Gigi Chao (; born 23 June 1979) is a

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

business woman and activist, the vice-chair of Cheuk Nang (Holdings) Ltd.

Education

Chao holds a Bachelor of Arts in Architecture with Honours from the

Manchester School of Architecture The Manchester School of Architecture (MSA) is a List of architecture schools#United Kingdom, School of Architecture, jointly administered by the University of Manchester and the Manchester Metropolitan University in the city of Manchester, Engl ...

, jointly administered by the

University of Manchester The University of Manchester is a public university, public research university in Manchester, England. The main campus is south of Manchester city centre, Manchester City Centre on Wilmslow Road, Oxford Road. The University of Manchester is c ...

and the

Manchester Metropolitan University Manchester Metropolitan University is located in the centre of Manchester, England. The university has 40,000 students and over 4,000 members of staff. It is home to four faculties (Arts and Humanities, Business and Law, Health and Education ...

Work and activism

Chao, a

feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideology, ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social gender equality, equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern soci ...

and

lesbian A lesbian is a homosexual woman or girl. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate nouns with female homosexu ...

, is an outspoken advocate for

LGBT rights in Hong Kong Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBTQ) people in Hong Kong (a special administrative region of China) may face legal challenges not experienced by non-LGBT residents. History After the 1967 decriminalisation of homosexuality in the ...

and

Asia Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...

. She was the first female President of the

Hong Kong Aviation Club The Hong Kong Aviation Club is an aviation club which offers training on both fixed-wing aircraft and helicopter to Private Pilot Licence Level. It was established in 1982 upon the amalgamation of the Hong Kong Flying Club, the Aero Club of Ho ...

. She was also an early investor in

Tesla Tesla most commonly refers to: * Nikola Tesla (1856–1943), a Serbian-American electrical engineer and inventor * Tesla, Inc., an American electric vehicle and clean energy company, formerly Tesla Motors, Inc. * Tesla (unit) (symbol: T), the SI-d ...

and supported the company's early development in Hong Kong with purchasing two of the first generation Tesla Roadsters in 2011. In 2019, Chao founded the organisation Hong Kong Marriage Equality to advocate for the legalisation of

same-sex marriage Same-sex marriage, also known as gay marriage, is the marriage of two people of the same legal Legal sex and gender, sex. marriage between same-sex couples is legally performed and recognized in 38 countries, with a total population of 1.5 ...

in Hong Kong. Chao wrote an early thesis on marriage equality and published it for peer review in 2011–2012.

Personal life

In 2012, Chao gained international attention when her father,

Cecil Chao Cecil Chao Sze-Tsung (; born September 27, 1936) is a Hong Kong billionaire who is the owner of Cheuk Nang (Holdings) Ltd, a Hong Kong-based property development and investment company, known for its focus on residential and commercial real esta ...

, offered $65 million to any man who could marry her. Despite criticism, her father remained unrepentant. In 2014 Cecil Chao increased the reward to $180 million. Gigi responded publicly in an open letter printed in the ''

South China Morning Post The ''South China Morning Post'' (''SCMP''), with its Sunday edition, the ''Sunday Morning Post'', is a Hong Kong-based English-language newspaper owned by Alibaba Group. Founded in 1903 by Tse Tsan-tai and Alfred Cunningham, it has remaine ...

''. The letter expresses defiance of her father's wishes and asks for respect for the

LGBT community The LGBTQ community (also known as the LGBT, LGBT+, LGBTQ+, LGBTQIA, LGBTQIA+, or queer community) comprises LGBTQ people, LGBTQ individuals united by LGBTQ culture, a common culture and LGBTQ movements, social movements. These Community, comm ...

. She is an

Anglican Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

References

External links

Biglove Alliance Founders

Faith in Love Foundation, Gigi Chao

Hong Kong Marriage Equality Members
1979 births Living people Hong Kong lesbians Hong Kong LGBTQ rights activists Alumni of the University of Manchester LGBTQ Anglicans {{HongKong-bio-stub