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Saturday, September 7, 2019

Mr. and Ms. Chinatown Coronation Night on September 8, 2019 at the Mall of Asia



Candidate 1: Joshua Benzi Yang 楊 功 煋
School: Ateneo de Manila High School / De La Salle University
Age: 19

#BuildingBridgesThroughLangoyChinoy

Advocacy: Project #LangoyChinoy aims to address the lack of knowledge and the improper training of the filipino-chinese youth on swimming. The project looks at swimming as a vital life saving skill for all.

“I only fear Not Trying.” – Benzi Yang

For Benzi, living a life without regret should be everyone’s ultimate goal. For him, that means being a decorated athlete and a responsible student at the same time. Be it taking up a pre- law degree (he aspires to be the next great corporate leader), or proudly representing the Philippines at the South East Asian Age group swimming championships, he takes every opportunity presented to him.

From being a vital cog of leading the Ateneo de Manila High School swimming team to 11 straight championships in his 4 year tenure in the UAAP Juniors division to taking his talents to the UAAP seniors division under De La salle University, Benzi certainly is always up for any challenge. This is also Benzi’s first time to join a pageant. Even if he is outside the waters and in unfamiliar territory, he still carries with him a winning attitude to prove - that regardless of imperfection- everyone has the capability to succeed. This bemedaled go getter aims to promote Sports, swimming in particular among the Filipino-Chinese community, not only as a way to have a healthier lifestyle but as a life saving skill of developing discipline to go against the tides in general. #LangoyChinoy


Candidate 2: Giles Ashby De Jesus 黄光龙
School: Xavier School / Ateneo de Manila University
Age: 24

#BuildingBridgesThroughLight

Advocacy: My advocacy focuses on empowering people who are depressed or have anxiety. I want to help them find ways to have a better and more positive view of life.

Giles believes that we can build bridges through continuous empowerment of the self and others. After graduating Management-Honors from the Ateneo de Manila University, Giles currently works as a senior Transfer Pricing consultant in Deloitte. Beyond his experience in business, Giles is also active in various other projects. He is currently the sound engineer for a band called Basically Saturday Night. He also helps organize events such as gigs, concerts, and fundraisers with Liga Artist Group, an event and talent management organization. Immersed in the arts, Giles plays guitar and bass and is also an experienced dancer. It is through interacting with these distinct personalities in the course of pursuing his myriad of interests, that Giles finds himself exposed to differing ideas and worldviews, seeing the potential in everyone he meets. Giles hopes to be the kind of Mr. Chinatown who will encourage people to be their best selves and to do the same for others. His goal is to be a torch that will light the spark and inspire people to make the most out of life for themselves and others.


Candidate 3: Russell Austin Tee 施名钟
School: Xavier School / Ateneo de Manila University
Age: 23

#BuildingBridgesThroughEatSmart

Advocacy: “I personally believe that the secret to controlling life is with one's food. If you can take charge of what you eat, what else can’t you control?”

Russell believes that we are all capable of becoming better versions of ourselves through making smarter food choices. Growing up obese and reaching 200lbs when he was only a young boy, Russell has always strived to be in better health. He has struggled through various diets, sometimes even depriving himself of his favorite foods just to avoid getting bigger. Throughout his journey, he enrolled and invested in various fitness coaches with the hope of expanding his knowledge in health, and even joined two bodybuilding pageants that pushed him to his limits. It was through these competitions that he realized that being healthy and staying fit was all a mind game. With these experiences, he began coaching people and has transformed over 500 lives, introducing new perspectives and inspiring them to be ambassadors of healthy living. As a catalyst of change, Russell aims to be this year’s Mr. Chinatown with capabilities of empowering and educating the community with EatSmart. His goal is to show that being fit and healthy is within your power.


Candidate 4: Waldron Lee 李宗益
School: Saint Jude Catholic School / Ateneo de Manila University / Harvard University
Age: 24

#BuildingBridgesThroughEveryMeal

“Bet you didn’t expect to see me here. Well, neither did I.”

