When Wenxia Yu grew up in the Heilongjiang Province, things were not easy for her. The unforgiving landscape and the cold climate of China’s northernmost province are especially harsh for her and her family who earned a living by farming. But Wenxia was always a dreamer and she dreamed big. But she had no idea that she will become a famous personality that she is today.

Wenxia’s close relationship with her sister was a direct result of her parents toiling everyday thus, the two siblings have no choice but to look out for each other. Wenxia grew up loving music. It is a passion that she pursued. She is naturally endowed with smooth and silky voice and thus, Wenxia was known as an excellent singer even at a very young age.

Education is the focus of Wenxia’s parents. They believed that the only way out to a harsh life is to pursue a higher education. Knowing well the talent of their young child, they allowed her to pursue her passion and Wenxia was able to complete a bachelor’s degree in folk music at the Harbin Normal University.

Other than a smooth and silky voice, Wenxia is also endowed with a beautiful face and a curvaceous figure. This enabled the young woman to earn money through modeling. While studying at the university, she applied for a student loan and on weekends she would wake up as early as 4 a.m. in order to prepare herself for modeling stints like in auto shows or a fashion week. This helped her to get through the university and any money left, she sent it back home to help out her parents and sister.

The victory of Wenxia may be one of the most criticized in the world of pageantry but she is a shining example of a strong woman overcoming adversity. Her story is a story of a young, diligent and industrious woman. Luck and fate had been very kind to her. One story tells us that Wenxia almost didn’t make it to the university after the principal’s endorsement was accidentally forgotten to include in her application form. A kind teacher had to run back to her local school with her papers for the principal to sign and came back just in time for Wenxia to catch the last train to Harbin.

At the university, it is said that Wenxia is the first to show up at the piano classes so early in the morning even if the snow was a bit heavy. Wenxia’s classical voice was further honed under her mentor named Qu Dongmei who incidentally encouraged her to fill up the application form for Miss World China contest.

“This is an opportunity that no young woman should miss,” Dongmei told Wenxia.

Unfortunately, the victory of Wenxia came at the time when China was hosting the event, spurring conspiracy theories. The Miss World Organization did make the matter worse by what is supposed to be a transparent score board that gone haywire. All of these clouded the fact that Wenxia was clearly the bright star of the night and her story as an impoverished self-supporting student was not clearly revealed to the world.

Miss World, a pageant with a purpose to help the unfortunate, can find a genuine person in Wenxia. No one perhaps can claim to be genuinely willing to help the impoverished and the unfortunate more than the beauty queen who herself experienced what it is like to be poor and self-supporting. No one could be a better spokesperson about the need to be charitable, more than the young Chinese girl who battled poverty. Surely, Miss World picked the right winner this year in Wenxia. A young beautiful and talented woman whose personal experience made her so deserving to hold high the banner of the pageant’s cause.

Disagreements about the results of Miss World 2012 may continue and may have some basis. But it is crucial to look things in perspective and missosologists should be able to look things beyond the center stage. Wenxia’s story - about her personal struggles to beat poverty - is a compelling reason enough for every rational beauty pageant watcher to conclude that truly, Wenxia deserved to have that jewel-studded crown in her head.