Miss Ocean surprised when asked to take away crown

Since noon on January 12, when the Department of Performing Arts requested to revoke the title of Miss Ocean 2017, Le Au Ngan Anh just wanted to stay silent and not say anything. However, in the face of great attention from the press and audience, Ngan Anh briefly shared: "I was very surprised when I received information from the Department requesting to revoke the crown."

Ngan Anh's representative said that she has been living in a long period of haunting days. The pressure from the media has caused her to have a mental breakdown. She tried her best to be worthy of the title she has received in the past. "The title has pushed Ngan Anh through another door. But sadly, instead of enjoying the joy of being crowned, she has had to face criticism from many people."

Ngan Anh's side said that when she first registered to participate in the contest, she honestly shared her situation with the organizing committee, but it was only when she was crowned that this information was "scrutinized" by public opinion and the press.

Le Au Ngan Anh is 22 years old, born in Ho Chi Minh City. Her parents both graduated from the University of Science and Technology and are construction engineers. Since childhood, her parents have oriented her to pursue a business career. However, when she grew up, Ngan Anh realized that she was more passionate about art.

Her representative revealed that she isone of the excellent students of the Faculty of Hotel and Tourism Management of a famous international university in Vietnam. The school uses two languages, English and French, throughout the training process. Therefore, Ngan Anh has the ability to communicate well in both English and French. In March 2017, she graduated with the second highest score in the whole faculty.

Before entering the Miss Ocean 2017 contest, Ngan Anh spent more than 6 months practicing catwalk, keeping her balance with Khanh Thi, Vo Hoang Yen and taking an intensive training course on personality and personal development.

Faced with the noise of being asked to withdraw her crown, Ngan Anh did not want to say anything more, but she would spend her time implementing a project to help poor children in the mountainous areas of the Southeast. After the survey, she planned to build toilets at the school and renovate the school so that the children could study in peace.“The more I travel, the more I realize that my current life is luckier than many people. I want to share what I have with those in need. Right now, I want to spend time completing community projects that my family and I have cherished since before coming to the Miss Ocean contest."

On January 11, Mr. Nguyen Quang Vinh - Acting Director of the Department of Performing Arts - sent a document to Vo Viet Chung International LLC of designer Vo Viet Chung. The document clearly stated that, to ensure the fairness of the contest, the Department requested Vo Viet Chung's company to strictly fulfill the obligations of the organizing unit committed in the contest organization plan and cancel the results for Le Au Ngan Anh, due to not ensuring the conditions for participation according to regulations.

The Miss Ocean Vietnam 2017 contest was held from June 1 to October 28. According to the Department of Performing Arts, the organizer violated Point B, Clause 1, Article 14 of Decree No. 158/2013/ND-CP dated November 12, 2013 of the Government on administrative sanctions in the fields of culture, sports, tourism and advertising. The Inspectorate of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism has drawn up a record and issued a decision to impose an administrative fine of 4 million VND for the act of bringing contestants to beauty pageants and modeling contests who did not meet the prescribed requirements.

Le Au Ngan Anh - a contestant who had a nose job - was crowned Miss in the final night of October 28. In the press conference after the show, this contestant admitted to having "plastic surgery" but affirmed that she had removed her nose cartilage before participating in the contest. This created mixed opinions among the public.

In a written explanation to the authorities, the Miss Ocean 2017 organizing committee said that they had taken Le Au Ngan Anh for an X-ray and a full body computed tomography (CT) scan and confirmed that she had no foreign objects in her nose. However, the organizing committee later admitted that they had allowed an unqualified contestant to compete.