With a strong belief that the novel and the different are what ultimately breeds better character, Waldron is here now (far beyond his comfort zone) and hoping to be the next Mr. Chinatown. Ever the adventurous and competitive type, he may never have thought of he’d be part of this pageant, but he is ready and looking forward to the journey.


Candidate 5: Jeremiah Tomas 施宣照
School: Jubilee Christian Academy / UP Diliman
Age: 21

#BuildingBridgesThroughLikhangBayan

The primary goal of Likhang Bayan is to create, cultivate, and strengthen the Filipino brand of ingenuity through the promulgation of love towards local industries.

Je was born to a loving and giving Chinese-Filipino family. His mother is a doctor and his father conducts medical missions monthly in different parts of the country. Through the years, he grew up seeing the servant leadership and service his parents modeled through their different community engagements.

He took up a bachelor’s degree in Business Economics at the University of the Philippines, where he put into action the example of his parents- becoming a student leader inside and outside the University. He was elected as a councilor of the UP Diliman University Student Council and is currently serving as the Secretary General of the Council of Asian Liberal Democrat Youth after being elected in Jakarta, Indonesia earlier last year. Je aspires to be a civic leader in the future - spearheading change and creating impact in the Chinese Filipino community and beyond. He has started to create ripples in his 20 years of existence, and now he is ready to turn these into larger waves that will shift the tides of history.


Candidate 6: Dave Audric Dy 許森發
School: Chiang Kai Shek College / University of Santo Tomas
Age: 19

#BuildingBridgesThroughMMA

“Despite the differences between our communities, we should all unite, respect, and support each other to lead our nation to a better future.”

Dave is a second year college student from the University of Santo Tomas. He would describe himself as a man with numerous goals- especially when it comes to sports. However, his dream is to become a public figure and an inspiration especially for the youth. This dream of his made him very passionate about his advocacy, which is to develop unity and acceptance amongst the communities in the Philippines through sports, specifically through mixed martial arts. Dave started practicing different martial arts at a very young age. He believes that these disciplines can foster strong relationships between people - even among those of different ethnicities. Dave recognizes that in these days, our social responsibility is being treated merely as a choice. Walls are being built to keep out those who are ethnically different. However, he emphasizes that social responsibility is an OBLIGATION. Dave is optimistic that the Filipino people will not turn a cold shoulder on their Chinoy brethren even during times of conflict. He also has faith that the Chinoys will not forsake the Filipinos. Dave wishes for his vocation to go even beyond the Chinese-Filipinos and reach other ethnic minorities residing in the Philippines, embracing others like the Muslim, Korean, Japanese and more.


Candidate 7: Aaron Stevenson Ho 何伟贤
School: Saint Jude Catholic School / Ateneo de Manila University
Age: 22

#BuildingBridgesThroughSolidFoundation

Multiple engagements with different ethnicities throughout Aaron's journey in the past has taught him the paramount value of self-awareness and mindfulness. Having attended multiple global events while studying in the Ateneo university, his interest in knowing himself and the people around him grew deeper. Aaron believes that to be able to truly build connections with others, it is first important to find that connection within yourself. Starting with the self, he advocates to increase self-awareness through taking the time to shy away from all the disruptions happening to our daily lives and focus on living in the moment. He attended an 8-day silent retreat that, was one of the most life-changing moments of his life. He joined MMCP to further share his advocacy of finding that foundation within oneself then further inspiring others to pay it forward.


Candidate 8: Carlo Fernan Tan 陳志洛
School: Lorenzo Ruiz Academy / Centro Escolar University
Age: 25

#BuildingBridgesThroughCleanCities

Carlo is a wanderer and nature-aficionado. Travelling to different places made him see and feel the beauty of nature but at the same time, it opened him to how people abuse mother nature. Ever since then, he thought of doing something for the environment in order to restore its beauty. He is making the youth aware of environmental issues, making them know how crucial the environment is for us, and teaching them the basic, but crucial, steps in reducing, reusing and recycling. He is doing everything by hand, and creating an actual and touchable change. For the nature, he will perspire to inspire.


