"Loveliest daughter of our ancient Cathay!": representations of ethnic and gender identity in the Miss Chinatown U.S.A. beauty pageant

The tensions between business leaders and activists came into focus when the Holiday Inn decided to build a hotel to provide luxury accommodations for tourists in Chinatown. As part of the hotel's promotional campaign, they sponsored a contestant, Celeste Wong (alias), for the Miss Chinatown U.S.A. beauty pageant. As a publicity stunt for the gala grand opening of the Holiday Inn, Wong jumped out of a giant fortune cookie. Across the street, members of the Red Guard Party, a radical organization of Chinatown youth, and other Asian Americans staged a rally protesting the "invasion of Chinatown's territory" by the Holiday Inn. Citing the crowded conditions of San Francisco's Chinatown, protesters asked "how many of our people have had to move out of their shops and homes to make way for the growing financial district?" Questioning the displacement of Chinatown people for commercial enterprises like the Holiday Inn, the protesters demanded "low cost housing for our people!" During the New Year Parade, some protesters went so far as to throw eggs at Celeste Wong for representing the Holiday Inn. In the end, she had to be removed from the float because of public hostility. Activists criticized the Miss Chinatown U.S.A. beauty pageant for helping to promote a false commercial image of Chinatown in order to attract tourism. One community activist highlighted the contradictions between the tourist image of Chinatown and the actual experiences of its residents.

In Holiday Inn . . . there is a swimming pool on the roof and a grand view of the city . . . there is the plush of soft carpets, bright lights, and spacious quarters . . . there are bell boys in smart uniforms . . . there are hostesses in mini skirts and cheong sams . . . there is . . . Miss Holiday Inn, and now Miss San Francisco Chinatown . . . there are tourists and business men with their briefcases . . . it's all there, across from Portsmouth Square, where the poor, the old, and the very young while their time away before the sun goes down.(19)

The growing awareness about racial and class oppression also fostered critiques of the Miss Chinatown U.S.A. beauty pageant for objectifying Chinese American women. Beginning in the late 1960s and escalating throughout the decade, Chinese Americans criticized the pageant for judging women based on physical standards and portraying them as "China dolls." Their criticisms were partly inspired by the broader movement for women's equality. In 1968, women involved with the budding feminist movement conducted a widely-publicized protest of the Miss America pageant in Atlantic City. They crowned "a live sheep to symbolize the beauty pageant's objectification of female bodies, and filled a 'freedom trashcan' with objects of female torture - girdles, bras, curlers, issues of Ladies' Home Journal." Although no bras were actually burned, the media referred to protesters as "bra-burners," which then became a simplistic derogatory term to refer to feminists.(20)

Chinese Americans concerned about women's issues echoed white feminist criticisms of beauty pageants. Although Miss Chinatown contestants were supposedly judged according to their intelligence, "talent, beauty, charm and knowledge of Chinese culture," critics argued that physical appearance tended to be the main criterion. Pageant observers pointed out that many "would-be queens" displayed a "sad lack of 'talent.'" Others commented that the interview session of the contest did not really demonstrate the contestants' knowledge of Chinese culture or their intelligence. After attending her first Miss Chinatown U.S.A. beauty pageant, Judy Yung criticized the candidates for obviously memorizing their responses to the Chinese portion of the interview session: "But even with preparation, their answers don't always make sense, since they speak Chinese with a heavy American accent." Because of these problems, the Chinese portion of the interview eventually became optional in 1980. Yung further complained that the English portion of the interview did not challenge the intelligence of the contestants, for judges asked questions such as