8.17.2011

No more pageant, but there will always be boba




If I were at all creative, I could probably find some poetic way to say "The pageant is over, but this blog is just beginning"...preferably using a metaphor involving boba tea.  I thought about it for about three minutes, and then realized that I have a lot to cover in this post, and should probably write it before I put it off any longer.


What's new in my life since my crowning Saturday's pageant?  WELL.  For one, if you thought that being crowned princess at the pageant itself was good enough, you would be wrong.  This past weekend, there was another ceremony for members of the press, where we were given a plaque, our monetary reward, and, most importantly, the fake-glass award statue that I will proudly display on my desk  (next to the Newton's cradle), when I become the CEO of some badass company.



I'm the CEO, betches





And what is a press event without terrible footage of me? 

Below is the news report that showcases my awkward smiles and inability to keep my dress up:





Q: Can you guess which interviewee is pageant CEO? A: Read on for the A!




One of the Q's I posed earlier in this saga was about post-pageanting life.  So here I am to answer what is expected of me now that I've achieved Princess status.  I speculated before that the Queen and her court would be going to events on behalf of the pageant institution and act as a speakerbox for all things cliche.  In that post,  I also bring up some pretty bold assumptions, which I will remind you of:


These women have learned the confidence to represent something other than themselves.  They can stand proudly in front of an audience and recite exactly the lines they were taught.  They will dress correctly and be nice to look at, and maybe people will believe that what they have to say is important.   


Looking at the video above, I think it's fairly obvious that Pageant CEO is the third interviewee.  She has the most poise and confidence when speaking, and frankly, if I had to choose one out of those three to speak at my event, I would choose her because she can communicate the most effectively.  However, do any of these qualities negate any of my assumptions?


I have not gone to an official pageant event yet.  We only recently received our events list after the press crowning ceremony.  They mostly consist of cultural/community events, which I was expecting, like Lunar New Year parties, Race for the Cure in partnership with NATWA (North American Taiwanese Women Association), etc.  There were also a few wild cards in there, at least in my opinion.  For instance, the Cathay Pacific Golf Tournament and...organizing a cheerleading squad for the Taiwan Center's basketball team...huh.  


I'm not exactly sure where my assumptions fit into these events so far.  But I would be more than surprised if they turned out to be false.  In any case, I will definitely be reporting on my experiences.


With that said, I have already discovered that being a Princess means more than just representing the court and the pageant institution.   I am very excited to tell you that I was recently invited to speak on a panel about my Taiwanese-American identity at a dinner for the winners of a Taiwanese pride contest.  


This opportunity was really cool on many levels.  First of all, it almost had nothing to do with the pageant.  Yet, the pageant played an important role in elevating my status as an active Taiwanese-American, and therefore somehow qualifies me to speak on a panel.


Secondly, I met with other the other influential Taiwanese-Americans on the panel.  Okay, so I knew two of them previously....but hadn't had the chance to sit down and chat.  Ben Ling, the national president of the Taiwanese American Citizen League, Iris Shaw, the program director for the Formosa Foundation, and Peter Chen, legal counsel for Formosan Assocation for Public Affairs,  were the three other guest panelists.  Honestly, I had the least amount of credentials (quantitatively and qualitatively), but it was an awesome opportunity to meet these people and learn about more ways to get involved (both politically and socially).


Thirdly, and probably the most interestingly for you (I'm pretty sure you skimmed the past couple paragraphs), it was really fun to meet with the winners of this contest.  The winners were all young Taiwanese who entered this contest in the form of fine art, video, or writing, the theme being Taiwanese pride. I doubt I was very interesting to them, but for me, it was interesting to see what sorts of Taiwanese issues mattered to them.  


I was very impressed by the six winning entries:


This is about how the youth builds/decides the future of Taiwan




This is about rocket-shipping Taiwan into the future because it's awesome.
This is about how politics in Taiwan suck, and you should make your own decisions
There was one video winner, highlighting famous Taiwanese, and with an ending focusing on the youth:



And two written pieces.  One was a futuristic short story that can be found here, and the other was a piece that explored the meaning of Taiwanese pride (found here).  For fun, I recommend Google translate to see how beautiful writing can be completely garbled with the single press of a button!


I'm sorry I have no discussion questions to offer here, yet I will beg for your comments, per usual. I will say that so far, I think post-pageant life is exceeding expectations.  I hope to ride this momentum of pageant press and recognition for a while so I can catapult myself into more community events, be it pageant-related or not.  If these aren't the duties of a Princess, then maybe I don't deserve the fake-glass award statue after all?

3 comments:

  1. Congratulations on your post-pageant life! We must celebrate when you visit.

    More of a side note: did they not provide chest tape?

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  2. was glancing around at jobs and emails and went from a formosa foundation event to taiwan center to its pageant to your blog! nice to read a critical but light assessment of the whole asian-american pageant experience!

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  3. this is nice discussion about Boba Tea Supply and i hope you will be continue with posting.

    ReplyDelete