LA’s Miss Chinatown gets a make-over
JC
Thanks to T for the heads-up on this story! The LA Times reports on this year’s Miss Chinatown competition. Angela Chao Roberson won 3rd place, but she is the first black and Chinese contestant in the history of the pageant. There was another mixed contestant participating, so it looks like the face of Miss Chinatown is definitely changing.
And for most of its 40-year history, despite changing outfits, hairstyles and makeup, the contestants have looked remarkably the same: willowy Chinese American girls with flowing black hair. But as Chinese intermarry, the contest is attracting more girls of mixed race. It started with girls whose backgrounds were white and Chinese. A couple had Hispanic last names. This year, Angela became the first contestant with an African American father.
Love the description of the audience when Angela first appeared:
Many in the crowd leaned forward or stood up to get a better look. They had puzzled looks on their faces. Some of them whispered that they thought she was too curvy. Others tried to figure out what percentage of her background was Chinese.
I love that people continuously attempt to figure out percentages. 30%? No! Can’t be! She’s gotta be 17.5% Chinese! Just kidding, I know I’m being ridiculous. People stick to the quarters for simplicity’s sake….25%? 50%? But of course. :| So ridiculous. However, a good article overall…nice to have a story of acceptance that shows how a community broadens their idea of who fits in.
One more note: definitely a couple of mentions of hair. The worry that the pageant wouldn’t know how to handle her hair when prepping her for the competition, and then this:
Recently, the pageant court helped children at the public library in Chinatown make lanterns. Angela was smitten by a 6-year-old girl who was part African American and part Chinese. This girl had great hair, she thought. It fell like a wavy waterfall and was certainly less curly than her own hair. “I was happy for her,” Angela said. “She gets to grow up in Chinatown, surrounded by other Chinese people. In Victorville, the Chinese people were only in Mom’s close circle.” Maybe, she thought, this is what a future Miss Chinatown might look like.
(Angela’s quote here was a nice thought about the newer generation of mixed children….I wonder if the thoughts on hair were really hers…) Obviously, there are differences in hair texture that we have all accepted. What I have a problem with is constantly praising one type over the other…Why compare when one isn’t *better* than the other, but merely different? This goes along with my annoyances of our stubborn Western beauty ideals that won’t quit.
merq wrote:
Yeah, it’s called the “good hair” ideal. Lord knows how it became so pervasi…
Oh, right. Almost forgot.
Posted 22 Apr 2006 at 12:21 pm ¶
brad wrote:
Yeah, when I read the article, I was disappointed about Angela’s hair comment. Hopefully, the cycle of teaching kids that one type of hair is better than another has to end.
Posted 22 Apr 2006 at 2:43 pm ¶
merq wrote:
Yeah, it’s pretty disturbing.
My hair falls a much closer to the wavy/curly side of the curly-kinky continuum. But when I leave it to grow out (and being that I tend not to give a shit about my hair, it often does), the curls tighten til’ they can tighten no more, exploding in one mean bird’s nest of a ‘fro.
(that’s honestly the best way I can explain it)
Anyway, I let my hair grow out for 5 months over the winter, as I’m not the hat-wearing type. Thus, I had the messiest fro I’ve had in at least a decade– I loved it.
Now, a coworker of mine wasn’t nearly as enamored with the hair (despite her having what I believe to be a crush on me). She kept making teasing little comments about how my hair used to be so nice, and now it’s just “nappy.”
While, knowing my hair better than anyone else (naturally), I knew it wasn’t nappy, I still had to respond, “And…? What’s wrong with nappy?”
I kind-of had to ignore the exchange afterwards, as I know her to be one sadly mixed-up Indian/White American with issues on everything from hair texture to skin tone.
I just wish people would stop acting like “nappy” was a dirty word.
Posted 22 Apr 2006 at 3:03 pm ¶
the joy princess wrote:
I’m happy to be slightly nappy!
Man, everything behind that one little word is why some little girls catch a beatdown on the blacktop from their peers who, in turn, get sent to the salon to get their hair burned to a lifeless bone straight.
Posted 22 Apr 2006 at 11:56 pm ¶
mr guy wrote:
“Many in the crowd leaned forward or stood up to get a better look. They had puzzled looks on their faces. Some of them whispered that they thought she was too curvy. Others tried to figure out what percentage of her background was Chinese.”