Candidate 9: Jonathan Chantong 陈文鋒
School: Xavier School / De La Salle University
Age: 23

#BuildingBridgesThroughAntiBullying

If you see Jonah, you’ll probably see him smiling. People know him as an optimistic and friendly person yet only a few know about his shy personality. He is eager to learn and try out things way out of his comfort zone. He believes that the first step in personal development is to not hold back and say ‘yes’ to an unfamiliar world however unsure. As someone who personally experienced bullying at a young age, Jonah learned to always look for other ways to make life better. This attitude helped shape the person he is today and taught him to realize and embrace his own uniqueness. As such, he wants to make his advocacy to fight bullying and he hopes to use this pageant as a platform to spread this advocacy.


Candidate 10: Stephen Lim 林光荣
School: Xavier School / De La Salle University
Age: 23

#BuildingBridgesThroughSports

Advocacy: My Advocacy will focus on helping street children overcome the difficulties that they face at this early stage in their lives. Through sports, I want to enable them to hone different values, at the same time instill discipline in them. In this way, having the right mindset as early as now, they can go a long way in achieving their goals in life.

Stephen graduated from De La Salle University with a degree in Bachelor of Science in Business Management. He hopes to travel around the world someday as this has always been his dream growing up. He loves to play basketball during his free time and read books as well. He’s currently working in their family business to expand his knowledge. He joined this competition to enhance his social skills. As a sports advocate, he hopes to inspire street children by teaching them the important values of basketball which they can apply in their everyday lives.


Candidate 11:  Jason Salcedo 吉順
School: Saint Jude Catholic School / University of Santo Tomas
Age: 23

#BuildingBridgesThroughMEDucation

Seeing the reality of poverty in a closer lens and how it affects one’s accessibility to a decent healthcare changes how you view your priorities in life. Jason is an incoming second year medical student who aspires to be a successful doctor for the underprivileged. He aims to use the knowledge that he has gained in his years of studying to help improve the health system in the Philippines. Ever since he could he remember, Jason has always envisioned himself leaning towards a path where he could help other people. It was when he lost his brother to Cancer that fueled his passion to pursue medicine in one of the best medical schools in the Philippines. During his college years, Jason has immersed himself amongst the less fortunate by being active in organizations and volunteering in medical missions to areas in the Philippines, where people can't afford basic quality health services. It was through those experiences where he saw poverty first hand. He also realized that people in these communities are often presented with conditions that are supposed to be easily prevented if they had proper health literacy. As a millenial Chinoy, Jason aims to use his platform in Mr. Chinatown to influence and empower the Chinese-Filipino community to give back to the underprivileged and put a limelight on the difference that we can make in the health sector.


Candidate 12: Michael Jung Yang Chua 蔡重洋
School: Marist School Marikina / De La Salle University
Age: 25

#BuildingBridgesThroughFood

Food has always been J.Y’s first interest. Given the privilege to grow up in various countries in Asia, JY’s enthusiasm, passion, and knowledge of food culture arose from this diverse experiences. Starting a new life journey, J.Y aims to bring health awareness to ordinary filipino homecooks. He believes that we should not have to rely on large entities and fast food chains to feed us. He shares his experiences all the way from Malaysia to Binondo Chinatown with the simple belief that good and healthy food doesn’t need to be expensive.

J.Y’s advocacy the Healthy Plate Program strives to bring colorful tapestry of indigenous ingredients with cooking techniques, taste, and nutritional value to filipino home cooks who wants to make a difference. As a former member of the DLSU Football Team, knowledge on cultivating a balanced diet and honing both mental and physical preparedness are key in successfully implementing his advocacy.


Candidate 13: Gerrickson Malto 张金木
School: Chiang Kai Shek College / De La Salle College of Saint Benilde
Age: 20

#BuildingBridgesThroughUrbanFarming

Gerrickson believes in change that can be achieved through urban farming. Coming from a place where food security and poverty is a problem, Gerrickson learned to be compassionate and engaged with the poor. Through his learnings from his schools, he acknowledges his moral responsibility to do something about this. He plans to bridge the gap by bringing back farming as a good source of income. He is hoping to use this pageant as a platform to shed light on this advocacy and to inspire more young Chinoys to join his campaign.


