The Mr. Hong Kong Contest, () abbreviated as Mr. HK (港çÂÂ), is a beauty contest for young men organized by the leading Hong Kong television station, TVB. The contest began in 2005, was suspended from 2012 to 2015 and in 2017, and then resumed. Winners have the opportunity to represent Hong Kong in the Mister World contest.
Like the Miss Hong Kong Pageant, top Mr. Hong Kong contestants are awarded to a contract with TVB, and many of them become promoted television actors. A contestant and runner-up in 2005, Byron Pang, even went on to become a film star. In his first film role, in the 2009 Hong Kong movie Amphetamine, his pubic hair, penis and testicles were fully exposed on camera, in several scenes.
The contest also has other consolation prizes that vary slightly from year to year. Unlike their female counterpart, Mr. Hong Kong does not have specific first and second runner-up positions. Contestants are divided into two groups, the Stylish Youth Division (çÂÂçÂÂå°Âå¹´) and the Maturity Division (å¥åÂÂçÂÂå¹´), and a winner is chosen from both groups. The final winner (the Mr. Hong Kong) will then be determined by the top contestants of both groups. But from 2016, first and second runner-up positions added as first time, also the minimum participant age limit has lowered to 16.
Judges for the contest are all women, and winners of the contest are also determined by a public vote of 600 to 800 female viewers. The first ever winner of the contest was Matthew Ko.
The modern Mr. Hong Kong Contest is completely unrelated to the original Mr. Hong Kong bodybuilding contest from the 1970s.
Hong Kong Broadcasting Authority has received a number of complaints from the public regarding the Mr. Hong Kong Contest, in which the programme was said to be of bad taste and that the male contestants were treated as sex objects by the women in the show. These complaints were later dismissed. https://web.archive.org/web/20110928032100/http://www.hkba.hk/en/complaints/complaint_bacc/bacc201010e.html