sday, October 4, 2012
17 Television Crossword Sportport
ve in the closet and my social status’ Previously discreet Chao and her partner Sean Eav
o’s father offers £40m to o persuades his daughter she tells Jenni Marsh and Donagh why Chinese yet to accept homosexuality
her sexuality. And her father’s record as the Hugh Hefner of Hong Kong springs immediately to mind. He has boasted in the past - actually, back at the Millennium, so we’re still counting - of having slept with 10,000 women. What do you suppose might
mediate effect of ment was to bring sbianism to global ironic, seeing how en about it herself make a girl whose father has taken up with thousands of women without marrying one of them turn lesbian? Well, quite. But in fact, Gigi, the eldest of his three children, by different mothers, seems relaxed about his record. “We laugh about it,” she says. “He’s really happy that he’s
slept with 10,000 women. I mean, he definitely sees it as a good thing.” She has never felt the need to be a gay icon. “I’m a private person,” she says - though her dad has probably put paid to that - “and not into the typical gay lifestyle of going to bars. I would say I’m happy keeping to myself. I believe gay pride should stem from a proliferation of successful members of the community. I hadn’t … envisaged us becoming the face of gay Hong Kong but to change public perception one has to be honest and live with integrity.” In fact, Hong Kong is a conservative society when it comes to homosexuality, though it has just elected its first openly gay legislator, Raymond Chan, and the gay pop star, Anthony Wong Yiu, has wished Gigi and Sean well. Vivian Chen, the showbiz correspondent for the South China Morning Post, says that “it came as a surprise when Gigi and Sean announced their marriage, though they’ve often been seen at events together”.
Hong Kong has recently elected Raymond Chan as its first openly gay legislator Hong Kong has recently elected Raymond Chan as its first openly gay legislator
Openly gay pop star Anthony Wong Yiu has wished Gigi good luck
Gigi says that “in Hong Kong, there is a sense of helplessness as we are in the context of China so there is a feeling whatever I say or do won’t make a difference. We should encourage [the sense] that there is hope for change.” That sense that Hong Kong is a society in the shadow of China affects, it seems, everything - even sexual relationships. Naturally, Cecil Chao’s offer has had a mesmeric effect on men. It appeals to a particular kind of alpha male on all sorts of levels. Quite apart from the cash, there’s the challenge. As Philip Pullman’s new version of Grimm’s fairytales reminds us, there’s a storybook tradition here of the king who sets a near impossible task to would-be suitors but the reward is the beautiful daughter and the kingdom when he dies. (And, as it happens, Cecil once thought of making Gigi his heir.) It never fails. “In addition to more than 1,500 Facebook friend requests, Twitter, YouTube and Google followers, I am also getting so many e-mail marriage proposals it’s seriously distracting,” Gigi told the South China Morning Post. “Even my friend from Denmark has read the news there. I am secretly praying for a blackout… so I can get some peace and quiet.” For now, Gigi is the reluctant object of the attention of thousands of eligible men. It’s a modern fairy story all right. Let’s see how the happy ending works out.
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