Candidate 1: Raissa Yentyl Tan 陳姿婷
School: Saint Jude Catholic School / University of Santo Tomas
Age: 21

#BuildingBridgesThroughArts

Advocacy: LIKHA is a project headed by the Filipino-Chinese community that enables Filipinos in poor urban communities to earn extra income and engage in cross-culture sharing and learning with the Chinese through workshops and an art summit.

Bridging the gap between Filipinos and Chinese through the arts has always been the dream advocacy of Raissa. Having graduated Cum Laude from UST with a degree in Interior Design, she aims to provide an avenue for underprivileged communities to build their own livelihood through arts and crafts. Being the president of her home organization cultivated her passion for the arts which she desires to extend to others. Growing up in a Chinese family in the Philippines, she got to embrace both cultures, embodying the integration of both. Through Ms. Chinatown, she wishes to imbibe these values into the Filipino Chinese Community - to achieve the ultimate goal of harmony.


Candidate 2: Zofie Zeng 曾安琦
School: Manila Patriotic School/ De La Salle College of Saint Benilde
Age: 23

#BuildingBridgesThroughEatingRight

My advocacy is to promote choosing the right diet to maintain a healthier lifestyle

Zofie graduated with a degree in Culinary Arts at De La Salle College of Saint Benilde. Her passion for food has influenced her advocacy to promote eating right. She has been a Cosplayer since 2015. This has played an important role in her life and she would love to promote the ACG community to the world.


Candidate 3: Claudine Marie Chua 蔡仁仁
School: Chiang Kai Shek College / Ateneo de Manila University
Age: 21

#BuildingBridgesThroughADHDvocacy

After being diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder, more commonly known as ADHD, at a young age, Claudine grew up struggling to accomplish even the simplest of tasks. However, through determination and the support of loved ones, she was not only able to overcome the effects of her disorder and use them to her advantage, but has also learned to use her experiences to fuel her advocacy forward.

Her condition, coupled with her love of learning and innate curiosity, has led her to join several organizations and pursue various projects, which ultimately became the entry point in her journey as a student leader. It is through these experiences that she was able to meet like-minded people who have helped her realize that any and every effort, regardless how seemingly minuscule, come together and usher in great changes in society.

With a degree in political science, and her second degree in communication in the works, she believes that the divisive world we live in today is caused largely by the lack of communication and misinformation between peoples. Coming from this perspective, she believes that as a part of an underserved and underrecognized sector, she must take it upon herself to improve society’s notions and understanding of the ADHD community beginning with her immediate context: the Chinese community.


Candidate 4: Kyra Wong 王美美
School: Chiang Kai Shek College / University Sto Tomas
 Age: 19

#BuildingBridgesThroughSocialEntrep

Kyra believes that every small step can make a huge difference. Working on different events and projects for her organization in UST, she sees how collaborative effort and active participation are significant in making any goal successful. Kyra aspires to become a CPA and is currently pursuing her degree in BS Accountancy. She is a woman who strives hard for excellence in everything that she does.  As long as she puts her heart into it, she believes that she can achieve anything. Kyra hopes to be a Miss Chinatown who can create a positive change towards the environment and build bridges that can strengthen the ties between the Filipino-Chinese community through her advocacy, social entrepreneurship.


Candidate 5: Jidelle Chan-Tan 曾玉婷
School: Grace Christian College / De La Salle University
Age: 23

#BuildingBridgesThroughFinancialLiteracy

Jidelle considers life one big adventure. Her young life can already be described as one fast rollercoaster ride—full of highs and lows and oftentimes even with surprise twists. A significant part of her journey enabled her to become a business degree graduate while working various part-time jobs until eventually landing her present career as a banker. These milestones have influenced her outlook in life, in particular, her firm belief that each of us should be given equal opportunities to improve his financial skills and competency. All these experiences, good or bad, have helped her develop resiliency and determination to face the challenges of life. Lastly, she considers joining Mr. and Ms. Chinatown 2019 as the most significant part of her adventure to date in order to promote the values embedded in her Filipino-Chinese heritage.


