2003 was the very first year the People’s Republic of China 🇨🇳 hosted the Miss World festival in Sanya, a city on China’s most southern island of Hainan. (Not to be confused with Hong Kong 🇭🇰 hosting in 1989; Hong Kong was considered a British colony in 1989, until 1997 when it was handed back to China). This was an incredible investment into the Miss World brand, and shift from how the governing bodies of the People’s Republic of China viewed pageants (beauty pageants were banned by Mao Zedong). In fact, 2001 was the very first year that the People’s Republic of China debuted at Miss World (not to be confused with the candidates of ‘Free China’ (from Chinese Taipei, not mainland China) at Miss World 1961 and 1962, the former represented by Grace Li who actually won the 1RU spot to Rosemarie Frankland MW1961 from UK 🇬🇧!)
One of the first things I noticed about the 53rd edition (2003) was the simplicity and modesty of the opening number. I especially loved the matching red silk traditional style gowns commonly referred to as cheongsams. While I could not find the name of the designer (please, if anyone knows the name of the designer I would greatly appreciate that information!), I admired the power of simplicity and modesty that the cheongsam gave each contestant.
