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Beauty contests as symbol of freedom
Beauty contests like Miss World have long been ridiculed and attacked in the West as degrading, but in China they represent freedom and openness.
Beauty contests like Miss World have long been ridiculed and attacked in the West as degrading, but in China where anything from the West is synonymous with progress, they represent freedom and openness.
Even before China officially lifted a 54-year ban on beauty contests last year, they were taking place in disguised forms. Since the official endorsement, a pageant craze has swept the country.
As it prepares to host Miss World this week, other competitions are mushrooming: ranging from Miss Health and Beauty and the New Silk Road model pageant to more bizarre offerings like Miss Ugly and Miss Plastic Surgery.
For a population that for decades lived under the iron grip of communist ideology which saw beauty contests as bourgeois and decadent, people regard their return as another sign of the country's loosening of social controls and waning political interference.
"With the economic reform, people have become more open-minded. The hosting of these beauty contests is another proof of progress," said Huang Junjie, a 21-year-old sales representative.
While self-determination and personal freedom has long been taken for granted in the West, Chinese people cherish the opportunity to make such decisions and have fun in a new era free of past political shackles.
"To enable something like this to happen, first of all you need money, then you need freedom. Our society now allows differing opinions and is much more tolerant then the past," said Lu Jianhua, a professor at the Chinese Academy of Social Science.
To many Chinese, beauty contests are also a matter of China's growing national pride.
From joining the World Trade Organisation to winning the right to host the 2008 Olympic Games, Chinese people see Miss World as another international event to help improve its prestige in the world.
"Miss World is an opportunity to project a good image of China on the international stage and to show the world our uniqueness. If we manage to win, that will of course be China's pride," said Zhang Yi, a marketing executive.
Although most Chinese view beauty pageants as harmless entertainment, their popularisation is in fact curtailing women's fight for equality, argues Liu Meng, a professor at the China Women's University.
Liu found in her research that from employment to choosing marriage partners Chinese people were increasingly preoccupied with women's looks.
Many job advertisements in China list "a nicely proportioned face" as a requirement. Some surveys have found that beauty is the top priority placed by men when they look for a partner, Liu said.
"(Gender) inequality in China is more serious than ever," she said. "We have in fact seen a great step backwards."
And the emphasis on physical perfection in the ever popular beauty contests across the country will only reinforce sexism, she said.
"Women who are not pretty will suffer from even lower self-images."
The state-run All-China Women's Federation, which used to strongly oppose beauty contests, now says it neither supports nor opposes them.
"But we are opposed to those which judge women only according to their looks, heights and measurements ... If a beauty contest only emphasises the body, it is neglecting women's inner qualities," spokeswoman Zhang Xiaoyuan said. "That is unfair and discriminatory towards women."
But ordinary Chinese don't seem to mind.
"It is just good visual entertainment and it sets a standard for beauty," said Zhang, the marketing executive. "The contestants all look so slim, I'd like to be like them too."
