The winners during this period, of course, also became overnight superstars, with many of them capitalising on their new-found fame and finding lucrative jobs in showbiz.

So, what have all the Miss Hong Kong champions of the 1990s been up to lately?

1. Anita Yuen Wing-yee, 1990 Miss Hong Kong

But despite her triumphs, Yuen also had some negative experiences in the entertainment industry. She reportedly had conflicts with Jackie Chan and Sandra Ng, according to Star Setn. Any supposed bad blood has since been cleared between Chan and Yuen though, as the actress shared a selfie of the two of them on social media in 2017, which the media dubbed as “the picture of the century”, per Jayne Stars.

Regarding her love life, Yuen married her beloved Julian Cheung Chi-lam secretly in 2001 and had their only son Morton in 2006. She reduced her on-screen appearances since then, dedicating herself to her family life instead.

2. Amy Kwok Oi-ming, 1991 Miss Hong Kong

Amy Kwok Oi-ming studied mechanical engineering in the US before entering the pageant, and only joined the TV industry after her victory, per Get It 01. She starred in various TV drama series, including The Greed of Man, Detective Investigation Files II, Justice Sung (1997) and To Love With No Regrets (2004). Her acting abilities earned audiences’ support, and even actor Bowie Lam praised her as a “genius actor who acts purely with intuition”, per Oriental Daily News. But after 2006, she faded out of showbiz.

However, she still lived in the entertainment industry vicariously through her husband – Kwok married renowned actor Sean Lau Ching-wan in 1998. HK01 reports that despite class differences between the two (Lau worked as a postman in his youth), they managed to keep their marriage afloat over two decades.

Lau thanked Kwok for her support at the 2015 Hong Kong Film Award ceremony, saying wholeheartedly in an almost tearful message, “Every time when I drive a spaceship and fly somewhere in the universe, you always have a way to bring me back to Earth safely, thank you.”

3. Emily Lo Suk-yi, 1992 Miss Hong Kong

Emily Lo Suk-yi did not enter the show business after winning the pageant – instead she received a lifetime of love from Hong Kong singer-actor Hacken Lee. According to Sundaykiss, their relationship can be traced back to 1992 when they first made moves on each other during and after the pageant show.

4. Hoyan Mok, 1993 Miss Hong Kong

Hoyan Mok entered the TV industry after winning the 1993 Miss Hong Kong title, but even though she took part in a number of TV shows, she did not leave much of an impression on audiences. Instead, Mok decided to try her hand in the business world after the 2000s, working at an image consultant company and dabbling in the wine industry too, per Get It 01.

According to Bastillepost, besides being the president of Wai Yin Association – a charity organisation that helps those in need such as the elderly – Mok also held study tours for local secondary students. Her dedication to charitable work was due to the influence from her family, including her husband Alex Fong Chung-shun.

Mok began dating Fong, a fellow actor, in 1996 and they finally got married in 2008. Despite rumours of Mok getting pregnant before the wedding, she explained to Hong Kong news outlet Oriental Sunday that it was all an accident, and it was God’s gift for the couple, prompting them to realise it’s time to settle down. Mok also described how Fong changed after the marriage from a short-tempered playboy to a good, caring father, per HK01.

5. Halina Tam, 1994 Miss Hong Kong

Regarded as one of the more popular candidates at the time, Halina Tam studied in the UK and was a flight attendant before entering the pageant contest, per Headline. After her victory, she started her career in TVB, taking part in a variety of TV series and films and even hosting shows. She had a breakthrough in 1996 as the second lead actress in TV shows such as Night Journey and Nothing to Declare, before embarking on her music career too.

But here’s where her life made a big turn: she fell in love with dancer Sunny Wong and reduced her on-screen appearances since then. According to Headline, she then entered the food business after breaking up with Wong in 2002.

Tam married her husband Eric Choi in 2007 who supported her entrepreneurial dreams as she opened Papercraft Store in 2013 and snack shop JarGor in 2014, which later became a chain with a total of six snack shops and restaurants Café de JarGor at its peak, per the same source.

Despite her success in F&B though, she was embroiled in political controversy during 2019’s social movement, per Bastillepost, by giving away free fish balls to protestors. Many netizens criticised her move at the time and her latest Instagram post showed that she had emigrated to Canada, away from Hong Kong’s political conflicts.

