Rita Fan as a sex symbol?

There is a new fantasy love on the internet for the perennially repressed male, and no, it's not lonelygirl15.

You'd never guess: it's Legislative Council President Rita Fan Hsu Lai-tai, in her younger self (pictured) some 40 years ago.

It was Mrs Fan's 61st birthday this week. Perhaps to celebrate the joyous event, someone posted her university graduation photograph online and it immediately attracted dozens of comments like this one.

'Wow! She was hotter than most starlets today!'

In the past Mrs Fan has been described variously as an iron lady, Hong Kong's Jiang Ching (Mao's 'Gang of Four' wife) and even loving mother, but sex symbol?

However, look at those eyes!