[3] Other winners included Lotus Wong (1948, Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association or CCBA), Fanny Don (1949, CACA), Lena Jane Chin (1950), Dorothy Lee (1951), and Annie Chow (1952).

[4] Following the conclusion of the Chinese Civil War in 1949, the first official Lunar New Year Parade in San Francisco's Chinatown was held in 1953 to project that community as "patriotic, assimilated [and] compatible with American values".

[5] Chinese New Year Parade / Festival Queens included Bernice Woong (1954),[8][9] Carolyn Lim (1955),[10] Estelle Dong (1956),[11][12] and Ruby Kwong (1957).

[5] Throughout the years, proponents of Miss Chinatown claimed that this contest helped young woman overcome class divisions to receive necessary economic support to better themselves.

[5][1]: 64 [18]: 7  Although the earlier (1948–1953) local beauty pageant featured western dresses, author Chiou-Ling Yeh asserts the new pageant served to reinforce stereotypes: the choice of the cheongsam reinforced sexualized perception of Chinese women through its extra high-cut side slit, and early publicity emphasized the value of traditional, patriarchal ideals for female behavior, referring to the Three Obediences and Four Virtues.

[1]: 47–48 Additional criticisms of the pageant, including it being not truly representative of the Chinatown population, reinforcing Caucasian beauty standards, and perpetuating the model minority stereotype have arisen since its origins.

[22] Additionally, by picking winners of the elite middle class, critics argued that the beauty queens were not representative of the Chinatown population.

[22] The Holiday Inn Chinatown sponsored one of the 1971 contestants; as a publicity stunt, she jumped out of a giant fortune cookie for the opening of the hotel, later drawing jeers and eggs when she rode on a float during the Lunar New Year parade.

[23] Wong grew up in San Francisco idolizing Miss Chinatown, but admits she was "nervous because she did not know how she'd transition from being 'completely sexually repressed and totally awkward' to someone who was beautiful and self-assured.

The winner of the Miss Chinatown USA title receives a US$10,000 scholarship[16] and, during her reigning year, travels to meet with family associations, officials, and politicians in the United States and abroad as a goodwill ambassador.