25 February 2009

Why Vietnam may Not Join Miss Universe and Miss World this year?

Have you heard about a new policy released by the Vietnamese government concerning about staging of beauty pageants in their country? Well, the government allows only ONE national pageant to be staged in a year. You've read it clear. I just don't understand why there is a restriction on the number of pageants for every year. As far as I know, Vietnam is a supporter of international pageants like Miss World and Miss Universe. In fact, it hosted last year's Miss Universe and it encouraged its people to vote for its candidates at Miss World during the times this British pageant was using text votes to determine the semi-finalists. Now, this Southeast Asian country is facing a problem on their participation for the other grandslam pageants.

Read the article below for you to know what I am ranting here. The picture you are seeing is just borrowed from a fan who made it.

Vietnam - This year, it will be a hard job for Vietnam to choose contestants for international beauty contests like Miss Universe and Miss World as the new rules only allow one national beauty contest a year – the Mrs. Vietnam pageant.

According to the regulations on the organisation of beauty contests in Vietnam, dated December 30, 2008, as of 2009, Vietnam will have only one national beauty contest, one regional, sector level beauty contest. Provincial pageants are permitted to be held every two years.

In recent years, Vietnam has had three national beauty contests: Miss Vietnam, Miss Vietnam Global and Miss Universe Vietnam. According to the new regulations, these contests will not be organised in 2009 because Mrs. Vietnam 2009 was licenced to be the sole pageant.

The Chief of the Performance Art Agency under the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Le Ngoc Cuong, said the Mrs. Vietnam 2009 pageant must be licenced this year because in 2008, the government approved the Mrs. World 2009 pageant in Vietnam. Vietnam needs to hold a national beauty contest to choose a representative for the Mrs. World 2009.

Moreover, the agency received applications for organising beauty contests 2009 last October and at that time, the agency didn’t receive any application except for the Mrs. Vietnam 2009, Cuong said.

“It is quite funny that each year Vietnam will have only one national beauty contest because each pageant has its own criteria. Mrs. Vietnam is for married contestants. It will be a loss for young girls if only Mrs. Vietnam 2009 is licenced next year,” said former Chief Editor of Tien Phong Newspaper, who has been the chief organiser of many national beauty contests, Duong Xuan Nam.

The vice chief of the Performance Art Agency, Nguyen Van Khanh, suggested that the Miss Vietnam Global, Miss Universe Vietnam, etc. should change their scale from national to regional or sectoral to get a licence.

However, Duong Xuan Nam, one of the founders of Miss Vietnam Global pageant, said it is impossible to lower the scale of Miss Vietnam Global because this contest is open to contestants from home and abroad.

Respecting the new rules, the Deputy General Director of the Universe Joint Stock Company, Chi Bao, stated that the firm would not organise Miss Vietnam Universe 2009. He also said that it is impossible to change the scale of the pageant because in that case, the winner of this contest will fail to meet conditions to attend the international Miss Universe pageant.

The new rules are said will cause difficulties for Vietnam in choosing representatives for international beauty contests this year. But Cuong said: “Vietnam doesn’t need to have too many beauty contests while its organising skills are unprofessional. Moreover, not all international pageants require national-level contestants.”

At the same time, Elite Vietnam stated it would stop buying the copyright to send Vietnamese representatives to Miss World and Miss Universe 2009.

Managing Director of Elite Vietnam, Thuy Nga, said: “This decision was considered in 2008 and Elite Vietnam wants to focus on modelling.”

However, she admitted that choosing contestants for Miss World and Miss Universe 2009 will be difficult.

3 comments:

  1. Hi Karl, Welcome back.. it's nice to see your blog again.. keep on blogging!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I am very happy to hear from you Hataw. I really love your blog and what a coincidence, we have the same CSS format, huh!

    I love the effort you are putting in your blog, very commendable and I wish you success.

    Yes, I was really very busy these past few days and my partner was too lazy to write.

    I guess I better send you a message to your e-mail later.

    I've added you up in my blog list. Check it out.

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  3. hey thanks for the good words.. i like your blog too.. im a regular visitor of Beauty in Pageants.. i think we have the same passion when it comes to beauty pageants.. keep it up!

    ReplyDelete