LOL!Too curvy???!What, only skinny size zero chinese women matter or something?And I have to agree it is funny how everyone is trying to guess how much of her is chinese.
I’m happy for her, but I feel kind of sorry for her as well, based on the “hair” comment.Nothing wrong with natural black hair.Nothing at all
Posted 24 Apr 2006 at 8:33 am ¶
gatamala wrote:
I wonder how much her parents have to do w/ the hair comment (that I hope she didn’t really make).
Posted 24 Apr 2006 at 1:25 pm ¶
monkeylumps wrote:
Some people wrongly associate tightly coiled hair with ugliness or somehow being unclean, I suppose. I don’t like terms that hurt others and “nappy hair” would be one of them, depending on the context or how it is said. Like Joy Princess said, people have been beaten up because they threw that term at somebody.
There’s nothing inherently wrong with having “difficult” or “nappy” hair…it’s how others react to it that might cause a person to feel bad about it. Merq: as long as YOU love your hair, that’s what matters. I don’t know whether you’re male or female but your coworker probably has issues with her own hair. What is an Indian/White American, out of curiosity? Is that a person with one white parent and one Native parent?
Posted 05 May 2006 at 3:53 pm ¶
Theozani wrote:
I have short “nappy” hair, one, because of my African parents, two, because even though I grew up with a mother who was torn between braiding and chemically relaxing my hair, I eventually told her to stop doing those things to my hair, and now I were it natural. Strangely enough I no longer get compliments about my hair from white people. Black people compliment me more than EVER before. I eventually told mum how my self-esteem problems, eating disorders, etc, resulted from never having felt confident just the way I was.
People need to understand that Angela’s qoute comes from a mother who was torn between notions of “good” hair (her own) and “bad” hair (Other hair), just like my own, and I am a 100% non-mixed Black African female. Angela will never be Black, nor Cchinese, but her sense of self will be measured agaisnt the dominant social group. White. Just like the rest of us.
Posted 13 May 2006 at 7:17 pm ¶
Theozani wrote:
I have short “nappy” hair, one, because of my African parents, two, because even though I grew up with a mother who was torn between braiding and chemically relaxing my hair, I eventually told her to stop doing those things to my hair, and now I were it natural. Strangely enough, I no longer get compliments about my hair from WHITE people. Black people compliment me more than EVER before. I eventually told mum how my self-esteem problems, eating disorders, etc, stemmed from never having felt confident about being ethnically and racially Black.
People need to understand that Angela’s quote comes from a mother who was torn between notions of “good” hair (her own) and “bad” hair (Other hair), just like my own, and I am a 100% non-mixed Black African female. Angela will never be Black, nor Chinese, but her sense of self will be measured agaisnt the dominant social group. White. Just like the rest of us.
Posted 13 May 2006 at 7:20 pm ¶
Anonymous wrote:
ghlku
Posted 21 May 2006 at 8:07 am ¶
Ang wrote:
Hello,
Believe it or not, I am Angela Chao Roberson and my friends call me Ang. I “googled” my name and this webpage came up. I am having trouble finding out where this webpage is orginated from but to clarify things, I did make the comment about the little girls hair… but I did not mean anything personal about it. The reporter asked me what the little girl looked like. She was great, she was beautiful, happy and healthy. I was privledged enough to grow up in a diverse community and I have been very lucky to not have been discrimated against but that does not mean that I do not know that it happens. Therefore, having met such a young girl who is mixed growing up in a majority populated Chinese community makes me even more proud to be a part of the Miss LA Chinatown Pageant. There are so many factors, emotions and perspectives to be considered but the last thing that has ever entered my mind is that this is a beauty pageant. I have been on the court for almost 4 months and after everything that I have learned and experience, the most important thing that I can emphasize and express is that “All women, regardless of there race, skin color, or hair type should always represent themselves, their community, and their culture in the most positve manner.” I could ramble forever but please do not misinterpret my hair comment. Out of the month long, on and off interview I had with the reporter, I am really shocked myself that she chose to quote me on that! I believe that natural hair is the most beautiful. Sometimes I wear my hair straight, sometimes curly, right now I have a lot of split ends but don’t worry “Hair conversation” is definitley the least of my worries… lets talk about positive chinese or positive black role models for today’s youth!
Posted 22 May 2006 at 1:27 am ¶