Ludu Daw Amar - Student Writer and Activist

Student Writer and Activist

Born into an old established Mandalay family that traded in tobacco and manufactured cheroots, Amar was the fourth in a family of twelve, of whom only six survived to adulthood. She was educated at the American Baptist Mission School and subsequently the National High School under the headmaster Abdul Razak who later became the Education Minister in Aung San's cabinet and was assassinated with him and others in July 1947. She read science at the Mandalay Intermediate College and went on to Rangoon University for a Bachelor's degree. Her first notable work was a translation of Trials in Burma by Maurice Collis in 1938, and by that time she was already published in the university's Owei (အိုးဝေ, Peacock's Call) magazine, and also Kyipwa Yay (ကြီးပွားရေးမဂ္ဂဇင်း, Progress) magazine, run by her future husband U Hla, under her own name as well as the pen names Mya Myint Zu and Khin La Win.

When the second university students strike in history broke out in 1936, Amar and her friend from Mandalay M.A. Ma Ohn became famous as women student leaders among the strikers camped out on the terraces of the Shwedagon Pagoda. U Hla was a staunch supporter of the strike and started courting Amar; in 1939 they got married and U Hla moved his magazine to Mandalay.