By Jagdeesh Mann, Special to the Post

When Eliza Sam asked her father to drop off the registration form for the Miss Chinese Vancouver 2009 pageant, it wasn’t because she was too busy working out an answer for world peace.
She had something even more pressing on her mind, like figuring out how to re-learn Chinese in 8 weeks.
While the 25-year-old Vancouver resident wasn’t starting from scratch, there was considerable work to do in improving her diction, tone, vocabulary, and overall confidence with the language. The ability to speak either Cantonese or Mandarin while normally not a prerequisite for winning the crown in most beauty pageants, can make all the difference in Miss Chinese Vancouver – particularly as the winner goes on to represent the city on the global stage at Miss Chinese International Pageant held in Hong Kong each year.
So she developed her own ‘pinyin’.
In nerdspeak, pinyin is the linguistic tool English speakers utilize when learning a Chinese language – each sound from the foreign language is assigned a letter or symbol the student translates when reciting words from memory.
“Not having fluent Chinese deterred me from entering the pageant in the past,” confessed Sam, who recently graduated from Kwantlen Polytechnical University with a BBA in Human Resource Management. “But this year I decided to take the plunge and committed myself to learning it.”
“The moral of my story (I hope) is that other girls who want to join this pageant but who don’t speak fluent Cantonese or Mandarin will not shy away. If I can do it, so can they.”
And so began her two months of intensive training. Bookending  Sams daily contest fittings, dance practices, posture work and catwalk training, were breakfasts spent peppering her parents with questions about pronunciation and late evenings watching Chinese comedies.
That’s how it turned out Sam’s secret weapon to winning the 2009 Miss Chinese Vancouver pageant wasn’t as much extra beauty sleep, or daily speech training, but an immigrant-like work ethic of improving language skills combined with the ingenuity to create a translation system.
For the next two months, Sam will spend time volunteering over the Christmas season and preparing for the international pageant before deciding what will be her next destination.
“I would love to explore new opportunities in the entertainment industry in Asia and also take advantage of the time there and travel in the region.”
The Miss Chinese Vancouver Pageant (MCV), formerly known as Miss Vancouver Chinatown Pageant, is held annually by Fairchild TV. The winner is selected to compete in the Miss Chinese International Pageant held annually in Hong Kong in Jan/ Feb (around Chinese New Year).
Vancouver contestants have been successful at the international pageant: in 2001, Bernice Liu from Vancouver won the competition, and was then succeeded in 2002 by Shirley Zhou.
Linda Chung and Leanne Li, both from Vancouver, then won the Miss Chinese International 2004 and 2005 titles, respectively.
Overall 4 contestants from Vancouver have won the competition, the most by any city.
To follow Eliza Sam and her upcoming preparations for Hong Kong please go to her blog: http://mcvp.fairchildtv.com/blog07/

NOTABLE CONTESTANTS

1998 First Runner-Up: Natalie Au became a presenter for Fairchild TV for the next 5 years, hosting What’s On. She also had a supporting role in the Hong Kong Christian film Life is a Miracle and has guest-starred in the CBC drama Da Vinci’s Inquest.

2000 Winner: Bernice Liu won Miss Chinese International 2001. She is currently signed by TVB (Hong Kong TV station) and is having a successful career as an actress.

2000 2nd Runner-Up: Alice Chang returned to Taiwan and is a member of the musical group “One Fifth”.

2003 Winner: Linda Chung won Miss Chinese International 2004 and is now an up-and-coming popular actress affiliated with TVB in Hong Kong.

2004 Winner: Leanne Li won Miss Chinese International 2005 and has acted in supporting roles in Cantonese dramas.

2005 Winner: Crystal Li returned to Taiwan and has signed with EeLin Modelling Agency to pursue a career as a model.

2005 First Runner-Up: Lora Sun became a host with Fairchild Television’s mandarin channel, Talentvision. She is currently a television actress in China and was the MC for this years Miss Chinese Pageant 2009.

2007 Winner: Jessica Choi hosted What’s On on Fairchild Television in 2009.

2008 Winner: Cici Chen is currently signed to Fairchild Television