Miss Hong Kong 2010 -- My Thoughts....

I was waiting to watch "The Voice" today as I typically do every week. However, I didn't realize that "The Voice" was 'bumped' today because of the Miss Hong Kong 2010 pageant. To be honest, I wasn't too keen on watching the MHK pageant because I lost interest starting in the year 2000 when the quality of the contest started going down (all the old hosts were gone, the guest performers are lackluster, etc.). But I figured since it was on TV, might as well just leave it on as "background" (and continue my multi-tasking as usual).

After watching this year's show, I realize that in the 10 years that I stopped watching the pageant, I made the right decision....the show was sooo boring...and the winners were a joke (though not surprised, since the MHK contestants have been getting worse and worse the past couple years).

I was reading the MHK thread in Asian Fanatics and someone had posted the below quote that HK viewers have been commenting:

「港姐不再是美貌與智慧並重，而是後臺與背景最重。」

I must say that I absolutely agree with this comment...that's why the past couple years, after almost every Miss HK competition, there are rumors of the pageant being rigged -- versus back in the 80s and 90s, you rarely heard this (I've been following the MHK pageants since the 80s and stopped after 2000, since the quality started going down big time). There are many instances, but the ones that come to mind immediately are: the 2008 winner (the one who basically took "sick leave" for like 2 years after she won the crown and totally did not fulfill any of her MHK responsibilities) was said to have "connections" with one of the judges and this year's winner is rumored to have a relationship with the young master of Hong Thai travel (one of the sponsors of the MHK pageant).

The most obvious instance of the show being rigged is that one year when TVB.COM "accidently" posted the winners of that year's MHK pageant on their website BEFORE the show even took place...of course, they took the post down moments later (and again made one of their workers a scapegoat for the "accident")...

I'm actually not surprised that TVB rigged the pageant -- it's so typical of what they do...plus it can't be a coincidence that many of the winners in the past 10 years (not just the winner of the crown, but the runner ups as well) are relatives of someone who worked for or is somehow associated with TVB....

Anyway, back to this year's show -- No. 5 (Lisa Chong) getting 2nd runner up was totally rigged, as she is not pretty at all -- I watched the actual pageant as well as all the previews leading up to the pageant -- and she looked absolutely horrific....

Overall, nothing exciting about the MHK pageant this year -- in fact, there hasn't been anything exciting about the pageant in years....the guest performances were lackluster, the hosting was so-so....the pageant has definitely lost the "elegance" that it used to have...if any of you have watched the MHK pageants from the 80s and 90s, you'll know exactly what I mean -- the hosts back then (Ivan Ho, Lawrence Cheng, Philip Chan) had so much more class and the performers were all the biggest names in the entertainment industry (for example: the 4 Kings). The pageants nowadays are boring and definitely not an event to look forward to -- I don't see anything "grand" about it.

The ONLY part I liked about this year's pageant was the "tribute" to previous MHK winners It was refreshing to see some familiar faces -- for instance, some of the winners from the 80s and 90s as well as after 2000. I was especially glad to see Noelle Leung -- hadn't seen her in a long time, since she is happily retired now....