CHINA: China until recently branded the Miss World pagent bourgeois but plays host to the competition tomorrow.
Miss Ireland, Rosanna Davison, wears a turquoise one-piece swimsuit cut away at the waist.
She shakes her long blond hair during a poolside photo session at a tropical holiday resort on the Chinese island of Hainan.
As winner of the Miss Beach Beauty contest, the 19-year-old UCD sociology student is now a favourite to win China's first officially sanctioned beauty pageant in 54 years - and become Ireland's first Miss World. She was the first of 106 contestants to go through to tomorrow's final in Sanya city.
"It is great to be chosen from a lovely group of girls like this," says Ms Davison, daughter of pop-song writer and performer Chris de Burgh. She is keeping a low profile until the big day, accompanied by her father and boyfriend.
It's the kind of comment you'd expect from a beauty queen - but this is a country where until very recently beauty contests were considered bourgeois and disreputable, a hangover from pre-communist days when rich and powerful men attended pageants to choose a concubine.
Just last year, Chinese officials closed down the first Miss China contest. The winner flew secretly to Puerto Rica for the Miss Universe finals - and came second runner-up. Back home, officials took notice.
A year later, China is in a pageant frenzy. As well as regular contests it has held a Miss Village Beautiful contest and a Most Beautiful Camel contest (the criteria: upright humps, lush hair and a mild temper). There was even a Miss Ugly contest in Shanghai, with the winner given thousands of euro to pay for plastic surgery.
Ireland may never have won Miss World, but Irish women are playing a significant role in this year's competition. As well as favourite Davison, TV personality and Dubliner Amanda Byram is co-hosting the evening.
The former Ireland AM and Big Breakfast star, who now lives in Los Angeles, jumped at the offer.
"I literally went - I'm there! Immediately! There's just something about it that went click. I enjoy gigs I can have fun on, I don't like to think about things too much," she said, settling in to a teak-wood chair at the Sheraton Sanya hotel.
A consumer boom in the world's most populous nation is feeding into a more relaxed attitude towards pageants, with officials hoping to make money from advertising and sponsorship as China surges ahead economically.
But in a sign that disapproving attitudes linger, the Communist Party mouthpiece newspaper, The People's Daily, insisted Miss World was not just an ordinary beauty pageant. "Miss World is in the middle of moving away from being the kind of traditional beauty pageant that turns women into decorative objects," it said recently. "Miss World is increasingly becoming a link in our patriotic education and a forum for co-operation between countries," the paper enthused.
In China there are fashion show catwalks in shopping malls and in front of department stores country-wide, while billboards advertising beauty products and fashion brands are everywhere - a far cry from the days when the only models celebrated publicly were workers and farmers.
But the Communist Party remains in charge, keeping a tight control on the media and tolerating no public dissent which might threaten China's image abroad. After last year's debacle in Nigeria, when bloody rioting forced the contest to decamp to London at the last minute, organisers are clearly happy to have a secure environment for their contest.
"I was the driving force behind holding the contest in China. I love China," says Miss World chief executive Julia Morley. Miss World is in talks with officials in Sanya city to return next year.
Local authorities on Hainan, an island province of white sandy beaches, sweeping bays and palm trees, paid €4.8 million for the licence to hold the event, and a further €3 million to upgrade roads and bridges. Work on a new theatre for the finals began in August. Yesterday, workmen were putting the finishing touches to it.
Aware of the contest's failing critical popularity, Ms Morley is determined to give it a more acceptable face.
"Beauty with a purpose" is the new slogan, and the main beneficiary is charity. Proceeds of a six-city, three-week tour of China by the Miss World road show will go to the China Charity Foundation.
Miss China, Guan Qi (21), insists there is more to Miss World than just commercial and political considerations. "Holding Miss World in China is a great opportunity to show China's openness to the world," says Ms Guan.
In an internet questionnaire on one of China's most popular websites, Sina.com, around 75 per cent of those surveyed approved of holding the competition in the country.
Organisers expect Miss World to attract a global TV audience of 2.5 billion viewers. It's proven a big hit with Chinese people - 50,000 people turned out in the city of Xian to get a glimpse.