'I HAVE never worked in a nightclub, I have never worked in a bar, I have never been the mistress of anyone and I have never had an abortion!' This defiant statement was made by last year's Miss Hong Kong contestant Claudia Chan who had been accused of all of the above during the course of the pageant. But her declaration still left at least one question unanswered: does that mean you have had those breast implants? Such is the life of the Miss Hong Kong semi-finalist. During her 2 1/2 months of rigorous training, travelling and giggling for the annual TVB extravaganza, she must face the most traumatising of public scrutiny and closet cleaning. In the end, this muck-raking transforms the Miss Hong Kong affair from a pageant of beauty into an Olympics of Ogle. And we thought that all those girls had to do was show up and look pretty.
As the people of Hong Kong eagerly await the selection of this year's reigning beauty, they also zealously anticipate a scandal. In 1981, Loh Pui-chi had her Miss Hong Kong title knocked from her hairsprayed head when it was discovered she had lied about her age. Last year, finalist Teresa Mak Ka-kei, 17, had her dignity stripped away when nude photos of her ran in Eastweek magazine. (Unfortunately, this juicy bomb exploded after the pageant finals. But, hey, better late than never.) Every pageant has its rumours: this contestant is a slut, that contestant is a shoplifter, that contestant's nose is plastic.
Why are the Miss Hong Kong pageants so rife with scandal? Could it be that ever since Eve tempted Adam and Delilah felled Samson that man has distrusted female beauty? It was Petrarch who opined, 'Rarely do great beauty and great virtue dwell together'. Isthe pageant an opportunity to prove just that? More likely it's the way Henry Fielding once put it: 'Scandal is the greatest sweetener of tea'. And, as we know, there's no shortage of tea being drunk in Hong Kong.
'Ah, no scandals yet this year,' sighs a TVB pageant co-ordinator. 'In fact, the 1994 contestants are quite harmonious. So far this year has been quite boring.' But, rest assured, if there is a dearth of dirt, there are always previous contestants to rip apart. Five years after she sashayed her way through the Miss Hong Kong pageant, Betty Yau Pik-yu resurfaced in the headlines. The news report read: 'A former beauty queen appeared in Western Court yesterday charged with trafficking in cocaine.' Never mind that Yau was not a beauty queen; she had only won the title of Miss Popularity. The media was intent on toppling beauty in her stiletto heels.
For the former and present Miss Hong Kong contestants, controversy hangs around even longer than a bad perm. Does anyone catwalk through the Miss Hong Kong pageant and survive unmauled? We took the question to TVB's Eye On Hong Kong presenter, Valerie ChowKar-ling, who was first runner-up in the 1991 pageant.
'The pageant is all in the mind,' she says. 'How well you do will depend on how strong you are psychologically because you have to deal with so many rumours, so much gossip, so many things.' We met Chow at the University of Hong Kong, where she recently completed a bachelor of law degree. In fact, she picked up her diploma that afternoon and was waving it around. 'It's really kinda big for a diploma, don't you think?' We didn't believe the rumours but we have to admit, we did hear them. You know, the ones about all the Miss Hong Kong pageant contestants being ex-Giordano shop girls, or karaoke bar waitresses, or high school drop-outs clawing their way towards a better life. Dressed in baggy jeans, a crocheted sweater, and noisy clogs, 23-year-old Chow looks like a student and the type of girl who would never consider crawling through a karaoke bar, let alone staying up past midnight.
When Chow suggests we go back to her flat, I think, 'Ah, ha! Now we'll get to see the real Chow in her swinging bachelor-girl pad, complete with a yapping tai-tai poodle, mirrored vanities, plush velvet boudoir sofas and Versace pumps lining her Chanel-laden wardrobes. All this compliments of some Hong Kong fat cats who she seduced during her Miss Hong Kong days.' No such luck. Chow's lives in a Mid-Levels apartment with her parents. The family moved to Hong Kong from Vancouver when Canadian-born Chow was 15. 'Do you want something to drink?' she asks, pulling open the refrigerator door. 'Let's see, we have milk, mango juice or orange juice.' 'So like I said, there's a lot of pressure in the pageant,' Chow says as she comes into the lounge with glasses of juice and plops on to a couch.