A contest where intelligence is the real winner

For almost half of her life Wang Yuchen lived in a land where the solemn ritual is to proudly stand for the Stars and Stripes, but now the ensign that flutters high above her head is the Five-Starred Red Flag.

On Jan 12, as if to confirm her allegiance to that flag, Wang became an unofficial ambassador for her country, as one of the five champions at the Miss World China Finals in Foshan, Guangdong province.

"I'm not here for the title but for a chance to make a contribution to building my country's soft power," Wang, 23, says in an interview with China Daily after her win, which means she may be chosen, from the five champions, to represent China in the Miss World contest in Thailand in October.

Wang, who is now back studying in China, was among 81 young women from 21 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions, many of them college students, who qualified for the Foshan finals.

Wang left China at age 12 and studied in a private school in Boston before graduating with a degree in international political economy from George Washington University in 2019, and came back to study at Tsinghua University. Her academic specialty is the link between sea surface temperatures and salinity and El Nino and La Nina.

Her time overseas gave her a profound insight into how others see China, a grounding that may serve her well in her duties as an unofficial ambassador.

"In my 11 years overseas I encountered some ridiculous, irritating misinterpretations of China, but I didn't know how to change them other than by doing well in my studies," Wang says. "I became aware of how critical it is to have a say in global dialogue. The older I get the more connected I feel to my country. I'm still passionate about changing cultural stereotypes."

Not long after she came back to China she was selected to take part in the National Day parade with 3,513 other students and teachers of Tsinghua University.

"For the first time in my life I stood on the earth of my motherland with so many of my compatriots and was overwhelmed by a strong sense of belonging that brought me to tears."

In contrast, she had never felt any connections with the Miss China contest before, she says, until she learned it is the only official national contest that sends representatives to the Miss World contest.

"This world stage calls for a Chinese face who truly understands different cultures to represent the image of a modern China. I have a competitive edge here, and I should live up to it. I grew up between Chinese and Western cultures, and I regard this as my mission."

Another mission for her is the combat against climate change and the fight to protect the environment. In 2018 she, with a team of 30 others, sailed 4,400 kilometers from Tahiti to Hawaii, crossing the equator, the focus being nautical science and oceanography. The trip brought home to her the urgency of tackling global warming.

In November, as a postgraduate representative of the Global Alliance of Universities on Climate, she gave a speech on how youth can contribute to sustainable development.

"I regard Miss China as a representative of the spirit and sense of responsibility of Chinese youth," Wang says. "The contest is about much more than being tall and beautiful. With or without makeup I am the same person. ... I hope I can make a difference by combining the mission of Miss China with mine."

Another contestant in Foshan intent on breaking stereotypes was Zhao Yulin, 28, of Hubei province, a PhD student in astrophysics at Peking University, who conducts research on supermassive black holes and their host galaxies of quasars.

"The contest slogan 'Beauty with a purpose' touched me," she says. "Many people think women with a PhD are charmless nerds, and I want to prove them wrong."

Challenging social conventions "is a habit". She has a second-degree black belt in karate and once hitchhiked 1,500 kilometers from Rome to Berlin. She also teaches in charity education programs for children of migrant workers supported by the Institute of Physics. During the early rounds of the event in Beijing, she found that this was "not just another beauty pageant". Zhao says: "A lot of importance was attached to my talents and my charity experience, and as I grew in confidence I behaved better in training and became more and more content with my inner self."

Su Wenbin, chairman of the event's organizing committee and executive director and general manager of the New Silk Road (Beijing) Model Management Co Ltd, says: "A lot of bewildering beauty pageants may have left people with the impression that appearance is all that matters in these contests. But for us, cultural confidence is important.

"We gauge contestants on talent, intelligence, team spirit and other things, through various tasks, such as movie shooting, striding down catwalks and group dancing, and endeavor to improve their artistic aesthetic taste. We are looking for representatives of China's youth."

The runner-up in this year's contest, Chi Lihan, 23, who studies accounting for a master's degree at Northeast Agricultural University in Harbin, Heilongjiang province, says: "The contest is going to be a turning point in my life. I found what I'm good at and passionate about, and saw other possibilities for my career."

Chi did a one-year part-time course in model training when she was 16, and was once keen on becoming a professional model, something her parents opposed. After obtaining a bachelor's degree in social work, she worked as a volunteer teacher in Altay, the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, and set up a course aimed at helping middle school students improve their bearing and gain a greater appreciation of aesthetic taste.

"In the future I want to do more charity work creatively with my passion for the fashion industry," she says.

Another of the finalists, Chen Xin, 19, who studies at Beijing Sport University, says: "I could never have gained so much confidence and friendship other than in this contest."

There were many surprises in this year's contestants, Su says. "It is not the contest that defines them, but they who decide exactly what Miss China means."

He Ying, a member of the Academic Advisory Committee of Tsinghua University's Institute for Cultural Economy, says: "As China's economic strength grows, soft power needs to keep abreast of it. Strengthening Chinese cultural confidence calls for these students to step forward. They epitomize China's modern young women and the power of China's youth."