Was Mr Hong Kong ‘bad taste’ or ‘great’? Critics and contenders on controversial pageant

From 2005 to 2011 – and again in 2016 – Hong Kong broadcasting company TVB bet on a male pageant to score more than just a win with its female viewers. Modelled loosely after the Miss Hong Kong Pageant, a beauty contest that the station took over in 1973, Mr Hong Kong effectively also served as a star-scouting vehicle for recruiting male talent while offering hopefuls with bulging muscles and big smiles the promise of fame. But unlike Miss Hong Kong – the 2026 finals will take place on August 30 – Mr Hong Kong ran out of steam in just six years. After a brief return in 2016, the event was quickly suspended indefinitely. TVB teased a 2021 revival, but the contest never materialised, and many title winners left the industry within a few years. Perhaps Mr Hong Kong was unintentionally camp and misunderstood by viewers, or maybe, with its salacious attempts at comedy that took precedence over selecting stand-out talent, it was simply a bad knock-off of the Miss Hong Kong contests. It has been a decade since the show was shelved, but one question remains: why did Mr Hong Kong fail to emulate Miss Hong Kong’s longevity? ‘Filled with scenes of screaming and fondling’ For a start, the male pageant was filled with more in-your-face dirty slapstick moments than its sister competition. One incident that caused a media stir occurred during the 2008 contest, when actress Christine Ng Wing-mei pretended to require an oxygen mask after touching a contestant. The following year, the female audience members and guest celebrities were given a “look but don’t touch” rule. In 2009, the Mr Hong Kong pageant became the target of a moral campaign. Members of Hong Kong’s Parents for the Family Association (PFA), together with the California-based Organisation for Justice and Equality and the Hong Kong Men’s Concern Group, lodged public complaints against Mr Hong Kong with the Equal Opportunities Commission. According to records from the PFA, the allegations followed that “the programme was filled with scenes of screaming and fondling, sexually provocative acts by the female judges … giving the impression that the contestants were reduced to objects for female viewing and molestation”. Complainants believed this was a possible breach of the Sex Discrimination Ordinance. The PFA was also concerned about the show’s international viewership in the United States and Canada and believed it “might lead people to believe that Chinese men and women are all lustful and lack inner virtues”. The PFA further wrote in a 2010 online statement that this “also constitutes racial discrimination – or even indirect racial defamation”. In 2010, then-president of the PFA Howard Lai complained about the show to the now-defunct Hong Kong Broadcasting Authority, claiming that the “programme hostess did not give sufficient time for the contestants to express different views” and that the “contest puts emphasis on the appearance of the contestants”. When asked by the South China Morning Post, Lai says he was not, in principle, against the contest, but was concerned about the perceived indecency and sexual discrimination in the show and wanted to implement changes that could “promote a positive and virtuous masculinity” in Hong Kong. The PFA – which formally dissolved in 2022 – never filed any similar complaints against the Miss Hong Kong contest, which some viewers today may argue is similar in its sexual discrimination or objectification. Notably, Miss Hong Kong has historically invited male and female judges to the show, and male judges do not have a segment in which they can touch the candidates. “As an impression, bad taste and indecency did exist occasionally in the Miss Hong Kong Pageant shows,” Lai says, adding that “Miss Hong Kong has a much longer history than Mr Hong Kong. I am not inclined to compare them as it is like to compare an apple with an orange.” Though the Broadcasting Authority ultimately dismissed the complaints, they left a mark. TVB began to tighten the leash on its judges, instructing them to avoid exaggerated reactions. Male judges and guest celebrities featured in the 2011 contest, and a pageant staple – the swimsuit round – was abandoned in the 2016 edition. Did the Mr Hong Kong contestants feel exploited? When TVB actor Joey Law Tin-yu competed in the 2008 contest, there were only female judges and an all-female audience present. Law has had a steady stream of work in TVB projects since his 2008 victory in the contest’s youth division; unlike Miss Hong Kong, contestants could win in either the youth or mature division, with the overall winner selected from both groups. “I really didn’t see it as a problem,” Law says, who believes the all-female audience of his year added a lively atmosphere to the show. “Men rarely shout ‘Oh yeah!’ when seeing another shirtless guy, even if they think ‘Cool, man!’” he says, laughing. Rather than feeling uncomfortable with the judges or audience, Law remembers only feeling discomfort about his own physique. He grew up feeling that he was perceived as “delicate, with a soft voice, and not the very ‘manly’ or tough type”, but feels that the Mr Hong Kong contest helped him develop confidence and confront his anxiety. Law even compares his experience on the show to the fun of a “summer camp”. For 2011 Mr Hong Kong winner Clayton Nicholas Li, the valuable lesson he learned after the show is that “fame … is not easy”. The now 39-year-old does say, however, that he “had a great time” as a Mr Hong Kong title winner. Li left Hong Kong nearly a decade ago after working as a TVB actor in the years following his victory. “I was 24 when I competed, but now I’m in Toronto … pursuing photography and videography,” he says. He now runs his own film and photo studio, Diractor Productions. Li prepared a floating-table magic trick as part of his act for his talent segment – a surreal scene that perhaps captures the show’s unresolved tension and identity crisis. Was this a search for the next leading man, or was it a comedy sketch with six-pack abs? Why were Miss and Mr Hong Kong so different? Miss and Mr Hong Kong were never designed to be the same show, says Tsang Sing-ming, TVB’s former deputy director of publicity, who handled the 2010 complaints. “Miss Hong Kong contestants carried a clear purpose and duty – promoting Hong Kong’s image – and were even supported by organisations like the Hong Kong Trade Development Council,” Tsang says. With a decade having passed since the last edition of Mr Hong Kong – during which time discussions about gender equality have become more prominent – is there space for the competition to return? Law believes that TVB should bring back Mr Hong Kong and recommends that young talent audition for such shows. “When I started, I had no concept of becoming an actor or singer … step by step, I discovered my interests, understood myself better,” he says. Tsang says if TVB were to bring it back, they could host Mr Hong Kong every few years for special occasions rather than as an annual tradition. “It could be like the World Cup or Olympics,” he says. Perhaps, when the contest was running, TVB inadvertently turned the pageant into a self-parody in which the contestants were “in on the joke” in a way some viewers were not. To revive it today in a different social context, Mr Hong Kong will have to rethink how it can escape the limbo between the aspirations of Miss Hong Kong and the campy unpredictability of a variety show. Before returning, Mr Hong Kong must figure out what kind of “man” it is trying to sell.

Was Mr Hong Kong ‘bad taste’ or ‘great’? Critics and contenders on controversial pageant

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Slated for objectifying men, TVB’s male beauty contest couldn’t match Miss Hong Kong’s longevity. But will it ever return?

Slated for objectifying men, TVB’s male beauty contest couldn’t match Miss Hong Kong’s longevity. But will it ever return?