

While China was busy hosting the “International Breast Model Contest” and the “Elderly Bikini Contest,” America also held a number of beauty pageants. States have already started picking representatives for the upcoming Miss America Beauty Pageant. In Michigan, Arianna Quan was crowned as the winner and will compete for the national title in September.

Quan was born in Beijing, moved to America when she was 6 years old and became a naturalized citizen at the age of 14. Being fluent in both Chinese and English, she is the only Chinese-American contender in the upcoming pageant.







Contestants aren’t just judged by their appearances, but by their performances, interviews and talent as well. For Quan, her multicultural background has had a large influence on her, MLive.com reports. The platform that she’s advocating for is Immigration and Citizen Education and her talent/performance is classical piano.

“All throughout my life [being Asian-American has] been something that’s been a little bit uncomfortable for me to talk about,” Quan said. But she has now embraced her heritage as well as her status as an immigrant. With all the talk in America about building a wall, Quan believes that naturalized citizens should speak out and share their experiences to the rest of America.

She explains:

During this election year I realized how important it was for immigrants and naturalized citizens especially to speak out about their experiences in this country.

We are so diverse and it’s so important for all of us to embrace that. That’s why my platform is what it is and hopefully going to Miss America in this election year I can raise awareness about what it means to be an American





The 23-year-old model is currently studying Transportation Design at Detroit’s College for Creative Studies and aspires to become a designer for the automotive industry in the future. Her father already works in the heavily male-dominated field, but she aims to inspire more women to go into the automotive trade.



Despite all of Quan’s ambition, talent and accomplishments, the reaction from Chinese netizens has been overwhelmingly negative with many writing in to criticize her looks.

“She’s ugly AND she isn’t Chinese,” @y块木头 wrote.

“Is this competition for picking the ugliest person?” @乄冰糖 wrote.

“She’s 23?! Why does she look like she’s 43?” @Joan516 wrote.

“She’s ruining the reputation of Chinese people,” @小花仙002 wrote.

“This is probably the American standard of beauty. She looks exactly like Mulan in Disney,” @久未闻君 wrote.

“Oh. She’s probably very beautiful on the inside,” @CiErErEr wrote.





Ouch. Hear more about Quan’s platform and ideas below:



By Sarah Lin

[Images via Facebook / NetEase // Video via Youtube]