2014 Miss Chinese International Contestants Meet the Press
The 2014 Miss Chinese International contestants had their first meeting with the press on January 20. Wearing the same raspberry-colored one-piece swimwear, sixteen delegates from nine territories, between the ages 19 and 26, were introduced. The pageant finals will be held on Sunday, January 26.
Though the contestants were criticized for their plain looks, many contestants have fantastic bodies with tall heights. Contestant #3 Jessica Ou (區思敏) from Chicago, #7 Wendy Shu (束雯) from Los Angeles, #11 Amanda Lee (李嘉嘉) from San Francisco, and #15 Mandy Liang (梁淼) from Toronto were noted for their voluptuous figures.
Delegate #5 Grace Chan (陳凱琳), crowned 2013’s Miss Hong Kong last year, was noted for being the shortest and “flattest” competitor, but Grace confidently said that height is not the determining factor in winning. “I will work harder on other things,” she said.
Already a hot favorite to win amongst the Miss Chinese International supporters, Grace was asked if she felt that she had a winning edge. She said, “No. When I go out there would be people who come to me to say that they would support me, and I am really thankful. However, it gives pressure for me to do better. Hopefully I’ll be able to present myself more confidently this time, to let the audience know that I have improved in the last half year.”
In a random draw, Grace was chosen to try out wearing the Miss Chinese international jewel crown and golden staff, respectively worth $539,000 HKD and $240,000 HKD. “I’m lucky! I know last year Carat Cheung (張名雅) also got to try it.”
Grace expressed that she supports contestant #6 Zhiny Ong (黃之豫), a delegate from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. She said, “We’re dorming together. I’ve been talking to her a lot so I am closer to her. I think she’s very talented and I really like her. She has my blessings!”
Below is the full list of contestants:
#1 Erica He (何雨蔚) from Auckland, New Zealand
#2 Peremin “Bam” Tubkaew (林佩敏) from Bangkok, Thailand
#3 Jessica Ou (區思敏) from Chicago, United States
#4 Peiling Hu (胡佩玲) from Foshan, China
#5 Grace Chan (陳凱琳) from Hong Kong
#6 Zhiny Ong (黃之豫) from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
#7 Wendy Shu (束雯) from Los Angeles, United States
#8 Lydia Zhang (張雅旻) from Melbourne, Australia
#9 Lucia Lorigiano (黃婷麗) from Montreal, Canada
#10 Maggie Zhang (張雨晴) from New York, United States
#11 Amanda Lee (李嘉嘉) from San Francisco, United States
#12 Tiffany Du (杜昕然) from Seattle, United States
#13 Mandi Cheung (張佩雯) from Singapore
#14 Phyllis Dai (戴婕菲) from Sydney, Australia
#15 Mandy Liang (梁淼) from Toronto, Canada
#16 Cindy Zhong (鍾熠) from Vancouver, Canada
Sources: ihktv.com; On.cc; On.cc
This article is written by Addy for JayneStars.com.
gotta say they’re all pretty good looking, don’t see how you would call them plain. Miss Hong Kong is very pretty , but she needs a little more weight.
I still don’t understand why Cindy Zhong who speaks Mandarin and English won instead of Jennifer D. Lee who is fluent in 4 languages.
But go Vancouver!
I was actually a part of MCVP (backstage) and it was a very nice experience. 🙂
I was rooting for Jennifer as well. Her dance performance was amazing. I was 100% sure she was going to win but then there was this Cindy girl…
I wasn’t able to see it but I am amazed at her flexibility (:
Can anyone of you show me pictures of Jennifer D. Lee?
You can check her MCVP profile here: http://mcvp2013.fairchildtv.com/contestant_en.php?n=08
Actually if you go on facebook and search Jennifer D. Lee 李佳美- Ferba, you can see some of her flexibility poses as well as moments from MCVP.
I agree ! But we all know it was rigged. Even Jennifer D who is better known as FERBA on youtube, her boyfriend even said the contest was rigged. There was no way that Ferba should have lost that night. She’s intelligent, fit and best of all TALENTED.
lol, just because ‘even her boyfriend said’, that means it’s true? For what reason would they rig the results? o_O?
You pay out. Obviously he said that cause he was there at the competition, along with her family and friends. It’s the same thing in Toronto. Winner is expected to pay out a large sum to appease to the station that crowned her.
