There's a beauty epidemic and it's infecting the nation. About 120 girls from all over the world with knockout looks have made the journey to China in the mad scramble for the Miss World crown. A decision will be reached on December 6 in the southern tourist town of Sanya, in Hainan Province.

Contestants for the 53rd Miss World pageant pose for a picture at the foot of the Great Wall in snowy Beijing, November 19. 2003. The pageant is to be held in Sanya, Hainan Province. [newsphoto.com.cn]

These exotic beauties have been showing themselves in front of Chinese cameras, shopping on the local streets, and showing up at galas. This is the first time for the 53-year-old event to come to China, bringing with it a carnival atmosphere, and changing social practices.

"The Chinese are brave enough to say: 'Yes, I love her, just because she's beautiful'," says Zhao Xiaoyang, a Beijing professor of aesthetics, who has watched pageants develop in China. "That's great progress."

Changing values

According to Zhao, traditional values have long kept the Chinese, especially women, from displaying beauty. Although contests did exist in history, they took the form of selecting wives or concubines for the emperor. They were not for "fame".

"Chinese never stopped developing aesthetics. But they always stopped short of showing their admiration for beauty," says Zhao. The fact is, in earlier periods, plain looks didn't affect one's social standing too much. "I even wore a worn blouse when I met my first supervisor," says Luo Jie, a 36-year-old female manager with American Standard (Chengdu), which produces bathroom fixtures. "That wouldn't work today."

Especially in the case of girls, says Luo, the competition teaches them to take better care of their face. She points to the fact that some grads have even turned to plastic surgery for help.

Jiang Xinrong ,20, (Left) from Shanghai is crowned at the 2003 Miss Chinese contest in Hong Kong November 8, 2003. Gu Yu, 18, from Helongjiang Province ranked third in the test hosted by PhoenixTV. [newsphoto.com.cn]

Quick fame

A beauty contest is also a more convenient way to get ahead of the crowd. A title usually means a handsome reward, overnight fame, and, more important, a big jump in life. Take Jiang Xinrong as an example.

The first Miss Chinese, who was crowned on November 9 in Hong Kong, is a 20-year-old majoring in TV who reportedly has a job offer from Phoenix TV.

"My parents both work in a hospital and have few outside ties, so I've had to use my own initiative since the very first day at university," explains Jiang.

A contest winner's power is not found only in her face - actually, Jiang is not that pretty, or slim, or sexy, and is only 166cm tall. But, her self-assurance and marvelous spoken English won people over.

"Standards of beauty are changing," says one official at the National Women's Union, which used to be a major anti-pageant force. "In the past, contests were just for staring at women's faces and breasts. That's why we thought they were disgusting."

Lack of standards

She's still a bit sceptical about the standards and wonders whether the idea might be debased by a rapid growth in the number of pageants in China.

There were about seven national and regional beauty contests held in September and October, with various queens appearing from out of nowhere. The lack of a consistent set of standards is one of the biggest threats to China's pageants.

It took a decade

Today, school girls are already one of the main forces in pageants. But, even though their charm is part of China's image, their pursuit of beauty has changed over the years:

- 1993: Beijing Youth Daily has a cover story on "Peking University (Beida) girls refusing a pageant," reflecting feminist awareness among young women. Beauty contests were "meaningless Western culture" and contestants were "lacking self-respect and spiritual pursuits," according to Gao Jing, who wrote the story.

- 2001 to 2002: Fudan University and the University of Science and Technology in Beijing hold contests to choose the most beautiful students as school icons. The actions cause a debate. Opponents say it is corrupting academia. The organizers counter by saying: "Modern college students should be leaders in campus culture. They need to know how to exhibit themselves. The goody-goody student is out."

- 2002: Xu Yafei, a freshman studying journalism at Beida puts the school in the spotlight again. The top CET scorer in Hunan Province takes part in a TV pageant on Hunan TV. Her father says: "I don't want my daughter to grow up only with a lot of knowledge from books and nothing about society."

- 2003: Jiang Xinrong, a third-year college student causes a media stir when she's named Miss Chinese and gets the title of "Cultural Personality" - proof that vanity and academia can coexist. This time there's no debate.

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