Candidate 6: Joanna Paula Tan 陳安麗
School: Amore International School / University of Santo Tomas
Age: 24

#BuildingBridgesThroughHer

Advocacy: #HerStory is a Chinese-Filipino volunteer group that aims to build bridges and take initiative to address some of the most pressing issues that women are facing nowadays such as domestic abuse, sexual violence and women representation in society. My advocacy focuses on holistic women empowerment through supporting Bahay Tuluyan.

After passing the Medical Technology Board Examinations in 2017, Paula is presently a third year medical student pursuing her dream of becoming a physician at the University of Santo Tomas. She was elected student council president in her undergraduate years and continued her legacy of servant leadership by serving as UST Medicine Student Council Secretary in 2018. She began her foray in pageantry with the hopes of using her voice to raise her advocacy towards women empowerment. She was Ms. PHISMETS National 2015 3rd Runner Up and Mutya Ng Trece 2017. Being raised by a Chinese father and a Filipina mother taught Paula to embrace both cultures, a knowledge she wishes to use to build bridges between the Filipino and Chinese community through her advocacy, #HerStory which aims to use Mr and Ms Chinatown 2019 as a platform to help abused women. She aspires to use her journey towards becoming a licensed physician as an example in empowering others, especially the women, to live a life beyond comfort zones, with freedom to make choices in a world free of judgment and stereotypes.


Candidate 7: Marie Lorraine Cho 曹美英
School: Sto Nino Academy / Bulacan State University
Age: 19

#BuildingBridgesThroughPerformingArts

Being a participant in last year's MMCP Online changemaker pushed Lorraine to the limits of knowing herself deeply and resulted to discovering her passion for performing arts. She had the opportunity to get to know some young individuals with genuine talents that deserve to be shown off to the world. She learned that lack of support, appreciation, encouragement and appropriate medium are the primary problems they are dealing with almost everyday. This sparked her advocacy of youth empowerment through performing arts. Lorraine, together with Mr. Alexander Kiong (co-participant in MMCP Online Changemaker event) directed a mini-concert entitled "This Is Our Time" showcasing the talents of the aspiring performers they have encountered along their journey. More than the feeling of fulfillment for being able to extend help to the next generation of artists, her life became more meaningful because she now knows her purpose in life. And this purpose is to serve as a support system for her fellow youth to keep on chasing their dreams and to remind them that no negativity around should stop them from doing what they love.


Candidate 8: Amara Ui 黃玉琴
School: Miriam College High School / De La Salle University
Age: 24

#BuildingBridgesThroughListening

Amara grew up as an only child so was really close to all her family members. She graduated in De La Salle University with a degree of BS Management in 2017. Since then, she has been working on establishing a business that she’s really passionate about. Aside from that, she has been modelling for the past two years, engaged in a little bit of acting, did some English tutorials - all to make a living and to eventually create her own dream brand. Her hobbies include film photography, baking, and traveling around the world. Her advocacy is providing awareness to the society on people with disabilities specifically to the deaf, and she will do her best to see this advocacy through.


Candidate 9: Razeline Chua 蔡端人
School: Chiang Kai Shek College / University of Santo Tomas
Age: 20

#BuildingBridgesThroughHokkien

Advocacy: #ProjectRebuildingtheBridge #BuildingBridgesThroughHokkien seeks to promote the culture and heritage of Chinoy by encouraging the use of Hokkien to the youth via classes, animated cartoons, web series, and tutorial videos. Moreover, it aims to build a community where together the youth could practice and speak Hokkien together.

Razeline believes that language is a window to one's culture. Born and raised in a Filipino-Chinese family, she has had to juggle different languages in such an early age. Though struggling and inconvenient as a kid, she slowly learned to appreciate the importance and role of language in her life, her culture. She currently knows 5 languages. From personal experience, however, she began to notice the gap between the Chinoy youth and their interest and ability to speak Hokkien brought about by the lack of means to learn the dialect through formal education, for example.  As such, she used this as her motivation to raise awareness on the need to promote and relearn the dialect targeting the Chinoy youth today. For the past few years, she has been doing so by helping UST Scarlet, a multi-cultural socio-civic Filipino-Chinese organization in the University of Santo Tomas, organize Hokkien classes that caters to all willing Thomasian learners. She wants to continue serving this advocacy she had already been acting upon through the help of the Miss Chinatown. She is determined to reconnect the youth to the Chinoy heritage to understand themselves better as a Filipino Chinese and together #RebuildBridgesThroughHokkien


