Blogger Beauty Contest: Boobs, ass and, of course, controversy

Miss World, Miss USA, Miss Hong Kong, and now here comes Miss Blogger PRC! Earlier this month, BlogChina, a poupular -- you guessed it -- Chinese blog site held a nationwide beauty contest for female bloggers. Both the public and a panel of celebrity judges took part in deciding the outcome. In addition to the usual “hotness” factor, contestants’ writing/blogging talent also played a significant role, supposedly. One look at the final awards had us convinced that was indeed the case: Cash prizes between 10,000 and 20,000 RMB were given to the “Most Beautiful”, the “Sexiest”, the “Most Popular”, the “Most Fashionable”, and last which may or may not be the least, the “Most Talented”. Where Shanghaiist just had a few chuckles, some of the more self-righteous web crawlers felt compelled to opine. One male blogger, “Idai” had this to say:

“I like beautiful women and I like BlogChina, but to combine the two together, I don’t see the reason for it.”

A collective gasp of incredulity was heard in BlogChina’s marketing department immediately after.

But the story doesn’t end there as our title suggests. One particularly daring contestant who goes by the name "刺猬穆穆/Hedgehog Mumu" posted nude photos of herself on her blog: Traffic exploded, votes soared and, of course, critics poured in.

Simon Burns of Vnunet.com had the scoop.

One finalist, blogging under the unlikely name 'Hedgehog Mumu', posted several semi-nude photographs of herself on her blog …Opinion columnists attacked her for "offending the dignity of women" … She received the most votes in the public voting, but won none of the prizes in the finals.

Thanks for playing!

Shanghaiist showed our contempt for Ms. Mumu by repeatedly viewing her blog and salivating over wagging our finger in a manner that expresses disapproval at her semi-nude photos.

While BlogChina has so far refused to remove the “offending” photos, no one knows for sure how long Mumu’s site will stay up. Clearly it runs afoul of a "civilized internet" that Beijing is trying to establish. Shanghaiist is monitoring the latest developments with great interest: To boost site traffic, we too have a series of photo shoots in the works, starring our very own "Super sexy cult columnist". Stay tuned!