A multilingual SFU graduate has become the newest Miss Chinese Vancouver.

Maria Rincon, 22, was crowned on December 8 at the Vancouver Convention Centre.

The pageant was organized by Fairchild TV and raised $1.6 million for the Richmond Hospital Foundation.

She will go on to compete in the Miss Chinese International Pageant in Genting, Malaysia, on January 15, 2017.

Rincon has a Colombian father and a Chinese mother, which enabled her to grow up fluent in English, Mandarin, and Spanish.

In 2014, she hosted Mandarin-language episodes of the Georgia Street Weekly TV program.

She told the Straight that her mom was in the audience as she was crowned Miss Chinese Vancouver, and her dad watched the show from Colombia.

Her long-term goal is to go into broadcasting.

Rincon's SFU degree is in communications and she also earned a certificate in liberal arts. She made the dean's honour roll and the president's honour roll, and also spent three months on an international program in Hong Kong, where she picked up a fair amount of Cantonese.

"The pageant organizers speak Cantonese," she said. "I'm continuing to learn the language."

Rincon succeeds last year's winner, Jennifer Coosemans, who went on to win the Miss Chinese International pageant earlier this year.

Coosemans was born in Terrace and is of Chinese and Belgian ancestry.

Below, you can see photos of Rincon at last night's event.