Despite having been part of our lives for a long time, beauty pageants have come in for heavy criticism in recent years for objectifying women and reducing them to being judged only on their outward appearance. Despite reforms aimed at improving social perception and what constitutes 鈥渂eauty鈥, they remain controversial.
So, when Angel Chong Nga-ting, a 24-year-old local district councillor, decided to put herself out there and enter the contest for the title of Miss Hong Kong, some in the community lost their mind.
Chong has every right to make such choices. She is an adult and can do so without needing to seek approval. Or don鈥檛 we actually believe it when we tell the girls and women in our lives that they can be whatever they want and to chase their dreams?
Chong鈥檚 decision to withdraw from the pageant is probably the result of pressure from her political party, the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB). Veteran political commentator Sonny Lo Shiu-hing said, 鈥淗aving a district council member suddenly run for the Miss Hong Kong Pageant does not look good for the party鈥檚 image and its preparation for the election. From the perspective of the largest political party [in Hong Kong], it expects party members to stick to party discipline.鈥
The problem with this is that, last time I checked, competing to be Miss Hong Kong was still perfectly legal, even for district councillors. The judgment is being passed because Chong鈥檚 entry 鈥渓ooks bad鈥 for the DAB鈥檚 image, party discipline and 鈥 according to Chong, who said she pulled out to protect the district council鈥檚 image 鈥 the council itself.
There is no question about how Chong鈥檚 actions have been perceived. However, if people are rejecting her decision because of the superficiality of beauty pageants and how her participation might reflect on those she associates with, aren鈥檛 her critics just as superficial?
As a district councillor, Chong has a duty to ensure her commitment to the community and the council meets public expectations. Whether entering a beauty pageant gets in the way that might not be the right question. Instead, perhaps we should be asking whether all district councillors are doing their work full-time or if they have day jobs and other interests they can pursue.
Was Chong鈥檚 decision to enter the pageant a lapse in judgment? I can think of many reasons she might have wanted to enter. For one, it could boost her name recognition, an important part of politics. She appears to have succeeded there as she doubled her number of followers on Instagram within 24 hours.
Chong said she wanted to use the pageant as a platform to increase the public鈥檚 understanding of her job. My guess is she knew what she was doing. She was going to use the opportunity for political gain 鈥 and who鈥檚 to say she can鈥檛 do that? We don鈥檛 have to agree with her choices.
As a rising star of the DAB, Chong knows perfectly well what it takes to stand out. Doing the unexpected can help capture public attention. When she put herself forward for selection as an appointed district council member, that was just as much of a pageant as any beauty contest.
Would it be a good look for Hong Kong鈥檚 revamped district councils to include a young woman who chose to study at Peking University instead of in the UK, has the mental acuity to navigate the city鈥檚 politics and a commitment to the community? The answer is unquestionably 鈥測es鈥.
Days before Chong began her short-lived tenure as a Miss Hong Kong contestant, she was a speaker at a panel during a national security law forum attended by Xia Baolong, the director of the State Council鈥檚 Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office. There is a reason she was selected to be part of that panel.
A more interesting discussion to have is whether this rejection of beauty pageants as too tawdry for respectable society should inspire us to examine other areas of our lives in a similar fashion. It鈥檚 easy to pass judgment, but aren鈥檛 our lives shaped by similar selection processes? How different are beauty pageants from school or job interviews, whether we are doing the selecting or hoping to be selected? How much of a candidate鈥檚 success depends on how they look and how prepared they are?
Beauty pageants objectify women, but we also objectify ourselves in the pursuit of money, status and success. We don鈥檛 need to agree with Chong鈥檚 decisions to reflect on deeper issues that our reactions to her decision have inspired.
Alice Wu is a political consultant and a former associate director of the Asia Pacific Media Network at UCLA