After a series of tragedies – including losing HK$5 million to a love scam and the closure of her Sai Kung bakery Ali Oli – Hazel Cheung rediscovered her spark with Mrs Globe China Hazel Cheung was understandably elated being declared Miss Chinese International’s second runner-up on February 10, 1991. TVB’s Miss Hong Kong may have been the more typical local girl’s dream, but the then-21-year-old had just fled a miserable wintry Montreal, living with her parents, to represent the Canadian city at the Hong Kong broadcaster’s other annual beauty pageant. “I finished high school in the UK before going to Montreal,” says Cheung, born in Hong Kong to parents from Indonesia.
And once settled in Canada, “a business-person who knew my family was one of the organisers of the local branch of the pageant. She suggested I join, so I did”. Cheung didn’t quite know what she wanted to do with herself, but “I didn’t like Montreal”.
So, when she won Miss Chinese International Montreal, what excited her most wasn’t the trophy, the prizes, the sash or the title. It was “a chance to come back to Hong Kong”. Thirty-two years later, having made her home here since, Cheung would enter another beauty contest, this time under very different auspices: last December, at the age of 53, and a mother of two grown children, she entered the Mrs Globe China pageant.
One could argue these days that beauty contests are superficial, outdated, perhaps even demeaning , and Cheung “spent a week thinking about it”, she says. “I didn’t tell my family. A lot was going on at the time so the pageant was kind of an escape.
” After a period of tragedy, heartbreak and bad luck, Cheung had been drained, emotionally, physically, financially, and putting herself out there again wasn’t a matter of vanity, but self-preservation. “The month before [signing up] I had been scammed online,” Cheung confesses, and soon thereafter “I met a well-connected Chinese business lady who I hoped could help find the guy who scammed me. But she said, ‘Even if we find him, we can’t get the money back, so why not use your time and energy for something else?’” Mrs Globe, described on its website as “a celebration of beauty, culture, and charity for women”, was founded in 1996 in California by American businesswoman and self-help author Dr Tracy Kemble.
A victim of domestic abuse, Kemble wanted to advocate that women of all ages could be powerful, pretty and professional at the same time. Her books have daytime-television titles such as Empowerment is S.E.
X.Y , How Not To Care What People Think and Don’t Touch My Tiara . Her preferred hashtag in promoting her various self-help products is #FeminineBoss, and in interviews for her WIN (Women in Need) Foundation, Kemble says, “Many people ask why I use a pageant to raise funds for our outreach.
The truth is, I do not know how to run a golf tournament!” {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"ImageObject","caption":"Cheung on the bus during Mrs Globe China. Photo: Courtesy of Hazel Cheung","url":"https://img.
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Photo: Courtesy of Hazel Cheung Having satisfied the criteria of being over 25 years old, married or with children, Cheung qualified as, not a contestant, but what Kemble and Co prefer to call a “delegate”. The event may be a charity, supporting WIN, but it still has operating costs, so delegates do pay to enter. Cheung says she spent about HK$40,000 for registration, costumes, make-up and travel.
And the pageant is not the only beauty contest out there for more mature women: others in the United States and Europe include Ms Senior World, Mrs Classic Universe, Mrs International, the Forever Young pageant and the Silver Crown Beauty Pageant. But Mrs Globe has established the strongest foothold in China, where the event has been held for 12 years, rotating through different cities, with next year’s World Finals in Shenzhen in the spring. “I’ve always been very independent,” says Cheung, but even travelling back to Hong Kong in 1991 for her first pageant “was not easy, to be by yourself as a young girl.
Obviously I didn’t have much experience. It was just like a school camp. I didn’t think too much.
It was just for fun, being with a bunch of girls. We didn’t even think about winning”. (Well, one probably did: the first runner-up from Cheung’s year was Anita Yuen Wing-yee, long considered one of Hong Kong’s top actresses.
) {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"ImageObject","caption":"Hazel Cheung was the second runner-up of Miss Chinese International in 1991. Photo: SCMP Archive","url":"https://img.
i-scmp.com/cdn-cgi/image/fit=contain,width=1024,format=auto/sites/default/files/d8/images/canvas/2024/08/14/6ce9262b-d239-4266-8360-6ce32315bc4c_5925a5bb.jpg"} Hazel Cheung was the second runner-up of Miss Chinese International in 1991.
Photo: SCMP Archive “I remember we were taken to many dinners and nightclubs, including with bosses in entertainment companies,” says Cheung. “It was good to get to know a lot of people but I was feeling a little uncomfortable. To be honest, I had trouble staying awake.
