Before the glitz and glamour of winning an Oscar for ‘Best Actress’, acting as the crazy ‘Evelyn Wang” on the most awarded film thus far of ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’, playing the badass aunt of ‘Shang-Chi’– ‘Ying Nan’, playing the tiger mum ‘Eleanor Young’ on ‘Crazy Rich Asians’, and even way before she was cast on ‘Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon’, Michelle Yeoh was crowned as the:
“MISS MOOMBA INTERNATIONAL 1984″….
Yeoh, then only 21 years old took out the ‘Moomba’ title beating Miss Tahiti and Miss Chile – with the prize, a ride in the front of the tractor and the knowledge that she won this little Melbourne beauty quest! As part of the competition, contestants had to speak for half an hour on their country.
Let’s also not forget that a year before she won the ‘Miss Moomba International’ crown, Yeoh was Malaysia’s entrant in the ‘1983 Miss World‘ contest, finishing 18th out of 72 contestants.
For those of you who are wondering, what is ‘Miss Moomba International’?
Well it is part of the ‘Moomba Festival‘ which is Australia’s largest free community festival held annually in Melbourne since 1955. The most recent one was in 2020, as due to the pandemic the 2021 festival was cancelled.
Almost 40 years later, the world full of little girls and boys, young, middle aged and older women of all colours witnessed the moment she took the top award at the Oscars being the first Asian actress to ever win the ‘Best Actress’ category. As she said in her acceptance speech:
“For all the little boys and girls who look like me watching tonight, this is the beacon of hope and possibilities,”
“This is proof that dream big and dreams do come true.”
“And ladies don’t let anybody tell you you are ever past your prime.”
What a legend!
Images via YouTube