Doctor Crowned Miss Hong Kong 2025 as Critics Question Pageant’s Relevance and Evolving Beauty Standards

The 2025 contest concluded with Chen Yongshi (陈咏诗), a 26‑year‑old physician standing 1.6 metres tall, being crowned champion. Shi Yuqi (施宇琪) earned the first‑runner‑up slot, while Yuan Wenjing (袁文静) placed second. Li Yinyan (李尹嫣) captured both the Miss Friendship and Miss Photogenic titles. The results sparked a flurry of posts across Chinese social media, especially on Weibo, where users simultaneously celebrated the winners and lamented what many described as a decline in the pageant’s aesthetic standards. Comments like “the beauty of the old days was better” and “now it’s really hard to describe” echoed a nostalgic longing for the so‑called “golden era” of Miss Hong Kong, when contestants were often hailed as modern‑day goddesses.

While the public debate leans heavily on visual appeal, the pageant’s significance runs deeper. From its inception, Miss Hong Kong has been more than a beauty contest; it has functioned as a cultural ambassador, a symbol of the city’s vibrancy and openness. In its early decades, the event helped push Hong Kong’s social norms toward greater modernity, offering a public platform where women could display poise, talent, and education alongside physical attractiveness. Over the years, the criteria have evolved, shifting from a narrow focus on looks to a broader assessment of personality, intelligence, and the ability to represent the city on the world stage.

The competition’s influence on Hong Kong’s entertainment industry is perhaps its most tangible legacy. Winners and participants often transition into acting, hosting, and modeling careers, feeding talent directly into TVB’s prolific drama and variety‑show pipeline. Alumni such as 2015 champion Mai Ming‑shi (麦明诗), a Cambridge graduate who later served as a brand ambassador, illustrate how the pageant can launch multidimensional public figures. Sponsors and partners routinely enlist former titleholders as ambassadors for commercial campaigns, reinforcing the pageant’s commercial clout and its role as a conduit between the corporate sector and popular culture.

In recent editions, the inclusion of mainland Chinese contestants has added a new layer of cultural interplay. Accents and linguistic nuances that surface during the competition signal an emerging blend of identities, reflecting Hong Kong’s increasingly porous borders and its position as a hub of cross‑regional exchange.

Politically, the Miss Hong Kong Pageant operates at a distance from overt governmental agendas but nevertheless contributes to Hong Kong’s soft power. The event’s international visibility—particularly within overseas Chinese communities—serves as a cultural export, showcasing the city’s cosmopolitan values and its commitment to nurturing talent with a global outlook. The visibility of a doctor‑turned‑queen like Chen Yongshi, for instance, underscores a narrative of educated, modern women who embody both professional achievement and traditional femininity.

Despite its storied past, the pageant is not without criticism. Detractors argue that the competition’s relevance has dulled, pointing to perceived declines in contestant calibre and questioning whether the event still offers a meaningful platform for empowerment. Yet, supporters contend that the pageant continues to provide valuable exposure, mentorship, and opportunities for young women to develop public‑speaking skills, confidence, and a network within the entertainment and business sectors.

As the 2025 Miss Hong Kong Pageant fades into the annals of its 70‑plus‑year history, it remains a mirror of Hong Kong’s evolving identity—reflecting shifts in aesthetic taste, cultural integration, and the aspirations of its women. Whether celebrated as a timeless tradition or scrutinized as a relic of a bygone era, Miss Hong Kong persists as a distinctive element of the city’s social fabric, one that continues to spark conversation, inspire ambition, and, for a brief moment each year, capture the collective imagination of a region that never stops looking forward.