I’m like Cinderella. I want to go home before midnight.” Cheung soon took an office job at a music company, and after a year, she switched to selling insurance.
She would go for after-work drinks at clubs such as Manhattan, JJ’s and Hot Gossip, where she met a young British man named Philip Woolf. “He was very intelligent, knowledgeable and funny,” says Cheung. “He would give me the most ridiculous flower bouquets.
He’d heard I liked roses but he didn’t know what colour, so he just brought a whole bunch of different coloured ones.” They soon married and in 1995 their daughter, Jasmin, arrived. A year later, son Max came along, and in 2005, another of Cheung’s wishes came true.
{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"ImageObject","caption":"Cheung with husband Philip Woolf, who died in 2022. Photo: Courtesy of Hazel Cheung","url":"https://img.
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Photo: Courtesy of Hazel Cheung “Philip had a business partner who lived in Sai Kung, who started a bakery called Ali Oli in 1986,” she explains. “Later, he turned it over to his daughter, but she didn’t like it and wanted to sell. “I had wanted to have a cafe of my own.
And after we started our family, I wanted to make healthier food for the children, so I did a lot more cooking and baking. But being a boss and running a business was intimidating. I remember my first day.
It was the first of August. I was so nervous.” But it paid off, and from then on, Cheung would become the face of the popular Sai Kung bakery.
Customers from across Hong Kong made special trips to pick up her meat pies, quiche and jams. “Ali Oli obviously gave me a lot, but it also took a lot from me, especially time with the children,” she says. “I gave up my social life.
I stopped dancing. I stopped going out. Over 20 years of my life were spent there.
” {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"ImageObject","caption":"Cheung at her now-closed Ali Oli bakery in Sai Kung. Photo: SCMP","url":"https://img.
i-scmp.com/cdn-cgi/image/fit=contain,width=1024,format=auto/sites/default/files/d8/images/canvas/2024/08/14/412aeb4e-4887-43f2-ae1d-f584244ccad1_5b045774.jpg"} Cheung at her now-closed Ali Oli bakery in Sai Kung.
Photo: SCMP In 2021, Woolf went for a medical exam. The doctors initially thought he had a bowel infection, and he was prescribed antibiotics, but they didn’t help and subsequent tests revealed it was colon cancer. “It was stage three so they scheduled him for surgery right away,” Cheung recalls, her voice breaking.
“I remember it was the Mid-Autumn Festival, because I had a pop-up shop in Sogo.” After surgery came chemotherapy, rendering the once lively and gregarious Woolf tired and listless. Meanwhile, Cheung still had to run her business and was burning the candle at both ends.
After Lunar New Year, it was confirmed the cancer had spread. “It wasn’t pleasant but he was trying to stay strong,” says Cheung. “He didn’t want us to worry about him.
I was so busy with Ali Oli. But he got weaker and weaker. The kids and I didn’t talk much about what was going on.
We just lived day by day, keeping up with what we had to do. “The last few months were the toughest. Philip went off chemo and we took him home.
Basically, we didn’t sleep. We had to take care of him. It was difficult because he was so big; I couldn’t carry him.
” Woolf died in November 2022. But even before his illness, Ali Oli was struggling. The pandemic had hurt the bakery badly.
To ease her burden, Cheung sold a majority share to Sherman Tang Sing-ming, founder of the Epicurean Group, operator of eateries such as Jimmy’s Kitchen, The Peak Lookout and Pica Pica. {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"ImageObject","caption":"Cheung with daughter Jasmin.
Photo: Courtesy of Hazel Cheung","url":"https://img.i-scmp.com/cdn-cgi/image/fit=contain,width=1024,format=auto/sites/default/files/d8/images/canvas/2024/08/14/d74db269-8b21-4e74-8fb4-025ee42d9f6b_18d3766b.
jpg"} Cheung with daughter Jasmin. Photo: Courtesy of Hazel Cheung Unfortunately, business never picked up. Many regular customers had moved out of Hong Kong.
Costs were rising. Local authorities cracked down on restaurants setting up tables and chairs outside, and Cheung didn’t have an alfresco licence. Six months after her husband died, Cheung’s beloved cafe was also gone.
In the months following, Cheung was determined to move on with her life. An acquaintance’s upcoming nuptials in Lake Como, Italy, seemed an ideal excuse for a European holiday. Her children and friends all encouraged her to get away for a while, and she added Paris and London to the trip.