I know. Before they announced the winners, the backstage crew (which i was a part of) thought that the winner and runner-up would either be #8 or #5. There was a part of me which wanted Jessica Dai (contestant #3) to win some kind of award. When Ferba was awarded 1st runner up, the backstage crew instantly knew that the winner would be #5 Cindy Zhong ._.
is grace chan shown twice?
sydney 1 not bad.
really disappointed because only grace chan hong kong the only hottest contestant …miss vancouver is 2nd … wonder what happen
Grace chan from hong kong look indian in google picture lol
Grace chan the hottest??? God, you must be from hongkong.
She’s more suitable for Miss bollywood!
If you have name a few and Grace is in the list, i say, oh, okay. But you singled her out and say she’s hottest. then i have to have my say.
I agreed that Grace Chan is the best looking one, if not the only good looking one, and I am not from HK.
Couldn’t agree more with Shiok.
I think both candidates from Canada are pretty. Especially Mandy. Grace has got the looks but too skinny n short.
I believe there are three candidates from Canada: Vancouver, Toronto and not least of all: Montreal
http://www.chinaliren.cn/
Omg you got to be kidding right? She must be the worst contestant that Toronto produced. After watching her on tv and listening to her speak made me dislike her even more. Maybe she’s got a good figure , but her face is wide and eyes are so squinty like always falling asleep. Not to mention she never smiles genuinely for anything , even watching her on miss Chinese Toronto thought there were better candidates that looked fresher and less “mainland”
Lol! I agree , don’t like the way she talks and her looks either. Some how she gives off the vibe she thinks she is better than others
I like contestant number 4’s photo.
rooting for #5 and #16
KL contestants have good track record to win.
Most of them from the US are PRC students and almost none of them speak our mother tongue which is Cantonese 🙁
Mandarin has already become more gobal compare to 20th century
What to do and that sucks? I bet if only Chiang Kai-Shek would have won the civil war things would be different and Cantonese would be the official language of Greater China and also 1 of the official language of Singapore.
melvin you’re not the first person to claim that cantonese would have been the official language. Care to elaborate?
What do you mean US are PRC students?
Students are not citizens or permanent residents, so how can they represent US?
The Chinese mother tongue is Mandarin. Canto is a dialect, like any other dialects, Fujian, Shanghainese etc. Nothing great.
Even Taiwan speaks Mandarin, you don’t see them making Fujian as their official language do you? So, Chang Kai-Shek did win over Taiwan and he made Mandarin the language. You get it???
The Cantonese language is coarse, not as refined as Mandarin.
Ugh yeah Mandarin is the official language in China for political reasons. But just to let you know Mandarin is actually a dialect (more specifically it’s based on the Beijing dialect of Mandarin). You can search it up on the internet or take a linguistics class. Lol…
As for Cantonese, it has been known as the “dying language” due to mandarin being named the official language of china, so it’s becoming more and more subordinate to Mandarin now.
Mandarin is putonghua. It is no longer a dialect. It is ‘putonghua’, common language now.
It may used to be a dialect as with all languages in China,, but Chinese people need a common spoken language (already has written) to unite and unify and create homogenuity.
Mandarin is it. No need linguistic class. Even a fool understand, maybe you don’t.
See you just proved my point. Mandarin is a dialect, it was NAMED a language but it’s originality is a DIALECT.
Cantonese have the reputation of being loud and always sound as though they’re arguing, at least by most non-Chinese people here.
And if you’re so proud of being Cantonese, why do you have a foreign name like Melvin Emmanual??
How do these people know its Cantonese being spoken if they’re non-Chinese? It could be Fujian or Taishanese. And let me tell you those two are loud.. loud and clear.
Emmanuel is my middle name.
They don’t know its Cantonese. They just know it’s loud.
Worse still, they would think Chinese (Mandarin as they know it) is loud too, by viryue of association!
It has nothing to do with the language but the person speaking it. Look at the hoards of mainland tourists shouting mandarin anywhere and, unfortunately for the rest of us, everywhere.
Malaysia’s contestants have a good record of winning, Lena Lim and Denise from previous years for example. So I guess Zhiny will get something as well, plus she’s pretty. Grace has the best face, but she somehow lost on her figure.
Yes Malaysia has good track record of winning and the quality of contestants in Malaysia is so much better compared to Singapore. Some of them are even be labeled as pork chops.
Vancouver has an even better record of winning. They won 6 times for 1st place since 2001. Malaysia tends to get 2nd or 3rd place.
Vancouver could have won this year, could HAVE. The runner up was completely cheated from her title. Ferba, aka Jennifer Lee should have won!
I also thought Ferba would win at the pageant after hearing that she could speak 3 other languages besides English and that she was the winner of 2006 Sunshine Nation.
