10th December 2025 – (Hong Kong) Gigi Chao, 45, the daughter of tycoon Cecil Chao and singer Irene Yeh, has offered a rare account of her upbringing and early adulthood, saying wealth did not equate to an easy life. Chao, who has kept a low profile in recent years, joined Xiaohongshu in November and has since shared snippets of her life. In a recent video, she wrote: “My parents separated when I was born. I lived alone in a mansion.”
Posting childhood photographs with her parents, Chao charted a path from delivering newspapers to becoming a vice-chair of a listed company. Under the heading “Tearing Off Labels | My true freedom began with delivering newspapers,” she described shuttling between two very different worlds: her father’s lavish household, complete with Rolls‑Royces and constant social attention, where she nevertheless felt solitary; and her mother Yiu Wai’s frugal, crowded family environment. Her mother’s strict discipline saw Chao move to the United States at six following Yeh’s remarriage. “Because of my family background, it felt like millions of eyes were on my every move,” she wrote. At 13, her father sent her to the United Kingdom on her own. “For the first time, I tasted the freedom of being an ordinary person. I wanted to experience a completely different life, grounded in work done by my own hands.”
That decision ushered in a demanding routine. Chao took on a string of menial jobs: delivering newspapers at dawn, washing dishes in a restaurant kitchen, hauling crates of beer in a pub at night, and working overnight as a care assistant in a home for the elderly. “Those days were genuinely tough, with heavy academic pressure as well. But looking back, it was one of the most spiritually enriching periods of my life,” she said. The hardship taught her to cherish what she had, exposed her to people from all walks of life and their stories, and brought unexpected kindness from strangers. When she could not afford to return to Hong Kong for Christmas, she spent the holidays with friends’ families who cooked for her and gave her presents. “Compared with the labels I was born with, those experiences were among the earliest and most precious assets of my life.”
Recalling that the U.K. minimum wage was about £3.25 at the time, Chao said she worked continuously and was frugal, eventually saving £50,000. She brought the money home and gave it to her mother, mindful of Yiu’s impoverished upbringing. “Creating wealth with my own hands, and living a youth filled with empathy and freedom, taught me that you must write your own life script,” she concluded.
