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BHUTAN’S CHANGING

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CHANGING ASIAGuangdong’s new path

POPDOMThe three Domyoujis

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Upon setting foot in Bhutan, at the Paro international airport, one would immedi-ately notice a few

things: the air is clean and the sky is unblemished by smog.

Even in more developed areas like Paro and the capital Thimpu, there remains a world that is untouched by modernity and the ills that come with it. But things are slowly changing.

Urbanised areas are beginning to face problems like traffic, pollution, garbage and an increase in crime incidence. Many are worried about the future of Bhutan and what all

these changes would mean to the gross national happiness (GNH), which is the cornerstone of the government’s policy.

GNH, aside from being a policy, is also a philosophy that every Bhutanese embrace. It is connected to the four pillars of development that the government has deemed as more important than GDP: sustain-able and equitable socio-economic development, conservation of the environment, promotion and preservation of culture and promo-tion of good governance.

As Bhutan copes with the changes, its people are also realis-ing that they have to adapt and at

the same time embrace their culture that has been for the longest time touted as their greatest asset.

Outside the capital city, things are progressing at a slower pace despite the arrival of the Internet and mobile telecommunications. And hopefully, it will remain that way.

Asia News Network asianewsnet@gmail.com

A Place Like No Other

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COVER IMAGE | AfP PHOTO

NOVEMBER 5-18, 2010 • Vol 5 No 22

Bhutan’s Changing Face P7

A world still steeped in tradition but struggling to cope with its transfor-mation

COVER STORY

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SPECIAL REPORT P 16ThE RiSE OF Xi JinPingTouted as China’s next leader, the vice-president is a skilful politician

BUSINESS P20WaR OF ThE TOnYSThe word war between the bosses of AirAsia and Tiger Airways heats up competition

CHANGING ASIA P24WhERE ThERE’S a Will, ThERE’S MOnEYChina’s prosperous Guang-dong province now focuses on knowledge-based economy

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FOOD P34KOREan TaCOS aRRiVESeoulites are crazy over the new twist in tacos

POPDOM P40MEETing ThE ThREE DOMYOuJiSTaiwan’s Jerry Yan Cheng Xu, Japan’s Matsumoto Jun and Korea’s Lee Min-ho

PEOPLE P42ThE WRiTER anD ThE DESignERMarjorie Liu dabbles into fantasies and superheroes while Jason Wu dresses Barbies and first ladies

TRAVEL BITES P44WalKing TRail: MalE’Strolling around the Maldivian capital

SPORTS P48guangzhOu iS REaDYThe southern Chinese city of Guangzhou is all set to host the 16th Asian Games

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Maga2ine.infoNovember 5-18, 2010 • 7

COVER STORY

Over the years, the land of the thunder dragon has slowly revealed itself to the rest of the world. But what does this mean for the landlocked kingdom? Yasmin Lee Arpon travels to Bhutan and finds a world still steeped in tradition but struggling to cope with its transformation.

Fading Shangri-La?As development crawls its way into the way of life, traditions and values undergo massive changes

Where Happiness LiesGross national happiness is more than material things but can it really be quantified?

The Young KingThe fifth King has been given the responsibility of continuing his father’s legacy of democracy

Tourism DollarsTourism is one of the top industries but it is still relatively young and has a limited market

Bhutan’s Changing FaCe

A man in Bhutanese national dress stands at the site of a sky burial looking towards Paro valley.

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Maga2ine.info8 • November 5-18, 2010 November 5-18, 2010 • 9

❖ Thimpu

Parking in Thimpu costs 5 ngultrum (10 US cents) for every 15 minutes or 20 ngultrum an hour (50 US cents). It is cheap com-

pared with the rest of the world but locals already consider it expensive.

In fact, they say, the cost of living in Bhutan’s capital city is quite high but the standard of living is not up to par. And despite how relatively expensive a parking space in the downtown area is, they still find it hard to look for a slot.

On Norzin Lam, the main street in the city’s commercial centre, traffic is building up on a Saturday morning as a policeman is directing cars from his shaded post in the middle of an inter-section. At the clock tower square, Bhutanese youths and families walk around while at the city's only cine-ma, a few have arrived for that after-noon’s screening of a local film.

To the outsider, Thimpu is like a booming town—not yet a cosmopoli-tan city but no longer a sleepy village. It teeters in between and it is not sur-prising to see a herd of cows crossing the street in the middle of the city and cars giving way or avoiding them.

In the outskirts of Thimpu, car showrooms of Honda, Hyundai and Toyota have sprouted. The streets have also started to be crowded with cars, mostly four-wheel drives, to suit Bhutan’s rough terrain.

Indeed, the land of the thunder dragon has come a long way from 1952 when two foreign guests had to make a nine-day journey from north-eastern India to Thimpu on a mule to attend the coronation of the fourth king, King Jigme Singye.

Construction is dotting the skyline of the city but the seven-storey building limit still ensures that nothing can mar anyone’s view of the pristine blue sky on a sunny day. Near the Unesco headquarters, a

commercial building that will be the tallest with a roof deck once it’s done is being constructed.

Workers from India have come to Bhutan to work, building new hotels and houses, as well as new roads as the government works on connecting the country’s most remote corners to the urban centres.

Bhutan is indeed changing, not

only in terms of landscape but also in the people’s lifestyle. But these changes have also brought with them several downsides.

Aside from the traffic as more peo-ple start owning cars, there is the looming garbage problem that Bhu-tan’s bigger cities face.

At the Early Learning Centre, An-jali Bista, 11, and her schoolmates are

being educated against eating junk food under the ‘Design for Change’ programme. Aside from health reasons, they have been taught that wrappers of these products are congesting the landfills and it takes several decades to decompose them.

“It’s ruining our environment,” Bi-sta said, adding that they are allowed to bring packaged food to school only on Wednesdays.

Locals still have to be educated on the proper disposal and segregation of their waste, noted Ten Dorji, 34. The National Organic Programme under the agriculture ministry has put up billboards near major markets and offices to teach the public how to dispose of their garbage.

As the Bhutanese cope with the changes brought about by develop-ment, they also need to adopt to new habits and assume a different mindset.

“We have to accept change,” Ten said, “and the government is trying to balance development with tradi-tional values.”

In 1961, Bhutan ceased its self-iso-lation by opening its doors and took the road of planned development. But it was only 38 years later that it allowed Internet and foreign TV channels into the country. Even then, these media platforms are closely monitored to protect cultural values.

Kinley Dorji, information and communications minister, said the advent of TV was the “most impor-tant change” that came to the country in recent years.

“We saw how the world has changed. On the plus side, people have learned more about the world... but it has also changed our values,” Kinley told AsiaNews during an in-terview before his appointment.

Some of these changes run counter to the values that they have been taught as part of their culture and religion.

The Bhutanese value respect for el-ders and harmony with one another and their environment. This is re-flected in the famous thanka (scroll painting) of the “four harmonious

friends” depicting a bird, rabbit, monkey and elephant standing on top of one another. Almost every household in Bhutan has this paint-ing to symbolise harmony in the fam-ily and the community.

These values may be present today but they are constantly under threat. For example, a lot of families in the rural areas are finding that their chil-dren prefer to study or go to the city to work rather than help in the farm.

The country also saw an increase in crimes from rape, fraud, violence and homicide. Gangs also started to emerge and many attributed it to ex-posure to Korean gang movies that could be rented from video shops.

The increase in crime incidence was so alarming that police chief Kipchu Namgyel made public his mobile number so people could con-tact him anytime to report crimes. He also went around schools to talk to students who were suspected of being part of gangs.

In August this year, 37 male and 16 female gangs have been appre-hended in Thimpu alone, including two of the “most notorious”: MB Boys and Sabji Bazaar Gang.

All these mar the image of Bhutan as one of the world’s last Shangri-La. If it's any consolation, most of the country remains unaffacted by the downside of modernity even if tele-communications like the Internet and mobile phones have brought them closer to the outside world. Thimpu, after all, does not represent the entire kingdom and this is one of the reasons why the government is careful in go-ing full blast towards development.

“We decide our own pace and speed of development. You don’t sacrifice everything you have,” Kinley said.

King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wang-chuck has vowed to pursue his father’s

policy to promote sustainable development alongside spirit-ual survival.

One of the policies, as pro-vided under a royal decree, is to keep 60 per cent of the land as protected forest. The com-mercial export of raw timber is

banned and the government has turned to solar power and hydro- electricity to protect the environment. In fact, hydro-power is Bhutan’s big-gest industry, ahead of tourism.

Bhutan’s rich biodiversity—which boasts of rare plant species, mam-mals from tigers to snow leopards and bears; and birds, some of them on the endangered list—assure visi-tors of experiencing a world that while may be changing still offers a glimpse of what paradise can be like.

The Bhutanese are proud of their heritage and culture and recognise them as their greatest asset.

As Kinley mused: “We know we will never be a military or economic power so the monarchy has decided to focus on the unique character of the Bhutanese and preserve our cul-tural identity.”

This is still very evident in fashion, often taken as a form of self-expres-sion. Men still wear the goh while women wear the kira: employees from the government and some pri-vate companies are required to wear these traditional clothes on weekdays while students wear them as uniform.

Architecture is made to conform with the traditional Bhutanese design. Dzongs, or the fortified monasteries, not only host monks but government offices too. The monks are still very much respected, just as the King is.

But undoubtedly, the changes have made their impact.

“Before 1999, everyone’s hero was the King,” Kinley noted. “But after 1999 and most young people watched the World Cup, it changed to David Beckham. Now, it’s Bollywood stars like Amitabh Bachchan.”

He, however, acknowledged that Bhutan cannot remain the same. “We have to change with the times...but the real values should not change.”

COVER STORY BhuTan'S Changing FaCE

Fading Shangri-La?

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BUSY STREET: Cars parked in front of commercial buildings on Norzin Lam, the main avenue that cuts across Thimpu's central business district.

STEP AND GO: There are no traffic lights in Thimpu. A policeman manually directs traffic from his post at a major intersection in the city.

Maga2ine.info10 • November 5-18, 2010 November 5-18, 2010 • 11

COVER STORY BhuTan'S Changing FaCE

chief of the national paper Kuensel and now information and communi-cations minister.

Kinley authored Within The Realm of Happiness, a collection of short stories, memoirs and essays reflecting on the rapid changes that Bhutan’s population is going through.

“Happiness is not pleasure... it is more than just fun,” Kinley further explained. “It is much deeper, pro-found. You don’t get that from having a big house or fast cars. There is no external source, you have to look within.”

He noted that happiness is a phi-losophy that cannot be measured by material things.

But nevertheless, there have been

attempts to measure gross national happiness or GNH looking at an indi-vidual’s sustainability, well-being and quality of life. Material happiness is just one of the components, although some experts have questioned wheth-er GNH could really be defined.

