17 vie for Miss Chinatown title

Winner represents Las Vegas in national pageant

The titles are many -- Miss America, Miss USA, Miss Teen USA, Mrs. America, Miss Universe.

After this weekend, there will be a Miss Chinatown Las Vegas.

On Saturday, 17 young women will vie for that title in a beauty pageant at the Chinatown mall, 4255 Spring Mountain Road.

The pageant will be held in Suite C-202, the mall's 12,000-square-foot banquet room, starting at 7 p.m. The room has seating for about 500.

The program will feature four parts -- an impromptu interview, a talent portion and modeling two outfits. One outfit will be an evening gown and the other will be an outfit of Chinese origins. The women can score as many as 25 points per event. The judges represent various aspects of the community.

The event was organized by the Chinese American Chamber of Commerce.

"This is an opportunity for young Chinese ladies to develop ambition and confidence," said James Chen, executive director. "We feel these types of opportunities are necessary in any ethnic group that wishes its members to contribute to the whole community in a positive and meaningful way."

To qualify, the women had to be a minimum 25 percent Chinese, age 17 to 26, a resident of Clark County and never been married.

In contention for the title are Jackie Hwang, Soudachanh Thammavongsa, Jaimie Wong, Yan Yin, Nancy Li, Jing Jing Li, Gena Lay, KK Chow, Tammy Lee Mead, Vi Nguyen, Tamoe Chang, Jennifer Kho, Ace Chiu, Connie Wong, Crystal Yuan, Suppatra Tansuvit and Linda So.

"When we were first starting to pull this together, I heard Houston had five contestants for their pageant," said Tina Chen, one of the organizers. "I thought, `Only five -- and Houston is bigger than we are,' " she said.

It was only after there were 10 women signed up that Chen began to relax. She estimated 25,000 Chinese live in Las Vegas.

To prepare for the pageant, Christal Ball and Shirley Chen, representatives from John Robert Powers International, 3010 W. Charleston Blvd., taught the women how to properly walk down a runway and gave them makeup instruction.

The women also learned dance steps for the finale, where all 17 will perform a traditional Chinese folk dance. Award-winning composer Zhiming Han produced the evening's music.

The pageant winner will receive $1,000 in prize money and have the opportunity to represent Las Vegas in the next Miss Chinatown USA competition in San Francisco. The win also calls for her to visit different countries to promote tourism to Las Vegas. Locally, she will represent the Chinese community at various functions.

Tickets for the event are $15, $25 and $50 at the door, but can be purchased beforehand at a discount.

Call 873-9888 for more information.


<<--[back]