attribution, private networks or the changing language used to describe a career. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Ellen Li”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Ellen Li primary sources, Ellen Li archive and Ellen research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Ellen Li”?
  2. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
  3. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Ellen Li” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.