Miss Hong Kong Pageant

Recruitment

All participants have to have a Hong Kong ID or be born in Hong Kong (with a valid birth certificate). The age requirement is 17–27 as of 2011, though the upper age was previously up to 25. It should be noted that early contestants, such as Deborah Moore competed at as young age as 16. While there has been other Miss Hong Kong pageants in prior years producing notable titleholders such as Judy Dann (1951), Virginia June Lee (1953), Michelle Mok (1958), Laura da Costa (1967) and Mabel Hawkett (1970), the current annual TVB pageant began in 1973. Apart from the top prize winner, first runner-up and second runner-up prizes, the pageant also has other consolation prizes that vary slightly from year to year. Many Miss Hong Kong contestants have gone on to have movie careers as it is quite typical for the top contestants to garner television contracts from TVB.

The pageant is traditionally televised into two events, although this is not always necessarily the case in recent years. First, a preliminary event is held where 12 finalists are selected from a group of candidates, the number of which is usually around 20–25 (with 30 being the maximum). Then a final event is held, culminating in the announcement of the winner and the first and second runners-up from the 12 finalists. In some years, the field is narrowed down to a final 5, from which the runners-up and winner are chosen. Often several contestants dropped out of the pageant before the televised preliminary, thus there would be a candidate with #30 assigned to her, but only 25 or so contestants.

Non-human participant in Miss Hong Kong Pageant 2013

In Year 2013 Miss Hong Kong Pageant, an unusual participant had joined the local recruitment which was a non-human being – a dolphin named Ruby (Chinese Name: 白海樂), nominated by World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), Hong Kong to drive awareness of the plight of her species in Hong Kong. According to WWF Hong Kong, Ruby was "a true native and symbol of Hong Kong, Chinese white dolphins are creatures of majestic beauty who are facing escalating threats in their Hong Kong marine habitat. Ruby only has 61 peers left in the HK waters when compare to 158 of them in 10 years ago. Through her nomination into the pageant, we hope to raise mass awareness on the true beauty yet grave plight of the Chinese white dolphin as reclamation, increasing marine traffic and polluted waters rapidly contribute to the startling decline in their numbers," said Samantha Lee, Senior Conservation Officer, Marine of WWF-Hong Kong.

Wai Yin Association

Wai Yin Association (慧妍雅集) is the official association for all official contestants (i.e., those that made it into the semi-finals). It is a registered charity. It was established in 1982 to help the citizens of Hong Kong.

Controversial contestants

Overseas contestant awards list

Starting from 1991, the Miss Hong Kong pageant greets delegates from overseas. They include Toronto, Vancouver, New York, Los Angeles, Seattle, and San Francisco. Local contestants coming from Malaysia, Australia, New Zealand, London, and more enter at Hong Kong. In 2006, there was a top 16 contestant from the Netherlands. The overseas delegates wait for the notification of their regional sponsors of TVB and if they are chosen, they fly to Hong Kong to compete. The following is a record of overseas delegates' performance at Miss Hong Kong.

Notice that Vancouver has the most Miss Hong Kong winners from the overseas. They had a record of four consecutive winners from 1997–2000. 2000 was the only year where the top 3 delegates were all from overseas. Even though the 2007 pageant had the top 3 all from the US and Canada but Grace Wong and Lorretta Chow travelled to Hong Kong to compete in the pageant, so they are recognised by TVB to be local delegates not overseas delegates. They did however come from the overseas.

Miss Hong Kong at Miss Chinese International Pageant

Vancouver has the most winners, eight. However, Hong Kong finished as 1st runner up for four consecutive years, a record which hasn't happened since 1993.

Prior to 2000, all the winners competed at Miss Universe, with the exception of Michelle Reis (1988) and Winnie Young (1996). In 2009, Miss Hong Kong 2008 winner, Edelweiss Cheung refused to compete in the pageant, reportedly due to health reasons. The first runner up, Skye Chan competed instead, making her the first non-winner to compete in MCI. Miss Chinese International Pageant 2010 was held on 5 November 2010, and therefore, Miss Hong Kong 2009, Sandy Lau did not in 2011. Sandy Lau was the second Miss Hong Kong winner not to compete in Miss Chinese International.

Miss Hong Kong at International pageants

In 1985 and 1989, TVB lost the franchise for Miss Asia Pacific Quest and Miss World Pageant to ATV, and held the franchise back in 2002 and 1992 respectively.

In 2001, TVB has lost the franchise for Miss Universe Pageant.

In 2015, TVB has lost the franchise for Miss International Pageant and Miss World Pageant.