STM takes you behind the scenes with Miss World, Wenxia Yu, from China. Miss World Wenxia Yu is in Perth to promote Variety WA. PICTURES: Richard Hatherly; STYLING: Tegan Sewell Source: PerthNow WITH her chocolate-drop ebony eyes, a long curtain of jet black hair and the voice of an angel, the willowy Wenxia Yu was already a hot marriage prospect. Even without those attributes she'd be keenly sought after in her remote province in northeast China where boys outnumber girls by 23 per cent, thanks to the country's one-child policy and gender-selective abortion. But add a Miss World title - complete with a jewelled tiara, a satin banner and winnings of more than $A100,000 - and Yu can now command the attention of the most eligible bachelors on the planet. Men of all shapes and sizes are coming out in swarms to greet her as she globetrots, spreading the word of "Beauty with a purpose," the mantra of Miss World, the organisation that last August crowned her over 116 contestants in a televised pageant in . . . well, in China. The choice was not without controversy as critics immediately saw the coincidence between Chinese hosts, and Yu winning out - through five categories of talent, fitness, swimwear, eveningwear and charitable philosophy - over Sophie Moulds from Wales and Australia's Jessica Kahawaty. But five months into her reign, at meet-and-greets in glittering receptions from Paris to Perth, Yu is settling into a parallel universe, far different to the one she inhabited as a toddler helping her parents on their tiny corn farm, which was sold to pay for her education. Back then she dreamt of becoming a music teacher but, instead, has found herself on a whirlwind journey that led to Perth, where she pinched herself and fell in love. Not with the male attention, fashion shoots, trips on luxury yachts or designer labels. Or even the pork dumplings, which are her guilty pleasure. No, the 24-year-old nature lover lost her heart to the ocean, white sandy beaches and, not surprisingly, the friendliness of the locals. "When I went out on the yacht and another boat passed, people were all waving to us," she says in faltering English. She comes from the landlocked Heilongjiang province, which includes the famous Yabuli Ski Resort, so the ocean has special appeal for her and she says it's just one of many highlights of the drastic changes in her recent life. Before her win, the furthest she had travelled from home was to Beijing for music concerts. And, despite the statistics that suggest Gucci has three times as many stores in Beijing as in New York, and Louis Vuitton's new Shanghai store has the floor space to rival its Champs-Élysées flagship, fashion was something Yu had only read about vaguely in magazines. Even the Versace label was a stranger until she enjoyed her first fling with it this week when she tried on a jacket. "I had never heard of Versace before," she says. We could certainly never afford to buy any designer labels. As for boyfriends, she says she is not looking for romance, even though Chinese parents eagerly await engagements during Chinese New Year celebrations. She's bucking the system, somewhat, given that traditional Chinese parents, such as her own, like to see their children married off in their early 20s. "Basically, I just want to focus on my Miss World title," Yu says. I want to do my best in this role and I plan to go back to music when I finish. I am practising my singing in hotel rooms as I go on tour. In the lead-up to Chinese New Year today, her Perth hotel room neighbours were treated to the folk songs she would have loved to have been singing at home with her family. However, she says, she won't be missing the pressure from her family to find a husband. Instead, her parents will be harassing her 26-year-old sister. The marriageable age by law in China is 22 for males and 20 for females so the pressure starts in their early 20s to find a partner. It's traditional for Chinese of that age who are unmarried - regarded as a shameful situation - to be greeted on arrival home for the celebrations with cries of "Have you got a boyfriend?" and "When are you getting married?." But while Yu was at Harbin University studying Chinese folk music, there was little opportunity for romance. "We are a very traditional family and while we were studying we had to focus just on our studies, not relationships," she says. My sister will be getting asked the questions now, though, as 26 is considered old for a woman. Yu is mindful of the sacrifices her parents made for their girls. Not only did they sell the farm when she was four to pay for her and her sister's education, but they paid a 2000 yuan fine just so they could have her. To curb the population, now 1.3 billion, China introduced a one-child policy in 1979, but in Heilongjiang province there was a practice among rural families to allow a second child if the first child was a girl "Two thousand yuan was a lot of money for poor farmers," says Yu. My father and my mother had many sisters and brothers who all helped pay the fine. My mother and father have always been very supportive to me. After her father sold the farm, he bought a delivery truck and worked long and arduous hours delivering vegetables. Yu would travel with him on school holidays, showing the characteristics - intuitive and cool in a crisis - of the Snake, her Chinese zodiac sign. Today, as she stands 174 cm tall, which she puts down to her family's organic vegetable diet and polenta, she's also displaying the other attributes of the Snake - being refined and attractive, along with an ability to remain unflustered. After collecting her $100,000 winnings that would keep a Chinese peasant family for the next 20 years, she's also proving the good omen that if there is a snake in the house it means your family will not starve. The Year of the Snake doesn't say anything about fate. But fate stepped in when, just before her graduation, a classmate told her about the Miss World beauty pageant. "I loved my music studies and was preparing for my graduation performance," she says. Then my classmate went and got a form and I found out more about it. When I heard that Miss World had a meaningful cause and wasn't just about wearing bikinis, I thought it sounded really good. I will give it a try. When I was in the final seven provinces vying for competition they took us to an old people's home and seeing the good works being done made me committed. This week, while Yu was in Perth on official duties for children's charity Variety, she was chaperoned by Julia Morley, the widow of the founder of the Miss World competition. Morley, who was chairman of the Miss World judging panel, said Yu was the perfect ambassador for the organisation. "Wenxia is kind, compassionate, genuine, disciplined, enthusiastic and caring," she says. A girl with a beautiful heart. After doing the rounds, singing at a Variety WA function, presenting IGA Variety scholarship awards to special needs recipients at the Heath Ledger Theatre and visiting Princess Margaret Hospital, Yu says that part of the job, not the glamour, is what gives her most joy. "Life has changed a lot," she says. I was poor and now, as I travel the world, I see a lot of people who are worse off than me. And being able to help people is what makes me really happy. Spoken like a true Snake. And, in China, they say baby girls don't count ...