Miss Chinese Montreal troubles

  Vicki Ng-Wan, 18, of Laval withstood incredible pressure but she resisted and stood up for what's right.
   She hasn't been so high profile lately but she'll be on your cube soon as one of the 26 hostesses on the local French version of Deal or No Deal, starting later this month, called Le Banquier. It's taping right about now.
   The Vanier College Modern Languages student speaks English, French, Russian, Spanish and is learning Italian - but her tongue can't manage Chinese, not yet anyway. Her mother is French Canadian and her ethnic-Chinese father is from Mauritius. "He likes Chinese food," she quips.
   Vicki has been sporting her Miss Chinese Montreal 2006 tiara proudly but not with the greatest of ease since earning it in November 2005 at Ruth Koo Lam's annual show, which costs something like $200 to attend.
   As is custom, Vicki, as the winner, was shipped off to Hong Kong to participate in a high-profile pageant last January. Montrealers who went on to acting fame in China include '92 winner Christy Chung (who went on to win the HK contest) and 1995 beauty local champ Angela Tong.
   Some speculation had Vicki considered a favourite to win against 16 Chinese diaspora pageant victors from places like Toronto, New York and Vancouver.
   A day after arriving in Hong Kong, organizers presented Vicki with a contract with TV broadcaster TVB. She was shocked. "It said I couldn't come back to Montreal at any time. There was no guaranteed money. It didn't say whether I was going to get a place to live or not. They wanted me to stay in Hong Kong for the rest of my life. I was underage and told them I'd have to discuss it with my parents."
   The other contestants, who were all over 18, signed the paper.
   Then the unpleasant armtwisting commenced.
   A pageant official rang up Vicki's parents to loudly persuade them to sign the contract. "It was like 2 am, she yelled at them, telling them to sign the contract. The organizer said it was not a dangerous contract but my parents worried. Yelling at my parents, that was not right. My mother asked one of my uncles and he said that if I signed it then nobody could do anything to take me out of there."
   "The contracts were inhumane. They made no sense."
   Vicki stayed two weeks in Hong Kong but left a week before the tournament. She has no regrets.
   "I was 17. It was a good experience, I learned a lot. I had a lot of chances there. The press loved me a lot there. I was approached by all the newspapers to speak to them."
  "If I had signed, I don’t know what they would have done. They said we have to stay loyal to them for years and the contract could be renewed whenever they want and I had nothing to say about it. It was really ridiculous and most of the girls didn’t read the contract because most of us trusted a lot the girls bringing us there."
   Nowadays Vicki is doing some modelling. "But I do it on the side. My studies come first."