6. Winnie Young Yuen-yee, 1995 Miss Hong Kong

According to Sundaymore,Winnie Young Yuen-yee studied journalism before becoming Miss Hong Kong 1995. She received praise for her performances as a host, including for TVB’s report on the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. Since then, Young took part in various drama series, including Detective Investigation Files III and Plain Love II. She reduced her on-screen appearances after getting married in 2003.

She eventually got married to businessman Simon Wong Shuai-fun. Although their family faced difficult times after his business failed in 2018, they overcame the crisis together. Young even sold her Miss Hong Kong crown for US$514,600, per Sundaymore. Young’s recent Instagram post shows her having sushi with her daughter, spending quality time with her family after emigrating to the US.

7. Lee San-san, 1996 Miss Hong Kong

Lee San-san was only 18 years old when she entered the contest and soon after her victory, she took on the second lead actress role in Untraceable Evidence (1997).

However, the media focused instead on her relationship with actor Chin Ka-lok, who was 12 years her senior. They met while filming for Burning Flame (1998) and their relationship eventually ended in 2007. According to an interview with Elle, Chin wanted to settle down and propose to Lee, but she was not ready for that kind of commitment at the time.

Lee suffered from panic disorder in 2019, but faced it with positivity by sharing her experience in a video on Mental Health Foundation’s Facebook profile. Despite facing health problems recently, she stated she was doing fine on Instagram. She also thanked actress Sammi Cheng for her support throughout her difficult journey on a local radio show, per Topick.

8. Virginia Yung Ka-shui, 1997 Miss Hong Kong

In 1997, Virginia Yung took part in the Miss Hong Kong Pageant, flying in from Vancouver, and took a different route than most Miss Hong Kong winners. Instead of joining the entertainment industry, Yung married Wu Youzheng, founder of Haima mattress and chairman of Qihai Chemical Group, two years after the contest. According to HK01, she became a happy wife with two sons and regularly attended events with her husband.

Her Instagram profile often shows updates and photos of her luxurious life and snippets of her being a great mum to her son.

9. Anne Heung, 1998 Miss Hong Kong

The journey to Miss Hong Kong for Anne Heung was one full of surprises. She shared in an interview with HK01 that it was her mother who encouraged her to broaden her horizons through the contest. She did not expect to win and she definitely did not think that she would eventually embark on an acting career. However, the public praised her acting chops after she starred in various TV series, including The Legend of Lady Yang, Golden Faith and The Charm Beneath.

One of her most memorable performances was as a villain in TV series Love Is Beautiful (2000). In an article by Sundaymore, Heung shared that although she was not confident when she first received the role, she was grateful that the crew supported her throughout and, later on, for earning positive reviews for her portrayal.

The same article reports how Heung stepped down from the silver screen when she faced struggles in the industry. Like 1993 Miss Hong Kong winner Mok, she also served as the president of charity group Wai Yin Association for two years, which helped her with managing her Shanghai property business later on, per Sundaymore.

But Heung has returned to the screens once again since 2015 and attended recent pageant shows including ViuTV’s Miss Goodviu and Miss Hong Kong Pageant 2022, sharing her experience with the latest crop of Miss Hong Kong contestants on Instagram.

10. Sonija Kwok Sin-nei, 1999 Miss Hong Kong

With both British and Chinese roots, Sonija Kwok Sin-nei had a rough childhood with an alcoholic father whom her mother divorced when Kwok was only five, per QQ News. But she did not let her childhood traumas affect her – Kwok chose to enter showbiz, earning lead roles in various TV series.

Yet her love life was full of ups and downs too, leaving a behind a string of failed relationships with fellow actors Deric Wan Siu-lun and Michael Tao Dai-yu from The Legend of Love (2002) and On the First Beat (2007) respectively.

Eventually, QQ News reported that she married mainland Chinese director and martial arts instructor Zhu Shaojie in 2011 after meeting him on the set of drama series Palace (2011) where Zhu patiently taught Kwok different action moves.

According to HK01, Kwok bought a US$643,000 flat for her family and an extra one for Zhu’s parents. After she gave birth to her daughter Kylie in 2012, her life drastically changed as she became a mother full-time. Like many parents in Hong Kong, Kwok struggled to balance Kylie’s schoolwork and extracurricular classes, ranging from ballet and gymnastics to piano, taekwondo and swimming, per Topick. Kwok’s Instagram profile shows her teaching Kylie to be a responsible and well-mannered individual through getting ad gigs for her to work in.

Kwok returned to movie-making in 2015 and joined the cast of film Dearest Anita (2018), which won her an award at the 7th Vancouver Chinese Film Festival. She also took the lead role in ViuTV series Inevitable in 2022.