From the New York Times:
He is 25, Muslim and comes from a part of China recently known for deadly ethnic rioting. This weekend, he is competing for the title of Worldwide Mr. Gay.
A man calling himself Xiaodai Muyi, from the western region of Xinjiang, has flown to Oslo to represent China in the international Mr. Gay beauty pageant, despite the Chinese government’s efforts to derail the process, according to supporters here… The Chinese delegate at Worldwide Mr. Gay was supposed to have been the winner of Mr. Gay China, a pageant originally scheduled for Jan. 15. The plan was to hold the contest, the first of its kind, on a Friday night in the Lan Club, a den of kitsch in central Beijing, and the winner would have gone on to Norway. But at the last minute, the Chinese authorities shut down the show, saying the organizers did not have the right permits.
Nevertheless, 11 people — the three organizers and eight pageant participants — quietly got together in late January and voted to send one of the contestants to Norway. That turned out to be a man from Xinjiang known publicly only by his nickname, Xiao Dai, or his English name, Andrew. His official pageant name is Xiaodai Muyi, and he landed in Oslo on Tuesday, a day after getting a Norwegian visa.
See also this past CDT post: “Police Stop Mr. Gay Pageant.”
