Hong Kong’s history-making football manager Chan Yuen-ting and activist singer Denise Ho named among BBC’s ‘100 Women of 2016’
BBC honours record-making football coach and activist Canto-pop star
A football manager who made history and a pop star who drew the wrath of Beijing were Hong Kong’s representatives on the BBC’s 100 Women of 2016 list released on Monday.
Chan Yuen-ting, 28, became the first female coach to win a top-flight championship in charge of a men’s team.
And Denise Ho Wan-sze drew praise and condemnation in equal measure from people on both sides of the political divide for her high-profile support of the Occupy movement in the city.
Ho, 39, hit the headlines in 2016 after sponsors Lancome cancelled a promotional concert she was set to give after state-run tabloid The Global Times called for a boycott of the Canto-pop star. The move, seen as pandering to Beijing, sparked protests against the make-up company.
Chan, nicknamed ‘Beef Ball’, made headlines around the world as she led Eastern to the Hong Kong Premier League title – a feat recognised as unique by Guinness World Records – despite having almost no top-level playing experience and being younger than many of her players.
The BBC will run interviews and documentaries on the 100 women over the next three weeks as part of an annual effort “to give more space for stories that put women at the centre”.
Also on the list from China were Zheng Churan, a feminist activist and Ou Xiaobai, who made an app matching gay men and women who want to marry each other so they can fool their friends and family into thinking they are heterosexual.
