SHE has kept a low profile for the last five years, but former actress and beauty queen Paulyn Sun is back in the news.

She was allegedly hit and injured by her live-in boyfriend, the general manager of a shipping firm in Hong Kong, reported Lianhe Zaobao.

The alleged assault is just the latest chapter in Paulyn's controversial life story.

Since she stepped into the limelight by snagging the Miss Singapore-Universe title in 1994, the former actress has been nominated for an acting award, bared all in a Japanese B-grade film and been romantically linked to a series of high-profile men.

Her current boyfriend, 42-year-old Liu Zhongyao, is accused of assaulting her in their house in Hong Kong on 20 Jan.

The pair are reported to have been going out for a number of years, and have two children.

Liu has pleaded not guilty in a Hong Kong court. The next hearing will be on 23Mar.

Paulyn, 34, is no stranger to controversy.

Despite having numerous movie roles under her belt, the former beauty queen's love life has been the preferred topic of Hong Kong's dailies and entertainment magazines.

Soon after winning the Miss Singapore crown, the former Crescent Girl's School girl gave up a business development job in Singapore to pursue a showbiz career.

She had a promising start in Hong Kong comedian Stephen Chow's Sixty Million Dollar Man. Her bikini-clad debut won her a nod from director Wong Jing, who called her sex siren Rosamund Kwan's biggest rival.

And as a sign of things to come, Paulyn and leading man Stephen were reported to be an item.

The speculation died down eventually, but gossip soon had it that she was seeing Hong Kong tycoon Liu Luanxiong.

Paulyn joined the list of Hong Kong stars like Rosemund Kwan, Michelle Reis and Ada Choi, whom Liu had supposedly dated.

Paulyn was even reportedly seen being chauffeured in his Rolls Royce, but she denied having a relationship with the tycoon.

Pregnancy rumours

Then came talk that she was behind the collapse of property magnate Lo Zhaohui's marriage. He was known for his flashy lifestyle, and was said to have gone out with actresses like Carina Lau, Anita Yuen and Maggie Q.

Over the years, Paulyn's name was linked with MrLo's several times. In 1996, the Hong Kong press speculated that she was pregnant with his child.

Meanwhile, her acting career was going nowhere. The second half of the '90s saw her playing leading roles in lesser known films like Mr Mumble and Love And Sex Among The Ruins.

The high point of her film career was her role as the wife of a triad leader (played by Tony Leung Kar Fai) in the 1997 movie Island Of Greed. The performance garnered her a nomination for the Hong Kong Film Awards - the first time a Singaporean woman had been nominated. The prize went to Maggie Cheung.

Paulyn also had a small role in Wong Kar-Wai's In The Mood For Love (2000).

In 2001, just when it seemed like she would fade into obscurity, Paulyn made a bid to revive her sexpot reputation by stripping for a sado-masochistic Japanese film, Ichi The Killer.

Bared all

The movie, directed by Takashi Miike, was a violent tale about a gangster's hunt for his boss' killer. Paulyn bared all for her role as a mysterious club hostess.

Her decision to strip for the camera was somewhat surprising given that she had turned down a HK$20million ($4m) offer to pose nude in 1996. Then, she had responded: 'Cannot. How can I find a boyfriend later?'

She attributed her change of heart to her being 'mesmerised' by director Miike's 'comic-book visual sense and surrealistic treatment of the script'.

She followed it with appearances on television, in beauty product advertisements and various lead and supporting shows in movies that bombed at the box office.

In 2005, Hong Kong's East Weekly ran a report saying that she had been spotted with a millionaire businessman from China known as Mr Chan.

East Weekly quoted her as saying: 'I got married. I even gave birth to a son. We didn't marry in Hong Kong. About my husband, I won't say too much. He's not involved in the entertainment circle.'

It is not clear how Paulyn went from being married with one child to being the alleged victim of assault by a live-in boyfriend.

This article was first published in The New Paper.