Miss Asia crowned for martial arts mastery

By Joseph Hawthorne, Pipe Dream

Various Asian cultures converged and competed, displaying an array of new skills and talents during the second annual Miss Asia competition.

Vietnamese Student Association hosted their second annual Miss Asia competition Saturday night in the Mandela Room. At the end of the night, Kanyawee Thipthamai, a sophomore majoring in economics, representing Thailand, won the competition and took home a check for $100.

As a crowd of more than 200 students packed into the Mandela Room, attendees cheered, chanted and called for their favorite country’s representatives Saturday night.

The Vietnamese Student Association (VSA) hosted the competition. Eric Dinh, president of VSA and a junior majoring in biology, said the event was designed to unite the many Asian student groups.

“We wanted to connect Asian [Student Union] groups,” Dinh said. “We had people from the Thai club, China, India, Philippines, Taiwan, Korea and Malaysia.”

This year’s competition featured a multitude of different talents.

“The president last year decided to promote more diversity on campus, but we really only had the options of singing or dancing,” Dinh said. “This year contestants could present whatever represented their culture.”

The change benefited Miss Thailand, who took home first place with a Thai martial arts routine.

“I wanted to show something unique from Thailand,” said Kanyawee Thipthamai, a sophomore majoring in economics. “I wanted to present Thai boxing, Muay Thai. I really just wanted to do what I practiced.”

Even before the results, however, audience members said that they thought the acts that weren’t songs or dances stood out from the rest.

Read the full story by Joseph Hawthorne, Pipe Dream.