Unexpected stories about the crowns of Vietnamese beauty queens

The crown given to the first Miss of the unified Vietnam, Bui Bich Phuong, was bought on Hang Dao Street (Hanoi), made of common metal, not the rare metal it later became.

Miss Bui Bich Phuong confided to me that she had treasured and cherished that precious crown like a treasure, but after many years of keeping it, it fell and broke. Bui Bich Phuong was so regretful that she bought another crown identical to that one and then treasured it and put it back in its original place.

There is a secret that only Miss Bui Bich Phuong and I know, that is the first time I crowned, I was clumsy and the crown fell, luckily it didn't fall to the ground, because Miss Bui Bich Phuong quickly caught it. I also quickly lifted the crown and placed it on the beauty queen's head amidst the seemingly endless applause of thousands of spectators...

At that time in 1988, there was no television filming, when I was crowned I stood with my back to the hall of the Hanoi Cultural Palace, the camera did not capture the moment the crown fell, so no one noticed. Later, when I dropped the crown the second time, I realized that the first time it was because the crown was too light.

The second time it fell was 20 years after the first. I have crowned many beauty queens, so why did I drop it? It turned out that the crown was made of 18k gold, worth billions, quite heavy, when I put it on the beauty queen's head, I had not yet had time to put it in her hair when the crown fell.

The second time it fell completely to the floor, I had to bend down to pick it up and hand it back. This time, millions of people saw it because VTV showed it over and over again... Some people said that because I dropped the crown in 2008 when handing it to Miss Vietnam Nguyen Thuy Dung (this was also the last time I gave the crown to Miss Vietnam), it was a bad omen, because afterwards there was a scandal about the beauty queen's education.

Also related to the backstage of the crowns, perhaps I am the person with the most information. Specifically, the crown given to Miss Bui Bich Phuong in 1988 was bought on Hang Dao Street. The second crown in 1990 given to Miss Nguyen Dieu Hoa was also bought on Hang Dao Street (Hanoi), and was not made of rare metals.

The third time, in 1992, Miss Ha Kieu Anh was awarded a crown ordered from abroad (Thailand), then Miss Nguyen Thu Thuy and Miss Nguyen Thien Nga often ordered crowns in Hong Kong...

The crown given to Miss Vietnam 2014 is the crown that has been awarded two Guinness Vietnam records worth 2.5 billion VND. The inventor of this unique crown is Mr. Ho Thanh Tuan. Mr. Tuan confided to me that it is a priceless crown, the heart and soul of him and his wife. The crown has 1,000 diamonds, one kilogram of gold, and especially 18 rare natural pearls, including two pearl elements that have been awarded two records by the Vietnam Book of Records: 18 natural pearls and the pearl with the largest bronze drum shape.

The crown given to Ngo Phuong Lan - the first Miss World Vietnam is the story that I will never forget. In that contest, I was both the head of the Organizing Committee and the head of the Jury. The program director, when working with me, suggested making a crown with national elements, different from the traditional crown. I said let's try it and have a specific proposal for the Organizing Committee to approve. After that, I discussed it with the Organizing Committee and the majority did not agree because of some issues, especially the name of the crown, which the Southerners call Cai Man.

In the Central region, the Man is the name of a woman's skirt, so we are afraid that it will be distorted in the future, which is not good... I asked someone in the Organizing Committee to inform the director, but because there was no specific discussion, the Man was still made. On the final night, the Organizing Committee kept running back and forth asking me which crown to give, making my head feel like it was about to explode...

I had to apologize to the director and designer about this. The organizers later said that the crown given to Miss Ngo Phuong Lan was a traditional crown, made in Thailand, but the organizers ordered it at Ben Thanh market (HCMC).

Some newspapers knew about the story and interviewed Miss Ngo Phuong Lan about whether the crown was bought at Ben Thanh market or not?... Miss Ngo Phuong Lan answered very well: "The crown, no matter where it is bought, is priceless to me, because its value does not lie in the amount of money spent on buying the crown, or where the crown was bought... the crown itself only becomes priceless when it is placed on the head of a beauty queen...

That's right, the beauty queen crown becomes priceless when the crowned beauty queen lives, works, and contributes good things to the community and society, just as millions of people in this country wish...