PRINTED T-SHIRTS, tops and safari jackets have been emptied from a jam-packed wardrobe and lie in a pile before Heidi Ho Kam-sau. The thirtysomething housewife from Tuen Mun is getting a makeover from image consultant Tina Liu Tin-lan, and sorting through her clothes is part of the process.
'There's nothing wrong with these clothes, but they don't reveal your character,' Liu says after her subject describes her lifestyle. But by the end of the day, Liu and her team have transformed the formerly plain Ho into a stylish, well-groomed woman.
Ho's fashionable new look is the result of Looking Good With Tina, a makeover programme recently launched on ATV and one of a handful of reality television shows being made in the city.
Originating in the west, reality TV has swept the world in recent years thanks to (largely) unscripted plot twists, created by ordinary people in challenging circumstances. Top-rated western imports such as Survivor have spawned a raft of regional imitators. Adaptations of the hugely popular American Idol can be found in India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines, and the mainland has Wise Man Takes All, inspired by The Apprentice. Regional broadcasters have come up with their own versions of shows such as Fear Factor and Big Brother. And the Thais even lifted the Mexican fame school show La Academia.
Yet, despite Hong Kong viewers' appetite for imported reality shows, few local versions have taken off. Cultural differences may be a key barrier: TV executives say Hong Kong people are too uptight to make a fool of themselves in public.
The 'face' factor may be one reason local shows tend not to mock participants as they do in the west, says Chinese University psychologist Winton Au Wing-tung. When TVB launched its version of British game show The Weakest Link in 2001, for instance, acid-tongued host Dodo Cheng Yue-ling had to soften her barbed comments after complaints.