Photo by Leslie Yeh
In years past, there have been controversies after each Greater Seattle Chinese Chamber of Commerce 52nd Anniversary of the Scholarship for Women pageant, especially from the families of the contestants who did not win any titles. This year though, everyone seemed to be at peace with the results. Surprisingly, no one raised any issues.
But I was curious about the judges. One of the judges, Hengda Li, a famous dance instructor in the Chinese community who happened to train many of the past contestants, said he didn’t train any this year.
There were six dances out of nine performances for the talent portions, and every dance seemed to be missing something including the winner of Miss Talent, Mei-Ling Schulz. Although it was timely and exciting for the audience to see Schulz performing a dance paying tribute to Michael Jackson, I felt she wasted too much time in her bit involving a cell phone conversation with God, thus cutting into the two minutes allotted for her moon-walking performance.
Photo by Leslie Yeh
Every year, people complain that the pageant is long. The number of tables sold this year was less than the last pageant two years ago. It could be due to the economy or to the program.
During a slow moment of the program, more than 15 percent of the audience rushed out to the restrooms.
May I suggest, rather than carrying the program for three hours, cut out the swimsuit portion or the history of Miss Chinatown pageants portion and allow guests to have a break, not only for restrooms, but simply to stretch their legs! For those who bought tickets for the dinner prior to the pageant, they were there for five hours.
If the Chamber wants these folks to come back the next pageant, they should make the program tighter.