Miss World China finals in Beijing, July 14, 2013

Occasionally in showbusiness or sports, the odds against a performer’s success are so stacked that the audience chooses, out of the goodness of human compassion, to root against probability. It’s why we pull for Celtic FC when they face Barcelona, or Susan Boyle. I hadn’t planned to cheer for the pageant contestants of Miss World China on Sunday at Galaxy SOHO -- hadn’t not planned to cheer, as planning these things one way or another would be odd -- but a realization dawned upon me sometime between the rain and the fake applause piped in through the sound system: these girls are all underdogs in their own spotlight. They deserve better...