“The most important things in life are not prone to measurement—like love,” said Frank Bacho, a Venezue-lan economist and former ambas-sador to India, as quoted by Andrew C. Revkin in his paper, “A New Measure of Well-Being from a Happy Little Kingdom”.

The Bhutanese government has made it its goal to provide an envi-ronment where its citizens’ well- being will be of primary importance. This is through instituting policies around what it calls the “four pillars”: sustainable and equitable socio- economic development, conservation of the environment, promotion and preservation of culture and promo-tion of good governance.

Interestingly, most Bhutanese can enumerate these four pillars off the top of their heads. Everyone is proud of how GNH has made Bhutan inter-esting and exotic to the outside, more modern world; but some would be the first to admit that it is not an easy state of being.

“Happiness is not a constant,” said Yangchen, 23, a shopkeeper in down-town Thimpu. “When things don’t go my way, I feel depressed too. But for me, happiness is health. Because health is more than wealth.”

She cited the lack of job opportuni-ties as one of the reasons for her oc-casional “depression”, citing that many of her friends have finished school or attended government-sponsored skills trainings but have yet to find good jobs.

Undoubtedly, the “happy little kingdom” is changing, and so is its concept of what happiness is all about. Unemployment and poverty remain two huge problems that the government faces.

“As values and lifestyle change... we start wanting more of modern tech-nologies. But is that what we should

really have, what we really want?” Kinley asked. “We have to appreciate what we have now and don’t sacrifice our very important values for the sake of change.”

Like any typical teenager, Kin-ley’s eldest son, Tenzin, 16, defined happiness as “hanging out with friends, listening to music or en-gaging in sports”.

Tenzin attends school in India and has been exposed to the world outside Bhutan. “Kids are slowly changing, we don’t pay attention to our own world, we don’t seem to follow our own cul-ture,” he said, adding that the biggest responsibility for him and those oth-ers who have been sent as scholars by the government to other countries is to protect the local culture.

But Kinley himself acknowledged that change itself is challenging not just Bhutanese culture, but most es-pecially GNH.

“Ten years from now, I tend to worry that we may be less happy,” he said. “What I want to see is a Bhutan that has not changed its inherent value system.”

But even today, that change has al-ready descended upon the populace. “The people in the villages are happi-er than those in the city,” said Ten Dorji, who owns travel agency Au-thentic Bhutan Tours.

“The GNH is under threat by devel-opment. It’s so different now than 10 years ago and it will even be more dif-ferent 10 years from now,” Ten added.

Meanwhile, in a restaurant bar in the centre of Thimpu, Ratu Dorji, a travel guide pointed to my Canon 500D. “I don’t envy you for having such a high-tech gadget,” he said. “I’m more than happy with my simple phone that can take pictures,” he added referring to his Samsung handphone.

“Many people come to Bhutan looking for happiness,” he continued. “They ask me, what is happiness? Where can I find it? I tell them, hap-piness is not in Bhutan alone. It’s not GNH, it’s GIH—gross international happiness. Happiness is everywhere. It’s in you.”

Happy Land

❖ Thimpu

Many come to Bhutan to find happiness. Or at least experience it in its raw form.

But if one expects to see boisterous people in the land of the thunder dragon, you’d be disappointed.

Bhutanese may be happy people all right; after all, their government has made happiness not only a “national product” but a global showcase too. That happiness is, however, not measured on the loudness of laugh-ter or the glow of a smile.

“Happiness is no laughing matter,” said Kinley Dorji, former editor-in-

YOUNG AND CAREFREE: Novice monks at the Temple of the Divine Madman in Punakha, which was the administrative centre and the seat of the government 1955, when the capital was moved to Thimphu.

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Maga2ine.info12 • November 5-18, 2010

❖ Thimpu

A group of middle-aged Indian women crowded a souvenir shop in down-town Thimpu. As they chatted freely with the

staff, they were soon swooning over King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wang-chuk, the kingdom’s 30-year-old monarch.

“You’re so lucky!” one woman gushed. “You have a very kind King.”

“And young too!” chimed in anoth-er one. “So young and so wise.”

“And he’s single,” a third lady said, fol-lowed by giggles all over. “Does he have a girlfriend? Will he get married soon?”

Everyone—including locals—is in-terested to know when the King will get married. It’s a good thing that gossip magazines with a fascination for the royalty are not common in the kingdom or the King would soon find his face plastered on every glossy cov-er, with paparazzi shots on what he did last night, where and with who.

Not that he has anything to hide. Veteran tour guide Ten Dorji related that the King often walks or bikes along the upper hills of Thimpu near the telecom tower, with his body-guards in tow. The King also loves to play basketball and cuts a very fine figure that naturally sends girls swooning whenever he engages in the traditional sports, archery.

The King started his reign in De-cember 2006 but was officially crowned in November 2008. At his coronation, he told the people: “Throughout my reign I will never rule you as a king. I will protect you as a parent, care for you as a brother and serve you as a son. I shall give you everything and keep nothing.”

I met two employees from the pri-vate telecoms company Tashi Info-comm Ltd. on my flight back to Bang-kok from Thimpu. They were on their way to Shanghai to attend the Expo and they mentioned that they have met the King in his palace.

Since he took over as the fifth Druk Gyalpo, the King has been going around the country as part of his goal to meet in person the 700,000 Bhu-tanese within 10 years.

Every afternoon, the King would also invite a group of about 25 people to have tea in the palace. He started out with those in government and the private sector. So far, he has met about 3,000.

I asked the two lucky men what’s the King like.

“Oh, he jokes around especially with the girls,” the younger of the two recalled. “He would ask them, ‘are you married’?”

There are a lot of speculations over the King’s future marriage. “Well eve-ryone knows he will eventually get married,” the older one said. “It’s just a matter of time.”

The King has been accorded pop star status, especially in Thailand, where he is treated as a matinee idol more than royalty. Unfortunately for his foreign fans, Bhutan’s Con-stitution prohibits him from mar-rying a foreigner.

But there is more to the King than his youth and looks. He studied at Cushing Academy and Wheaton Col-lege in the United States and com-pleted the foreign service programme and an MPhil in Politics at University of Oxford’s Magdalen College in the United Kingdom.

Unlike the four previous kings, King Jigme Khesar took over the throne when his father is still alive. Aside from taking over his father, he was also tasked to implement the process of democratisation in the kingdom. He stated that the responsibility of the present generation was to ensure the success of democracy.

For many Bhutanese, democracy is a gift from the fourth King, and per-haps, his most lasting legacy.

In March 2008, Bhutan had its first national elections and is preparing for the first local elections.

“If the fourth King’s legacy was de-mocracy, the fifth King’s legacy will be to ensure that democracy is alive and well in Bhutan,” Ten said.

COVER STORY BhuTan'S Changing FaCE

Long Live The Young King

King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuk

Maga2ine.info14 • November 5-18, 2010

❖ PARO

The 2,000 metre-long strip of Bhutan’s Paro interna-tional airport comes alive early mornings as flights from India and Thailand

arrive, bringing in tourists to the landlocked kingdom.

A huge billboard with pictures of the five kings, including the present monarch King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuk, greets visitors as they step down on the tarmac and head to the lone passenger terminal built in tradi-tional Bhutanese architecture.

Most of the tourists are 60 years old and above; it is very rare to see young backpackers, probably turned off by the US$250 per day tariff that the government imposes on those wanting to come and visit.

There is also the inconvenience of going to Bhutan with only one inter-national airport and a single airline, flag carrier Druk Air, servicing the route from Bangkok, New Delhi and Kathmandu.

Despite these constraints, tourism is still one of the top three revenue generators. In 2009, the government earned US$10.9 million in royalty. It represented a small drop from the $13.8 million royalty earned in 2008 but as a whole, the tourism sector still earned $31.87 million last year.

Tourism also provides employment to over 7,000 people and generates valuable foreign exchange. But the government has opted for a “high val-ue, low impact” tourism policy to pro-mote sustainable tourism. However, many saw this approach as focusing only on well-heeled tourists.

Last year, a total of 23,480 tour-ists visited Bhutan. According to the tourism bureau, there was a 15.03 per cent drop in tourist arrivals compared with 2008 due to the global recession.

Americans topped the list at 4,786; they were followed by those from Ja-

pan (3,136), the United Kingdom (1,968) and Germany (1,587).

Of late, the Chinese—with their in-creasing wealth and mobility—have started coming in tour groups too.

Bhutan has a history with Tibet, where its religion Mahayana Bud-dhism is said to have originated in the eighth century. Tibetan lamas

also established administrative and political structures in Bhutan in the 17th century.

This influence is still seen in many forms, particularly in Thimpu, where many shops downtown hang the pic-ture of the Dalai Lama.

And with the arrival of tourists from China, which claims sovereignty over Tibet, there have been instances when these tensions come to the surface.

Tshering Tashi, owner of the Lung-ta Handicraft across the Thimpu post office, relates one time when a Chi-nese tourist asked him why he has a photo of the Dalai Lama.

“We got into a discussion because he was questioning the photo,” he said. “I told him if he doesn’t like it, then he can just leave and not

buy from my shop.”Many of the shop’s merchandise

are imported from Tibet and the shop assistants were in the process of wrapping the Chinese tourist’s pur-chases. “In the end, he just walked out without buying anything. But that’s okay,” he said.

This incident was more an excep-tion than the norm as majority of tourists who visit Bhutan do not go into political discussions and instead are more interested in exploring the country’s natural attractions. Many

tourists stay for an average seven days but there are those who opt for a three-week tour, trekking around the country from the west to the east, where the landscape and culture are said to be entirely different and less modernised, and people are semi-nomadic.

Obviously, the lack of infrastruc-ture or available air transport have not stopped these tourists, and there is reason to rejoice if reports are true that domestic flights will soon be available by next year.

There are also unconfirmed reports that at least three international air-lines will soon be flying to Bhutan soon. If that happens, the land of the thunder dragon will no longer be a secret shared by a few.

In partnership with the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich), Switzerland; the Massachusetts Institute ofTechnology, Cambridge, USA; Tongji University, Shanghai, China;Universidad Iberoamericana, Mexico City; and the Ecole Supérieured’Architecture de Casablanca, Morocco. The universities lead theindependent juries in five regions of the world. Entries at www.holcimawards.org close March 23, 2011.

The Holcim Awards competition is an initiative of the HolcimFoundation for Sustainable Construction. Based in Switzerland, the foundation is supported by Holcim Ltd and its Group companiesand affiliates in more than 70 countries. Holcim is one of theworld’s leading suppliers of cement and aggregates as well as further activities such as ready-mix concrete and asphalt including services.

Develop new perspectives for ourfuture: 3rd International HolcimAwards competition for projects in sustainable construction. Prizemoney totals USD 2 million. www.holcimawards.org

Aziza Chaouni, Architect, Fez, Morocco: Winner of the Global HolcimAwards Gold 2009.

