Thuzar Wint Lwin

Thuzar Wint Lwin (Burmese: သူဇာဝင့်လွင်; born 18 October 1998), also known as Candy Thuzar, is a Burmese model, activist and beauty pageant titleholder who was crowned Miss Universe Myanmar 2020. She represented Myanmar at the Miss Universe 2020 pageant, where she placed in the Top 21 and won the Best National Costume award, becoming the first representative of Myanmar to place in the competition.

In this Burmese name, the given name is Thuzar Wint Lwin. There is no family name.

Thuzar Wint Lwin
သူဇာဝင့်လွင်
Born (1998-10-18) 18 October 1998
Yangon, Myanmar
Other namesCandy Thuzar
Alma materEast Yangon University
Occupations
  • Model
  • activist
Height5 ft 7 in (1.70 m)
Beauty pageant titleholder
TitleMiss Universe Myanmar 2020
AgencyJem Models | M & P Models
Hair colorBlack
Eye colorBrown
Major
competition(s)		Miss Universe Hakha 2019
(Winner)
Miss Universe Myanmar 2020
(Winner)
Miss Universe 2020
(Top 21)

As a beauty pageant titleholder, Thuzar Wint Lwin became a political activist for the pro-democracy movement in Myanmar, participating in protests and demonstrations and raising awareness against the military junta and 2021 coup d'état. As a result of her activism, the Burmese military junta put out an arrest warrant for Thuzar Wint Lwin, and she received asylum in the United States.

Early life and education

Thuzar Wint Lwin was born on 18 October 1998 in Yangon. At the time of winning Miss Universe Myanmar, Thuzar Wint Lwin was a student studying English at East Yangon University. She is the youngest child among three siblings, having an older brother and a sister, May, who is a Burmese actress and singer.

Pageantry

Miss Universe Myanmar 2020

On 30 December 2020, Thuzar Wint Lwin was crowned as Miss Universe Myanmar 2020 by outgoing titleholder Swe Zin Htet. During the competition, she represented the Burmese city of Hakha within Chin State. Thuzar Wint Lwin also won four special awards at Miss Universe Myanmar including Miss Photogenic, Miss Healthy Skin, Miss Dentiste Award, and Best in Evening Gown Award.[1][2]

Miss Universe 2020

As Miss Universe Myanmar, Thuzar Wint Lwin received the right to represent Myanmar at Miss Universe 2020. Originally slated for the winter of 2020, the pageant was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic to spring 2021, where it was held in Hollywood, Florida.[3] Several months before the pageant was held, the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état occurred, which saw a military junta deposing of the democratically elected National League for Democracy government and its leader Aung Sang Suu Kyi. Following this, advocating for the Burmese pro-democracy movement became Thuzar Wint Lwin's platform within the competition.[4][5][6] After arriving to the competition, Thuzar Wint Lwin's luggage was lost, including all of her outfits and her national costume. She later had an alternate national costume created within a matter of 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", alluding to the 2021 coup d'état, which garnered international media attention.[7] She went on to win the Best National Costume award, the second time that Myanmar has won this award.[8] 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.[1][9][10][11]

Political activism

Immediately following the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état, Thuzar Wint Lwin became an activist for the Myanmar pro-democracy movement, through both participating in rallies and online social media activism.[12][13] 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.[14][15]

Following Miss Universe 2020, where Thuzar Wint Lwin advocated for the pro-democracy movement on international television, an arrest warrant was announced by the military junta.[12][16][17][18] Following the arrest warrant, Thuzar Wint Lwin 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]

References
  1. "ဟားခါးအလှမယ် သူဇာဝင့်လွင် မယ်စကြဝဠာမြန်မာသရဖူ ဆွတ်ခူးရရှိ". DVB (in Burmese). 31 December 2020.
  2. "Hakha beauty receives 8th Miss Universe Myanmar crown". The Myanmar Times. 5 January 2021.
  3. "Miss Universe competition to air live from Florida in May". Associated Press. 3 March 2021. Archived from the original on 4 March 2021.
  4. Chappell, Bill; Diaz, Jaclyn (1 February 2021). "Myanmar Coup: With Aung San Suu Kyi Detained, Military Takes Over Government". NPR. Archived from the original on 8 February 2021. Retrieved 8 February 2021.
  5. Strangio, Sebastian (8 February 2021). "Protests, Anger Spreading Rapidly in the Wake of Myanmar Coup". The Diplomat. Archived from the original on 8 February 2021. Retrieved 8 February 2021.
  6. "Thuzar Wint Lwin speaks up on Myanmar crisis at Miss Universe 2020". Rappler. 17 May 2021.
  7. "Miss Myanmar won the Miss Universe national costume contest with a powerful political statement". Yahoo News. 17 May 2021.
  8. 16 May, Anneta Konstantinides (17 May 2021). "Miss Myanmar wins Miss Universe national costume contest". Insider.
  9. "Miss Universe Myanmar 2020 Winner ဆုကြီးကို ရရှိပိုင်ဆိုင်သွားတဲ့ သူဇာဝင့်လွင်". Duwun. 20 December 2020.
  10. "မယ်ယ်စကြဝဠာမြန်မာ ၂၀၂၀ဆုကို အလှမယ် သူဇာဝင့်လွင် ဆွတ်ခူ". 7Day News (in Burmese).
  11. "Miss Myanmar wins Miss Universe 2020 National Costume". Philstar. 17 May 2021.
  12. Paddock, Richard C. (14 May 2021). "Miss Universe Myanmar Arrives in Florida With a Message for the Junta". The New York Times.
  13. "At Miss Universe pageant, Myanmar's contestant pleads: 'Our people are dying'". CNA. 17 May 2021.
  14. "တရားမျှတမှု We Want Justice ကန်ပိန်းတွင် အနုပညာရှင်များပါဝင် ဆန္ဒထုတ်ဖော် (ဓာတ်ပုံ)". DVB (in Burmese). 4 February 2021.
  15. "ရုပ်ရှင်၊ ဂီတ၊ စာပေ၊ သဘင်အနုပညာရှင်များက We Want Justice လက်သုံးချောင်းထောင်ပြီး လှုပ်ရှားမှုတွင်ပါဝင်". Eleven Media Group (in Burmese). 6 February 2021.
  16. "Protect her at all cost! Myanmar issues warrant of arrest for their representative Ma Thuzar Wint Lwin". www.msn.com. Retrieved 18 May 2021.
  17. "Miss Myanmar, tumakas lang sa kanilang bansa para makasali sa Miss Universe 2020". PEP.ph (in Filipino). Retrieved 18 May 2021.
  18. Ichimura, Anri. "Miss Myanmar Stood Up to the Military During the Miss Universe Pageant. Now Prison Might Await Her Back Home". Esquiremag.ph. Retrieved 18 May 2021.
  19. Quieta, Racquel (25 May 2021). "Miss Myanmar Thuzar Wint Lwin finds refuge in the US". GMA Network.
  20. "Miss Universe Myanmar signs with London agency". Mizzima. 16 August 2021.


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