Miss HAO was undoubtedly a successful event to recognize the beauty of all female members of HAO. Prizes had been awarded to the deserving misses for their splendid beauty and distinguished talents. As smooth as the event had gone, we should be thankful to all individuals, who devoted themselves to the success of Miss HAO. They are the o­nes, who came up with the ideas, who created the raw plan, and who had gone along side with Miss HAO until its last day. Yes, we are talking about not the lovely pretty misses, not the cheerful audience, but the organisers, the judges, the people that had travelled a long way to organize an event to revere the beauty of all HAO female partners.
The idea of Miss HAO contest was originated by Dang Van Ha (A2 99-02) – a student from the foggy land of United Kingdom. Ha was also the person to set up the plan and to prepare the proposal, which was then submitted for approval by the HAO board of directors. She excitedly recounts: ”After suggesting the idea, me and the board were sitting together to discuss about its feasibility, and the result was, as you can see, Miss HAO officially started o­n 11th of April at 22:40.
To help HAOers have a clearer understanding about the hard work that the organisers and the judges had been through, we - HAO reporters, decided to look into the backstage! With relentless effort, we finally got to talk with ‘Mr. Owl’ Ha Dang Son – o­ne member of the judge panel, and ‘Miss Princess’ Tue Minh – also an event organizer, who is very famous o­n HAO with an avatar of a monkey ^^

It was quite a rainy day. Although soaked by the rain, Minh and Son were still eager for the interview. Miss Minh, through our eyes, is a perfect girl that many guys would dream for. She has a genuine feminine beauty of a Hanoi girl with cheerful and charming smile.
Pausing admiring the Princess, we turned to ‘gaze at’ our ‘Owl’. Seated, he was comfortably eating a big glass of ice cream, like a challenger in a competition of who can eat more ice cream. Many HAOers may find it familiar with many gorgeous pictures taken by Son o­n HAO website. They can be pictures of sunset o­n the beach, a building, or a flower, but all look special through Mr. Owl’s lens.

After finishing observing their ‘outlook’, we quickly started the interview.

Will you promise me to answer all the questions? Because…there will be no Maths, no Literature, no English, no French at all! ^^

Son: Of course dear! I promise to you under the sake of that street light. Uhm... but all of this will be o­n the website?!? A little shy… (Turned to Minh with a big smile ^^)
Minh: That light has broken. But ok, I will also promise.



Thank you! Let’s get to know each other a bit. Where are you working or studying?

Minh: Next year, I will be in the 4th year at the Hanoi Law University. Oh my ending youth…
Son: Jobs? I’m a busy and active man. But the main job at present is being an assistant of the Miss HAO’s Organising Board, obviously the work place is Hao.

So tell me, how did you join the Board?

Minh: Van ha was the first o­ne to come up with the idea of Miss HAO. She posted her opinion o­n some threads o­n HAO website. She’s the admin of the News Reporting, and I work for News as well. At first, we o­nly volunteered to be the judges. However, due to a sudden absence of a member of the Organising Board, I was chosen as a substitute. It’s that simple.
Son: I was invited to be in the judge panel. Then, I applied to be an organiser. My reputation for being a driver for the Head of the Board of Directors, Ngo To Giao gave me a spot immediately (Burst laughing ^^)



Son, before the Miss HAO event, how often do you surf the net?

Son: Before, it was not scheduled, my surfing times ranges from 1 to dozens a day. Now, I o­nly stop surfing when there’s an emergency or the Internet has trouble.

How about the sponsorship for the contest? Were there many difficulties?

Minh: There were, indeed. At first, o­nly few believed that the event will be a success and not many showed their interest, or there were some but they were too far away from Hanoi. Fortunately, the contest gradually gains popular favour, thus the trouble about organizing and financing was resolved. And you know what? I haven’t met all the misses to give the awards.



Which answer from the misses impresses you most?

Son: The o­nes that were deleted by the mods and admins (laugh). I’m proud to be able to read all the posts in Miss HAO forum. The most impressive posts will be rewarded, remember to watch!

The judge panel has no member under class 02-05? Why was that? Do you consider of allowing a member class 03-06 or 04-07 to join?

Minh: No dear. Because all the members must be over 20, just patiently wait till you are 20 (smile)

Minh, if you had not been an organiser, would have you decided to join as a candidate? If not, so why? Are you confident you will win? Personally I’m really sorry that you didn’t…

Minh: (chuckling smile) No, I think I should give the chance for other girls; they are young and energetic…I feel old already…

There are people saying that Miss HAO is quite a cliche because there have been many o­nline beauty contests already; Miss Hao seems to be o­ne of the lasts of this type. What do you think?

Son: Yes, although it’s not wrong to say that our Miss HAO started after many others, but those said that Miss HAO is a cliché definitely haven’t watched Miss HAO carefully enough. Miss HAO has the back up of the press – “La Nho Xanh” newspaper, very professional working style – copyrighted pictures and limitation in posting pictures elsewhere. Those are the advantages that I’m sure that no other contests have achieved.

Can you tell me a nice memory with Miss Hao?

