China's Idea of "Miss Internet"

    SHANGHAI (Reuters) - When official organizers dreamed up the
    idea of China's first ``Miss Internet'' competition,
    they envisioned a winner with the mind of a computer
    programmer and the body of a beauty queen.
    
    Smart and shapely, she would be a television role model to 
    encourage more Chinese women to venture online. So when
    Chen Fanhong burst into contention, the organizers determined 
    she must be stopped.
    
    Chen had sailed through the qualifying rounds with an easy 
    mastery of Web design and a knack for surfing cyberspace.
    But she is disabled: A battle against bone cancer has left 
    her temporarily wheelchair-bound.
    
    In words that hurt more than her excruciating cancer 
    treatment, the official in charge told her sternly: ``You have
    lost your spring bloom.'' She could attend the finals, she 
    was told, but only as a ``specially invited'' observer. 
     
    How this frail 24-year-old used a laptop and modem to fight 
    prejudice and ignorance -- and eventually claim the
    winner's crown as the people's choice -- speaks volumes about 
    the power of the Internet to change China.

http://www.mercurycenter.com/svtech/news/breaking/merc/docs/020543.htm

-- 
Kynn Bartlett  <kynn@idyllmtn.com>                   http://www.kynn.com/
Chief Technologist, Idyll Mountain Internet      http://www.idyllmtn.com/
Next Speaking Engagement -- SHARE at Anaheim   http://www.kynn.com/+share
Take my Web Management Online Class!       http://www.kynn.com/+nextclass

Received on Wednesday, 22 December 1999 19:27:17 UTC