Interview with Leslie Yu – 2006 Miss New York Chinese Pageant Contestant #3

Leslie Yu at the finalists’ press conference. (photo by Yuan-Kwan Chan / Meniscus Magazine)

Born: New York
Occupation: Graduate of SUNY-Binghamton

When did you find out that you made it as a finalist?

I found out a couple of days after the preliminary interviews.

Oh, that’s pretty quick.

Yeah, like two, three days afterwards. They just called me and they told me that I made the finals. They asked me if I wanted to spend my time to do the finals, the training and everything.

Because it’s pretty involved…you have events on weekdays, weekends…

Yeah, we’re very busy. During the day, we’re training, and then on weekends there might be events. Today there’s the conference and tomorrow there’s more training…

So pretty much it’s every day.

Every day. It’s like going to work.

But not getting paid!

Exactly!

How did you get the idea to enter? Was this something that you had thought about for awhile?

I did think about entering a pageant, but the only thing that motivated me was because I wanted to go into modeling. So I wanted to use this opportunity to see if there are any other possibilities.

Can you tell me a little bit about your talent portion?

I’m going to be performing a hip-hop dance, a type of dance that I’m interested in.

How long have you been dancing?

I taught myself how to dance basically, and I started when I was in college. I joined the Japanese [Students] Association, and they needed a choreographer. So then I tried and I kind of fell in love with dancing, so I just built my interest from then on.

Are you still at Binghamton or you graduated?

I graduated already…I was working as a dental assistant until I entered the pageant.

And [your co-workers] were supportive?

Yeah, they were supportive of my decision, and they will show me their support [by attending] the finals, too.