Wedding of Thailand’s ‘most beautiful transgender’ who graced Hong Kong’s silver screen costs US$570,000 steeped in Chinese culture

Chinese heritage to the fore as Hong Kong-Thai film star Poyd Treechada Petcharat weds beau in glittering Phuket ceremony
Lavish event sees Poyd don a crown made of pure gold and the happy couple wear outfits which cost a whopping US$570,000

When Thai model Poyd Treechada Petcharat, known to many as “Thailand’s Most Beautiful Transgender”, tied the knot this month with her partner Oak, the wedding made many nods to her rich beau’s Chinese roots.

According to The Nation newspaper in Thailand, the ceremony – held on the Thai island of Phuket – followed the traditional Peranakan style, which originated with the early Chinese migrants who settled in Penang, Malacca, Singapore and Indonesia more than six centuries ago.

It was held at an 84-year-old Sino-colonial heritage estate owned by the groom’s wealthy family which made their fortune in tin mining, powered by Oak’s great grandfather, Chinese immigrant Tan Jin Nguan.

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For his contributions to the industry, the family patriarch was even bestowed with the royal surname “Hong Yok”.

© Provided by South China Morning Post
Treechada Petcharat, better known by the names Poyd, Nong Poy, or Treechada Malayaporn, with her newlywed husband, Phakwa Hongyok, who is widely known as Oak. Photo: Instagram/@poydtreechada

What also made headlines was the figure of 20 million baht (US$570,000), the reported price tag for the couple’s wedding outfits.

As well as a traditional hand-embroidered Peranakan wedding dress, Poyd, 36, wore a handmade pure-gold flower crown.

But it was not her first time she has experienced an important crowning moment.

In 2004, Poyd – who has been open about her gender affirming surgery, which she underwent aged 17 – won the transgender beauty pageants Miss Tiffany’s and Miss International Queen, earning her the moniker of “Thailand’s most beautiful transgender woman”.

Acting is another feather in Poyd’s impressive cap, and she has strong connections to Hong Kong cinema, having worked alongside some of the city’s finest actors and directors.

© Provided by South China Morning Post
The couple were married at a lavish wedding ceremony in the holiday resort of Phuket. Photo: Instagram/@poydtreechada

In 2014, she starred in The White Storm, a crime action film directed and produced by Hong Kong moviemaker Benny Chan, which centred on a large-scale drug bust involving the Hong Kong police and the Thai mafia. Poyd plays a Thai drug dealer.

In the film, the three close childhood friends played by Sean Lau, Louis Koo and Nick Cheung respectively, work for the Hong Kong Police Narcotics Bureau.

When the film hit the screens, Andrew Chan of the Film Critics Circle of Australia, described it as “easily the most entertaining [Hong Kong] film of the year, an edge-of-the-seat thriller, a swash-buckling action affair and a powerhouse of acting experience”.

But her Hong Kong credits do not stop there.

In 2015, Poyd played a mafia boss in the 2015 action comedy From Vegas to Macau II which starred Hong Kong heavyweights Chow Yun-fat, Carina Lau and Shawn Yue.