m3ngchoo, on her journey ..: Miss Chinese International Pageant 2005

Last Saturday, I spent two and a half hours watching the pageant which was held live in Hong Kong shown on channel 30 WLT Astro. This year, the pageant had a relatively interesting set-up ie. they finally got rid of the usual hosts such as Eric Tsang ( famous for giving the delegates a hard time during Q&A), Do Do Cheng and others. No doubt, both of them were pretty good hosts, making the entire pageant much more interesting. Also, there was no longer the talent segment, which probably was for a good cause, they replaced it with a catwalk segment, which was pretty awesome. Great stuff! The designers were pretty good, and of course that depended on who was wearing it too. Some were really nice, others weren't too flattering.

As a result of which, after a stiff competition, the top 5 was announced : Miss HK (not surprisingly), Miss New York (such pretty facial features), Miss San Francisco (pretty on camera), Miss Vancouver (never really noticed her before this) and Miss Melbourne (nothing special, although I noticed how her 'modelling' experience helped in her catwalk. Just like how Miss Aussie paraded in her swimsuit in Miss Universe 2004. According to Alan, Miss Aussie walked like a 'horse', sort of like a galloping motion.)

After much debate as to who was the best contender, my prediction was that Miss Vancouver (3rd), Miss HK (2nd) and Miss New York (1st). But when Miss Melbourne took 3rd place, Miss New York grabbed 2nd place, I was left completely dissatisfied as the outcome could only be that Miss Hk would be the ultimate winner. After all, she performed quite alright, nothing went really wrong. And thinking that HK judges were pretty biased anyway. But to my surprise, Miss Vancouver was announced the winner. I was more interested in seeing how Miss HK would react, but she was calm, considering everyone would probably have similar thoughts as mine. The host for the show was announcing the winner as number 'sap ... (meaning ten or more)' and Miss HK was No.17 and Miss Vancouver No.14. So really, quite misleading. Must be quite shattering for Miss HK. Afterall, she did bag a Miss Cosmopolitan Beauty award. One would have thought that the award only shows that she's a stronger delegate.

Well, pictures speak for itself. Looking back at pictures, it's not such a shocker that Miss Vancouver won. She really 'shined' throughout the pageant. She was tall (5' 8.5") and had a good body. Her facial features were not as pretty as that of Miss New York (but she had a slightly wider face)but she had the overall package. She answered the questions posed to her really well and even made the audience laughed. When asked how she would promote 'tofu' to the society whether she would let people 'eat' her tofu (meaning 'take advantage of her'), she answered that 'people could take advantage of her' (poor girl probably didn't know what the phrase meant). She then posed such a sweet smile!

The dress she wore during her catwalk was awesome. She looks great in it. And she kinda reminded me of Miriam Yeung. I'll let the pictures speak for itself.

Miss KL also bagged the Miss Friendship award (voted by the delegates themselves). It's a presumption that those who win this award usually indicates that she's the one who poses the least threat to the other contenders, as the delegates will voted for the weakest one. Well, your call!

Miss Vancouver (winner)