Nude bloggers upset China beauty contest

A recent 'beauty contest' for female bloggers has attracted huge attention and aroused fierce controversy in China.

The contest has been criticised as "sexist" and "immoral" after some contestants posted nude photographs on their blogs.

In the first stage of BlogChina's Beautiful Blogger contest, which was held earlier this month, several million Chinese web users voted for female bloggers whose online diaries are hosted on the BlogChina site. 

The 20 highest scoring finalists were brought to Beijing to compete in a more traditional beauty contest, for which BlogChina provided free hair styling, make up and beauty treatments.

As well as physical appearance, the contestants were ranked on a variety of other criteria, including the quality of their blog postings and the popularity of their blogs.

The winner, who blogs under the name Yi Lan, is a business student from Beijing. She received a $2,500 prize.

Additional prizes of $1,250 each were awarded in four runner-up categories including 'most talented blogger' and 'sexiest blogger'.

BlogChina announced that more than two million people voted to choose the finalists. However, the contest attracted harsh criticism in some quarters, with accusations of sexism and sensationalism from the media and other bloggers.

One finalist, blogging under the unlikely name 'Hedgehog Mumu', posted several semi-nude photographs of herself on her blog. She received the most votes in the public voting, but won none of the prizes in the finals.

Opinion columnists attacked her for "offending the dignity of women", but Bo kee refused to remove the photographs because they "do not break state laws", according to Chinese news portal AnHui Hotline.

Others claimed that the woman in some of the photos was not in fact the blogger, although 'Hedgehog Mumu' denied these accusations, the news portal reported.

See also:

Google accused of exposing Korean kids to porn

Search giant allegedly failing to check users' ages  19 May 2006

China launches its own Wikipedia

Negative vibes not allowed  12 May 2006

Skype claims 13 million users in China

China is Skype's biggest market, but certain elements of the service may be illegal  05 May 2006

Microsoft buys into China

Relationship paying dividends for both sides  27 Apr 2006

China outlaws Outlook

Unlicensed email servers illegal under new rule  14 Apr 2006

China's online ad income soars

Youth market attracts advertisers to internet companies  27 Mar 2006

Microsoft backs down on blog censorship

Human rights organisations slightly mollified  01 Feb 2006

China becomes second largest internet nation

Percentage of Chinese surfers grows while US falls  06 Jan 2006

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