Born and raised in Hong Kong, Siu Hei knew from a young age that they wanted to work in the fashion industry. And that's exactly what they did. Before stepping in front of the camera, Siu worked as a fashion designer and styling assistant for five years. Nowadays, they split their time between modelling and surfing. 

As a model, Siu has been featured in magazines such as Vogue, The Face, Hunger, and Tatler. They've even acted in the Netflix series The Witcher. When they're not modelling, Siu loves doing outdoor sports, especially surfing. 

We spoke with Siu about their experiences coming out as a trans woman, the importance of pride, and their work to make space for trans people in the surfing world. 

LGBTQIA+ people have existed since the birth of humanity. We're a part of nature. But it's only relatively recently that humans have stigmatised being queer, and that's for many different reasons like religion and culture. But in today's society, we should normalise being queer because queer people are a part of society, whether you like it or not. We shouldn't be left behind or hidden.

I hope that by making ourselves more visible - not just during Pride, but through our work too - people's ideas and thoughts around LGBTQIA+ people will change for the better. 

It's been tough enough to break bones. Asian culture is, comparatively, a lot more close-minded than Western culture. As a result, being transgender or non-binary in Hong Kong is hard. Until the past few years, trans and non-binary were invisible inHong Kong. It's like we didn't exist. Still, to this day, many people don't know what it means to be trans or non-binary. They're not educated about it, which unfortunately means they still hold the old-fashioned and wrong idea that trans and non-binary are either crazy or monsters. This public pressure makes it really difficult for people who want to transition. In short, Hong Kong is nothing like London, which is far more open-minded and diverse.

It's super hard to be a trans woman in a male-dominated sport. Most surfing ads show extreme masculinity or femininity (the beach body look). And the surf community where I'm from doesn't respect LGBTQ+. So the only way to go through it is to be yourself and focus on surfing when in the water.

I generously love the sport. The funniest thing that happened to me is that I slowly gained respect because my surf technique improved a lot, and I now surf better than some men on the surf spot - they could see that I surf well and that I'm not weak. But it shouldn't be like that. Everyone should be respectful to others, regardless of their surf level.

Yes, I feel relaxed and happy when I surf because I only have to think about catching waves and having fun.

Tough enough to break bones. Asian culture is more close-minded, and being transgender or non-binary in Hong Kong is hard. Till now, the LGBTQIA+ community is still very small. in Hong Kong. People don't know what it means to be queer or have not been educated about it. They still think being trans or non-binary is like being crazy or a monster. And people who want to transition are too scared to do so because of the public pressure. It's nothing like London, where it's more open-minded and diverse.

My family.

Society has been changing a lot. It's becoming more open and positive about us. Thumbs up! But still, we need more education for the public to learn about us and understand us.

The fashion industry is supposed to be very open-minded and accessible. But I still feel the fashion industry for models is still close-minded. Even if some brands use transgender models in a show, there is usually only one space for one transgender model in a show with many models. So they could open more space for us. And tick the box and call it diversity. But being an Asian transgender is even more challenging. Same as plus-size models. 

Be advantageous, be brave, be yourself. That's all you need.

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