Ten ladies are vying for the Miss Chinatown title./ARMIN P. ADINA
MANILA, Philippines — To dispel the prevalent notion of people outside the Filipino-Chinese community of the sector’s apparent conservatism, and to promote a new image of “Chinoys” in the country, the Mister and Miss Chinatown is pushing for openness and has taken a huge stride towards that direction by having a member of the LGBTQIA+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, asexual, and others) community in the competition’s male division.
“We want to show to the public that the ‘Chinoy’ community now [is] starting to be open,” ChinoyTV President Alvin Tan told a select group of media scribes at the sidelines of the press presentation of the 20 candidates for this year’s competition, held at the Red Carpet of Shangri-la Plaza in Mandaluyong on Oct. 16.
Vince Anthony Aseron is the first open member of the LGBTQIA+ community to take part in the competition. He told the Inquirer he identifies himself as an “androgynous-femme presenting non-binary” individual, but does not mind being assigned the pronouns “he/him.”
Vince Aseron/ARMIN P. ADINA
In an online interview, he told the Inquirer that as a follower of beauty contests, “it has been an ultimate dream of mine to join pageants to be seen on stage and to be defined as ‘beautiful.’” But heteronormative standards and ideals in such competitions he observed as a child made him believe “joining a pageant could be unimaginable.”
Aseron learned about the Mister and Miss Chinatown pageant in 2014, at the age of 15. As he watched the competition on TV, he said he aspired to become a candidate in a contest for “Chinoys” like he is. “However, I knew that there was a quintessential standard of masculinity in male pageantry,” he shared.
He found the courage to give the competition a shot when he learned after the 2020 contest that the organization “has started to look for a Chinoy who could ‘break barriers’” on the pageant’s Instagram page. “In the next year, I auditioned. [But] the edition was cancelled and it left me a year hanging if I was accepted or not. With the power of dreams and believing that nothing is impossible, my application was accepted for the 2022 edition making me the first openly LGBTQIA+ candidate for [Mister and Miss] Chinatown Philippines,” Aseron shared.
Tan, whose ChinoyTV is producing the annual competition, said the contest is “looking for our representation of the modern Chinoy, basically someone who’s not just your typical Chinoy who’s into business in the corporate world, but rather a Chinoy who is very open to the modern times, a Chinoy who is creative, a Chinoy who’s already diverse.”
Aseron said it took a lot of courage to push for gender inclusivity in a conservative community, and that joining the pageant is not merely to fulfil a personal dream. “I want to champion for others. I advocate for a safe space for LGBTQ+ Chinoys in the Filipino-Chinese community because I know what it means to be LGBTQ+ in our community. In this pageant, I was given the chance to share my story on how my family and friends practiced their Chinoy values by respecting all kinds of people without excluding the LGBTQ+ community and how I can promote love, respect, and inclusivity in a Chinoy set-up.”
He hopes that through his participation in the Mister and Miss Chinatown pageant, he will be able to inspire other LGBTQIA+ Chinoys to serve even if they “feel like they were never the standard.”
The 10 Mister Chinatown candidates take the stage./ARMIN P. ADINA
Aseron continued: “I want to radiate my energy of self-confidence and belief not only to Chinoys but to everyone, that anyone can be defined as beautiful, anyone can serve the community, and anyone can lead.”
He said he is fully aware that there are people who do not approve of his inclusion in the competition, telling him he is not qualified for neither the “Mister” nor the “Miss” category.
“The pageant does not exclude an LGBTQ+ aspirants. The organization has eliminated the antiquated requirements because [Mister and Miss Chinatown] is redefining what it means to be purposeful. As an LGBTQ+ Chinoy, I am here because of my purpose—a purpose to promote mutual respect and inclusivity in the face of modernity. With that, I hope that my detractors would reassess what it means to join a pageant and what a specific pageant is standing for,” Aseron declared.
He is up against nine other aspirants in the male division, while 10 contenders are in the female division. All of them were introduced in the first two episodes of the four-part docuseries “Chinese by Blood, Filipino by Heart” on CNN Philippines, which premiered on Oct. 16.
Emmy award-winning Filipino-American director Mark Carandang, who is behind the docuseries, said the final episode will feature the coronation night, integrated in the documentary format. The final competition will be staged at The Theatre at Solaire at Solaire Resort and Casino in Parañaque City on Oct. 31, and will have a telecast via ChinoyTV in CNN Philippines on Nov. 13 at 8 p.m. EDV