Chinese beauty pageant slammed for 'bikini opera'
Staff Reporter 2012-09-27 10:13
A flexible performer from the controversial bikini opera routine. (Internet photo)
A Chinese beauty pageant featuring young women performing a routine in bikinis with traditional Chinese opera makeup and hair decorations conveys the beauty of Chinese culture rather than cheapens it, insists the pageant's executive director.
Internet photos of the pageant contestants, taken during a press show in April for the 37th Miss Bikini International Pageant in Beijing, have drawn more criticism than praise from China's netizens.
One netizen described the unusual combination of light blue bikinis embroidered with Chinese opera designs, traditional opera hairstyles and makeup as "vulgar claptrap," while another said: "After being tortured by those silly designers and contestants, the costume is no longer a costume and the bikini is no longer a bikini."
Not all internet users have been critical of dance performance mixing Chinese opera elements and western style, however, with one netizen saying: "The designer is only trying to show beauty. What can be comprehended from it depends on the spectator."
Li Yulong, the executive director of the pageant committee, said the models were all winners in previous pageants.
The debated hairstyle was a creative decision aimed at expressing the culture of Chinese opera, Liu said, adding that the background music was also in the style of traditional opera.
The hair decorations represented traditional Chinese culture, making the beauties more attractive in a Chinese way and allowing western spectators to taste the beauty of their culture, Li said.