I always thought that the contestants who knew both Mandarin and Cantonese would win. So when Cindy Zhong won, I was like “what!? She only knows Mandarin”.
I thought the KL contestant should get first runner up… Grace from HK did well and deserved to win despite being the shortest in the top 5
#5 and #6 for me.
I’m with you happybi, too bad #6 only got to top 5
Why does all their hair look unwashed and stringy? They really need better makeup artists at TVB… and none of these photos are very flattering I feel. Will wait and see the next round of photos. None of these pictures struck a chord with me.
I like #14 Phyllis Dai from Sydney. Grace Chan has the prettiest face among the contestants though.
I’d agree on that (about Grace)… but I can’t get by Grace’s overly skinny figure. It makes me cringe…
She’s not overly skinny. she’s just skinny ._. . If you look at her swimwear outfits and compare it to at least contestant #16, she doesn’t show her ribs!
Her picture: http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Y556xUFcKj8/UhT6XPoV8YI/AAAAAAAAEx0/LbuGd9ClQEs/s1600/17.%2BGrace%2BChan%2BSwimsuit.jpg
If you look at #16’s swimwear pics, you can see her ribs!
https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn2/1521485_10152424236793154_845193776_n.jpg
I think #14 is the prettiest of all. Grace Chan looks like a bubblehead with big head and small body.
I took a look at the larger photos on TVB’s site… makes me wonder what Penelope is doing now 😛
Grace has the prettiest face and shows a lot of confidence, so I suspect she’ll place in top 3.
I’m also going to support my own city, Toronto #15!
I only find #1 & #4 to be prettier than the rest, and I agree that they all look pretty plain. Maybe it’s because they’re not wearing that much makeup? But I’ve seen a lot of prettier Chinese girls where I live. But beauty is in the eye of the beholder so best of luck to all of these girls!
Rooting for the Canadian contestants,even though I’n not from Canada. They look naturally beautiful and seem to have very down-to-earth yet at the same time confident personalities
I think most of the contestants in Miss Chinese-Vancouver and Miss Chinese-Toronto pageant shows are not Canadian citizens, and some are not even permanent residents of Canada. Many of them are overseas (Mainland Chinese or Hongkong Chinese) students.
I disagree, notice many of the winners who are from Canada initially had trouble with speaking Cantonese fluently. Such as Eliza, Christine, Linda etc.
I meant recently. Many years back, they were truly Canadian citizens who immigrated with their parents, such as Linda Chung, Bernice Liu, Leanne Li, Christine Kuo, etc. However, in the last few years there were only 3 or 4 among those 10 contestants, who were either raisd or born here. Majority of them were overseas students. I watched some of their interviews at 大城小聚! Many of their parents still lived in Mainland China.
Elisa Sam was an exception. She was born and raised in Vancouver.
Im pretty sure Linda and Bernice were also born in Vancouver but Linda also spoke fluent Cantonese prior to joining TVB
As per Wikipedia:
Bernice Liu was born in Prince Rupert (not in Vancouver where most Chinese resided), British Columbia on January 6, 1979. She attended Pineridge Elementary School and Prince Rupert Secondary School. After graduating from secondary school, she moved to Vancouver to attend University of British Columbia but Liu did not complete her business degree. Although both of her parents spoke Cantonese, she had limited knowledge of the language. For the fastest and easiest way to learn it, her friends recommended she enter the Miss Chinese (Vancouver) Pageant, which she did in 2000. The pageant is an annual beauty contest organized by Fairchild Television, and it helps selects Vancouver representatives to enter the Miss Chinese International Pageant of Hong Kong. Eventually, she won the crown along with the title “Miss Photogenic.” She then represented Vancouver and entered the promising Miss Chinese International Pageant a year later and took the Miss Chinese International 2001 title, as well as winning the “Miss Cosmopolitan” and “Miss Talent” awards.
Additionally if you read some of their bio’s, it states that they have been living Canada for quite some time throughout their life.
@Shawn: For this year’s MCVP, the only domestic contestant that was born here and raised here was Jennifer D Lee. The other contestants were born outside of Canada. And as for Vancouver’s representative, it was only 2 months ago where she obtained her PR/Citizenship status. It was mentioned on Cindy’s MCVP blog.
Actually I would like to know if only citizens/permanent residents are allowed to participate in those Miss Chinese-Vancouver and Miss Chinese-Toronto Beauty Pageant Shows? I watched a few of the contestants’ interviews on 大城小聚 and they said they were overseas students. Does anyone know the requirements?
