Two separate searches for two separate pageants, both with “Chinatown” in the name, are running at the same time — and if you’ve mixed them up on your feed, you’re not alone.

Mr. and Ms. Chinatown Philippines 2026 already introduced its candidates to the press on August 24, where Izabella Charis Benet Lee of the Bicol Region and Ozzie Llige of La Union were named Darlings of the Press among a field of 26 official Filipino-Chinese candidates drawn from Luzon, Visayas, Mindanao, and NCR. Finals are set for November 3 at the Newport Performing Arts Theater inside Newport World Resorts, Pasay City, under the theme “FireHorse” — a nod to 2026 as the Year of the Fire Horse on the Chinese zodiac.

Meanwhile, a completely different organization is running its own search: ABS-CBN’s Star Hunt has spent the past month crisscrossing the country with Chinoy TV, the media outlet covering the Philippines’ Filipino-Chinese community, conducting final physical casting calls for Mr. and Ms. Chinatown Global Philippines. The search stopped in Manila on August 8, moved to Baguio a week later, and is capping off with a final Manila casting call today, September 5, at the ABS-CBN center in Quezon City. Grand finals for this leg are scheduled for October.

They’re not the same pageant, and they’re not even related. Mr. and Ms. Chinatown Global Philippines, organized by Virtual Playground Co., is specifically the national qualifying leg for Mr. and Ms. Chinatown Global — the international pageant that pulls Huaren (ethnic Chinese diaspora) delegates from Chinese communities in more than a dozen countries. Whoever wins this October doesn’t just take a local sash home; they go on to represent the Philippines at Global’s own Winners Night, competing against delegates from Malaysia, Canada, Switzerland, Thailand, and elsewhere. The international side is already gearing up for its third year — a definitive date and venue haven’t been announced, but candidates like the newly crowned Mister Chinatown Global Thailand 2027 are reportedly already preparing, with the finals expected to land in the Philippines again, continuing the pageant’s run of Manila hosting since Year One.

Mr. and Ms. Chinatown Philippines is a different lineage entirely, with no apparent connection to the Global pipeline. It’s the pageant David Licauco competed in back in 2014, placing 1st runner-up before that loss opened doors into modeling and, eventually, a career that made him one of GMA’s biggest leading men. Tyrone Tan and Yza Thalia Uy currently hold the title, crowned last October under the theme “Rooted in Culture, Elevated by Elegance” — and this year’s 26-candidate field, finals set for November 3, is already working toward naming their successors.

If Chinatown-specific pageantry still feels too narrow a lane, there’s a broader version worth knowing about: Mister Global Asian, which Filipino titleholder Rey John Paul Sabado won outright in January — the country’s first-ever crown in that pageant’s four-year run. “Mister Global Asian is a distinct pageant for men of Asian heritage anywhere in the world,” Sabado told ELYSPLANET, “it’s just like the Mr. Chinatown pageant” — except it isn’t limited to Chinese descent, drawing delegates from across Asia and the Asian diaspora more broadly.

Sabado’s own successor is already taking shape, and it comes with a wrinkle. Patrick Sy of Caloocan City, who won Mr Philippines I Am Model Search 2026 at last week’s Mr Philippines pageant, was named the country’s representative to Mister Global Asian 2027 in the organization’s official post-pageant release. But Sabado himself won under a different local franchise holder, PEPPS (Prime Events Productions Philippines Foundation Inc.), and a source tells ELYSPLANET that PEPPS is expected to send its own representative to the same competition, pending confirmation — meaning the Philippines could send two delegates to one pageant, the same way it sent both Jose Carlos Paras and John Paolo Dela Cruz to Mister National Universe earlier this year. The actual competition isn’t until October, so how this sorts out is still an open question.

As for who’s currently holding what: Mr. and Ms. Chinatown Global’s reigning titleholders are Ang Wei Yang of Malaysia and Tyra Rosnuk of Canada, crowned this past February at Smart Araneta Coliseum. The Philippines has already tasted the top of that podium once — Khryss Nicole Go won the whole thing outright in the inaugural 2025 edition. Tyrone Tan and Yza Thalia Uy continue their own separate reign as Mr. and Ms. Chinatown Philippines 2025, a title that has nothing to do with any of it.