Making An American Festival: Chinese New Year in San Francisco’s Chinatown
Chapter 5: Five Heated Debate on the Ethnic Beauty Pageant
WHEN CYNTHIA GOUW WAS AN undergraduate student at UCLA, she entered the Miss Los Angeles Chinatown beauty pageant in order to report on the event for Pacific Ties, the university’s Asian American student newspaper. Her goal was to find out “what kind of woman the Asian community would choose as their representative,” and, at the same time, “get close to the Chinese community in Los Angeles.”¹ Gouw did more than simply write an article about the event—she went on to win both Miss Chinatown Los Angles in 1983 and Miss Chinatown U.S.A. in 1984.
After her success, Gouw insisted…