“When a project isn’t focused on the needs of the people, then what?”

Award Inserate_197x267_1 23/6/2010 12:02 Seite 5

COVER STORY BhuTan'S Changing FaCE

Door To The World

Paro international airport

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Maga2ine.info16 • November 5-18, 2010 November 5-18, 2010 • 17

REPORTSPECialBy Peh Shing HueiThe Straits Times

❖ Beijing

Up till his elevation to the top echelon of Chi-nese politics in 2007, X i J i n p i n g w a s l e s s well known than his

wife, a folk singer.Xi might have called the shots as

chief of coastal provinces such as Fu-jian and Zhejiang, but it was his wife Peng Liyuan who was a household name in China.

Such was his relative anonymity that Peng told state media she had no idea who he was when the couple first met more than 20 years ago.

These days, no one will be asking “Xi who?” any more. With his promo-tion to vice-chairman of the powerful Central Military Commission on Oc-tober 18, the 57-year-old leader has pretty much sealed his position as the heir apparent to President Hu Jintao.

In two years, when Hu is slated to retire, Vice-President Xi is ex-p e c t e d t o s u c c e e d h i m a s t h e leader of the ruling Chinese Com-munist Party (CCP).

And for those who have followed the career of this purportedly mild-mannered man, it is not sur-prising to find him at the pinnacle of Chinese politics.

A scion of one of the CCP’s most

respected revolutionary families, he is the son of former vice-premier Xi Zhongxun, a founder of the commu-nist guerilla movement and a close ally of Deng Xiaoping.

After graduating from the prestig-ious Tsinghua University in Beijing with a degree in chemistry in 1979, he was secretary to then defence minis-ter Geng Biao in Beijing. This pre-cious, albeit limited, military back-ground is a badge of honour that Hu and former paramount leader Jiang Zemin did not enjoy.

Xi reportedly asked to be sent to the provinces to get grassroots expe-rience in 1982, starting a 25-year so-journ outside the capital, with the bulk of his time spent in southern Fu-jian province.

He was also party secretary of the economically dynamic Zhejiang province and Shanghai before he re-turned to Beijing as the anointed leader in 2007.

By then, he had one of the most impressive curricula vitae among his peers, with experience in both central and local governments and the military.

“He has a very balanced resume,” said Chinese elite politics expert Bo Zhiyue from the East Asian Institute in Singapore. “He is someone who A

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The Rise Of Xi JinpingSon of respected revolutionary family and an experienced, skilful politician

would be considered as a very skilful local politician.”

Yet, for all the sheen and shine of his political record, this princeling did not have it as easy as his blue blood credentials would suggest.

Although he played in the con-fines of Zhongnanhai, the CCP headquarters, as a boy with his two older sisters and a younger brother, the good life was shattered when he was just nine.

His father was purged by Mao Ze-dong in 1962, banished to work in a factory before being detained and tortured during the Cultural Revolu-tion, which erupted in 1966. Xi was sent to the countryside and his family persecuted.

He told China Parenting Magazine in a 1996 interview: “I ate a lot more bitterness than most people.” He was jailed four times and called names such as “son of a bitch” and “reaction-ary student”.

The chastening experience tough-ened him and led Singapore Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew to remark, af-ter meeting Xi in late 2007: “I would put him in the Nelson Mandela class of persons. A person with enormous emotional stability who does not al-low his personal misfortunes or suf-ferings to affect his judgment. In other words, he is impressive.”

Xi, who has an 18-year-old daugh-ter, Mingze, is also known to be pro-business, liberal and open-minded, according to Taiwan and Hong Kong businessmen who in-teracted with him during his years in Fujian and Zhejiang.

Former American Treasury secre-tary Henry Paulson described him as “the kind of guy who knows how to get things over the goal line”.

His reformist credentials are further bolstered by his father’s background as a key architect of China’s “special economic zones”. And while Hu visited 18 countries when he was vice-president, Xi has already toured 29, beefing up his foreign affairs portfolio.

But a question mark remains over his leanings on political reforms.

While his father was one of a few CCP elders to openly slam the 1989 Tian-anmen crackdown and the Xi family reportedly sent a wreath to deposed leader Zhao Ziyang’s funeral in 2005, Xi has been silent on his views on de-mocratisation.

“Even if he is pro-reform, he would want to keep a low profile now,” said Hong Kong-based ana-lyst Joseph Cheng.

But one thing is for sure when Xi assumes the presidency: China will have its first glamorous First Lady in a long while.

“It’s good that we have a First Lady on the international stage,” said Prof Cheng. “The wives of Chinese leaders used to shun the limelight and did not dress well. Peng Liyuan would have no such problem. The Western media will be delighted.”

The Pressure is On

No sooner had Xi Jinping been confirmed as China’s next-generation leader than questions were asked about his commitment: Can he deliver on political reform? Among the expectations he has to deal with:

That he should follow in his father’s footsteps and spearhead political reform when he assumes the top leadership post.

Pressure from Premier Wen Jiabao and his own peers that China’s next-generation leaders take on political reform in response to demands from the people and do better than the current leadership.

Several retired party cadres are calling for greater freedom of expression as the first concrete step towards political reform. — Ching Cheong/The STraiTS TimeS

FUTURE LEADER: In a file picture taken on March 16, 2008 Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping (front) speaks while President Hu Jintao (back) looks on during a plenary session of the National People's Congress at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.

Maga2ine.info18 • November 5-18, 2010 November 5-18, 2010 • 19

POLITICSBy Marwaan Macan-MarkarInter Press Service

❖ Bangkok

The ghost of military-ruled Burma’s first strongman, general Ne Win, has re-turned to haunt the South-east Asian nation’s current

junta leader, senior general Than Shwe, as the country heads for its first general election in two decades on November 7. In a bizarre twist, the candidates loyal to the late Ne Win, who ruled Burma with an iron fist from a 1962 coup till 1988, are being cast in some quarters as a welcome force for expanding the very restricted political space in place since the early 1990s, when Than Shwe came to power.

The Union Solidarity and Devel-opment Party (USDP), backed by

Than Shwe, has nominated over 1,100 candidates for elections to the national and regional parliaments. The National Unity Party (NUP), supported by Ne Win loyalists who lost political favours and power after Than Shwe became the junta leader, has nominated 999 candidates to contest for seats in the national and regional bodies.

These two political behemoths, both with ties with the junta leaders in Burma, have dwarfed the political parties with more credible democrat-ic credentials, such as the National Democratic Force (NDF), the Demo-cratic Party of Myanmar (DPM) and the Shan Nationalities Democratic Party (SNDF).

The NDF has 163 candidates run-

ning, while the DPM has 48 and the SNLD 156. Little wonder why the November 7 polling day is being de-scribed by political observers in Man-dalay and Rangoon, the country’s two largest cities, as a looming showdown between the loyalists of the two strongmen. The NUP is in fact openly challenging the USDP on the cam-paign trail, these observers told IPS.

“The NUP is trying to draw a dis-tinction between themselves and the current military government,” said one Rangoon-based analyst. “Just re-cently they told voters that they are not ‘political monsters’ and have learnt from their past mistakes.”

“Some of their policies have even struck a chord amongst sections of t h e m i d d l e c l a s s w h o w a n t change,” he added.

“They are providing an avenue for change within restricted boundaries.”

The NUP’s emergence as the only formidable challenger to the ruling junta’s party has not been lost on the Burmese media in exile, which have, till now, been trenchant critics of the Ne Win and Than Shwe regimes.

“The National Unity Party could upset the ruling regime’s plans for an overwhelming victory by the Union Solidarity and Development Party,” wrote The Irrawaddy, a current affairs website run by Burmese journalists in exile in Thailand. “(The NUP leader’s recent) comment that (his party) would not restrict press freedom in Burma except in the case of a national emergency impressed many political observers inside the country.”

Such a nod towards press freedom had even prompted some local ana-lysts to suggest that the NUP “might be willing to form some sort of an alli-ance with smaller pro-democracy and ethnic parties,” The Irrawaddy added.

This marks a major shift in respect-ability from the early years of the NUP. At the last general election in 1990, Ne Win’s loyalists, drawn from his govern-ing Burma Socialist Programme Party, were reduced to having only 10 seats in the over 480 seats up for grabs in the national parliament.

This stark rejection by voters of Ne Win’s oppressive rule helped steer the rise of the opposition National

THE GENERAL: Burma has said Burmese leader senior general Than Shwe will bow out of politics after the November 7 elections, but the assurances should be viewed with deep scepticism, critics say.

League for Democracy (NLD) party. The NLD won 82 per cent of the seats in that poll but was denied the right to govern after the military regime refused to recognise the results of that vote.

The NLD, led by Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, cur-rently in her 14th year under house arrest, refused to contest this year’s poll. This move, which saw the party banned subsequently, led to a faction of its members leaving to form the NDF. Than Shwe’s plans to avoid a political tidal wave like the one that struck Ne Win’s NUP in the 1990s have been writ large ahead of the November elections. Of the 440 seats in the national legislature, 110 seats have already been reserved under the constitution for non-elected military officers.

“The main point of the election this time is that the pro-military party just needs to win 166 elected seats,” said Win Min, a Burmese national security expert.

“Of course general Than Shwe may want to win more than 82 per cent of the seats to beat the NLD’s 1990 elec-tion record for his legacy.”

The magic number of 166 elected seats that Than Shwe will, with the 110 military appointees in the parlia-ment, secure him support in the new legislature if he wants to be chosen as the civilian president, Win Min told IPS. “There is no minimum require-ment of a 50 per cent voter turn out like in 1990, making it easier for the pro-military candidates to win even if many people do not vote.”

These measures, together with a slew of oppressive measures on the smaller pro-democratic parties in the race, have led analysts and even re-gional governments to dismiss the November poll as a sham election and a farce. But little of that has de-terred the NUP, whose members, in-cluding former military officers, want to challenge Than Shwe’s attempt to use the poll to assert that his legacy is more significant than Ne Win’s, says an analyst from Mandalay.

“November’s election is becoming a battle between a dead general and a living one,” he pointed out.

❖ United Nations

While scores of international observers wait on tenter-hooks for the first election

in Burma in two decades—and one of only three multiparty elections in 60 years—a report by the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of hu-man rights there suggests that the world need not wait for November 7 to judge the outcome.

“The election process has been deeply flawed and disappointing,” Tomas Quintana said last week.

Early in September, Burma’s mili-tary elections commissioner an-nounced that voting will not be held in some 3,300 villages in the Shan state, effectively disenfranchising 1.5 million voters.

In response to Quintana’s report to the Third Committee of the General Assembly earlier last week, the dele-gate from Britain stated that the “elec-tion result is a foregone conclusion”, adding that the international commu-nity must now look beyond the elec-tions and towards options such as the Commission of Inquiry (CoI).

