Beauty and Fashion
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Miss Universe 2015: The ASEAN
Ladies’ Race to the Crown
W
hen it comes to pageants, delegates from
Latin America are usually expected to reign
supreme. Venezuela for instance has
brought home 7 Miss Universe crowns. The
Miss Universe 2014 is from Colombia and
just months before the 2015 Miss Universe
pageant, a Venezuelan was crowned Miss
International. Asians on the other hand
don’t have the same impressive records.
Among the Southeast Asian countries for
instance, only the Philippines (1969, 1973)
and Thailand (1965, 1988) have brought
home the Miss Universe crown with 2
each previously. In the 2009 edition of the
pageant, no Asian managed to make it into
the list of semifinalists at all.
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asean life
The game started to change lately though,
as more Asians started showing impressive
performances. The fight was led by Venus
Raj of the Philippines in 2010, after being
the only Asian to have entered the top 15.
She broke the 10 years of her country’s nonplacement in the Miss Universe pageant.
In the succeeding years, the Philippines
managed to have runners up and finalists.
In 2013, Whulandary Herman of Indonesia
also broke records when she became the 2nd
woman from her country to have placed in
Miss Universe. Indonesia’s placement streak
then continued after 2013.
Team ASEAN has become even
stronger with the return of Myanmar in
the pageant in 2013 after last sending a
delegate in 1961. In 2015, Vietnam sent
Phạm Thị Hương, who was a product of an
actual pageant instead of being handpicked
by the country’s national director. With
the strength of the representatives from
the region come the louder voices of their
fans. If we can remember back to 2010, the
video of Filipino fans who were extremely
emotional with Venus Raj’s placement,
became viral.
Battle Royale
If the performances of previous ASEAN delegates were an indicator, the 2015
pageant ought to be a fierce battle. Though
Latinas remained a very strong force, all
eyes were on the ASEAN delegates. They
didn’t disappoint though. Thailand’s Aniporn Chalermburanawong was an imme-