I think the requirements are to be of Chinese descent (they don’t necessary have to be PR/Citizenship, I don’t think), be of this certain age range, be 5.3″+ ?
Not too sure.
On wikipedia, the requirements listed were:
“Contestants must be of at least partial Chinese descent and have resided in Canada for continuous period of 6 months on the day the application form is signed. The age requirement is 17-27 (expanded in 2011). The contestants must have never been married or pregnant or committed a crime”
“Contestants must be of at least partial Chinese descent and have resided in Canada for continuous period of 6 months on the day the application form is signed.”
—————————————————————-
That is very easy for any overseas students and it explains why there were so many Mainland Chinese students competing for Miss Chinese-Vancouver and Miss Chinese-Toronto. Many of them cannot even speak good English or any Cantonese. Their only decent language skill is Mandarin.
Actually, there were some MCVP contestants that were fluent in Cantonese and/or Mandarin. The contestant I helped was very down-to-earth, looked very similar to Gloria Tang, able to speak in both Mandarin and Cantonese.
I was surprised when the judges announced that Cindy Zhong won. However while we were in the backstage, we all thought it was either 5 or 8 because they won the most awards. xD
I also watched briefly Miss Chinese-Vancouver and knew one of the contestants was born in Vancouver. Also surprised that the winner was Cindy Zhong. She did not look that pretty to me.
It is very hard for us to judge who is pretty. The beauty is in the eyes of the beholders …… judge panels in this case.
My experience tells me that if the judges are some pretty artistes from TVB or film industries, usually the winners are very pretty. If the judges are some artistic vocal singers/fine artists/concert pianists/musicians/writers/businessmen, the winners may not be pretty. Their expectations are rather different.
Jennifer D Lee (contestant #8) was probably the one who you were thinking of.
And my mom thinks that Cindy isn’t pretty either.
I have a feeling Zhiny and Grace will in top 3. If not, most likely top 5. I think the 3rd spot could be somebody unexpected or vise versa.. Never know, I usually don’t get pageants or the outcome of it.
I would dare to say top 5 (in no particular order) to be:
Zhiny, Grace, Cindy and the other two spot is a mystery to me. I could be wrong though…
Sorry the beginning, I forgot to put will be in top 3.
rooting for #15 Mandy
Agreed!
I don’t get what people see in #15 she looks blank .. Didn’t like her since miss Chinese Toronto after listening to her interview thinks she’s 1. Not down to earth like what the other person comment 2. Obnoxious. Maybe because of the terrible candidates this year in Toronto that she won. It’s frustrating looking at her bc her eyes doesn’t have 神.
I feel like it’s going to be a face off between Toronto, Montreal and Hong Kong this year. Grace definitely has the looks but I wish she was heavier in weight!
must be alot of Vancouvernese in here,,,,, I am one of them,,
Go Toronto!
Malaysia might win this year after numerous runner up spots for the last few years
If she wins she will be the most beautiful winner in the history of this pageant. She is not called Aishwarya Rai of Malaysia for nothing.
I agree.She is gorgeous!
Have a feeling vancouver is going to take home the crown again this year 🙂
I will support Miss HK & KL.. Miss HK has the pretty face and Miss KL is tall and has the height and above average looking.
I hope both of them will enter Top 3 again just like last year…
Fully support KL and HK… They are simply the best… Good luck…
I think Grace Chan has a chance at the crown since people regard her as the “prettiest Miss HK in recent years”
http://chinesepageantpage.com/images/2014mci/qn09.png
^ She has similar face features as Lily Ho!
Do you mean Lily Ho, the Shaw Brothers actress from the 60’s? I don’t think there’s any resemblance.
@Msxie, No. I don’t know who you are talking about but I was talking about I have no idea of who you are talking about, but I was referring to 何傲兒.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f4/Lily_Ho_Ngo-Yee_1.jpg.
http://campaign.hkjc.com/ch/2013-apqe/images/miss-ho-01-l.jpg
whoops, typo. I meant that I had no idea of who you were mentioning since I wasn’t born back then, but I was referring to Gigi Ho’s sister, 何傲兒.
msxie meant 何琍琍, a Shaw Brothers actress in the 60s. She quit acting after marrying Mr. Chiu, a business man from a rich family.
I also thought you meant 何琍琍, but “she” does not look like 何琍琍. Then I thought about the young Lily Ho,何傲兒. “She” looks a bit like 何傲兒.
