Thuzar Wint Lwin Explained

Thuzar Wint Lwin
Alias:Candy Thuzar
Birth Place:Yangon, Myanmar
Height:5ft 7in
Alma Mater:East Yangon University
Hair Color:Black
Eye Color:Brown
Miss Universe Myanmar 2020

Thuzar Wint Lwin (Burmese: သူဇာဝင့်လွင်, also known as Candy Thuzar, is a Burmese activist and beauty pageant titleholder who was crowned Miss Universe Myanmar 2020. She represented Myanmar at Miss Universe 2020, where she reached the top 21 and won the Best National Costume award, becoming the first representative of Myanmar to place in the competition.

Pageantry

Miss Universe Myanmar 2020

On 30 December 2020, Thuzar Wint Lwin won Miss Universe Myanmar 2020 representing Hakha, Chin State, and was crowned by outgoing titleholder Swe Zin Htet. She also won Miss Healthy Skin, Miss Dentiste, and the Best in Evening Gown Awards.[1]

Miss Universe 2020

See main article: Miss Universe 2020. As Miss Universe Myanmar, Thuzar Wint Lwin received the right to represent Myanmar at Miss Universe 2020. Originally planned for winter 2020, the pageant was moved due to the COVID-19 pandemic to spring 2021, and held in Hollywood, Florida.[2] Several months before the pageant was held, the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état occurred, which saw a military junta deposing the democratically elected National League for Democracy government and its leader Aung Sang Suu Kyi. Following this, Thuzar Wint Lwin began advocating for the Burmese pro-democracy movement.[3] [4] [5] After arriving at the competition, Thuzar Wint Lwin's luggage was lost, including all of her outfits and her national costume. An alternate national costume was created within days by members of the Burmese American community, based on the ethnic costume of the Chin people. In the national costume contest, Thuzar Wint Lwin held a sign that read "Pray for Myanmar", referring to the coup, this attracted international media attention.[6] She went on to win the Best National Costume award, the second time that Myanmar has won this award.[7] Thuzar Wint Lwin later went on to place in the Top 21 of the competition, becoming the first Burmese representative to place at Miss Universe.[8] [9] [10] [11]

Political activism

Immediately following the coup, Thuzar Wint Lwin became an activist for the Myanmar pro-democracy movement, through participating in rallies and social media activism.[12] Thuzar Wint Lwin also became affiliated with the We Want Justice three-finger salute movement, which was launched on social media and saw several Burmese celebrities participating.[13] [14]

Following Miss Universe 2020, her arrest warrant was announced by the junta,[15] [16] [17] [18] and she was granted asylum in the United States, settling in Indianapolis, Indiana with the local Burmese American community.[19] In August 2021, she moved to London after signing with a British modeling agency.[20]

