Miss NTD: A Pageant That Reminds Us Why Beauty Matters

Richard Yin and Lucy Zhou, organizers of the NTD Global Chinese Beauty Pageant, at a press conference in New York City on July 11, 2023. (Edwin Huang/The Epoch Times)

The ancients knew that great beauty can just as easily launch a thousand ships and topple a nation as save it—if tempered by morality, righteousness, propriety, benevolence, and faithfulness.

These are the values a New York-based pageant seeks to revive.

After long hours of intense deliberation, the Miss NTD team has whittled down the number of applicants from the triple digits to a total of 40 candidates hailing from four continents.

Miss NTD, or the inaugural 2023 NTD Global Chinese Beauty Pageant (MissNTD.org), is part of a series of competitions that Epoch Times sister outlet NTD Television hosts in its mission to revive traditional culture and universal values. These competitions emphasize pure beauty, pure kindness, and pure authenticity throughout the series, from bel canto to fine arts.

The competition seeks to showcase beauty holistically, according to Lucy Zhou, co-organizer of the pageant, putting the spotlight on the virtues women upheld in traditional Chinese culture.

In our modern culture, beauty has lost its meaning, pageant co-organizer Richard Yin said. This event seeks to revive its traditional meaning and purpose.

Ms. Zhou said that the application process has involved detailed interviews that graded applicants’ understanding of traditional Chinese culture and willingness to learn.

So how does one go about judging an inner beauty contest?

An Understanding of Virtue

These 40 young women will participate in courses on traditional Chinese culture and presentation remotely until the live rounds in New York from Sept. 24 to Sept. 30, but the scoring process started long ago.

Each applicant was asked questions that helped the jury gauge their personality, character, values, and understanding of society and traditional culture. They were rated not only on their answers, but also on how they carried themselves during the remote interviews, Ms. Zhou said. When the young women come to New York for the week-long event, they will also be graded on how they hold themselves, how they interact with others, and how much they learn and improve their understanding of traditional Chinese culture.

The applicants range from women who have 10 years of experience in classical Chinese dance and extensive knowledge in Chinese classics and poetry to those who grew up in the West with little knowledge but great interest in learning about traditional Chinese culture, Ms. Zhou said, so the scoring takes effort and growth into account.

“This is completely different from most pageants, and that’s by design,” Mr. Yin said. “We’re looking at their understanding of traditional Chinese culture, whether they really understand it from the inside out and embody those lessons. Do they understand the value of this culture? That was our hope throughout the competition. And through their performances and presentations, we hope to let the audiences witness the beauty of traditional Chinese culture, and how that is embodied. From what we’ve seen so far, we see hope for the future, and a new path forward.”

These young women are doctors, influencers, artists, and engineers—applicants’ backgrounds varied widely—and the selected 40 do reflect that, Mr. Yin said. “We wanted to demonstrate to the whole world that anyone in any society can become a role model for the whole world.”

Public Showcase

On Sept. 30, the two-hour Grand Final round will be open to the public, taking place at The Performing Arts Center at SUNY Purchase College. It will include talent performances, presentations on culture, videos showcasing the applicants’ backgrounds, and an evening gown showcase featuring couture evening gowns by Shen Yun Dancer, the same team that creates the athletic wear and on-stage costumes used by Shen Yun Performing Arts under the guidance of Shen Yun Artistic Director D.F.

The ultimate winner will be crowned Miss NTD with a five-sapphire Phoenix tiara, a $10,000 cash prize, and a growing list of gift items that will be finalized before the competition ends.

There are several additional awards, including for five runners-up, the Director’s Award, and several “best in” awards.

There is no swimsuit section; contestants will instead participate in a fitness-wear portion.

Miss NTD

The winner becomes the global ambassador of NTD for one year.

NTD stands for New Tang Dynasty, a reference to the peak of Chinese civilization. It was the era of culture and a golden age of poetry and music, and volumes of significant histories, literature, and encyclopedias were produced during this time.

Miss NTD will have the opportunity to travel the world and speak at many events and is expected to be able to share the timeless traditions of beauty. Rather than representing the media company, she will be expected to represent traditional Chinese culture.

Mr. Yin said the five sapphires in the tiara represent the five fundamental inner virtues: morality, righteousness, propriety, benevolence, and faithfulness.

A Mission

Packard Motors owner Scott Andrews, who is sponsoring Miss NTD, said the pageant is “the spark of a fire” that can create worldwide change—a movement to restore the meaning of beauty. “And they’re being very brave to be that spark,” he said.

Pageant honorary adviser Jim Chandler, a film actor and producer, said the values of the pageant make all the difference. “Beauty is how we serve others, and how we use our gifts to serve other people. How we love and how we help others is what really makes us beautiful,” Mr. Chandler told NTD.

Honorary adviser Jacqui Phillips, a celebrity make-up artist, television personality, and author, said tradition is being lost in this world, but the pageant brings hope.

“Having wisdom and the inner wisdom and trusting that, and kindness—all those things are what sets this pageant apart. I don’t think there’s anything like it in the world,” she said. “If your heart is beautiful, it comes out and you’re beautiful.”

NTD Television is a New York-based global news and entertainment media network, founded in 2001. NTD’s mission is to uplift and inform society by publishing quality content that embodies integrity, dignity, and the best of humanity.