The hosting of several global beauty queen pageants over the past year has promoted Vietnam’s image to the international community.
The first Miss World Vietnamese 2007 Contest was one of the year’s most impressive events. Taking part were 35 candidates from both inside and outside the country. Besides selecting a beauty queen, the contest was also aimed at developing the image of the modern Vietnamese image of being fresh, healthy, intelligent, and educated with many aspirations. More importantly, the contest created an opportunity for beautiful women who live and study overseas to return back to their homeland.
Many of the contestants were born and grew up abroad and did not speak fluent Vietnamese but they showed their love for Vietnam in their own way. Most of the contestants had carefully prepared a comprehensive knowledge of their homeland.
The conduct test in the final contest moved the audience when first runner-up Teressa Sam, a Chinese-Vietnamese, could not answer the questions in Vietnamese and burst into tears. She asked the Jury to allow her to speak in English.
A 3-day special round of the Miss Earth contest was held in Vinpearland in Nha Trang city in early November in three parts, including the Ao Dai, Bikini and gala dress. Truong Chi Truc Diem from Vietnam won the Miss Fashion title. This beautiful island hosted the contest for only three days but made a strong impression on the contestants and the overseas guests. The competition became more significant as its theme was protecting the Earth and the environment. It also helped to introduce Vietnam’s beautiful scenery and culture to the people across the world. Vietnam will now almost certainly have the chance of hosting future miss world contests.
The first Miss Ethnic Vietnam contest was also held successfully held in 2007. It brought together natural and homely girls from different ethnic minority groups who live in the border regions, the islands, central highlands and on the plains. They included the Tay, Nung, Chau Ma, K’Ho, MoNong, Muong, Thai, Khome, Cham, Hoa, Kinh and other ethnic groups. The contestants with their unique dresses, talents and styles made a great impression on audiences right from the first round.
Vietnam will officially host the Miss Universe 2008 in July. The contract was signed on July 27, 2007 between the Universe Joint Stock Company of Vietnam and the Chairman of the Miss Universe pageant contest. More than 100 contestants from different countries will gather in Nha Trang for the contest. This is the first time Vietnam has had this honour and the event will attract millions of tourists worldwide. About 170 TV channels will cover the ontest and broadcast it to at least 120 countries. Vietnam will make the most of this opportunity to promote its tourism and economy.
The Miss Sports and Miss Jewelry contests were held at the end of 2007, but did not attract much public attention. After the final round of the Miss Jewelry contest, backstage stories involving love, money and the awards made the public doubt the legitimacy of the awards and inspectors from the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism had to intervene.
The coastal areas Miss Talent contest was not too impressive either. The success of the contest was doubted iright at the start, as the tests and criteria were set very high and it was difficult to find a contestant who actually had any outstanding.
Currently in Vietnam, there are far too many beauty contests, in fact there are so many that people can’t even remember their names! Beauty contests such as Miss Charity and Miss Long Hair will also be held soon. Despite many beauty contests held annually in the country, it is still difficult for Vietnam to select a representative for world contests. Miss Vietnams in the past have always seemed to appear inferior to the other contestants in any world contests in both beauty and talent. It is also difficult to find any girls who can speak English fluently for the Conduct test. Vietnam has the honour of hosting Miss Universe 2008 and will take this huge opportunity to promote the country’s image to the world. However, it remains a dream that one day the country will win the world’s top beauty prize.
Source: VOV