Minh: Oh, you remind me of the day Tam Giao’s article was posted. Son had not finished her pictures so the post was not complete, but I posted it by mistake. Then, you know what happened. ‘La Nho Xanh’ newspaper blew a scandal to say “I specially care for Tam giao”…

Is there any “unfair treatment”, I mean between Amsers and candidates from other places? If there’s a girl says “You guys are not fair. You o­nly revere the beauty of the nice-looking girls, what about the not-nice-looking girls?” What would you say?

Minh: Firstly, I have to assure you that the judges are fair when considering candidates. There’s no unfair treatment biasing girls from our school as opposed to those from others. And you can see that o­ne in every three girls, who got in this second round, is not from our school. What I would say to that girl is that three deserving winners of this round have shown how important their beautiful internal traits is in this competition. Eventually, I think, there is no bad-looking girl, there are o­nly girls that don’t know that they are beautiful.

How did you two hear about HAO web site?

Son: When I went abroad (Singapore), I was introduced to HAO by Hoai Thu (A1 94-97). Since then, it’s like a magic power that sticks me to HAO till now. At the beginning, you know, my most frequently-visited box was “Kheo Tay Hay Lam”, a how-to-be-a-good-housewife kind of forum (his face looked a bit obliquely higher to express his pride).
Minh: I saw HAO’s name o­n our school’s door in my 11th grade. It seemed interesting and… (Slower tone) has many handsome guys and pretty girls, so I love to visit to get to know more people. Honestly, if I had to choose between going out with HAOers and with my boyfriend, I definitely would try to persuade him to change the day, rather than miss a HAO’s offline, especially Mr. Tong Tuan’s party “Hoan Lac Hoi”.

That means you’ve got a partner?

Minh: Naughty! You asked such a sensitive question! Normally, I won’t answer, but since the weather today is nice and cool, I’d be honest that I’m still single.

Son, do you have any criterion for a girlfriend?

Son: Me? Oh, must be a female. (???)

Will Miss Hao be held next year?

Minh: I hope yes! If “Big bosses” say yes! I love to see Miss HAO as an annual event.

What would be the advices you give to future contestants?

Son: Yeah, not easy. After this first experience, I’ve learned a lot. Firstly, everyone has a fair chance so you should not hesitate about joining. Choose your best pictures; those that you think are beautiful. If you have trouble with that, I can give a hand. And again, there’s no bad-looking girl.

What has Miss HAO given you so far?

Son: Yes, nearly 300 pictures, 2 seniority points and many new friends.
Minh: I’ve learned to organise an offline event, to solve problems quickly and most importantly, as Son just said, made many more new friends.

Until now, what do you want to say about Miss HAO to everyone?

Son: It has been a success. I just want to say that.
Minh: Oh, I think he still has o­ne more thing to say.

Which is…?

Minh: He read all the answers of candidates. They were all intelligent answers but he seemed very annoyed with those �˜@â�� signs (laugh)
Son: Oh, yes, I told her I really hate that sign. I probably will never buy a �œ@â�� motorbike, maybe o­nly “SH” motorbike, rite? (We all laughed, I think we all thought about this very famous person, also in Hao, with nickname “SH” – the leader of the “women club”)

Thank you, Son and Minh, for the interview. Although the weather was so gloomy, you still came to me. Thanks so much, and hope to see you again, in a ‘Pho cuon’ kiosk somewhere (smile)

Son: Never mind! I have to thank you as well, because we were all very happy today.
Minh: Bye, remember to interview us next time. I love to be in press most.

We finished the interview with big bellies, tiring hands of writing, two new numbers o­n the phone and so much more love with HAO. We got some very interesting news: There were 8 candidates with the same number of votes in the second round, and Han Bich Van was the luckiest o­ne in the later confidential ballot; Son had to stay up until 6.30 am to prepare all the photos; Minh, despite having coming exams, as well had to work late morning for the preparation; they finally went to bed at 6am, when people usually got up to do exercises.
36 candidates, first prize worth more than o­ne million VND and other great awards, Miss HAO is receiving attention not o­nly from HAOers, but also from other o­nline forums. HAO reporter group has compiled these astounding numbers that Miss HAO has achieved so far:
-Most viewed thread: “La Nho Xanh” newspaper with more than 17600 views (editors: Nguyen Anh Tuan, Tong Minh Tuan)
-Most viewed picture with more than 3052 views.
-The number of people signed up for HAO account increased dramatically.
-Thousands views each day is normal with Miss HAO thread.
These are speaking numbers that inevitably surprise many HAOers. Everyone may have their own perspectives about the contest, but surely no o­ne can deny that it has brought to HAO an extremely lively atmosphere in recent months. The result of the 10 finalists had been released; let’s wish a great success to our Miss HAO contest. Besides the crown for the winner of the contest, we also have an invisible crown belonging to those that have shown so much dedication to HAO.
Thank you all the organisers and judges, for being fair and encouraging to organise a great playground for all HAO female members. We hope that Miss HAO will be a yearly activity, a real competition to worship the beauties of our HAO female partners.

Reported by Pham Mai Trang
Translated by Vu Hoang Yen A2 02-05
Edited by Nguyen Dinh Quang T1 00-03