“I had not travelled on my own for more than 30 years, since I got married,” says Cheung. “When I got back, I thought I would move on, become a trendy mum, and downloaded some dating apps.” Initially, she swiped left on everyone, before taking a chance with a guy whose profile she thought looked decent.
They started texting and Cheung slowly opened up, revealing her recent woes. He was sympathetic, offering many comforting messages. “Mr Chen” described himself as a mainland businessman who did a lot of securities trading online.
As a passing remark, Chen said he’d be willing to offer investment advice so she could earn some extra pocket money. Of course, it was all “no pressure” and up to Cheung to decide. “It was like a mind game.
He made me believe in what he said and then he just kept messaging me,” says Cheung. “I didn’t really want to do it. I know nothing about [investing], but I thought, I’ll just try it.
It was on a separate investment platform and he said he could get me into something with a specific performance target. And he suggested he chip in as well. [The pageant] is also about mentality, attitude and picking yourself back up after making mistakes.
It’s intimidating but you feel good about yourself when you do it Hazel Cheung “Then for an even better rate of return, it was suggested we put in a little more money to reach a higher premium level, so I did. All the things he was saying just hooked me. I wanted to believe everything was true.
It was me hoping and wanting it to happen.” Chen never directly asked Cheung for money, a common scam manoeuvre, but kept dropping investment ideas for her to initiate. Once she committed, additional options were presented.
The more you invest, the higher the return promised and, inevitably, one day the entire account was cleaned out, and Cheung had lost more than HK$5 million. “I don’t know why,” she says, “but I actually carried on texting him for a while longer even after I was scammed.” After losing her husband, her cafe and now a significant chunk of her savings, Cheung was understandably despondent.
She tried without success to track down the culprit, including seeking out long-shot leads with business connections in China, but that fated acquaintance instead told her about the Mrs Globe contest. And so whether to distract herself, regain her confidence or just get through the trauma, she signed up for the Mrs Globe China finals, held on Hainan Island in December 2023. Hong Kong didn’t have a preliminary, so she was able to step in as Mrs Hong Kong.
{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"ImageObject","caption":"Hazel Cheung with other Mrs Globe China contestants in December last year. Photo: Courtesy of Hazel Cheung","url":"https://img.
i-scmp.com/cdn-cgi/image/fit=contain,width=1024,format=auto/sites/default/files/d8/images/canvas/2024/08/14/d8d179e3-7187-4817-823e-545c757ccccd_ed18453d.jpg"} Hazel Cheung with other Mrs Globe China contestants in December last year.
Photo: Courtesy of Hazel Cheung “I actually didn’t have too much information about this pageant,” she says. “I just bought a ticket, packed a few pieces of clothing in a small suitcase, and went. It was like going back to school, exploring new places and learning new things.
I got to meet all these ladies from across China and around the world at the international final. There were about 60 of us, from thirtysomethings to one Chinese contestant who was 79.” The event did wonders in lifting her spirit.
In fact, after the Mrs Globe China finals, Cheung entered the Mrs Globe World finals, this March, also in Hainan. “With Mrs Globe China, even if you don’t win, you can still enter the World finals,” says Cheung. “But I did get the People’s Vote award at the China finals.
In total, there were eight Chinese representatives at the World finals. The two pageants ended up being part of the process to get myself out of depression.” Cheung says most of the women in both week-long pageants weren’t just housewives but professionals with their own businesses.
As part of the regimen, they practised routines and attended rehearsals, training, enrichment classes, motivation talks and charity and press events. {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"ImageObject","caption":"Hazel Cheung speaking to media after the Mrs Globe competition.
Photo: Courtesy of Hazel Cheung","url":"https://img.i-scmp.com/cdn-cgi/image/fit=contain,width=1024,format=auto/sites/default/files/d8/images/canvas/2024/08/14/6b4ef2a3-ac97-453c-8d4d-ceae97b6ba7e_15978172.
jpg"} Hazel Cheung speaking to media after the Mrs Globe competition. Photo: Courtesy of Hazel Cheung “The pageant is about inner beauty, self-confidence, self-esteem, not just looks,” says Cheung. “It’s also about mentality, attitude and picking yourself back up after making mistakes.
It’s intimidating but you feel good about yourself when you do it.” Even though Cheung has had to downsize her family flat and live more modestly, her spark has returned. She is keeping Ali Oli going as a wholesale company, and is thinking about starting a new banana dessert business.
And she is quite sure she will compete again for the Mrs Globe China crown. And still, whatever one thinks of beauty pageants, for Cheung, they have been therapeutic. “You can’t change what happened,” she says.
“You can only change yourself.”.
