Hong Kong’s Mia Kang on her victory in Sports Illustrated global model contest
Sports Illustrated swimsuit star tells us about making it as a Eurasian model in the West, overcoming obesity and eating disorders and how muay Thai helped her gain body confidence
As the first Hongkonger to make it as a Sports Illustrated swimsuit model as well as being a Guess campaign girl, Mia Kang has gone from Hong Kong modelling sensation to international breakout figure. Now she’s been voted winner of Sports Illustrated’s 2016 global model search contest. And the Korean-British model couldn’t be happier.
“Being Asian and having achieved these two campaigns means even more to me. I want to make everyone back home proud, and put Hong Kong on the map,” Kang says.
It was only last year, having worked around Asia and Europe and booked a few big jobs in the United States, that Kang decided to move to New York to try her luck in the world’s most competitive market.
“I had never attempted to tap into their market and was quite intimidated by it and didn’t think there was any room for me in it. I wasn’t sure if they would understand my aesthetic of being mixed Asian. In my experience in this industry, a lot of markets classify you as one race or the other,” says the graduate of the English Schools Foundation’s Island School.
The Hong Kong scene provides a good launchpad for models (Eurasians in particular) to a pan-Asian market where the look is popular – South Korea, Japan and China can all be promising places for work. However, truly global success has eluded most of the top models in Hong Kong other than Maggie Q, who has successfully launched an acting career in Hollywood.