Notes and References

  1. News: Hakha beauty receives 8th Miss Universe Myanmar crown . The Myanmar Times . 5 January 2021 . 17 May 2021 . 17 May 2021 . https://web.archive.org/web/20210517040702/https://www.mmtimes.com/news/hakha-beauty-receives-8th-miss-universe-myanmar-crown.html . dead .
  2. News: Miss Universe competition to air live from Florida in May . . 3 March 2021 . https://web.archive.org/web/20210304043804/https://apnews.com/article/miss-universe-air-live-florida-may-d6441947f6c7ff8d9d430155ab975b8b . 4 March 2021.
  3. Web site: Chappell . Bill . Diaz . Jaclyn . Myanmar Coup: With Aung San Suu Kyi Detained, Military Takes Over Government . NPR . 8 February 2021 . 1 February 2021 . 8 February 2021 . https://web.archive.org/web/20210208000452/https://www.npr.org/2021/02/01/962758188/myanmar-coup-military-detains-aung-san-suu-kyi-plans-new-election-in-2022 . live .
  4. Web site: Strangio . Sebastian . Protests, Anger Spreading Rapidly in the Wake of Myanmar Coup . The Diplomat . 8 February 2021 . 8 February 2021 . 8 February 2021 . https://web.archive.org/web/20210208065928/https://thediplomat.com/2021/02/protests-anger-spreading-rapidly-in-the-wake-of-myanmar-coup/ . live .
  5. News: Thuzar Wint Lwin speaks up on Myanmar crisis at Miss Universe 2020 . Rappler . 17 May 2021 . en . 17 May 2021 . 17 May 2021 . https://web.archive.org/web/20210517032326/https://www.rappler.com/entertainment/pageants/thuzar-wint-lwin-calls-attention-myanmar-crisis-miss-universe-2020-finals . live .
  6. News: Miss Myanmar won the Miss Universe national costume contest with a powerful political statement . Yahoo News . 17 May 2021 . 17 May 2021 . 17 May 2021 . https://web.archive.org/web/20210517065521/https://news.yahoo.com/news/miss-myanmar-won-miss-universe-023102580.html . live .
  7. News: Konstantinides. Anneta . Miss Myanmar wins Miss Universe national costume contest . Insider . 17 May 2021.
  8. Web site: ဟားခါးအလှမယ် သူဇာဝင့်လွင် မယ်စကြဝဠာမြန်မာသရဖူ ဆွတ်ခူးရရှိ. DVB. 31 December 2020. my. 17 May 2021. 14 January 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210114101551/http://burmese.dvb.no/archives/431743. live.
  9. Web site: Miss Universe Myanmar 2020 Winner ဆုကြီးကို ရရှိပိုင်ဆိုင်သွားတဲ့ သူဇာဝင့်လွင်. Duwun. 20 December 2020. 17 May 2021. 20 September 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210920120547/https://www.duwun.com.mm/entertainment/local-celebrity/p-id46916. live.
  10. Web site: မယ်ယ်စကြဝဠာမြန်မာ ၂၀၂၀ဆုကို အလှမယ် သူဇာဝင့်လွင် ဆွတ်ခူ. 7Day News. my.
  11. News: Miss Myanmar wins Miss Universe 2020 National Costume . Philstar . 17 May 2021 . 17 May 2021 . 10 April 2023 . https://web.archive.org/web/20230410073507/https://www.philstar.com/lifestyle/fashion-and-beauty/2021/05/17/2098848/miss-myanmar-wins-miss-universe-2020-national-costume/amp/ . live .
  12. News: At Miss Universe pageant, Myanmar's contestant pleads: 'Our people are dying' . CNA . 17 May 2021 . en . 17 May 2021 . 17 May 2021 . https://web.archive.org/web/20210517070213/https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asia/myanmar-miss-universe-contestant-thuzar-wint-lwin-14825656 . dead .
  13. News: တရားမျှတမှု We Want Justice ကန်ပိန်းတွင် အနုပညာရှင်များပါဝင် ဆန္ဒထုတ်ဖော် (ဓာတ်ပုံ) . DVB . 4 February 2021 . my . 17 May 2021 . 17 May 2021 . https://web.archive.org/web/20210517031606/https://burmese.dvb.no/archives/439052 . live .
  14. News: ရုပ်ရှင်၊ ဂီတ၊ စာပေ၊ သဘင်အနုပညာရှင်များက We Want Justice လက်သုံးချောင်းထောင်ပြီး လှုပ်ရှားမှုတွင်ပါဝင် . Eleven Media Group . 6 February 2021 . my . 17 May 2021 . 6 February 2021 . https://web.archive.org/web/20210206052550/https://news-eleven.com/article/204128 . live .
  15. News: Paddock . Richard C. . Miss Universe Myanmar Arrives in Florida With a Message for the Junta . The New York Times . 14 May 2021 . 17 May 2021 . 4 April 2023 . https://web.archive.org/web/20230404112007/https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/14/world/asia/myanmar-coup-miss-universe.html . live .
  16. Web site: Protect her at all cost! Myanmar issues warrant of arrest for their representative Ma Thuzar Wint Lwin . 18 May 2021 . www.msn.com . 18 May 2021 . https://web.archive.org/web/20210518114518/https://www.msn.com/en-ph/entertainment/entertainmentnews/protect-her-at-all-cost-myanmar-issues-warrant-of-arrest-for-their-representative-ma-thuzar-wint-lwin/ar-BB1gQ4eZ?ocid=PanCafe&li=BB15QWvV . live .
  17. Web site: Miss Myanmar, tumakas lang sa kanilang bansa para makasali sa Miss Universe 2020 . 2021-05-18 . PEP.ph . fil . 18 May 2021 . https://web.archive.org/web/20210518114520/https://www.pep.ph/pepalerts/cabinet-files/158396/miss-myanmar-miss-universe-2020-a734-20210517 . live .
  18. Web site: Ichimura . Anri . Miss Myanmar Stood Up to the Military During the Miss Universe Pageant. Now Prison Might Await Her Back Home . 18 May 2021 . Esquiremag.ph . 18 May 2021 . https://web.archive.org/web/20210518104440/https://www.esquiremag.ph/politics/news/miss-myanmar-universe-military-a00304-20210518 . live .
  19. Web site: Miss Myanmar Thuzar Wint Lwin finds refuge in the US. GMA Network. 25 May 2021. Quieta. Racquel. 1 October 2021. 1 October 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20211001120846/https://www.gmanetwork.com/entertainment/showbiznews/news/77173/miss-myanmar-thuzar-wint-lwin-finds-refuge-in-the-us/story. live.
  20. Web site: Miss Universe Myanmar signs with London agency. Mizzima. 16 August 2021. 1 October 2021. 1 October 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20211001072429/https://mizzima.com/article/miss-universe-myanmar-signs-london-agency. live.