Triumph at last
The recent triumph of 23-year-old Zhang Zilin at the 57th Miss World pageant marks a perfect ending to China's long quest for global recognition of the country's beauties.
Before 2001, the only other representative was Pan Tao, a beautiful young woman from Anhui Province, in Miss World 1994. However, ever since, there has been an increasing interest in modeling competitions. One of the most prestigious of them all, the New Silk Road Model Contest, obtained a franchise to Miss World in 2001, sending the young Li Bing to Sun City, South Africa, amid a frenzy of publicity.
Li, a model from East China's Jiangxi Province, was the first from the Chinese mainland to appear in the pageant. She was chosen fourth runner-up and was given the title Asia's Queen of Beauty for her unique, oriental looks. She was also the only one from Asia to place among the top 10 finalists.
In 2002, China began participating in more beauty contests such as Miss Universe, Miss International and Miss Earth. In that year, Zhuo Ling from Shanghai was placed second at the 51st Miss Universe and Wu Yingna, an aspiring interior designer, finished fifth in the 2002 Miss World pageant.
In the meantime, the government of Sanya, a resort city on the offshore island of Hainan, sent representatives to London to speak with Julia Morley, chairwoman of the Miss World pageant founded in the United Kingdom by her late husband Eric Morley in 1951, about bringing the international competition to China.
Several visits were made to China by Miss World representatives throughout 2002, where Morley was impressed with the beauty of the area and the organization of the New Silk Road Model Competition.
In 2003, China hosted its first Miss World pageant in Sanya. Guan Qi from Northeast China's Jilin Province ranked third in the contest.
In the following four years, Sanya played host to another three of the annual beauty pageants. No significant achievements were made till Zhang's recent coronation.
However, beauty pageants and other such contests continue to grow in popularity in China. Many local television stations organize contests for everything from amateur TV anchors to models to American Idol-style singing contests, with the "Super Girl" contest being the most famous of them all.
In 2003 during her visit to Sanya, Morley was quoted as saying that the Chinese were open-minded about the Miss World contest and showed the same attitude as those in other countries.
Thus when Zhang said during the interview stage of the recent contest that "there are 1.3 billion people behind me," she was indeed being cheered by the whole nation.
"You will always have our best wishes, our dear Miss World," wrote a Chinese admirer of Zhang on the Internet.
According to the Miss World office in London, Miss World will move to Ukraine and move back to Sanya in 2013 to mark the 10th anniversary of the beauty pageant's entry into China.
China Daily
(China Daily 12/07/2007 page18)
