Chrissie Chau

Chau emigrated from Chaozhou to Hong Kong with her family when she was 10. She states that she worked in a fast-food restaurant when she was 15, and then as a shop assistant in Causeway Bay earning HK$3,000 (about US$380) a month.[2]

Chau is Hong Kong's most famous pseudo-model, or lang mo,[3] She began pseudo-modelling after she won the runner-up title in the 2002 Comics Festival 'Game Girl'. She rose to prominence as the poster girl for Slim Beauty slimming boutique. In a TV commercial for the boutique, Chau rips off her clothes, revealing a bikini underneath, to 'stop the traffic' while she crosses the road in the business district of Central.[4] In 2009, she released a limited edition life-sized poster with her likeness– dressed in lingerie– printed on the cover, at HK$560 (about US$72) apiece.[5]

Chrissie Chau was invited as a guest for a talk show at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology in late 2009, as part of a seminar series entitled "Knowledge Unlimited", aimed at widening students' horizons. Chau was invited as a guest to the seminar to discuss "Unscrambling the Chrissie Chau Phenomenon".[6] Chau was interviewed by Professor Li Siu-leung of Lingnan University in front of an audience of 400 students. She was asked a number of philosophical and existential questions, and was criticised for not being able to answer them; The Standard described this as "an old-fashioned ambush". The university was in turn criticised by radio host Eileen Cha for choosing Chau for a seminar series entitled Knowledge Unlimited.[7]

In 2010, veteran Hong Kong actor Anthony Wong openly criticised and ridiculed pseudo-models, specifically Chrissie Chau, several times, calling them brainless and "bimbos".[8] The related controversy led to pseudo-models being banned from a book-fair.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Chrissie Chau.

• Chrissie Chau at IMDb
• Chrissie Chau's Official Mini Blog (sina)
• Chrissie Chau on Hong Kong Movie Database