The second most beautiful woman in China is a 21-year-old spikey haired tomboy.
A Beijing News "survey" ranked Li Yuchun, winner of the 2005 Mongolian Cow Sour Yoghurt Supergirl contest - a kind of American Idol-style TV singing competition - just after veteran actress Gong Li.
The televised show reportedly drew 400 million viewers (more than the combined population of the US and the UK), the largest audience in the history of Chinese television.
Since her triumph, Supergirl Li has amassed a huge following of adoring fans. Most of them are women.
And many of them are dykes.
To them, it's obvious. Li is a lesbian. And a cute one at that.
While it's most unlikely Li will come out of the closet - it would kill her career say my Beijing dyke friends - she's inspiring lesbians all over the country with her androgynous charm.
It got me thinking about how important lesbian role models are and how few of them there are in Asia.
Most of the dyke icons in China, says Elizabeth, my anthropologist friend, are celebrities rumoured to be lesbians.
Li is the current favorite, but a host of pop singers have also garnered a following including super butch Han Hong, a Tibetan-born pop diva who sports cropped hair and men's suits.
But if they won't openly come out and say they're gay, how useful are they as queer icons?
Lesbian icons serve to enhance our visibility in a positive way. Gay and lesbian celebrities who are liked and admired by straights as well as queers bring homosexuality into the realm of the "normal and acceptable."
Says Elizabeth: "Lesbian role models are important so that people can see that it's possible to do well in life even if you're gay."
They are a "model to aspire to, to inspire you and a way to refer to another life or attitude which goes beyond the normal hetero paradigm," she adds.
Lesbians, says Ali, an American-Chinese dyke friend, need icons more than others.
"I think role models are important for all young people and dykes need to overcome a bit more to succeed because on top of being a woman, they're lesbians," she says.
"So those who really make it are special for young girls."
If you're "the only gay in the village" - as I was - knowing that someone out there is out and proud is immensely inspirational.
I remember how thrilling it was when American singer kd lang came out in 1992. This androgynous goddess with a seductive voice is telling everyone she loves women. Until then, dykes everywhere had to be content with looking up Martina Navratilova's tennis skirt.
The Stud mocks my choice.
"How relevant is a soft butch country singer to a small Welsh girl?" she asks. "Oh I get it! In the face of village oppression I will sing 'Constant Craving' loud and proud."
So how about her role models, I seethe.
"I identified variously with characters Dykes to Watch Out For," she says.
Dykes to Watch Out For is a syndicated strip by Alison Bechdel about lesbian and gay life and has been around for more than two decades.
So The Stud's role models are mere cartoons! It's my turn to mock.
I query other girls on their idols. I get Angeline Jolie -hot; Jodie Foster - hot and tough; and more bizarrely Gina Gershon's character - Corky --in the lesbian movie Bound - hot, tough, and gets the girl.
"But I don't think Gina's gay," laments Curly, my Beijing dyke friend.
Jolie is an out bisexual, while Foster is widely considered to be a dyke but has never publicly said she is gay.
It seems these girls don't care about role models; they are looking up to women they simply want to fuck and/or emulate.
Elizabeth picks Jolie because "she is gorgeous;" The Stud mumbles something about Foster, sweat suits and the opening shots to The Silence of the Lambs; and Curly is shy about expanding on her Gershon fetish.
American comedian Ellen Degeneres gets an honorary mention because of her courage in coming out in the nineties. But as a cute goofball, she's not desired and therefore not really admired.
Ali, who is ex-US military, says she loves Foster's tough gal image.
"It seems she has a great mind, she's very intelligent. I would like to go through life with the same kind of will power."
She thinks for a moment
"And I love the bit in A Very Long Engagement when Jodie busts out in fluent French."
I think about myself. As a teen I fantasised about Diana Rigg's character, Emma Peel, in the British sixties TV show The Avengers. Rigg played a sharp, sophisticated and sexy secret agent who immaculately kicks the shit out of the bad guys.
I wanted her. But I also wanted to be her.
The Stud surprises me by saying she once modeled her look on Gershon.
"When I was 18 and coming out, I sat and watched Bound about five times. I probably had a pen and paper to take notes: wear wifebeater, drink black coffee, practice eyebrow arching.
"It was the first time I ever saw anyone who was a precise translation of what I was going for in terms of my look, in terms of my persona, my attitude.
"Except, I'm not very good at plumbing."
Oh, I don't know about that, I think. You've been pretty good with my plumbing.
Being a lesbian icon, it seems, is not just about a starring role in a dyke's wet dream. Last month, The Philadelphia Film Society made it official.
The society awarded actress-model Jenny Shimizu with its first Lesbian Icon Award.
Shimizu got her medal for more noble reasons than just being the hottest lesbian in the media.
The society said the Japanese-American former girlfriend of Jolie deserved the award "for shattering the conventional wisdom in the world of fashion as a supermodel, taking new risks as an actor and staying true to her beliefs as an activist."
It's time to be honest, I think. Who cares about her shattering conventions, taking risks, or sticking to her beliefs?
Shimizu gets my vote because she's unbelievably hot.
And I want her.
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