Miss Shanghai: The Years of Infamy

The Miss Shanghai beauty pageants were held almost every year between 1929 and 1947, and they usually precipitated a scandal. The competition of 1929 led to a court case and the recasting of votes. In 1931, Chinese activists protested against bathing suits on the catwalk. The pageant in 1933 advertised Hollywood connections that were fabricated. In 1947, the crown was tossed around on stage, taken from one girl and given to another. Gleefully outraged public debates erupted in the press after the competitions: the fairness of the voting was dubious, the organisers were criminal, and often the charitable fundraising was a sham. Different organisations fought for the privilege to elect Miss Shanghai – or disavowed any connection to the pageant. The proceedings ranged from international press events in stadium-size venues, to dodgy nocturnal business in cheap cabarets. Conditioned by the changing political, economic and racial makeup of the city and channelling ideas and fashions of the day, these shows were a rude, but fertile social almanac for pre-Liberation Shanghai.