Interview with Susan Liu – Miss New York Chinese 2006 3rd Runner-Up

Susan Liu, Miss New York Chinese 2006 3rd Runner-Up. (photo by Yuan-Kwan Chan / Meniscus Magazine)

Susan Liu, was born in Xinjiang, China. The 20-year-old student is attending Lehigh University in Pennsylvania.

Can you tell me about how your family moved over to American Samoa and why, and how you [went] to the States?

Sure. Four years ago, my parents decided to move to American Samoa – actually, just my mom because she had another family there. So she started her new business. She was a doctor before, and she just started her new business in Samoa. It’s a supermarket. So I went with her. I had four years of high school there and then after high school, I decided to go to college in the States because in Samoa, there is only one community college. Actually, [I chose Lehigh] because I like the East Coast and because I like small schools. I am currently majoring in accounting. I am going to be a junior next year.

And then your decision to enter this, because you were in New York City for the whole summer. How did you find out about this pageant?

I found out about this pageant around half a year ago because I was searching through the Internet. Randomly, I saw Miss New York Chinese 2004, Fala Chen. She’s really pretty, elegant and I admire her very much. So I decided to join this pageant to challenge myself.

I know it’s very late [past 4 a.m. when this interview was conducted].

I know, I’m tired!

What do you think of the results, the competition, now that’s over, finally?

Honestly, I don’t think I did my best, but it’s very fair. I like the winner [Sirena Wang] – she’s really elegant and smart. Everything’s good.

What did you learn the most from this summer? What, of everything you’ve done since early July?

Before tonight, I was actually not expecting to…I don’t really dwell on this urge to earn anything, like earn placements, because I already have what I really [want]. Like the experience is very worth [it to] me. The most things I learned are how to stand and smile elegantly in front of the press and a lot of people.

You know, Jane [Teng, the fourth runner-up] mentioned that too in an interview.

That was very hard for us in the beginning.

Because she mentioned that Judy [Mae Chao, the pageant’s image consultant] trained you guys very well.

Yeah. [laughs] Judy is a very nice person.

I think you guys had some time to do fun stuff too, like go to Boston and the music video. Can you tell me a little bit about that?

Right. I like the music video the best. You already saw that [before the pageant began] – it’s really great, right? But on that day, I remember it was over 100 degrees.

Oh, the heat wave. I remember that.

Yeah, and we’re shooting the MTV on the grass, which is even worse because there was no wind blowing. But we had so much fun. We all like hip-hop style dance. It took two days only, but MTV was so great. I loved it so much.

Was this your first pageant?

Yeah, this was my first one.

Are you going to do any more?

I’m…still thinking [laughs]. Maybe I will in the future.