Remember the story of the Hong Kong billionaire, who offered $65m to
any man who could win the heart of his lesbian daughter? If you missed
it CLICK HERE
Gigi Chao, daughter of property tycoon Cecil Chao, entered a civil partnership with her girlfriend of seven years in a ceremony in Paris five months ago.
But Mr Chao, 76, has told the South China Morning Post that reports
of his daughter’s civil ceremony were “false”. He announced the HK$500
million dowry earlier this week.
It has sparked a deluge of offers. Speaking on Thursday Ms Chao, 33,
said she had received about 200 proposals and that the number of people
following her on Twitter, YouTube and Facebook had jumped by 1,500 since her father’s announcement.
“People are contacting me on Facebook, by email, on Twitter.
It’s ridiculous. I can’t sort out the serious proposals from the
half-hearted ones. I can’t make head or tail of it,” she said.
Ms Chao, an executive director of her father’s company, Cheuk Nang,
said that in addition to receiving enquiries from gentlemen who say they
are looking for love and ask her out on a date, she has received some
introductions that are less conventional.
Some hopefuls have attached nude photos of themselves or provided
information about their financial situations. She has received proposals
from all over the world, including Nigeria, India, Turkey and Bulgaria.
Numerous bankers have contacted her.
“Some of them had obviously done their research, you know, gone on my
Facebook and looked at my background,” she said. “Some of them are
quite poetic.”
But far from getting angry at her father, she said she was “touched”.
“At first I was entertained by it, and then that entertainment turned
into the realisation and conviction that I am a really lucky girl to
have such a loving daddy, because it’s really sweet of him to do
something like this as an expression of his fatherly love,” she said.
While Ms Chao knew that her father would go public denying the union,
she did not know he would offer the reward. “I think the HK$500 million
really came as an afterthought.”
Even though Mr Chao has not accepted the union, Ms Chao said she
loved her father and that they had a good relationship. “It’s not that
he can’t accept me,” she said. “It’s that he can’t accept how society
would view me and the status that it would incur. Marriage is still a
form of social status. I do understand him. I understand why he’s doing
this.”
She added: “But I don’t appreciate getting 1,500 emails.”
Ms Chao, who also runs Haut Monde Talent, a model management and PR
firm, met her partner, Sean Yeung, who also goes by Sean Eav, while they
were working together.
Ms Chao she was drawn to Ms Yeung because she was straightforward,
not manipulative, honest, had strong family values and cared about her
friends deeply. “I’m very happy when I’m with her,” she said. Ms Chao,
who has dated men and women, said she has always been open and honest
about her relationships to her family.
However her mother has not accepted her sexuality. Ms Chao recalled
that when she told her mother about a relationship with a girl when she
was 16 years old, her mother “banged her head against the wall, literally”.
Although they have become more visible in recent years,
members of the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community in Hong
Kong are still largely not accepted by the vast majority of the
population.
Ms Chao believes gay rights are picking up, but said work was still
needed on the social mentality. Mr Chao is not so conventional himself.
He made headlines in 2003 when his Rolls-Royce caught fire while he and
his girlfriend were inside.
The tycoon has never married and once claimed to have had “intimate relations” with about 10,000 women.
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