Thanks (:
I found a pic of her twin brother (as an adult). He really does not look Chinese at all. Grace at least looks Chinese-mixed, but her brother looks completely Indian or Middle Eastern haha. See here:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1406248119620562&set=pb.100007061613021.-2207520000.1390553629.&type=3&theater
Grace is definitely not 100% Chinese. Even though, to her knowledge, she is. I guess we should just go with what she says even though it isn’t how it looks. She is for a fact, 100% gorgeous though.
Obviously she isn’t because the brother has like you said Indian or middle eastern features. I suppose she had to say she is 100% chinese for her career and perhaps the small print in pageants said you must be how many % chinese etc but I don’t like if someone denies her ethnicity. Embrace it. And she is too skinny. I don’t think she will win in international level. And her posture is absolutely terrible.
She is skinny, but she have the natural skinny, not the “anorexic” skinny. If you look at her swimwear outfits, she doesn’t show her ribs, which is a good sign.
Go #5,10,13,14,15 and howcome Boston Chinatown and Philadelphia Chinatown don’t get have these pageants for their local Chinese?
It is battle between roomates( HK and KL) for the crown this year
Probably, but I’m thinking that if they decide to choose someone who they can promote fast, then it will most likely be a contestant who can speak Cantonese. The contestant for KL is pretty but she won’t be suitable for TVB to promote unless she can learn Cantonese fast.
And 張佩雯 (contestant #13) won Miss Friendship!
Never mind. She does know how to speak cantonese.
Yes KL so pretty!!! Wouldn’t mind looking at her
Most KL girls can speak Cantonese i think, just that their fluency is a bit off
Miss HK Grace Chan has Won!!! Not a surprise!
Yep with Vancouver being 1st runner up and Montreal being 2nd runner up 🙂
Which I think it is pretty fair since prior to the pageant, Hacken had a good impression on HK, Thailand, Montreal and Vancouver. So I wasn’t surprised if one of these 4 win. (:
Grace deserved to win, without a doubt. She has the prettiest face, gave some of the best answers in the interview portions (I especially loved her answer in the last Q & A portion), she speaks confidently, is charming/humorous, and just exuded a winner’s aura that no one else had. Plus, I loved her talent performance. She was just unbeatable from the beginning. Absolutely the best winner since Sonija. Sonija had that same aura and that’s why she won!
I do think that out of the top 5, Zhiny should have gotten 2nd runner up. She isn’t the prettiest, but seems like a girl with a great sense of humor. Montreal didn’t give the best answers and she isn’t that pretty either..on stage she looked kind of boring. I was hoping Foshan would get in as I love her charm and her interview answer. But she surprisingly got eliminated from the top 6! I also liked Sydney, Phyllis Dai. She is definitely the 2nd prettiest after Grace. But she lacked some stage presence.
Oh, and I know some of you didn’t really like Vancouver, Cindy Zhong, before. I didn’t really find her that pretty before the competition either. But once she was on stage, she is actually very intelligent and well-spoken. She seems like a nice person from her answers and she’s also quite talented too (sings well and I heard she plays pipa very well.) She isn’t bad-looking either. I think she deserved 1st runner up.
Personally, I think the winners are well-deserved (:
Prior to this whole pageant, Hacken had said that HK, Thailand, Montreal and Vancouver contestants left the deepest first impression for him. So I wasn’t surprised if these 4 contestants placed in top 3/5.
As for Zhiny not winning, I think it was due to her not as 淡定 and 不夠自然 as the other two contestants. She was a bit conservative in her answers and a bit shy. :3
I think Zhiny was a bit shy, but she gave some humorous answers too. Montreal seemed shy to me too, a bit unnatural, and she tended to stumble on her answers. Plus, she looks old for her age. This was the same case with her sister, Rosalinda, who competed several years before. Her sister was only 17 in the competition and she looked like she was in her early 30s. I could not believe she was 17. They are definitely not the best looking Eurasians I’ve seen. But she isn’t ugly, just old-looking and can sometimes look masculine. Very nice figure though.
I think both were a bit shy and there were times where their answers were humourous. And in one of the segments where Montreal didn’t understand the question she was being asked, Hacken was quite amused (:
this segment: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UixvPb128_Q
I saw the video clip on youtube and zhiny ong
Was a bit shy not that brave enough to speak
But the peiling from china is just the same as her
But Grace chan is very clam and happy to answer
The questions when the tvb actors were asling her
Also lydia from Melbourne australia^_^
Asking I mean
GRACE CHAN deserves to win the pageant
In all of the people she is the most prettiest
And most confident of all the another girls
&I knew zhiny ong won’t win her voice is not
That clear enough and every shy:)
I think cindy zhong is ok of answering
Questions and quite confident of
Saying it she is ok to me^_^