Joining her court were Carolyn Michaelis (1st Princess), Shana Dhillon (2nd Princess), Kara Birkenstock (3rd Princess/Miss Community Service), Linda Phung (Miss Congeniality) and Masae Nakayama (Miss Scholastic Achievement).

For this 20th annual event, AsianWeek also spoke with Rose Chung, founder, and Mona Lee Locke, the 1987 Miss Asian America, about their experiences as part of the Asian America Pageant in the United States.

Chung said it “was something to be proud of” in having one of the longest running Asian America pageants. “I can’t believe that twenty years have passed by. I think we are now an institution, well respected. We have established a reputation of having high integrity and ethics in our pageant. That’s our strong point and that’s what we are most proud of.”

When asked how she viewed the pageant 18 years after running in it herself, Locke replied: “It has evolved somewhat. I am very proud of the pageant and what a great job Rose Chung has done. It focuses on the Asian culture, bringing out the importance of all the cultures and having people learning about the cultures.”

Locke was also pleased about the platform each contestant has to take on. “It focuses the girls to think about issues. Once they are in the Miss Asian America one, we at least know that they are going to have to think about why they are doing it. We know that they are going to have depth and have intelligence.”