2024 - a "historic" year for Asian beauty
If in the past, Latin beauties with hot bodies or representatives from Europe with white skin and blonde hair often dominated international beauty contests, now, girls from Asia are gradually asserting their position.
Most recently, on November 12, Miss Vietnam 2022 Huynh Thi Thanh Thuy became the first representative of Vietnam to be crowned at the Miss International 2024 contest.
Her success comes not only from her physical beauty but also from her ability to communicate fluently in English and her sharp thinking. In the trilingual question and answer session, Thanh Thuy expressed her views on the change in the development trend of the global education system after the COVID-19 pandemic. At the same time, she also linked her answer to goal number 4 of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations. This is the point that made Thanh Thuy's answer highly appreciated, helping her win the international crown.
Previously, in October 2024, Rachel Gupta also made history when she brought home the first Miss Grand International crown for India.
The 20-year-old beauty won convincingly thanks to her outstanding appearance and smart competition strategy. In the eloquence and behavior rounds, Rachel Gupta showed multi-dimensional thinking by emphasizing her own responsibility towards global hot issues such as population explosion and resource depletion.
At Miss Supranational 2024, beauty Harashta Haifa Zahra from Indonesia brought home the first crown for her home country. Her performance at the contest touched the hearts of many viewers when the beauty borrowed a message from her past self to talk about her journey of overcoming difficulties and pursuing her dreams, while also conveying a strong message about the role model of a confident, independent woman in modern society.
2024 also marks the birth of Miss Cosmo - an international beauty pageant organized by Vietnamese people.
The first season witnessed the coronation of Ketut Permata Juliastrid - a representative from Indonesia. Ketut is a model beauty queen for the young generation - dynamic and confident, with modern beauty and ready to act for the community. The only runner-up title of the contest belonged to Thai beauty Karnruethai Tassabut, continuing to be a testament to the rise of Asian beauty in general and Southeast Asian beauty in particular on the global beauty map.
Temporary trend or strong shift?
In fact, the success of Asian representatives in international beauty pageants is not new this year, but has been developing since previous years.
At Miss Universe 2023, Thai beauty Anntonia Porsild made a strong impression with her outstanding appearance and excellent speaking and communication skills. Thanks to that, she finished as the first runner-up. Besides Thailand, the Philippines is also considered an emerging "beauty powerhouse" of Asia in this arena when witnessing the coronation of two Miss Universes, Pia Wurtzbach (2015) and Catriona Gray (2018).
Miss Grand International 2023 recorded impressive achievements of Ni Ni Lin Eain (Myanmar) and Le Hoang Phuong (Vietnam) as 1st Runner-up and 4th Runner-up. Previously, beauty Engfa Waraha from Thailand also excellently won the 1st Runner-up position in the 2022 competition season.
At Miss Earth, South Korea had its first crown when Mina Sue Choi was crowned in 2022. Meanwhile, at Miss Supranational 2022, three of the five representatives in the Top 5 were from Southeast Asia, including Praewwanich Ruangthong (Thailand), Nguyen Huynh Kim Duyen (Vietnam) and Adinda Cresheilla (Indonesia).
Notably, Miss Intercontinental in the last three seasons has chosen Miss from Southeast Asia...
