Pediatric Nurse Joins Miss NTD Pageant in Seeking Traditional Beauty

When Annie Chen first heard about the Miss NTD beauty pageant through friends in February, she thought it was a great event because of the mission published on its website: “promoting the traditional aesthetic character of Chinese women and bringing back pure authenticity, pure goodness, and pure beauty.”

But she didn’t think it was something she would take part in until a family friend sent her the application details later in the same month and encouraged her to give it a try.

It took her a month to look into the application guidelines and make a decision.

“It does take a lot of courage to really put yourself out there and compete in a beauty pageant and to get rid of that fear of being judged by other people externally,” Ms. Chen, a 27-year-old pediatric nurse in Boston, told The Epoch Times. “And so it was a sense of something I wanted to do for myself: to be more courageous and work on myself in what I think is a very much once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”

She said the application process helped her with “soul searching” and “self-reflection.”

For example, one of the application requirements was a “Beauty with a Mission” video “on the significance of women to the family, society, and the continuation of civilization,” according to the official pageant website. The event is organized by NTD, The Epoch Times’ sister media outlet.

“The man is the head, but the woman is the neck, and she can turn the head any way she wants”—a viewpoint she recalled hearing in a romantic comedy years ago. It was a line in the film “My Big Fat Greek Wedding.”

When preparing for her video, she said she arrived at a new understanding—instead of controlling the head, the neck is there for support through endurance, not for fighting for the spotlight.

“The woman supports, upholds, and strengthens the man. Not only a wife but also a mother, a woman who values virtue is entrusted with raising her children with etiquette, morality, and compassion,” she said in her submission titled “A Woman’s Inner Strength.”

“In the future, these educated and virtuous young men and women will help society become more just and righteous. With Ying and Yang in balance, peace and harmony will prevail,” she said, expressing her belief in women’s role in family and society.

In particular, she said she was inspired by one of the ancient Chinese legends representing faithfulness.

Wang Baochuan, a daughter of an imperial chancellor during Tang Dynasty (618–907 AD), was engaged to a poor man good at martial arts. Her father wanted to break the commitment because of the man’s status, but she chose to honor the engagement.

As a result, her father expelled her from the family, and she lived with her husband in a small cave. Wang supported her husband’s ambition to fight for the country. The husband was away from home for 18 years, during which Wang stayed in the cave alone and prayed for his safety. Eventually, the couple reunited after the husband returned with success and honor.

Annie Chen in April 2023. Courtesy of Annie Chen via Q.H Concept

Inner Strength

Ms. Chen sees Wang as an example of a woman’s great inner strength. “She was able to endure so much for many years and to be very selfless,” she added. “I think she just genuinely did it to support her loved one.”

Eight years ago, Ms. Chen did her own act of endurance and sacrifice as a rising sophomore at Michigan State University.

She was a team lead of Ride to Freedom, a cross-country cycling ride to raise awareness of orphans in China as a result of the persecution of Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline rooted in traditional Chinese culture with tenets of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance.

“This was a journey of over 3,000 miles over 40 days. It taught me leadership, how to get up after falling, and the importance of doing something bigger than myself, something more important than myself, and serving others,” she spoke of the event.

Ride to Freedom bikers Annie Chen (L) and her group take a selfie with Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) on the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol Building upon their arrival in Washington on July 16, 2015, during activities to commemorate the 16 years of persecution of Falun Gong in China. Petr Svab/The Epoch Times

She sees Miss NTD as another milestone event, similar to Ride to Freedom.

She said she lost the touch of authenticity a bit after going back to college after the summer of cycling: “I feel like I haven’t been very authentic to myself, where I wouldn’t be able to just freely express who I am and my values, and stand up for my values. I fear being judged by other people and being thought that I was really different from other people.”

“I think it was easy to sink into that mentality and lose that authenticity for myself,” she added. “And maybe for me, I need a big event, opportunity, or experience like Ride to Freedom or this pageant to be able to push myself to really step out of my comfort zone to challenge myself in order to change that mentality and change myself.”

View of Beauty Shifted

In preparation for the final on Sept. 30, Ms. Chen is eating a healthier diet and working out to tone her body. Miss NTD does not have a swimming suit session. Instead, contestants will present in dancewear for poise and posture and evening gowns for style and grace.

During the past five months working on the pageant, she said she had shifted her view of beauty. While she used to believe that showing more skin was more beautiful, she understood now that “women don’t need to show everything they have to be beautiful.”

She also sees a connection between the beauty pageant and her work.

“As nurses who take care of children, we actually do see quite a lot of adolescents and teenagers struggle with body image issues and eating disorders,” she said, adding that her beauty pageant experience would offer her new insights to help her patients.

“If you have a mindset of honesty and compassion, then your body and spirit will naturally have an aura of goodness and beauty to it. Similarly, with this holistic approach to beauty, I believe that even without any makeup, skincare, or plastic surgery, if you just work on yourself, your values, and who you are, you can become a beautiful person—your natural beauty, your inner beauty will naturally shine through.”