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"Loveliest daughter of our ancient Cathay!": representations of ethnic and gender identity in the Miss Chinatown U.S.A. beauty pageant
Journal of Social History, Winter, 1997 by Judy Tzu-Chun Wu
Gouw suggests that her personal advancement reflected upon the entire community, because groups who have traditionally been disadvantaged, women as well as racial minorities, need role models and spokespersons. After she won Miss Chinatown U.S.A., Gouw entered and won the Spokesmodel competition for Star Search. Since then, she has appeared in films and TV commercials and worked as a news reporter. For her, the pageant opened up numerous opportunities, allowing her to achieve, in the words of Valerie Soe, the "American Dream." The question of whether Gouw in fact transcended stereotypes of Chinese American women, or merely benefited from perpetuating them, remains unanswered.(40)
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The history of the Miss Chinatown U.S.A. pageant, from the early years of success through the years of controversy, demonstrates how idealized roles of womanhood represent broader concerns about power. Activists of the late 1960s and 1970s, like commercial leaders of the late 1950s, recognized the significance of gender roles in defining the identity of a community. The intensity of their debates about the pageant reflected a contest over ethnic and gender identity as well as international politics and class relations. The persistent success of the Miss Chinatown U.S.A. beauty pageant into the 1980s and 1990s suggests its unique ability to reconcile conflicting impulses within the Chinese American community. The competition continues to provide a means for exceptional Chinese American women to use their physical appearance and personality skills to achieve recognition within the existing commercialized society. The cultural event promotes recognition of disadvantaged groups without threatening the fundamental American values of individualism and meritocracy. The continued popularity of the pageant combined with the decrease in vocal opposition suggests the decline of alternative strategies that advocate structural change and group-based solutions to achieve gender and racial equality.
Department of History Stanford, CA 94305-2024
ENDNOTES
My thanks to those who shared their experiences with the Miss Chinatown U.S.A. Beauty Pageant and to the many who offered helpful criticisms of this essay. In particular, I want to mention Gordon Chang for recommending this research topic, Estelle Freedman for fostering a supportive intellectual community, the members of the 1993-1994 seminar on "Women, Family, and Sexuality" for "co-authoring" this paper, and Shawn Lahr for his willingness to read drafts, no matter how rough the quality. Earlier versions of this essay were presented at the Stanford History Gender and Sexuality Workshop (1995), the Association for Asian American Studies National Conference (1996), and the American Historical Association, Pacific Coast Branch Conference (1996).
1. Miss Chinatown U.S.A. Pageant Program, 21-22-23 February 1958; "June Chin," California Living Magazine, 17 February 1985, p. 9; The overall Chinese American population in 1960 was 237,292. Of the 29,000 Chinese living in San Francisco in 1960, 18,000 lived in Chinatown.
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