“A number of member states have expressed support for a CoI,” Quin-tana said. “Others have said that such an accountability measure will be counterproductive and that contin-ued engagement would be preferred. This is a false dichotomy. An investi-gation of this kind would not pre-clude international engagement with the new overnment.”

Despite Quintana’s balanced re-port, public debate among UN mem-ber states continues to be dictated not by legal precedent but rather by regional ties, economic motivations and political alliances.

According to the most recent figures released by Burma’s Central Statistical Office, Thailand currently receives 52 per cent of Burma’s exports, India re-ceives 17 per cent and China receives 9 per cent. China is also Burma’s largest import source, supplying as much as 32 per cent of total imports.

Thus it came as no surprise that the most outspoken critics of Quintana’s report were the delegates of Thai-land, China, India and Burma itself, all of whom denounced the report as one-sided and “biased” and warned that a CoI would only be “destructive” to the post-election climate.

With economic incentives driving superpowers’ decisions, the chances of a CoI mandated by the General As-sembly or the Security Council are slim, despite the backing of the Euro-pean Union, Norway and Canada.

Some human rights advocates have been adamant that such self-serving motivations are highly short-sighted. According to Debbie Stothard, the executive director of Altsean, the Al-ternative Asean Network on Burma, “the reality is that any country that wishes to have sustainable trade rela-tions with Burma has to realise that the international crimes there are generating instability which is not conducive to trade.”

While the UN balks at the CoI, sev-eral experts, including Professor Ty-ler Giannini, director of Harvard Law School’s International Human Rights Clinic (IHRC), are keen to deter what they see as an imminent catastrophe unfurling in Burma.

Addressing a press gathering in early October, Giannini laid out, in strictly legal terms, the case for a CoI into possible war crimes and crimes against humanity in Burma.

“We decided to look specifically at only UN documents,” Giannini said. “The conclusion was that UN institu-tions have consistently acknowledged abuses and used legal terms associat-ed with international crimes, includ-ing that violations have been ‘wide-spread’, ‘systematic’ or ‘part of a state policy’.”

But while conversations continue in press rooms and conference halls, the situation on the ground in Burma becomes more and more intolerable for those living there.

“The situation of the civilians in the middle of this armed conflict is extreme,” Quintana said. “It is not enough to say we need free and fair elections. We need to include jus-tice for past violations in order to deter future violations and this is a serious challenge.”

Looking Beyond The Elections

By Kanya D’AlmeidaInter Press Service

Burma’s ShowThe November 7 poll is a showdown between a dead strongman and a living one

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Maga2ine.info20 • November 5-18, 2010 November 5-18, 2010 • 21

❖ Kuala Lumpur

The verbal spat between the two Tonys in the aviation sector re-minds some people of how Dr Lim Keng Yaik had to fight for the survival of palm oil back in

the 1980s.Then it was Lim against the Western

world, and at stake was Malaysia’s palm oil industry.

Lim succeeded and today Malaysia is one of the biggest suppliers of palm oil globally.

Last month, the clash was between Tony and Tony—Datuk Seri Tony Fer-nandes, the boss of AirAsia Bhd; and Tony Davis, CEO of Singapore’s Tiger Airways.

Both helm award-wining airlines.

AirAsia has won numerous awards and so has Fernandes. The airline has a wide reach, has operations in Thailand via Thai AirAsia and in Indonesia via Indonesia AirAsia. Its sister airline, AirAsia X, is Asia’s first long-haul low-cost carrier.

Tiger Airways is partly owned by Singa-pore Airlines. Based in Singapore, it flies to many destinations within Asia. It was named last month the Centre for Asia Pa-cific Aviation’s Low Cost Airline of the Year. Tiger Airways also has operations in Australia. It is about to seal a deal to set up Thai Tiger Airways, a low-cost airline in Thailand.

The new venture is the thing that trig-gered the spat.

Fernandes described Tiger Airways as

BUSINESSBy B.B. SidhuThe Star

an “odd” choice business ally to Thai Airways. He said this in an interview with Bangkok Post. He was sceptical about having Westerners running any successful Asia-based business, referring to some of Tiger Airways’ management.

“We’re Asians, not a bunch of white guys running the airline,” he said, ex-plaining that Thai AirAsia was run by Thai management who knows the lo-cal and Asian markets. Tiger Airways had also recently cancelled numerous flights that left thousands of passen-gers stranded due to manpower shortage and aircraft fault.

Tiger Airways in an immediate re-action said it was a “racist remark” made by Fernandes.

To rub salt into the wound, Fer-nandes also described Tiger Airways as “a tiny carrier”.

But Davis seemed unperturbed

and declared that Tiger aims to be among the top three global airlines.

This spat stems from competition. A new player in the Thai air market would mean more competition for Thai AirAsia.

To tease Tiger Airway for its recent flight cancellations, AirAsia ran full-page advertisements in Singapore newspapers with the tag-line “If Ti-gers were meant to fly, they would be born with wings”. The ads also fea-tured a drawing of a tiger cub crying.

But AirAsia regional head of com-mercial Kathleen Tan denies the ads had anything to do with Thai Tiger.

“We thought it’s a great time to do things that are a little bit fun; a little bit wicked. It’s not meant as a one-up, we’re not attacking anyone, we were just being clever and witty to assert our marketing leadership. We love a good fight on the marketing front once in a while,” she said.

Whatever the campaign may be for, it did not stop Davis from saying, “It’s no wonder some of our competi-tors are getting so rattled.”

Thailand is a big tourism market. People from all over the world visit Bangkok and many other tourist des-tinations there so adding another player would keep the incumbents on their toes. Erosion of market share is to be expected.

Fernandes understands that and there is also nothing to stop Davis from entering the market since Thai Airways likes Tiger Airways.

These two Tonys may be taking a swipe at each other and coming up with all kinds of tactics to discred-it each other but for the consumer, competition is great. Had AirAsia not set up operations in Malaysia we would probably still be paying premium airfares to travel and in the same vein, more budget airlines in Asia simply means even more people can fly.

Whatever the motivation of these rivals, what matters to the traveller is safety, good service, low airfares, more baggage room and comfort. The fiercer the fight, hopefully, the lower the airfares.

❖ Kuala Lumpur

The rivalry between the two Tonys heading two budget airlines in the

region took an interesting turn last month—with AirAsia taking out a full-page colour advertise-ment chiding the Singapore-based Tiger Airways.

The advertisement, published in The Straits Times on October 19, depicted a cartoon caricature of a tiger cub on the bottom left with the words: “If tigers were meant to fly, they would be born with wings.”

AirAsia put out the advertise-ment after Tiger Airways had reportedly accused the AirAsia boss of making a racial slur with his “white guys” remark.

Tiger Airways, headed by British Tony Davis, had earlier expressed disappointment over AirAsia chief Tony Fernandes’ alleged racist remarks.

“We’re Asians, not a bunch of white guys running the airlines,” Fernandes was quoted as saying, and this caused the eruption of the war of words between the two Tonys.

According to reports, the Thai transport ministry had opposed the 51:49 joint venture between Thai Airways and Tiger Air-ways—with local industry players questioning the need since Thai Airways already has a 39 per cent share in Nok Air, Thailand’s budget airline.—The STar

The War Of The TonysNEW WAY OF FLYING: Customers line up to buy air tickets at the AirAsia sales counter at the KL International Airport in Sepang.

TIGERS CAN FLY: A man sits under a Tiger Airways advertisment while waiting for his departure at the airport in Singapore.

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Who Flies Better?

Maga2ine.info22 • November 5-18, 2010 November 5-18, 2010 • 23

BUSINESSBy Cris Evert Lato Philippine Daily Inquirer

❖ Cebu City

Over 100 students are at-tending this flight school based on Mactan Island in Cebu, Philippines. Training is rigorous. The

flight school does not take any short-cuts in making sure that its gradu-ates comply with the required num-ber of flight hours necessary for them to obtain licenses as commer-cial pilots.

But the news is—only five of the hundred students are Filipinos. The

majority come from countries in Asia, Middle East and even Africa.

Lately, Indonesians dominated the enrollees at Aviatour Flight School (Aviatour). They decided to come to Cebu to train after the aviation indus-try in their country announced op-portunities for them to work as pilots right after graduation.

The dismal turnout of Filipino en-rollees in an estimated 60 flight schools across the country and seven flight schools in Cebu is primarily brought about by the notion that

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“flight school is expensive”, says cap-tain. Jessup Bahinting, Aviatour chairman and chief executive officer.

“There are no available scholar-ships for prospective students. For those who do not know the industry well, they think that going to a flight school is expensive. In reality, it’s al-most the same (expenses) when (you send a student to) study medicine,” Bahinting says.

Parents’ mind-setA student will have to spend rough-

ly 2 million pesos (US$45,382) for a 10-month to one-year study in flight training, according to Bahinting. This include tuition, housing and dai-ly allowance for a student who does not live in Cebu.

Bahinting’s daughter, Jemar, who is currently president and chief oper-ating officer of Aviatour, says the situation is differ-ent in Indonesia where the job market for pilots would entice students to go to a flight school.

“ I n d o n e s i a n s c o m e here because there is an aviation market there. The six airlines there are waiting for these students to graduate and they will employ them immediate-ly,” she says.

Currently, Aviatour has 25 flight instructors and has gradu-ated over 200 since it started in 2006. It operates 35 Cessna 152 and Cessna 172 aircraft which are used for flight training.

Captain Bahinting said changing the mind-set of the parents to send their children to flight school is an-other major problem.

“Many parents will think about their return of investment. How fast will they get their money back. But I tell you, even if you work here, in our school, for example, as flight instruc-tor, you can earn better,” he says.

Flight instructors in Aviatour earn at least 100,000 pesos ($2,269) a month.

“They (parents) might get their in-vestment on the third or fourth year,” Bahinting says.

Another challenge is the lack of government support in terms of pro-viding scholarships for students, Kenneth Madrid, executive vice pres-ident for sales and marketing of the company, says.

In India, for instance, Bahinting says the government has partnered with a bank to give funds to po-tential pilots to study in a flight school. The scheme is similar to the “study now, pay later” pro-gramme, which most Philippine organisations have adopted.

“These potential students report to the airline company and the

company evaluates if they have potential to be future pilots. When they are given positive remarks from the airline, they are connected to a bank which will give them the loan,” Bahinting says.

“They will pay their loan through a salary deduction once they start working for the airline company.”

Worldwide prospectsAside from Filipinos, the current

crop of Aviatour students come from Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Pap-ua New Guinea, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Nepal, Oman, Yemen, Sau-di Arabia and Syria.

These issues should not discourage Filipinos from considering enrolling in a flight school, especially now that stricter rules are being implemented before allowing flight schools to con-tinue their operation.

“We are strictly following Icao (International Civil Aviation Or-ganisation) standards because we don’t want a one-shot business. We want repeat business. We do not do shortcuts. Quality is en-sured,” Madrid says.

