The day was filled with smiles and connections as the Mr. and Ms. Chinatown Global 2025 candidates toured the Manila Bulletin head office in Intramuros on Jan. 15.

After their press presentation at the Manila Hotel last Tuesday, the 20 young and dashing candidates smiled and waved hello as Bernadette Cunanan, Public Relations Manager, Manila Bulletin, and other Manila Bulletin employees greeted them.

The candidates met with editors, writers, and graphic designers. They also took selfies around the newsroom and uploaded them to their social media accounts.

After taking selfies and learning about the Manila Bulletin, the candidates sat down for an interview with the Entertainment team to discuss their dreams and the people they admire.

Male candidates

Aravinda Rao 文达 (Singapore): 'I'm very passionate about development activities and instilling good values within my community, my dream is that I hope to inspire younger people to be better contributors to society."

Francis Matthew O. Ngo 吴敦德 (Philippines): "It sounds cliche, but I think my dream to find my own happiness in this life because as we grow older, it still takes time for us to know who we are and I'm still in the process of finding who I am and finding my happiness."

Joseph Morris (Australia): "My dream is to be in a situation where one to have a beautiful family, two to support my family financially, and three to live in a place where we don't have to struggle to get by."

 Jeric Bennett Uy Mendoza 張匀鐙 (Philippines): "I do feel like a lot of pressure coming from my parents especially since I'm the eldest, so my dream is to be financially independent and do less work for them, so they can relax and it would be nice for them to enjoy their life."

 Aragon Jacob Yu Lor 洪賢榮 (Philippines): ''Since I'm still a student, my short-term dream is to pursue this modeling career and see where it goes."

 Kirby Mark Chen 陈圳兴 (Philippines): ''I'm currently handling our family business and hope to make it a bigger company like to expand, but also as a person, I don't think I'm that business-minded. I'm more like an arts person but through the years that I've been doing my job. I'm a believer that you can do both things, so I want to have this dream that I can do our family business and pursue my love for arts."

 Rafael Jacque Balila 許文達 (Philippines): ''As for me, my dream is to first graduate in La Salle, and second is to take on our family business because when I was young we were taught by our grandparents to have a business mindset because money doesn't come easy and you have to work for it. So my dream is to expand our business."

Duan Shiqing 段世庆 (China): "My dream for the moment is to focus on modeling since I've been doing this for quite some time, and walk this path the right way and to go far in it."

Ethan Tam Ming Hao 谭鸣浩 (Malaysia): "For me, I've been doing this modeling career for almost two years. I would love to be in Milan and New York Fashion Week. As for career-wise, my dream is to be the person where I can offer a lot of options for my family."

Byron Sng 孙伟伦 (Malaysia): "My dream would be able to do the things I enjoy in life because everyone views success differently, and I think that doing the things I enjoy like staying healthy, inspiring other people, and bringing positive energy to the people around me is my biggest dream." 

Female candidates

Juliette Louie 雷莊兒 (Hong Kong): "There's a lot of people that I look up to but being an actor, I look up to someone like Michelle Yeoh. Because my dream is to also star in an action film, and she's like a female hero and that's what keeps me inspired."

Zhang Ruoxi 张若熙 (China): "The person that I look up to is myself because as a 21-year-old, I've achieved so much not just in my career but also in my personal life, and that kept me inspired and have the resilience to do better."

 Rebecca Kwek Jing Yi 郭静颐 (Singapore): "There are two people that I look up to and that is Pia Wurtzbach and Catriona Gray because they've kept me inspired especially when they both won Miss Universe and I hope that I get to experience that too."

 Chiara Alix Lim 林嘉玲 (Philippines): "I do look up to a lot of different people but I pick the characteristics and traits that apply to me and our valuable to me but I don't have a specific person that I look up to because I want to be me."

Gwyneth Yvonne R. Jao 劉恩蕙 (Philippines): "The people I look up to are the people that I've known through the years, so for me its really my parents because I've seen them struggle and work hard. So they kept me really inspired." 

Khryss Nicole J. Go 陳世美 (Philippines): "Just like the other candidates, the people I look up to are my parents, specifically my dad because he is the kind of person who shows dedication and passion with his work and I wanna be a reflector of that." 

Candice Xiao Liang 梁瀟(USA): "The people that I look up to is parents because they embody strength and resilience, and showed unconditional love and guidance. They also taught me how to stay grounded while working hard for my dreams.

 Jenina Lui 呂妮娜 (Australia): "The person that I look up to is of course my parents but other than that I have three ever since I joined pageantry. First is Audrey Hepburn because of her style and elegance, second is Mother Teresa because I came from a faithful family, and third is Ms. Charlene Gonzales because I thought she was very clever with her answers with mathematical jargon, because I come from an accounting background I think pageantry and math works well."