Miss Ting Wen-yin would have been competing for the Miss Earth crown in Austria had it not been for a big problem: a sash. She refused to wear the sash given to her. She is from Taiwan and had prepared a Taiwan ROC sash (shortened form of Republic of China), but the pageant organizers gave her a Chinese Taipei sash.
She was given an ultimatum: to wear it or just leave. She refused to wear it, as it means she is a contestant of Chinese Taipei. She was disqualified from the contest as a result. Over the weekend, she was not allowed to go to the stage.
On her Facebook profile, Ting said that she has told the organizers 30,000 times that Taiwan is Taiwan. She is from Taiwan and her sash should represent Taiwan. She said that a representative from China reported her reluctance to wear the sash from the organizers.
Eleanor Wang, foreign ministry spokesperson of Taiwan mentioned in a statement that the organizers were pushed to replace the Taiwan ROC sign because of China's pressure.
Beijing insists that Taiwan is considered as a territory of China. Beijing refuses to call it a state, rather considers Taiwan a province. Taiwan and China have been separated after the 1949 civil war. Taiwan is supposed to be under self-rule, a fact that China is refusing to acknowledge until this day.
This is not the first time China has interfered in beauty pageant matters. The Chinese-born contestant of Canada in this year's Miss World was denied a visa to enter China, the venue for the pageant. Miss Anastasia Lin claimed the visa denial was because of her criticism against Beijing's human rights.
Miss Earth, an annual beauty pageant with an advocacy on environmental awareness, is happening on December 5. Other annual beauty pageants include Miss International, Miss Universe, and Miss World.