“There is no hiding how good the students are because they can see the quality of the graduates (from the Philippines). This way, we are helping build the image of the Phil-ippines,” he adds.

C a p t a i n B a h i n t i n g s a y s t h e bright prospects for pilots abroad should encourage them to study even i f the local job market is still weak.

Citing recent aviation statistics, Bahinting said about 400,000 pi-lots would be needed in 20 years while 35,000 aircraft would be or-dered by airline companies world-wide in the next 10 years.

These developments indicate that demand from air travel would continue to grow in the succeeding years, Bahinting says. These should encourage Filipinos to start steer-ing the wheel and try flying.

The Business Of FlyingMany Indonesians and Indians go to flying schools in the Philippines but only a few Filipinos are enrolling

FLY HIGH: Pilot instructors brief journalists inside the cockpit of an Airbus A320 flight simulator in Sepang, Malaysia.

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INDONESIAN AVIATION: Two Garuda aircrafts, sporting the old (back) and the new (front) tail logo, is “back in business” and pushing on with expansion. Indonesians dominate the enrollees at Philippine flying schools as opportunities for them to work as pilots right after graduation are high in their country.

Maga2ine.info24 • November 5-18, 2010 November 5-18, 2010 • 25

CHANGING ASIA

By Rupak D. SharmaAsia News Network

❖ ZHUHAI, Guangdong

The sound of hammers banging on wooden planks greets visitors at Sunbird Yacht Company in Zhuhai, a coastal city

in China’s southern Guangdong province. Inside, several workers are fixing windows, cabinets and modern communication equip-ment to the freshly minted frames of yachts that will soon be dis-patched to various places inside and outside the country.

“This one will be sent to Seattle (in the US),” Victor Cheung, the tour guide and translator, says pointing to one of the many yachts sitting on an elevated metal plat-form. After taking a few steps, he points towards another luxury sailing vessel. “This one was ordered by a businessman from Inner Mongolia,” he says.

Then there is another one, which at 88 feet is going to be the biggest yacht ever built in China. “It costs 25 million yuan (US$3.7 million) and is being made for someone in Beijing,” Cheung says without elaborating, citing privacy reasons.

The company is now planning to build a 150-foot-long yacht worth around 100 million yuan ($14.9 million). “This will be one of the biggest yachts in the world,” Bai yin Li, vice president of Shenzhen stock exchange-list-ed Sunbird Yacht tells AsiaNews.

Sunbird is one of the emerging

companies in China that largely caters to people with deep pockets, both in the domestic and interna-tional markets. It manufactures products with advanced design and technology that not only offers greater performance, comfort and safety but also fits in with the lifestyle of today’s rich.

Hi-tech companies like these are exactly what the Guangdong government is looking for to fuel the province’s future growth.

Guangdong, which borders Hong Kong and Macau, is a prosperous province and is also known as the economic powerhouse of China. It has been at the forefront of the country’s economic boom and has been growing rapidly ever since opening up its economy to the world some three decades ago.

In these 30 years, the province’s economy has been growing at an average annual rate of 13.6 per cent. In the first eight months of 2010 alone its GDP stood at 2.73 trillion yuan ($408 billion)—higher than the annual GDP of many countries in Southeast Asia. If it moves ahead at the current pace, its economy is expected to overtake that of South Korea by 2012.

Statistically speaking, this is an astonishing feat. But this growth was attained largely with the help of labour-intensive manufacturing units that churn out inexpensive goods like apparel, footwear and toys. Now, the province fears these

very industries that shaped its economy may impair future growth.

Guangdong very well knows that it cannot always rely on the old model of driving the economy with the help of cheap labour. The province has felt the shortage of blue-collar workers this year and had to raise the wages partly due to pressure from workers and partly to attract migrant workers to this province. It also knows labour will eventually become more expensive over the years as more than 20 million of its migrant workers start seeking jobs near their hometowns which are also booming these days. This will only push labour-intensive manufacturing industries based here to other Southeast Asian countries like Viet Nam, Cambodia and even Laos. Such a situation will not only adversely affect the prov-ince but the entire country.

Lin Xiong, chief of publicity department of Guangdong Provin-cial Committee recently told an Asian media delegation that “a structural change is necessary for sustainable economic development of the province”. In other words, the province needs a new growth model based on which it can start the next phase of economic development.

To make this happen, the provin-cial government intends to “relocate all labour-intensive industries to other places”. “This will provide space for knowledge-based indus-tries,” Lin says. The catch-line here is: the government intends to attract hi-tech industries and turn the province into a centre for innovation.

This, no doubt, is an ambitious

Where There’s A Will, There’s Money

plan as it requires huge investments and a highly skilled work force. But the early works going on in many cities in the province show that transformation envisioned by the government is already taking shape.

For instance, in Zhuhai, where the yacht-building company is located, an aviation park has been established to attract aircraft manufacturing compa-nies. The park also aims to be one of the largest aircraft maintenance bases in Asia Pacific and provide a plat-form to hold biggest aviation exhibitions in the world.

Nearby, there's a shipbuilding company, a deepwater marine engineering equipment manu-facturing base and a hi-tech zone, which not only houses software developers but also renowned universities and is a hub for research and develop-ment activities.

A little further, a new town, called Henqin New Area, is being created, which will turn into a regional business service base with clean-tech clusters of ultra-modern convention and exhibition facilities and upscale hotels. This place—lo-cated just a stone’s throw away from Macau and several kilometres from Hong Kong—wants to capitalise on its proximity to these bustling cities and boost MICE (Meetings, Incen-tives, Conventions and Exhibitions) related tourism activities.

Then there is Guangzhou Devel-opment Zone, which has so far attracted 3,700 high-tech enter-prises and 285 research and devel-opment institutions. And in Foshan,

another city in Guangdong prov-ince, an industrial design city has recently been set up where more than 60 design companies are already engaged in the creative work of designing home and electronic appliances, vehicles, multi-storied buildings, furniture, communication terminal, and medical and industrial equipment.

Clearly, the global economic recession has not dampened the ambitions of the government. In fact, it is utilising this period to create a strong base. Side by side, it is also using this time to nurture talents and promote entrepreneurship.

In Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong province, the govern-ment has invested 16.5 billion yuan ($2.4 billion) to build a technology

industrial park to promote inde-pendent innovation and develop-ment of high-tech industry. Here, every leading talent can get a fund of 15 million yuan ($2.2 million) under the talent attraction programme.

Now, even small towns, like Guzhen in Zhongshan city, are jumping on the bandwagon of grooming talents by opening incubators and providing seed money equivalent to 20 per cent of the total investment cost to start-up companies. “We also provide subsidy on rents to start-up compa-nies and have invited instructors from Hong Kong to train our students,” Su Enming, mayor of Guzhen town tells AsiaNews.

The Guangdong government believes that all these efforts will work as a catalyst in creating a knowledge-based economy, which relies more on creativeness and innovation rather than the sweat of blue-collar workers.

But the problem, not only in this province but in entire China, is that very few people respect innovations and creations as copycats with prying eyes walk around like predators ready to make an attack on anything new that is launched in the market.

For instance, the Landmark Shopping Centre in Zhuhai is filled with replicas of Louis Vuitton, Adidas, Nike and even the latest models of Blackberries and iPhones. These fake products look so much

like the original ones a buyer cannot easily differentiate between the two goods.

Many foreign countries complain that China’s counter-feiting activities cause billions of dollars in losses to their businesses. And the US Trade Representative Office has listed China as one of the worst global intellectual property rights violators.

But only in October, the Chinese government said it will launch a six-month-long

national campaign to crackdown on copyright violations, which will target everything from fake high-tech goods to other consumer items.

What will be the outcome of the six-month-long campaign is still unknown but any delay in nabbing the violators may one day backfire, as China itself is now the fourth largest country to apply for patents after the US, Japan, Germany and South Korea.

The delay may also stifle domestic innovation and discourage compa-nies like Sunbird Yacht Company, which has registered 25 patents. This will ultimately derail the government’s plan of creating a knowledge-based economy.

China’s prosperous Guangdong province has embarked on the next phase of economic development with focus on creating a knowledge-based economy

IMPRESSIVE: Asian journalists take a look at the model of Henqin New Area in Zhuhai, a coastal city in southern China.

CONCRETE JUNGLE: This handout photo provided by Zhuhai government shows Zhuhai, a coastal city in southern China.

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Maga2ine.info26 • November 5-18, 2010 November 5-18, 2010 • 27

BUSINESSBy Qian YanfengChina Daily

❖ Beijing

China boasts more billion-aires than anywhere else in the world, according to the 2010 China Rich List.

The de facto Who’s Who of Chinese business, which is com-piled and analysed by Hurun Report, puts the number of people with a wealth of US$1 billion or more at “be-tween 400 and 500”, surpassing even the United States.

Yet, the big question today is not about the size of their wallets but the size of their hearts—and whether China’s super rich can measure up to Western philanthropic standards.

Although recent high-profile dona-tions suggest the answer might be yes, some billionaires, or yiwan fu-weng, still argue it is their duty to amass more money for themselves before they give it away to others.

About 50 of the country’s wealthiest were used as a litmus test of China’s generosity on September 29, when American billionaire philanthropists Bill Gates and Warren Buffett hosted a charity dinner in Beijing.

Before arriving, the duo had suc-cessfully convinced 40 US billion-aires to donate at least half of their wealth—as much as $125 billion—under the Giving Pledge Campaign launched in June.

Despite widespread media specula-tion that some Chinese tycoons avoided the Beijing dinner because they feared being pressured to do-nate, Gates and Buffett said in a news conference afterwards that more than two-thirds of those who were in-vited attended.

In fact, they went on to tell reporters

that wealthy Chinese have “no reluc-tance” in talking about philanthropy.

“I was amazed, really, at how similar the questions and discussions and all that was to the dinners we had in the US,” Buffett told the New York Times after returning Stateside. “The same motivations tend to exist. The mechanism for manifesting those motivations may differ from country to country.”

Chen Guangbiao, chairman of Ji-angsu Huangpu Renewable Resourc-es Utilisation, was the first in China to respond to the philanthropic call sent out by Gates and Buffett this year.

In an open letter to the pair posted on his company’s website on Septem-ber 5, Chen, who is 406th on the latest China Rich List, pledged that every penny of his fortune—approximately 5 billion yuan ($752 million)—will go to charity after his death.

He was followed by Feng Jun, pres-ident of Beijing Aigo Digital Technol-ogy, who pledged to donate every-thing to worthy causes before he dies.

All-out donation is nothing new in China. In April this year, Yu Pengni-an, an 88-year-old hotelier and real estate entrepreneur in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, gave 8.2 billion yuan ($1.23 billion) in assets to a charitable foundation he set up.

Yet, such cases are still rare in a coun-try where the elite has risen almost en-tirely from nothing over the last 30 years. In China, philanthropy still takes a back seat to the pursuit of wealth.