Candidate 10: Nina Tay Lee 李慧珍
School: Immaculate Conception Academy / University of Santo Tomas
Age: 25

#BuildingBridgesThroughGrowingPassion

Having been raised by a strong mother figure, Nina was able to grow up with a pronounced sense of independence and self reliance to herself. Because of this, Nina knew from an early age that she wanted to pursue an Interior Design career. She would often be immersed in different environments and experiences that allowed her to mature and gain new understandings about diverse unfamiliar circumstances within and around her. Always eager to learn new things, may it be academically or in daily life, she does not easily turn down opportunities or chances that help develop relationships with people close to her. Nina hopes during this competition she will be able to help in #BuildingBridgesThroughGrowingPassion which aims to help young adults cultivate their hobbies and interests that will support passion-driven careers and professions for a life driven with purpose and passion.


Candidate 11: Chelsea Phoebe Ong 王芝翎
School: Grace Christian College / Ateneo de Manila University
Age: 25

#BuildingBridgesThroughMentalHealthAwareness

Chelsea has always been a free spirit and an individualist. Unfortunately, that made her clash with the expectations of a proper Chinese lady. As a result, she struggled with her personal identity, self image and mental health. It took her a long time to open up and find help to embrace her uniqueness. Sometimes the world creates an image of who one needs to be and deviating from those standards can often cause people to feel isolated. Her goal in joining this pageant is to open the conversation about mental health with the Chinoy youth so that people with mental illness with have a safe space to express themselves without fear of maltreatment or segregation.


Candidate 12: Philene Yeung 楊森森
School: Chiang Kai Shek College / De La Salle University
Age: 21

Advocacy: #BuildingBridgesThroughFinancialSecurity is an awareness program built for young students in order for them to be financially aware. My advocacy will focus on young students in their early ages and will be using social media as a platform in order to showcase this awareness to students. Also, it will highlight the importance to young students about the effect of understanding financial through seminars and trainings.

As someone who grew up in a traditional and conservative Chinese family, Phi was taught by her mother the value of money and saving up early on in life. This is one of the reasons why she chose to pursue Financial Management as her vocation. After graduating at De La Salle University, Phi took a job in the retail industry — an experience that has aided the development of her interpersonal and social skills. Then, she moved on to work at an internationally-known bank, a job that currently allows her to assist people obtain financial stability, since she believes that this is the only way to success. At 21, she understands that planning financial security is an overwhelming task, and thus, wants to use this pageant as a medium for her advocacy.

14 comments:

  1. Bravo.Look at the accomplishments of these candidates.Bukod sa goodlooking,they value education.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Jonathan Chantong thats all.
    Di ko tinignan girls.

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  3. Jonathan Chantong and Marie Lorraine Cho. Sila lang mukhang artistahin.

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  4. Ay bet ko si Jonah, ang fresh nya!

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  5. Jonathan Chantong and Marie Lorraine Cho ftw

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  6. Top 3 boys jonah stephen malto
    Top 3 gurls philene amara lorraine

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  7. girls, maganda yung Amara, Loraine,Philene.
    boys, jonathan, joshua and Stephen.
    for me, malalakas ang mga dating sa akin ng mga pictures ng mga yan.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Boys 1 and 9 yum!!!

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  9. Na-amaze ako. Di lang pretty faces, well-educated and may substance mga advocacies.

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  10. Bet ko sa male si candidate #9 and sa female si #3. Goodluck to all of em.

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  11. Stephen Lim and Jonathan Chantong for me. Grabe!

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    Replies
    1. Silang 2 rin for me. Pero Stephen mananlo for me. Cutie cutie kasi si Jonah. Sa girls, Amara for me pnakamaganda, pero sa crown Raissa or Razeline naman. Hehe

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