PeiWen
04-04-2004, 09:13 AM
By Serene Luo
STANDARDS have dropped.
That's the opinion of viewers and netizens who watched last night's live telecast of the Miss Singapore Universe finals from the MediaCorp TV Theatre.
And they were not just talking about the relaxation of the minimum-height requirement for contestants from 1.63m to 1.6m.
Service engineer Ong Lai Heng, 28, who watched the contest on TV echoed the views of many people when he said: 'It's as if we're looking for Miss Singapore Ah Lian. The girls didn't look mature or charismatic. Many look like aunties.'
Mr Ong said: 'I thought her long legs gave her a height advantage, and her looks outshone the others.'
His less-than-favourable assessment of the contestants was shared by many viewers and netizens who have been following the contest since the preliminary rounds.
Secretary Linda Chan, 40, said: 'They don't have the build. They're all so flat in front.'
Even Mr Errol Pang, chairman of the event's organiser Errol Steppeny Promotions, conceded this year's contestants were 'quite average'.
However, he said viewers cannot expect the standard of competition to be high every year.
He added that last year's winner, Miss Bernice Wong, 'had set the standard so high it would be hard to keep up'.
What the contestants lacked in looks, they did not make up for with wit or eloquence either. Most gave politically correct and unimaginative answers. And one or two could not think on their feet.
In an interview with Eight Days entertainment magazine, contestant and undergraduate Winnie Tan, 23, was asked if she knew who Home Affairs Minister Wong Kan Seng was. Her reply: 'No idea. Is he local? He sounds Taiwanese.'
But the winner, Miss Chua, was unfazed by the negative comments.
She said detractors of the contest are 'ignorant' and that the image of beauty pageants and the contestants cannot be changed within a year or two.
'We're doing our best to prove we're not bimbos,' she said. 'For example, we had to practise for the question-and-answer segment, to answer with poise in a short period and how not to make a fool of ourselves on stage.'
She thought 'all the girls were very beautiful' and she felt confident about her own body, no matter what others said.
'I look in the mirror every morning and I love what I see.'
He wasn't surprised that the crown went to 19-year-old Sandy Chua. The 1.73m-tall engineering undergraduate won $10,000 cash and various prizes. She will represent Singapore in the Miss Universe 2004 pageant in Quito, Ecuador, later this year.
P/S: Captions of this articles available in gallery. Check it out! :wink:
STANDARDS have dropped.
That's the opinion of viewers and netizens who watched last night's live telecast of the Miss Singapore Universe finals from the MediaCorp TV Theatre.
And they were not just talking about the relaxation of the minimum-height requirement for contestants from 1.63m to 1.6m.
Service engineer Ong Lai Heng, 28, who watched the contest on TV echoed the views of many people when he said: 'It's as if we're looking for Miss Singapore Ah Lian. The girls didn't look mature or charismatic. Many look like aunties.'
Mr Ong said: 'I thought her long legs gave her a height advantage, and her looks outshone the others.'
His less-than-favourable assessment of the contestants was shared by many viewers and netizens who have been following the contest since the preliminary rounds.
Secretary Linda Chan, 40, said: 'They don't have the build. They're all so flat in front.'
Even Mr Errol Pang, chairman of the event's organiser Errol Steppeny Promotions, conceded this year's contestants were 'quite average'.
However, he said viewers cannot expect the standard of competition to be high every year.
He added that last year's winner, Miss Bernice Wong, 'had set the standard so high it would be hard to keep up'.
What the contestants lacked in looks, they did not make up for with wit or eloquence either. Most gave politically correct and unimaginative answers. And one or two could not think on their feet.
In an interview with Eight Days entertainment magazine, contestant and undergraduate Winnie Tan, 23, was asked if she knew who Home Affairs Minister Wong Kan Seng was. Her reply: 'No idea. Is he local? He sounds Taiwanese.'
But the winner, Miss Chua, was unfazed by the negative comments.
She said detractors of the contest are 'ignorant' and that the image of beauty pageants and the contestants cannot be changed within a year or two.
'We're doing our best to prove we're not bimbos,' she said. 'For example, we had to practise for the question-and-answer segment, to answer with poise in a short period and how not to make a fool of ourselves on stage.'
She thought 'all the girls were very beautiful' and she felt confident about her own body, no matter what others said.
'I look in the mirror every morning and I love what I see.'
He wasn't surprised that the crown went to 19-year-old Sandy Chua. The 1.73m-tall engineering undergraduate won $10,000 cash and various prizes. She will represent Singapore in the Miss Universe 2004 pageant in Quito, Ecuador, later this year.
P/S: Captions of this articles available in gallery. Check it out! :wink: