SEOUL, South Korea — Choi Soon-hwa will compete with beauties young enough to be her granddaughters when she steps onto the runways of South Korea’s Miss Universe competition on Monday.
Remarkably, the 80-year-old captured a place in the finals of an elite pageant in a nation obsessed with looks, overrun by plastic surgeries and swimming in cosmetics.
Ms. Choi has an even more remarkable backstory for the judges. Born during World War II and enduring the hardships of the Korean War, she has tracked her country’s journey from poverty to prosperity, from authoritarianism to democracy, from zero to hero.
In her case, the transition proved anything but smooth. A comfortable retirement from nursing loomed when fresh disaster struck, and she lost nearly everything. Penniless, homeless and guilt-ridden, Ms. Choi descended into desperation before a chance remark changed everything.
Ms. Choi is the picture of elegance. She appeared for the interview dressed in an ivory trouser suit and white lace gloves, which set off her shock of white hair. She accessorized with understated gold earrings and gold-trimmed white sneakers.
It is her personality that shines. Having battled through hell with flying colors, she is upbeat and has the rare ability to laugh at herself.
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“I was born and raised in a very tough time, and I still have that resilience to fight, to survive my own battles. But the young generation has no idea,” she said. “When I say something sound, like, ‘Be accountable for yourself,’ the reaction is, ‘Oh, you are becoming an old dodderer — that sounds hokey.’”
Troubled times
Ms. Choi was born in 1943 under Japanese colonial rule in Masan, in South Korea’s southern region. Today, she resides in Incheon, Seoul’s port city. She has worked as a nurse and a Christian pastor. She divorced in her 40s and has two children and three grandchildren.
So far, so conventional, but her life took a sharp turn sideways after she retired at 68.
“I lent a great deal of money to someone,” she said, someone who she said proved to be a con artist. Massively in debt, Ms. Choi lost all her money and her home. Worse, she had borrowed heavily from friends to fund the loan. Her daughter became entangled and lost her home as well.
Ms. Choi’s life imploded.
“Day and night, I was blamed by my own children, as they had insisted I not lend that much money — but I did,” she said. “I was frozen, silent. There was nothing I could say.”
She moved in with her son and restarted as a freelance care nurse, working seven days a week and often ministering to patients far younger than she was.
“I was very desperate, I was fully responsible for my children’s destitution,” she said. “The only thing I could do was make money and pay off my debts.”
South Korea has the world’s fourth-highest per capita suicide rate, according to the World Health Organization. The elderly are most affected, but Ms. Choi dismissed the notion. “Thinking about suicide was a luxury,” she said.
Salvation came in 2014 via an unusual bit of advice from an unlikely patient: Christian evangelist pastor Shin Young-ja.
“Lying down, looking up at me, she asked me, ‘Why don’t you become a model?’” Ms. Choi recalled. “Her remark hit me like a ray.”
Memories
During the Korean War, Ms. Choi’s grandmother ran a food stall next to the local cinema and would sneak her granddaughter inside. The theater’s fare was old-school Hollywood features. Growing up amid destitution, depression and war, Ms. Choi was entranced by the beauty of the costumes and sets.
With a jolt, the pastor’s bedside advice brought it all back. “I was sparked,” she said. “Ignited.”
Today, she finds it hard to believe.
“I was pale and hopeless, with worries lingering in my mind, bad skin and just a nurse’s uniform,” she said. “I wonder to this day how she saw a model in me. … I feel there must have been something invisible, something divine.”
She recalled a TV ad for a modeling institute. She asked her colleagues to cover her work for a day and wandered into the institute. She was 72.
“I asked, them, ‘How do I Iook?’ And they said, ‘You can do it.’”
Ms. Choi took one day per week off nursing. The model training institute became her “center of the universe.”
Success did not come overnight. Money did not come easily. Ms. Shin encouraged her. “She said, ‘Wait and see. Things will develop,’” Ms. Choi said.
By 2018, she was a known face. In 2019, she earned the nickname “Legend,” doing magazine shoots for high-end brands — shoes, dresses, coats, glasses — targeting the lucrative market of South Korea’s prosperous retirees.
Copycats sprang up. “It escalated,” she said. “Suddenly, I was a female trendsetter for senior models.”
She has ditched nursing and now models full time. Having paid back her debts, Ms. Choi is enjoying a late-life renaissance.
Octogenarian beauty queen
She uses her position as an octogenarian beauty queen to offer advice in South Korea, where senior poverty is a burning social issue.
“Absolutely the most important thing is how you think,” she said. “Most old people think, ‘I am old and sick, I can’t do anything, I can’t do exercise, I can’t function as a healthy person.’ That shuts off all improvements and all potential.”
Despite her cast-iron spirit, Ms. Choi is no exercise fanatic. She credits her svelte physique to daily stretching and a 40-minute walk three times weekly.
She said her glow is the product of minimalist skin-care regimens, defying the country’s cosmetic fanaticism. “That will shock the cosmetics industry,” she said with a laugh.
She primarily eats Korean vegetarian dishes with a little fish and chicken but swears by a condiment with every meal of garlic marinated in water with perilla, soy, vinegar and a touch of sugar.
After winning Ms. Universe Korea’s round of 32 semifinalists, the ultimate prize is now in sight. The global competition is set for Nov. 16, and South Korea’s representative will be chosen in a pageant Monday, just days before her 81st birthday on Oct. 11.
Could judges select an octogenarian? Ms. Choi is not worried if she is not chosen, and she has her eye on markets far beyond her home country.
“I saw a lot of nice models other than Koreans, and I want to explore and have adventures on global stages,” she said. “That was the idea — a Miss Universe can do this — but I have no worries about losing. I’ll find another opportunity to go global.”
Her manager, Yang Sun-mook of agency DQ Communications, is convinced she can serve as a model — in both senses — for seniors everywhere.
“She will inspire a lot of senior citizens,” he said. “She will accelerate a lot of moves by senior citizens, and not only females — males, too.”
Inspiration is needed in the world’s fastest-aging nation. According to OECD data, South Korea will be “super-aged” by next year, with 20% of the country’s citizens 65 or older.
While Seoul mulls policies across all domains — political, social, economic, health care, education and housing — to reverse plummeting birth rates, Ms. Choi focuses on the quality of life for silver citizens.
“Policy should push old people to find their youthful dreams,” she said. “Just one time before you die, find out what you really wanted to do in your young days. Find your jewel. Then you will find an unlimited source of positive energy into which to put your stamina and health.”
• Andrew Salmon can be reached at asalmon@washingtontimes.com.
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