Photo:VCG

After the results of the Miss Hong Kong competition were released, the backgrounds of some of the candidates drew netizens’ attention. While a few had doubts, most netizens argued that they are new Hong Kong people whose status should certainly be recognized.

The Miss Hong Kong contest was held on Sunday, with 16 contestants. On the same night, the top three were selected – Zhuang Zixuan, Wang Yiran and Wang Minci – with 21-year-old Zhuang declared the winner.  
 
After the results were released, some netizens noticed that both the second- and third-placed candidates were not originally from Hong Kong, unlike in previous events. 

Although the champion Zhuang was born in Hong Kong, she has a big fanbase in the Chinese mainland, and news of her victory has been widely reported in Fujian Province. Some netizens left comments saying she is “the pride of Fujian.”

The first runner-up Wang Yiran is from East China’s Jiangsu Province. She is a student at Hong Kong Baptist University, and also an internet influencer in the Chinese mainland. Wang not only shared the videos of her Hong Kong tour on social media platforms, but also shot some more to share her experience of competing for Miss Hong Kong. She confessed that she had been under great pressure as she found speaking Cantonese “difficult, but I can learn very quickly.” 

The second runner-up Wang Minci was born in Hong Kong but grew up in Singapore. In 2020, she attended an online talent show, and in 2022, she was admitted to the Central Academy of Drama in Beijing. She also said she was eager to learn to speak Cantonese. 
Media reports said that at the interview stage, nearly half of the candidates were from the Chinese mainland. 

Virginia Lok, a member of the judges, spoke highly of the candidates from the Chinese mainland, and said there would not be a barrier that Miss Hong Kong “must have been born and grown up in Hong Kong.” According to the previous practice, candidates must be aged 18-28 and be single and childless women, and they need to have Hong Kong ID of either permanent or non-permanent status. It means those who live in the Chinese mainland and who come to Hong Kong to study or work can also participate in the competition. 

From 2006 to 2016, the number of students from the Chinese mainland who went to university in Hong Kong increased from 5,754 to 11,891, and by 2022 the number of applicants reached nearly 40,000. 

Although a few people questioned why some candidates are not originally from Hong Kong, most netizens said that if they have local ID, their status should be recognized. 

One netizen said: “Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-shing is not from Hong Kong, either. And his hometown is Shantou [in South China’s Guangdong Province].”

Tian Feilong, vice president of the School of Law of Minzu University of China, said this is not an accidental trend. With the integrated development between Hong Kong and the Chinese mainland, more and more girls from the mainland will come to Hong Kong.
 
“As new Hong Kong people, their active participation demonstrates they are eager to enlarge their cultural exposure and increase their social influence, so they will become an important driving force in boosting the social and cultural development of Hong Kong.”
  
Miss Hong Kong is a pageant initiated in 1946. Starting from 1973, it was sponsored by Hong Kong TVBroadcasts Ltd (TVB), and later was transferred to TVB.