Christy Chung

Christy Chung (1970-     ) is a former major actress of Hong Kong movies and television. Born in Montreal, Canada to Chinese-Vietnamese parents, Christy Chung grew up only speaking French and Vietnamese as her native languages.  She would later on learn English while attending school in Canada.  During her senior year at Université du Québec à Montreal, Chung won the Miss Chinese Montreal beauty pageant which would take her to Hong Kong in January of 1993 to compete in the 1992 Miss International Chinese beauty pageant held annually there.  Despite her inability to speak in either Cantonese or Mandarin at the time, Chung was crowned Miss International Chinese.  Soon after winning the coveted beauty pageant title, Chung began receiving offers for work as an actress in Hong Kong-produced movies.  She would turn down an offer to become a national weather broadcaster for Société Radio-Canada from back home to pursue a career in Hong Kong cinema.

Christy Chung:  Star of Hong Kong Films and Television
and Former Beauty Queen

After landing a major role in the Hong Kong film, The Bride with White Hair 2 (1993), Christy Chung quickly rose to prominence with Chinese movie-goer audiences.  Throughout the 1990s, she would star in over 30 films and worked with some of Hong Kong cinema's top leading men including Stephen Chow, Jet Li and Jackie Chan.  Among her most popular Chinese-language films were The Defendor (1994), The Bodyguard from Beijing (1994), Samsara (2001) and The Medallion (2003).

At the height of her popularity, Christy Chung was considered one of the most beautiful actresses of Hong Kong cinema.  Her status as a sex symbol was not only recognized in Hong Kong, but in other parts of Asia, as well.  In 2000, Singapore's prestigious FHM magazine voted Christy Chung as Asia's sexiest woman.  After several years away from the spotlight, Christy Chung came out of retirement in 2007 when she starred in her first Vietnamese feature film, Song Long Anh Hung (Double Dragons), a joint Vietnamese, Korean and Chinese production which costarred Vietnamese actors Diep Lang, Chi Bao, Ngoc Quyen, Minh Thuan and Helen Thanh Dao.  The film was released during the summer of the following year.  In recent years, she has retired from the film industry, replacing her acting career with restaurateur.  Twice divorced, she is a mother to three daughters.  Christy Chung currently resides in Beijing where she owns and manages a restaurant.  She is a multi-lingual polyglot fluent in French, English, Vietnamese, Cantonese and Mandarin.

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50 Most Beautiful Vietnamese Women of All Time