Many Chinese entrepreneurs, in-cluding Zong Qinghou, chairman and chief executive of China’s leading beverage maker, Wahaha Group, and No. 1 on this year’s Hurun Report

rich list, openly argue that accumu-lating larger fortunes is more impor-tant, as it helps raise the country’s employment rate and fosters eco-nomic growth.

“Although China ranks as the world’s largest luxury market, among many other areas, philanthropy is still a young sector here,” said Deng Guosheng, deputy director of Tsing-hua University’s Non-Governmental Organisation Research Centre.

Charitable donations in China reached a record high of 107 billion yuan ($16 billion) in 2008, equal to 0.36 per cent of gross domestic prod-uct (GDP), according to figures from the civil affairs ministry. However, much of that money came after the 8-magnitude earthquake that year in Sichuan province and went to relief funds for victims.

In China, the combined total of donations made in 2007 and 2009 was roughly 60 billion yuan ($9 billion). In the US, where per cap-ita GDP is 10 times more than that of China, charities receive an an-nual average of $300 billion.

“The Chinese don’t lack a culture of giving, historically,” explained Deng, “but the rapid accumulation of wealth (fueled by) the economic and social transformation of the past few dec-ades has made China’s nouveau riche indulgent in fortune, rather than made them think about charity.”

Wealthy people are also less willing to donate for fear of being pushed into the media spotlight and having their motives questioned, he added.

Many of the rich and famous in China have been scrutinised despite their proclaimed good intentions.

Chen once sparked controversy when he stood behind a wall of bank notes to announce his charity trip to poor rural areas in the western regions of China.

He later said the move was de-signed to put pressure on others and spearhead a change in values.

“With the widening gap between rich and poor, China’s wealthy class has become resented and, in many cases, misunderstood,” said Deng. “If they don’t donate, they are consid-

ered indifferent; if they give money away, there must be a selfish motive behind it.

“How can that social men-tality encourage philanthro-py?” he asked.

Ultimately, China has yet to build a healthy environment for chari-ty, one that fosters an active and reputable community of founda-tions that can act as a plat-form for the rich and gener-al public to help people in need, say experts.

Although there are no specific laws or regulations banning the establishment of public founda-tions, in practice most applications fail unless the organisation is affiliat-ed with a government department.

Those that actually acquire support from an authority and get the green light to collect donations are subject to official expropriation and tend to lose credibility with the public, said Deng.

Examples abound of public foun-dations falling short of expectation and even being found to be involved in corruption.

Three months after the massive earthquake hit Yushu, a Tibetan au-tonomous prefecture in Qinghai prov-ince and five government departments jointly issued a circular requiring all public foundations to pass on dona-tions to the provincial government for “better and more efficient distribution of disaster relief funds”.

The circular specified the use, man-agement, distribution, supervision and reporting of the funds.

Despite the document’s clarity, the move triggered a heated debate in the charity sector, with many arguing that authorities “should not intervene in the operation of charity founda-tions”, as it would be difficult to ef-fectively supervise the flow of money.

Shenzhen entrepreneur Yu said he also learned hard lessons some years ago when he found that ambulances he donated to several hospitals in inland provinces had been converted into se-dans to chauffeur government officials.

“Very few of China’s growing num-ber of charity organisations and foun-dations tell donors where their money has gone. It’s easy for local authorities to take advantage of that,” said Yu.

Deng agreed: “It’s not that the wealthy don’t want to donate money, they just don’t believe in the independ-ence of public foundations in China, which have long been blamed for a lack of transparency and efficiency.”

Efforts to operate independent of government agencies is also difficult, such as in the case of the One Founda-tion, which was launched in 2007 by Chinese movie star Li Lianjie—better known as Jet Li—as a project attached to the Red Cross Society of China.

In an interview last month with China Central Television, Li said the One Foundation—so called because of the idea that everyone can afford to donate 1 yuan every month—had hit a bottleneck in its development as it could not get approval to register as a public foundation.

The charitable group could be heading for a premature end, Li warned, explaining that once its three-year contract with the Red Cross expires it will be prevented from direct public fundraising.

Even though it is affiliated with the Red Cross, Li said the One Founda-

tion still does not enjoy the full rights to use the donations it re-

ceives, and is also hindered by other restrictions.

“Philanthropy must overcome the institutional challenges in

order to mature,” said Xu Yongguang, secretary-general

of the Narada Foundation, a private organisation spon-sored by Shanghai Narada

Group that is committed to public welfare projects.Meanwhile, China’s tax system

also works against the development of philanthropic practices, Xu said. As a private foundation, Narada pays in-come tax if its fund makes a gain, per-

haps from an investment, said the secretary-general.

Meanwhile, a company donor is only entitled to a maximum tax reduc-

tion equal to 12 per cent of its annual profits if the money is not given to a government-backed public founda-tion, the number of which is very few.

“The government is treating pri-vate foundations like profit-driven enterprises, which undoubtedly scares many wealthy people away from establishing private founda-tions to help the needy,” said Xu.

China has only 1,000 public foun-dations and about 800 private ones, according to official statistics re-leased at the end of last year. The lat-ter has been developing at a fast rate in recent years, said Xu, who urged the government to take the opportu-nity by tapping further into the pri-vate capital of the wealthy class. Chi-na also lacks inheritance tax to push the rich to do the good, he added.

For Deng, the country still needs to mobilise the general public if philan-thropy is going to mature.

Almost 60 per cent of donations in China come from businesses or the wealthy elite, while in the US more than 70 per cent comes from the public.

“We should realise that philanthro-py is not a privilege of the rich but the responsibility of all,” added Deng. “Charity is not just about giving your money away—it can be in the form of any voluntary work, however small.”

China’s Charity DilemmaThe big question today is not about the size of their wallets but the size of their hearts—and whether China’s super rich can measure up to Western philanthropic standards

Maga2ine.info28 • November 5-18, 2010 November 5-18, 2010 • 29

P H I L I P P I N E SLIFESTYLEBy Monette QuioguePhilippine Daily Inquirer

❖ Manila

They seem to have come out of nowhere. Suddenly print ads, TV commercials, highway billboards and magazine fashion spreads

are abloom with these beautifully tanned models who kind of look Fili-pino, only with more chiseled fea-tures. Some have even broken into the Philippine entertainment scene.

Who are these people?They’re Brazilian models, in case

you’ve been hiding under a rock. And they just happen to be the hottest bearer of glad tidings in the local ad-vertising industry.

But are all those things we’ve heard about them true? That they’re, like, liv-ing five or six to a small room, barely surviving and thus offering floor prices for modelling services? Or that they’re actually ready to offer more than mod-elling services? That they’re really the Latin version of the dumb blonde, all looks and no brains, and ready to un-dersell the profession just to get by.

Not! When I sat down with Brazil-ian Daniel Matsunaga, Vanessa Matsu-naga, Derik Lopes, Fabio Ide and Francine Pantaleao for a chat, I didn’t quite know what to expect. But con-trary to popular perception, I found instead a welcoming group of young beautiful people who turned out to be very candid, very funny and very sweet. No stereotypes here.

Daniel, Vanessa, and Francine have been in the country for almost eight months now and have previ-ously modelled around Asia. But why leave Brazil at all?

Explains Vanessa: “We love to travel together. This is a way to travel and earn a living.” It’s that simple, it seems. Modelling gives them the chance to explore the world, visit new places, meet new people, and make money at the same time. Sums up Derik, who’s been to the Philip-pines three times for modelling as-signments: “It’s a good life.”

So what makes them so popular in the Philippines?

Perhaps it’s their mixed racial herit-age that allows them to fit into a vari-ety of markets. A number of Brazil-ians who have made it big in the Asian fashion circle have Japanese blood, like Akihiro Sato, Daniel and Vanessa Matsunaga and Fabio Ide.

But why come to the Philip-pines, which isn’t exactly a fash-ion capital in Asia?

Fabio puts it bluntly: “There are good jobs and good budgets in the Philippines. Print ads and com-mercials pay well.”

Plus, they like the fact that English is spoken widely in the country, un-like in China or Thailand. This makes it much easier for them to communicate when they travel around the country. “There are also

a lot of similarities with Brazil,” Fabio adds. “We feel comfortable here.” Unlike in other markets, they also think that models in the Philippines are treated very well. Derik explains, “There are countries where you are treated like robots. Because you’re paid by the hour, they rush you to do the most work in one hour.”

The route to the Philippines has been pretty straightforward as well. The models contact a scouter in Brazil whom they refer to as their Mother Agency. They sign up with this Mother Agency, which then acts as an intermediary and hooks them up with modelling agencies abroad.

If a foreign agency is interested in booking their services, it pays for their airfare and flies them to other coun-tries: the Philippines, Hong Kong, Sin-gapore or Thailand. They are expected to work off their travel and living ex-penses. The local agency takes a per-centage of their earnings, while the Mother Agency takes 10 per cent.

Jonas Gaffud, owner of Mercator Model and Artist Management, the agency that oversees the careers of some of the top local and Brazilian models in the Philippines, says that the Brazilian Invasion started around 2004. Mercator has in its roster some of the top Brazilian models in the Philip-pines, including Akihiro Sato. Merca-tor is perceived to handle only Brazil-ian models, but they also manage top Filipino models, among them Rocky Salumbides and Lia Andrea Ramos.

Jonas says his agency has managed around 30 models since it started han-dling Brazilian models. The agency takes care of their travel and living ex-penses and even provides a monthly allowance, which the models pay off from their bookings. This allows the models to have a secure living arrange-ment while trying to break into the local scene. The agency also puts all its models, local and foreign, through training programmes including acting and singing workshops. After all, a model’s success contributes as much to the agency’s success, Jonas points out.

The agency also takes care of get-ting them the appropriate work per-mits from the bureau of immigration.

These permits have to be renewed every two months. “We have an inter-national desk,” Jonas explains, “that arranges the paperwork so that the models can stay and work legally.”

This is not the case for the entire industry, however. There are some agents who don’t secure legal working papers for their models. In 2008, a fashion show was raided by immigra-tion officials because of a tip that some of the foreign models didn’t have the proper papers. And they did in fact catch two.

Unfortunately, not all Brazilian models that come over make it. The agency then writes off the loss as part of the cost of doing business.

Sometimes, the Brazilian models are misunderstood, adds Jonas. Just like in any other city, some folk like to be

seen with beautiful people, so they invite the models to parties and treat them out. And the Brazilians are then labelled as freeloaders by those who do not know the back story.

The models themselves admit that it’s easy to make mistakes, especially when you don’t know any better. Va-nessa recalls when she was just new in the industry, she was booked by an agency for a stock photo shoot for a client in the United Kingdom. The photos become part of a photo library that can be purchased for a variety of lay-outs and advertisements. These photo libraries are widely used by advertising agencies for their ad cam-paigns and eliminate the need for photo shoots.

