China’s entry into Miss World 2022 is a hot mess

On August 23, Qín Zéwén 秦泽文 was introduced to the public as the Chinese candidate for the 2022 edition of Miss World, the oldest-running international beauty pageant. Within a day, accusations surfaced on the Chinese internet that Qin’s resumé was a tissue of lies.

The scandal unfolded last week when the organizer of Miss China World, a national pageant that selects Chinese contestants for the Miss World competition, named Qin as its official representative this year. Qin’s bio as released by the organizer said that she held a master’s degree in finance from the prestigious Fudan University, and that she was once an analyst at Essence Securities, the brokerage unit of China’s largest state-owned investment holding company.

But suspicion about Qin’s background was quickly raised by online sleuths and journalists. First, there was speculation that Qin was photoshopped into a picture of an academic lecture at Fudan University, which threw her boast of the master’s degree into question. Doubts were also cast on her undergraduate studies as people found out that while her profile said that she had graduated from Shanghai Jiaotong University, the “studying certificate” she had provided looked fabricated.

The public scrutiny of Qin intensified when internet users discovered that she didn’t actually enter this year’s Miss World China competition. Roughly two weeks before the announcement that Qin would represent China, Ruǎn Yuè 阮玥, who had won the title of Miss China World 2022 at the pageant, was stripped of her crown due to what the Chinese organizer called “inappropriate acts.” Specifics of Ruan’s disqualification were never disclosed, and the runners-up in the contest, who one would assume would be in line to take over Ruan’s spot, were not selected.

Then on August 25, Essence Securities released a statement noting that not only was Qin not a member of the best-performing team inside the company, as she had boasted in her resume, but that she didn’t work as an analyst at all. “During her time at Essence, Qin was mainly responsible for basic tasks like contacting clients and organizing documents,” the firm said. “It’s been eight months since she left our company and her credential as a financial analyst has expired. It’s her personal decision to take part in social activities and none of her actions represent women in this industry.”

Qin has yet to respond to the allegations, but she doesn’t seem to be unaware of the backlash. Later last week, in a move that was read by many as a sign of guilt and embarrassment, Qin cleaned up her Weibo page, deleting dozens of photos showing her personal life and leaving only one post that says, “An ordinary little girl.”

On the official website of Miss World, a statement has been posted regarding the controversy. “We are concerned with the complaints regarding the Miss China candidate that we have received,” the London-based organizer said. “We will look into the matter and if the rules have been breached, appropriate actions will be taken.”

Qin’s short-lived fame was only one of the “many odd things” surrounding China’s involvement in this year’s Miss World event, according to Dù Yáng 杜暘, the 2014 Miss China World. “I understand the economy is not doing well and the organizer has many difficulties. But despite all of this, one shouldn’t violate competition rules,” she wrote in a Weibo post, adding that she would be in touch with the headquarters to “safeguard the brand reputation of Miss World.” While Du didn’t elaborate further, her emphasis on “the economy” made many internet users suspect that Qin had bribed the Chinese organizer.

Unlike countries like the U.S., where the first Miss America pageant took place in 1921, China has a relatively short history of hosting beauty contests and participating in global events of this sort. For a long time, “Maoist notions of puritan equality” reigned, said Dr. Louise Edwards in 2011, who was then the director of the Modern China Studies program at the University of Hong Kong. As late as 1993, the state-run Beijing Youth Daily published an article bashing the Miss World competition for objectifying women.

But by 2001, China had begun sending representatives to compete in Miss World. Since then, Sanya, a resort city on China’s Hainan Island, has played host to seven Miss World pageants. In 2007, Zhāng Zǐlín 张梓琳 became the first Chinese woman to be crowned Miss World, a title that catapulted her into fame and launched her career as an actress.