Born Xi Mengyao on March 8, 1989 in Shanghai, the Chinese model is a graduate of Shanghai’s Donghua University, where she majored in fashion design and acting.

She first gained attention when she took part in Let’s Go! Oriental Angels, a Chinese reality TV show similar to American Idol, in 2009, where she was placed in the top five of the Shanghai zone.

She made her fashion debut in October 2009 by representing China in an Elite Model Look competition and was placed third. She was then signed on by Elite and has strutted in major fashion capitals and grabbed the attention of major fashion labels, such as Dior and Vivienne Westwood.

She was once named one of China’s top four supermodels together with Liu Wen, Sun Feifei and Shu Pei by Xinhuanet, a website of the state-run Xinhua news agency.

She was formerly known as Barbie, but she adopted the name “Ming” after the Westerners could not pronounce her name “Mengyao” and called her “Ming” instead.

But she picked herself up and continued walking like nothing happened. A true queen! The then-28-year-old tripped on the catwalk of the first-ever Victoria’s Secret fashion show held in China in 2017 after she stepped on the train of her flowing costume during the show in Shanghai. She won praise for maintaining her composure and completing the catwalk after the tumble.

She has starred in movies such as This Is Not What I Expected (2017), which starred Takeshi Kaneshiro and Zhou Dongyu, and Kill Mobile (2018), which starred Tong Dawei and Ma Li. Kill Mobile is a Chinese remake of the Italian movie Perfect Strangers (2016).

She is a good friend of Mario Ho’s elder sister Sabrina Ho. She became friends with Mario through the introduction of Sabrina. Xi and Mario fell in love after taking part in Mr Left Mr Right, where they were paired up in the Chinese reality dating show.

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Text: Lim Ruey Yan and Loh Keng Fatt, The Straits Times, Additional reporting: Elizabeth Liew