This weekend marked the inaugural Miss Laowai China Pageant in Beijing. All I can say is that it was one of the most absurd travesties ever put on stage. I arrived two hours early to shoot backstage and watched the production devolve into complete chaos over the next five hours. Robert Folye at the Shanghaiist gives an accurate blow by blow timeline for the entire evening, and, even though it sounds absurd in writing, I can guarantee you it was that much more ludicrous in person. The attached video shows some highlights of the talent competition which included incoherent rants about Africa, homages to diamonds, KTV duets, and shoes being kicked off into the audience – overall a spectacular evening. Nobody knew where to be on stage and the guys running tech were amateur at best. Even the bios of the different contestants were not completed beforehand.
The greatest tragedy however came with the Global Times article the next day. Although there isn’t a single instance of criticism, Robert Powers definitely could have used better word choice in the leading sentence of the last section:
“After 10 finalists are named, the six winners (Miss Congeniality, Miss Virtue, Miss Goodwill, Miss Charity, Miss Talent and Miss Laowai) are accidentally fingered by the host before the judges are given a chance to ratchet up the tension.“
I can’t wait to buy the DVD. Also, no matter what the production value, congratulations to all the contestants. They were all lovely ladies and deserve much better next year. Onwards and upwards with the arts!