But the models aren’t paid when their photos are used. They are paid a minimal amount upfront during the shoot, but have no control about how the photos are used. Says Vanessa, “My pictures end up with clients I don’t know about.” Fabio adds, “It’s bad for the model. You are surprised when you suddenly see yourself on a billboard.” Newer models sign on for these jobs because they don’t know any better.

Still, the biggest hurdle that Brazil-ian models have faced in the country is the charge that they take jobs away from Filipino models. Asked about the Professional Models Association of the Philippines (PMAP)’s objection to Brazilian models in the country, Jonas replies, “There are also Filipino models who have penetrated other

markets, like Rocky Salumbides. We’re not a globalised economy if we don’t have foreign models. (But) we respect the PMAP.”

The Brazilian models see it differ-ently. Explains Daniel, “Wherever you go, there are foreign models. Even in Brazil.” Vanessa adds that in go-sees and casting calls, it’s an even playing field. Everyone, whether Filipino or Brazilian, has the same chances. “We all attend the same castings. You just have to make sure you’re the best and you get the job.” Regardless of race. Says Derik with a laugh, “If you want to see competition, go to Brazil.”

For all the glamour that modelling seems to afford them, the Brazilian models confess to feeling homesick.

Working abroad means they don’t get to go home as often as they’d like, although they try to see their families at least once a year. But it isn’t always easy. The airfare is around US$2,000, and the nature of their job doesn’t al-low for much forward planning. Vaca-tions have to be planned around their work. Derik was planning to go home last year but ended up missing his flight because he had an assignment. This is probably why they tend to bond with other Brazilian models and form new ‘family units’. Vanessa and Daniel spent Christmas in Manila last year and invited their friends over for their own holiday celebration.

But modelling offers them perks no other jobs could, the models admit. Fabio cites the exclusive contract that he had with a Japanese magazine,

Gainer, for which he did several covers. Being half-Japanese, it allowed him to live in the coun-try that’s part of his her-itage and establish him-self there. Francine recalls how much fun she had doing the beach fashion shows in Can-cun, Mexico. Daniel re-members the assign-ments he got when he was working in Hong-Kong and Manila. He also recently tried acting as part of GMA-7 net-

work’s fantasy-series The Last Prince.But modelling isn’t a lifetime plan,

the models reveal. Most models, says Vanessa, work for several years then go back to Brazil to settle down. It’s a good way to save money for your fu-ture, maybe go back to university and get a “real job”. In the meantime, modelling allows them to meet differ-ent kinds of people, who give them the kind of education they couldn’t have gotten in school.

“I really don’t know how long we’ll be doing this,” says Daniel.

A good guess: As long as the world needs beautiful faces to grace fashion shows, print ads and TV commer-cials, there will always be a place for the pretty boys and girls from Brazil.

Pretty Boys (& Girls) From BrazilAcross AsiA, the ArrivAl of imported models in the locAl scene is both A boom And A bAne to the modelling industry

EYE CANDIES: Brazilian models (from L-R) Derik Lopes, Daiana Meneses, Francine Pantaleao, Daniel Matsunaga and Fabio Ide are in-demand in the Philippines.

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Maga2ine.info30 • November 5-18, 2010 November 5-18, 2010 • 31

❖ Jakarta

There is no escaping the presence of foreign mod-els in Indonesian maga-zines or on billboards throughout Jakarta.

Their white skin and angular good looks match the current trend in Indonesia, as well as on the runways of the world, even though some industry insiders complain that local models should be given priority.

In the local fashion industry, de-mand is particularly high for mod-els from Uzbekistan. Their look is not so northern European as to be alien to Indonesians. Their angu-lar faces and high cheekbones are a blend of Asia and Europe, and they have the height and pale skin that the industry desires.

“They are very suitable for the industry here,” a personal assistant at modelling agency Victory Talent Management (VTM) said. “The look of their faces is not totally foreign and that’s what the clients want here and why they are so suitable for our market.”

How do the models feel about their Indonesian experience?

Polina Ptukhina, 20, and Diana Bikbayeva, 19, both from Uzbeki-stan, sat in VTM’s kitchen. The pair were two normal—if very pretty and photogenic women—chatting over coffee. From time to time they went into a huddle, gig-gling and laughing.

For Polina, it is her second time in Indonesia.

“I came here almost one year ago for three months, and this time I am staying for four months.”

She started modelling at the age of 14. She went to modelling school where she learned how to

walk the catwalk and to pose for photo shoots. She had fitness training and was coached by psy-chologists and professional actors.

In Polina’s eyes this was a good introduction to the demands of the business.

“It is hard work as a model. When you are 14 you don’t have enough experience about what could be dangerous if you meet the wrong people.”

In contrast, Diana started mod-elling without attending a special school. She attended design school and one day, at the age of 16, was simply called by a model agency in Uzbekistan.

“They said I should come to their office to show some photos and introduce myself. Then I started to work as a model.”

She did a few modelling jobs in Taiwan, but took a break to finish college. Resuming work as a mod-el, her first stop was Jakarta.

“I’ve been here for five and a half months now and will only stay for two more weeks,” she said.

Both young women said they liked working in Indonesia.

“I love the Indonesian people,” Polina said. “Generally, people in the modelling industry are very superficial. Here I feel like I’m getting a real smile. Every-body is so friendly.”

“Every day I have different jobs and I meet a lot of nice people,” Diana said.

They also praised the profes-sionalism of the local industry.

“It is really relaxed to work here,” Polina said. “When you’re coming to a set for a shoot, every-thing is prepared.”

It also helps that work is avail-able in abundance. The pair had

By Maren HoepnerThe Jakarta Post

Foreign Models At Home In Jakarta

❖ Manila

For a number of Filipinos born with the right genes and willing to work odd or flexible hours, becoming a ramp or advertising model

in the Philippines used to be a very lucrative way to earn serious money. A hardworking newbie model could eas-ily earn 200 per cent more than a fresh business graduate. And with profes-sional fees fetching up to 10,000 pesos (US$230) for a fashion ramp gig to an advertising contract in the millions, modelling was the ‘golden ticket’ for many young and beautiful Filipinos.

That is, until the ‘Brazilian invasion’.Discovered and brought into the

country by enterprising modelling agencies, Brazilian nationals have started to turn the modelling market upside down, not only because of their gorgeous physique and dazzling mixed features, but also because of their willingness to work reportedly at 80 per cent less than their local counterparts. A Filipino model, whose rates range anywhere from 5,000 pe-sos ($115) to 10,000 pesos ($230) per show, could easily be upstaged by a Brazilian model who allegedly accepts fees as low as 1,500 pesos ($35) a gig.

A call to a local agency that manages or works closely with Brazilian models to verify this claim yielded scant infor-mation. “We’re not allowed to divulge the rates of Brazilian models, but on paper, the professional fees for Brazil-ians and Filipinos are the same,” was the curt reply we got. It’s a vague an-swer that does nothing to clarify the issue. But then again, it is quite accept-able in the industry for models to be

flexible with their fees, depending on the products and services they are be-ing asked to represent.

Since the boom in the late ’80s and ’90s, the demand for upcoming Fili-pino models has gone into a slow de-cline, as the jobs got harder to come by. Soon enough, even modelling fees started to plunge dramatically. The pinnacle gig—a regional or four-coun-try commercial lock-out beauty con-tract—which at one time could easily net a million pesos, is now a hard sell at 200,000 pesos, minus the agent’s 30 per cent commission.

By 2008, Filipino models were look-ing to darker times ahead—and the global recession had yet to hit. Still refusing to buckle down, the Profes-sional Models Association of the Phil-ippines (PMAP) mounted a show dubbed ‘Modelong Pinoy’ (Filipino mod-el) within the year, hoping to recap-ture the market’s wandering attention with their professionalism and call to national pride. The event got its fair share of press and public notice, but did little to alter the fact that the Bra-zilians have continued to get more work for less pay.

Despite some of the Brazilian mod-els’ allegedly unprofessional behav-iour, like smoking in dressing rooms, carelessness with the outfits and brat-ty behaviour, they have continued to be hot and much in demand. Even the glaring fact that some of them were working without the necessary labour permits barely caused a ripple in government offices. The PMAP re-portedly contacted the immigration office to apprise them of the situation, only to get a response from this gov-

ernment office along the lines of them having “bigger issues to deal with than the mere source of bread and butter (among foreign models)”.

The Filipino models have thus faced the reality of having to get down and dirty and political, aligning them-selves with someone willing to fight their cause.

It does not help at all that they do not even know who the actual enemy is. Surely not the barely 20-year-old Brazilian models who are only trying to earn a living, most of them being breadwinners. Or could it possibly be their agents, who invest heavily on these Brazilian beauties in terms of advancing money for their airfare and living expenses, and hoping to get a good ROI from their pretty cash cows before they hop to their next destina-tion, perhaps to pursue further stud-ies, or seek bigger price tags in search of other dreams?

“(But) a lot of the Filipino models are breadwinners, too, and they’re losing a lot of jobs to these Brazilian models who charge lower fees,” Bian-ca Valerio of the PMAP, says. The fashion show scene is a very small world and there isn’t an endless sup-ply of jobs to go around, she explains. “The sad part, though, is that we are actually losing jobs because of other Filipinos, because these Brazilians are represented by Filipino agents who negotiate for lower fees.”

The PMAP acknowledges, though, that with the global recession and ad spending on a downward spiral, big business can hardly be faulted for opting to go cheap on talent fees. It’s a no-win situation at the

Tall And Tan And Young And... Much, Much Cheaper

P H I L I P P I N E S / I N D O N E S I ALIFESTYLEBy Leica Carpo & Monette QuioguePhilippine Daily Inquirer

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moment and no one seems willing to move an inch either way.

“Sometimes it feels like a lost cause because it’s not about our looks (a model’s currency),” says Valerio. “But price should not just be the issue. We can’t lower our standards, and we can’t and won’t compete that way.”

Industry observers have also noted that, perhaps because they come from a different culture, Brazilians are less inhibited than Filipinos and are more flexible when it comes to lay-outs. For instance, Filipino models often charge a slightly higher talent fee for swimsuit ads or fashion shows where they bare more skin, but Brazilians charge the same fees, no matter the skin exposure involved. From a busi-ness perspective, it makes sense to go with the Brazilian.

But price is not always the issue, some advertising executives argue. As one Creative Director explains: “(It all) depends on the requirement and the overall look, of course. Casting is very crucial for the success of an ad. Personally, I don’t look at the nation-ality to pick out talents. I go for the overall look of the models. If they look the part, regardless of their na-tionality, then they deserve the role.”

Local designers largely remain noncommittal when it comes to the race or ethnicity issue. They claim to choose models based on who can showcase their designs better, regardless of whether they’re Filipino or Brazilian.

Designer Len Nepomuceno-Guiao, admits: “I like that there are new fac-es to choose from.”

