[The Sun 10/07/06]

After the Mr Hong Kong Contest was held on Saturday evening, there has followed many complaints that as the winner Francois Huynh hails from France, this is not a true representation of the Mr Hong Kong meaning. Some viewers have even complained to TVB, saying that they couldn't cast their vote because of system problems on the night. Faced with this, Francois immediately responded by talking about how much he loves Hong Kong.

Francois seemed unfazed by the accusations as he celebrated his victory yesterday with his family and his brother, Stephen, who lost out in the same competition last year. As they enjoyed dim sum at a restaurant, one of his fans asked for a photograph. In response to the questions over his 'identity', Francois indicated how much he loves Hong Kong: "Although I grew up in France, my parents are from Hong Kong and when they held a Mr France contest earlier, I didn't take part, but instead, I came back here to take part in Mr Hong Kong instead. This proves I am proud to be a Hong Kong person." Stephen supported his brother by pushing the focus onto last year's winner Matthew Ko: "Matthew returned from Canada to take part!" He praises his brother for bringing the honour to his family.

In response to the complaints about the voting system breakdown, the show's producer Chin Kwok Wai responded saying: "That is right, there were some computer problems on the night, but it was fixed immediately and with TVB being such a large company, we could not ignore this... all in all, we received all the votes that came in and the judges at the event were able to make their selections. (Some judges suggested that they couldn't vote for their choices because their systems weren't working?) There was just a small group of people who couldn't vote, this is not surprising."

http://the-sun.orisun.com/channels/ent/20060710/20060709235649_0000.html