After winning Miss World Canada 2015, Anastasia Lin never thought she would receive international attention for her criticism on human rights abuses in China, or that the Chinese government would block her from representing Canada in the Miss World pageant there. Now, as her pageant career comes closer, not even her exit is going as per the way she planned.
“Part of me can’t wait to give the crown away because it’s such a huge responsibility, but I feel that it needs to end right and let everyone see that there is nothing wrong with doing what I did for the past two years, there is nothing wrong in speaking the truth,” Ms. Lin said in an interview, adding that young girls see her as a role model for speaking up for their rights.
As per the tradition she also expected that she would crown her successor at the Miss World Canada 2017 ceremony to be held on 22nd July 2017, but because of a change in ownership of the pageant, she will have to say goodbye to the world of pageants from afar.
Ms. Lin has been a part of the pageant world for years, placing third in Miss World Canada in 2013 and going on to win it in 2015, but during the contest, Lin spoke about the plight of Falun Gong (Falun Gong is a spiritual practice that emerged in China in the early 1990s) practitioners in China. When she attempted to travel to Hainan for the Miss World pageant, Chinese authorities formally barred her from entering.
Miss World organizers furthur allowed Ms. Lin to represent Canada in 2016 in Washington. However, she said she was told at the competition, which is largely sponsored by Chinese companies, that she could speak to media only with the approval of pageant officials.
Lin said she will continue her acting career and her activism which she had never expected to do when she first entered in the pageant world.
“I always tell myself that this is the last time I am going to do this, this is the last time I am going to speak up about anything to do with China or human rights because it’s not my job, I am an actress”, Lin said, adding that, despite the difficulties, she cannot abandon the victims who come to seek her help.
