2008 Miss Korea Southern California: An Extreme Lack of Regulations by Korea Times

The Miss Korea Southern California held its 37th annual pageant at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre on June 27th last week. The Pageant’s organizers, Korea Times and its sponsors, Radio Seoul, KTAN-TV, Korean Air, and Macy’s, crowned the top five winners providing the top three winning beauties their tickets to be part of the 2008 Miss Korea Pageant, scheduled to take place on August 6th in Seoul, Korea. Although being part of such a prestigious pageant may be a dream for some, others find all and any means to place in the top three, competing for a chance to be crowned Miss Korea. Just as the Miss USA Pageant gathers its titleholders from all fifty states, the Miss Korea Pageant too gathers winners from the country’s provinces and places abroad with large Korean communities, such as, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New York, to name a few.
The competition for the preliminary Miss Korea pageants in Korea is worlds apart from those in America due to the massive number of contestants in Korea. Thus, over the years a growing number of Korean born girls have come to the states, specifically Los Angeles, for a more fluid chance to be crowned in the top three for a glorified opportunity to be part of the Miss Korea Pageant.
There are no specified regulations regarding who can and cannot enter the Miss Korea Southern California Pageant, therefore girls who are not American born, California residents, or even English speaking representatives of the Korean-American community are overwhelmingly entering and winning the crowns. Most, if not all the contestants who claim to be “studying-broad in America” are not in study abroad programs, but are only attending community colleges. Sources speculate, their use of “studying abroad” as a decoy to come to Los Angeles to attend the Miss Korea Southern California Pageant. The 19 year-old first place (JIN) beauty, Racheal Hyo Joon Eam, nonchalantly said, “[she] does not have a green card, [she] just goes back and forth from Korea with [her] student visa.” The second (SUN) place 20 year-old beauty, Hong Seon Ju, timidly shared that she has only been in America for a little over a year. The top two beauties who are expected to represent the Korean American community of Southern California cannot speak English fluently, if any, and are in America with a false pretense that they are here to study. It is not far fetched to assume they are not returning to Los Angeles after they take part in the Miss Korea Pageant in August.
But giving the pageant, its judges, and its sponsors some credit, they crowned a 17 year-old American born Korean beauty, Erica Kyung Hae Min, third (MEE) place. Although she comprehends some Korean, she cannot speak it. Luckily there are no rules about how much of the Korean language a contestant should know, since she can well represent Southern California in her native English language. But there are rules regarding the age requirements; she turns 18 in November. The Korea Times specifically placed in their ads, 18 years as the minimum age requirement for this pageant, which coincides with the age requirements in Miss Korea Pageant as well. It is clear that the rightful opportunities for Korean-American girls who are attending prestigious American Universities, grew up in California, and live in southern California are being taken away by girls from Korea who have discovered an easy way in.
The title “Miss Korea Southern California” should be dismissed and changed to “Miss Korea from Korea in Disguise to represent Southern California.” No regulation on the requirements defeats all purposes of even having the Miss Korea Southern California Pageant. An uproar of complaints have started to flood out, even to Seoul, Korea, from people of the community who know this is not just. One American born contestant said, “we are quite frustrated that the title holders cannot live up to the title since they didn’t even grow up here…other contestants and I feel cheated…we know both cultures and both languages. We can effortlessly represent the Korean-American community gracefully, if only given the chance to do so.” The organizers of the Miss Korea Southern California Pageant have made no comments and are “out of the office” when contacted. It is more than apparent strict regulations and rules need to be instilled and enforced in order to successfully carry on the traditions of the Miss Korea Southern California Pageant.

[Citizens of the Korean- American community feel this is not just, therefore ask and expect changes to be made regarding who should be exploited and allowed or not allowed to attend the 2008 Miss Korea Pageant.]

Change can only happen when voices are heard. Please voice your thoughts via the forum as well contacting any korean media that might be able to help with the situation.