1. Joyce Cheng Yan-yee

Cheng shared that she once weighed 235 pounds during puberty and also suffered from various health problems, such as high cholesterol, that gave her headaches and made her retch, according to RTHK programme This Week in 2016. The star faced a slew of distasteful comments about her weight. She was called obese by the public, which made her want to lose weight.

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With a strict diet and an exercise routine, Cheng lost almost half the weight, reaching 138 pounds. However, she later confessed in the same RTHK interview that at the time she was often hungry and her blood sugar was so low that she always felt dizzy.

In 2014, the 34-year-old singer-actress reportedly gained back some of the weight – and the public showed her no mercy. The media even described her as “abandoning herself”.

“Does a fat body imply that he or she is lazy, unkempt and disqualified to pursue for dream?” Cheng asked, in the same RTHK interview.

In June 2014, Cheng confessed that she would never force herself to lose weight again. “Happiness isn’t based on body weight! I refuse to live for others. Learning to be comfortable in my own skin,” she wrote on Instagram.

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Her statement struck a chord with many. Cheng has won many music awards over the years and is undeniably a role model for many young women, proving that body weight has nothing to do with success.

2. Serrini

Debuting in 2012 as a singer-songwriter, Leung Ka-yan, better known as Serrini, caught the public’s attention with her beautiful singing voice, indie-pop melodies, wry and candid lyrics, and confident personality.

But as she became more popular in recent years, the 31-year old singer faced intense body-shaming. In a Facebook post in 2019, she wrote, “I was told that I won’t have a boyfriend if I am fat.”

“In the past, I would be unhappy because of that. It sounded like all my accomplishments were unimportant if I am fat, but now, I know that I am fabulous and idgaf,” wrote Serrini who, besides being a singer, completed her PhD in literature and cultural studies at the University of Hong Kong earlier this year.

3. Gillian Chung Yan-tung

When actress-singer Gillian Chung Yan-tung – born as Chung Ka-lai – made her debut with the girl group Twins in 2001, her talent and looks captured the hearts of many fans.

Throughout the years, Chung has come up against ongoing criticism about her physique. “I was nicknamed ‘swollen legs’ during my school days and I was also criticised about my legs when I first entered showbiz,” she said in an interview in 2009, according to The Sun.

Due to the criticism, the 40-year-old Canto-pop singer reportedly got 20 Botox jabs in each leg, and had to get new rounds of shots every six months.

In May this year, Chung came up against intense body-shaming attacks when she appeared on the variety show Twinkle Love. Netizens took to social media to make comments about the star’s weight, and express unsolicited concern about her health, reports Today Online.

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Though Chung didn’t respond to the comments herself, the other member of the Twins duo, Charlene Choi, defended the singer in an interview. “She is suffering from endocrine disorders. Don’t put pressure on her. The most important thing is to be happy and healthy,” Choi said in an interview, according to topick.hket.com.

4. Janice Vidal

Vidal said the following about the statement: “Even when I first started out [as a singer] I wasn’t a perfect, skinny, model-like person. Back then, everybody was focusing on my music. I want people to believe that music is where I started from, and that’s where I eventually will be at. It’ll be about my music and how I touch people with my voice,” the 39-year-old said in an interview with SCMP in 2014.

“I want to be healthier,” she added, “and it means that maybe I’m not stick-skinny, but I do want to have less body-fat percentage. I do want to look good on stage, but also I really do hope it’s not just about that. It’s also about the songs that we’ll be sharing and singing together on stage.”

5. Christine Kuo

Christine Kuo – who won Miss Chinese Toronto Pageant and Miss Chinese International Pageant in 2008 and 2009 respectively – is among one the best-known actresses in Hong Kong’s current era of cinema.

Despite being a pageant winner, the 38-year-old actress has faced a string of nasty comments about her weight. Local media even maliciously nicknamed her a“fatty Kuo” – the word kuo is a homonym for the word dog in Cantonese.

It turned out that the star was suffering from hypothyroidism, an endocrine disorder in which the thyroid gland does not produce enough thyroid hormones, reports Asia One.

After years of therapy, plus a balanced diet and exercise, Kuo has now lost the weight, reported Elle Hong Kong in 2016.