ST PHOTO: SAMUEL HE

This year’s 20 finalists – who range from bank interns to future teachers – being introduced to the media at Sentosa’s Wave House yesterday.

Joining the Miss Singapore World pageant al-most cost finalist May Hsu her life.

The avid swimmer had taken to doing herlaps in the pool before sunrise and during theevening to avoid a tan.

“The water was so cold I got cramps andseized,” said the 21-year-old student and privatetutor, laughing at the memory. “That wouldhave been a stupid way to go.”

But that, and the bad press that came withthe pageant before, has not stopped this year’s20 finalists – who range from bank interns to fu-ture teachers – from taking a shot at fame.

Miss Ng Shi Wah, 20, a biotechnology stu-

dent at Republic Polytechnic, said it was unfortu-nate that the competition had been tarred byprevious contestants such as former winner RisLow.

The 2009 winner was dethroned after a crimi-nal conviction came to light, and became infa-mous for her mangled English in an interview.

“All of us have lives outside of this,” Miss Ngsaid, referring to the pageant. She was later over-heard discussing medical breakthroughs and thebest ways to conduct experiments with fellow fi-nalist Shwu Ping Lee, 20, who recently graduat-ed with a diploma in chemical engineering fromTemasek Polytechnic.

Miss Jaye Luo, 22, is studying to be a chef atAt-Sunrice GlobalChef Academy.

“I like travelling and cooking,” said Miss Luo.“I would be happy wandering around the world,cooking wherever I go.”

All the finalists were sure that, if nothing else,the contest would be good for their confidence.

“You try answering questions about thingslike infanticide while stripped down to a bikini,”said 21-year-old marketing student SuzanneChu of her experience during the auditions.“What doesn’t make you collapse can onlymake you stronger.”

Feng Zengkun

MISS SINGAPORE WORLD

Out with‘showgirlclub image’

Finalists unfazed by pageant’s Ris Low blow

House to unveil this year’s 20 final-ists yesterday, he said the judgeswould evaluate their physiques at aseparate beach event instead of atthe final show, to be held at SuntecCity in September.

“We are going to try not toarouse the audience during the fi-nale,” he said jokingly.

Earlier this year, Miss WorldCEO Julia Morley had slammed thelocal pageant as “having a showgirlclub image” and chose Mr Ooi to re-vamp it.

The previous franchisee was MrAlex Liu, managing director ofERM World Marketing, which hadrun the contest for the past sevenyears.

In February, Ms Colleen Francis-ca-Mason, the 2006 winner, saidshe had written to Ms Morleyabout the pageant’s decline.

“I had to parade in a bikini atEastpoint Mall and was gawked atby old men taking pictures withtheir mobile phones,” she saidthen.

The pageant was already reelingfrom a blow in 2009 when winnerRis Low became infamous for speak-ing mangled English in an inter-view.

She was later dethroned after aprevious criminal conviction cameto light.

Since taking charge, Mr Ooi,who owns event company LimeliteProductions, has brought nationalfund-raiser Community Chest onboard.

The finalists will go to three chil-

dren’s homes to learn how to takecare of spastic children and chil-dren with intellectual or physicaldisabilities.

They will also undergo fourtraining sessions, half of which willbe devoted to coaching the contest-ants on the question and answersegments of the finale.

Unlike in previous years, thisyear’s finals will have two ques-tion-and-answer segments, onewhich the finalists can prepare forbeforehand and the other im-promptu.

The finalists will also make pres-entations about themselves to thejudges.

“Intelligence is not just about an-swering two questions on stage,”said Mr Ooi. “Hopefully, this willlet the judges know how they seethemselves.”

Mr Ooi has also assembled ateam of trainers and stylists, includ-ing former Miss Singapore WorldTeo Ser Lee, to make sure the final-ists are up to scratch.

Among the strict rules they haveto follow: No wearing of dark brasunder the white Miss WorldT-shirts, avoid wearing hotpantsand shorts, make your Facebookpage private, avoid pictures thatshow you drunk. No cheeky pic-tures with the boyfriend either.

“We’re not here to create an an-gel,” Mr Ooi said. “But the finalistsshould understand that they willbe scrutinised.”

During the makeover sessionswhich started last week, words like“wholesome” and “sweet” wereused often. The contestants were al-

so constantly reminded of The Sun-day Times’ presence.

The wariness is understandable.For the team, the stakes are highand the hyenas many.

Even before yesterday’s unveil-ing, the finalists had also experi-enced the bite of the pageant’s bad

reputation.“My butt was on the front page

of the newspaper,” one of the con-testants said, referring to the June20 edition of The New Paper. “Itwas like being ambushed. The sameday my boss came and had a chatwith me about appropriateness.”

Biomedical student and privatetutor May Hsu, 21, said some of herstudents’ parents looked at her dif-ferently after learning she was inthe pageant.

“The kids are funny. They saythings like ‘teacher, why you sosexy?’ But I can see why the parents

don’t find it funny,” she said.One of the contestants also said

that online comments have bor-dered on “misogyny”.

Another contestant said: “We’reall Singaporeans. I don’t get the

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2 primethesundaytimes July 17, 2011