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Sabrina Meng Wanzhou and Annabel Yao: Huawei founder’s two daughters

The two daughters of Chinese smartphone giant Huawei’s founder, Ren Zhengfei, have been making headlines – and for quite different reasons. The elder one, 46-year-old Huawei chief financial officer Sabrina Meng Wanzhou, was detained by Canadian authorities this month at the request of the United States government, reportedly for violating sanctions against Iran; the younger daughter, Harvard computer science student Annabel Yao, 21, was a sensation at last month’s Le Bal des Debutantes (or Crillon Ball) in Paris.

Huawei founder’s debutante daughter Annabel Yao: ‘I still consider myself a normal girl’

Yao, chosen to perform the opening waltz at Le Bal des Débutantes in Paris, was one of 19 young women to make their society debut this year

While Le Bal des Debutantes in Paris each year is a nod to the tradition of young society ladies entering the elite social scene of Europe, these days it courts modern debutantes, aged 16 to 21, who are chosen for their looks, brains and famous parents – prominent in business, entertainment and politics.

The schedule at the event, organised by Ophélie Renouard, is full of young women such as Baroness Ludmilla von Oppenheim, from Germany; Julia McCaw, daughter of AT&T founder Craig McCaw; and Annabel Yao, daughter of Chinese telecommunications firm Huawei’s founder, Ren Zhengfei – the latter of whom was one of three debutantes chosen for the opening waltz this year.

Yao – a 21-year-old Harvard computer science student and ballerina who has lived in Britain, Hong Kong and Shanghai – is one of several Chinese debutantes in recent years. Hollywood offspring, such as the daughters of actors Forest Whitaker, Bruce Willis and Sylvester Stallone, have also become Le Bal regulars.

Seeing that debutante ball with very different eyes.