Rajo Laurel, on the other hand, can-didly shares: “It’s healthy to have for-eign models—it makes our models more competitive. My choice really depends on the needs of the campaign, but if it were all up to me, I would choose Filipino.”

For now there doesn’t seem to be any easy answers. No matter how hard the local models’ union PMAP stamps its stiletto and knocks on doors to register its protest, the fact remains that Filipino models have stumbled and are being crushed underfoot by a veritable Brazilian invasion.

Maga2ine.info32 • November 5-18, 2010 November 5-18, 2010 • 33

❖Seoul

Decked in a black silk jack-et fixed with an antique butterfly pin, black skirt and black Mary Jane shoes, hanbok designer

Lee Young-hee excitedly thrust a pho-to of Miyuki, wife of former Japanese Prime Minister Hatoyama, as soon as she sat down in her boutique, Maison de Lee Young-hee, in Sinsa-dong, southern Seoul.

In the photo taken only a few weeks ago, Miyuki is happily serving food at a festival held in Tokyo, wear-ing a dark pink and violet hanbok, or Korean traditional costume, embroi-dered with flowers designed by Lee.

“Doesn’t she look pretty? I so want-ed to dress her in hanbok. It made me feel very good to know that she was extremely interested in our culture she loves kimchi so much that she always has packs of it in her refrigera-tor!” Lee told The Korea Herald.

Her excitement was completely un-derstandable, as Lee is the one who introduced hanbok to the world and cleared its name from being 'Kimono Coree' a name a French journalist who did not know any better gave to hanbok in the early 1990s, making a hasty decision that it was inspired from the Japanese traditional costume. Better yet, Lee had hanbok nicknamed “costume of the wind“ after enthral-ling the media numerous times with her dazzling hanbok fashion shows.

Lee, the first-ever Korean designer to participate in Pret-a-Porter Paris in 1993 and the first-ever hanbok designer to showcase in Paris Haute Couture, is one of the most famous hanbok de-signers in Korea and arguably the best-known one in the world.

With her flawless style, perfectly set hair and makeup, constant girly giggles

and her overflowing ener-gy, it was hard to believe that she is 74 years old.

She used to sell bed-dings but natura l ly stepped into the hanbok business when she was 40, besieged by requests from her customers. They were fascinated with the naturally-dyed colour of the hanbok Lee made with some leftover fabrics. It is actually Lee’s use of colours that later on captivated Parisians and New Yorkers as well.

“When I do some-thing, I have to do it per-fectly. I just could not find the colours I wanted, no matter how frequently I searched Dongdaemun or any other markets, so I invented my own col-ours by naturally dying the materials. I always worked hard because the business is so much fun and here I am now,” said Lee.

She learned her colours from her mother, who never used plain white fabric but dyed everything using natu-ral materials, like gardenia seeds and nut shells. Ever since she could re-member, Lee used to hang around her mother, dip fabric in natural dye and discuss the colours. Colours have sim-ply been a big part of her life.

Talent, however, is not enough for success. Another thing that keeps Lee going is her audacity. She is always up to trying something innovative some-thing no one had dared to do before.

She seized the chance to hold a show in Washington in 1983 and paved her way, fiercely, to participate in the 1993 Pret-a-Porter in Paris. She opened Lee Young-hee Museum in New York in 2004 and was honoured

in 2007 to store 16 of her hanbok at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History for the next 100 years.

She has held more than 500 fashion shows and dressed a myriad of celeb-rities and high-profile figures includ-ing the presidents from 21 countries who visited Korea for the Apec meet-ing in 2005.

“Why try easy things when you go for more difficult goals? If I must say, maybe my talent is that I recognised how wonderful our tradition is, when nobody else noticed it,” said Lee.

Lee, also dubbed pioneer of hanbok’s globalisation, said that about 80 per cent globalisation has been achieved.

“It was me, all alone. I never had any support from the government. And the problem is that no one even realises how much achievement has been made,” said Lee.

“The world is eyeing our culture now. There should be some fellow designers or juniors that I should be working with, but there isn’t a single hanbok designer who shares my thoughts.”

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By Park Min-youngThe Korea Herald

Enthralling The World With Hanbok

The designer with one of her signature 'costume of the wind' hanbok.

been booked almost every day.“In Uzbekistan the modelling in-

dustry is not so good,” Polina said. “Here in Indonesia there are a lot of really good magazines so that you can get a very professional and var-ied portfolio.” In her eyes, Indonesia is a great country for starting a modelling portfolio.

“I think I came too late to Indo-nesia,” she laughs. “I should have started here.”

When asked why Uzbek models were so popular in Indonesia, Polina said it might have something to do with their attitude to work.

“In Uzbekistan the economic situ-ation is not very good. That is why we have a hard-worker mentality.

We always give 100 per cent and want to give our best,” she added.

Diana was earning money to con-tinue her university education. She wants to study in Uzbekistan and become a designer. Being a model allows her to meet and network with designers.

Polina also needs money to study. “I study psychology at university,”

she said. “I can bring my books while travelling for modelling, but every two to three months I have to go back to Uzbekistan to take ex-ams.” She said she wanted to pursue a career in sports psychology.

The models also loved the free-dom of travelling.

“It is so hard to get from Uzbeki-stan to anywhere,” Diana said. “Modelling is a great chance to trav-el and to meet so many different and interesting people.”

The women’s modelling agency in Uzbekistan has contracts with agen-cies in other countries, such as VTM, to send models abroad. Polina has already been to Japan, Hong Kong and Korea. She likes to slip into different roles, she said.

“I love to change and be dif-ferent.”

Both models said they felt com-fortable in Indonesia—most of the time. Polina said that sometimes she was a little nervous when she walked alone in the street and men stared or shouted at her.

“I know that they won’t touch me

and mean no harm, but I still feel a bit uncomfortable.”

Diana said she had not experi-enced everyday harassment.

“I feel more comfortable here in the streets than in Uzbekistan,” she said. “In my home country men also touch me sometimes and are more offensive.”

Similar to Indonesia, Uzbekistan is a predominantly Muslim country. In some ways, the models found it easy to adapt to Indonesian culture.

“I know four girls who came to Indonesia for modelling, but now live here because they got married to Indonesians,” Polina said.

Asked if they had free time in Ja-karta, the women again giggled.

“Yes, sometimes we have free time,” Diana said.

What do they do? “Shopping, of course,” she said.

“Or we go to the cinema or just swim in the pool,” Polina added.

At the end o f the day, th e young models are just normal care free g ir l s who are mak ing money for the future.P

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Foreign models in Indonesian designer Biyan’s as ‘Time Goes By’ fashion show.

Maga2ine.info34 • November 5-18, 2010 November 5-18, 2010 • 35

FOODBy Jean OhThe Korea Herald

micro-blogging service Twitter as his way to alert potential customers of the whereabouts of his new enterprise, grill5taco.

“The response, at first, wasn’t great,” Kim told The Korea Herald.

“On our first day, we only sold two tacos,” said grill5taco manager Hong Won-ki, giving a clear picture of their abysmal launch.

But their obscurity was short-lived—within 10 days their business started to take off and within a month-and-a half they were at the point where they would have to pack up and go home after three hours. Why? Because they were sold out.

What is it about grill5taco’s snack-style fare that has been prompting crowds (the grill5taco Twitter account currently lists 4,821 followers) to line up in front of the establishment’s truck?

Is it the quaint cream-coloured, chocolate brown-lettered vintage van? Is it the dapper owner-chef and his posse of employees? Is it the hansik-based tacos, burritos and quesadillas or is it the novelty factor?

The Korea Herald got a taste of the grill5taco experience to see what all the fuss is about.

There is something inherently charming about the van—an old-fashioned vehicle that conjures up memories of ice cream trucks. The top opens out to reveal a lean metal counter top, cans of soda and two guys busy grilling up some double spicy chicken tacos in the back.

Within minutes, a small paper container bearing two small tortillas chock full of fiery bits of marinated chicken, shredded and seasoned red and green cabbage, finely grated cheese and the truck’s signature gochujang salsa roja is handed out. Two wedges of fresh lemon come with the dish, ready to be squeezed and drizzled over the tacos.

Accompanied by a can of Coke, the tacos prove highly addictive.

Though the tortillas would be better heated up, the nubs of chicken are phenomenal. Modelled after the Korean dish, buldak (fire chicken), the meat is spicy, smoky and ever-so slightly sweet. The vinegary, nutty cabbage, the creamy, tangy gochujang salsa gives it all this great kick, while the lemon juice adds a tart, and absolutely crucial, note to Kim’s creations.

Their fast food is not fast, per se. “We marinate our meat for eight hours,” said Kim.

Even the kimchi that serves as the base for their popular kimchi quesadillas—a blend of cheese, spicy pork and the pickled cabbage—is made from scratch.

It helps that Kim’s mother runs a hansik restaurant. But that is only the tip of the iceberg. After DJing for 12 years, the owner-chef went straight into the food vendor business and discovered that cooking ran in his genes.

He dabbled in Japanese snacks and then in a snack franchise before moving onto grill5taco, racking up expertise in the art of street cuisine.

Now, with a booming business on his hands, Kim is looking into opening a grill5taco store in December.

For now, the best way to catch Kim, his posse and his tacos is to follow their Twitter account, twitter.com/grill5taco, and visit their blog, grill5.tistory.com.

Kim and his truck can currently be seen at festivals and events, but he promises to hit the streets in the future.

Dishes cost around 5,000 won (US$4.45) to 12,000 won ($10.60). On offer are currently short rib, spicy pork, double spicy chicken tacos and burritos, and kimchi quesadillas. Soda costs 1,000 won (88 US cents).

❖Seoul

Remember the craze set off by Kogi Korean BBQ-To-Go? The Los Angeles-based tweeting taco truck that loads up tortillas with Korean barbecue

meat and sells them on-the-go started a trend that spread through America like wildfire. Now, the Korean-style taco has hit Korea; truck, Twitter and all.

Inspired by Kogi, which he discovered on local TV, former DJ Kim Hyun-chul decided to give the genre a go and infuse the concept with his own style.

It wasn’t easy. Since he had never gotten a taste

of a Kogi taco, he had to start from square one.

It took the 37-year-old owner-chef a year to get his recipes, his truck and everything else together. Then, in the second week of July, he hit the streets with a vintage step van, armed with the

NOVELTY: grill5taco owner-chef Kim Hyun-chul brings his Korean-style tacos to Seoulites via a vintage step van that conjures up memories of old-fashioned ice cream trucks.

Korean Tacos Arrive, Truck Included

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Maga2ine.info36 • November 5-18, 2010 November 5-18, 2010 • 37

FOODBy ZiemanThe Star

❖ Kuala Lumpur

Nasi Ambeng (pronounced ‘um-bng’) is a special rice dish, similar to Nasi Cam-pur (mixed rice), which is popular among the Ja-

vanese. It is a grand dish which is usually

served during special occasions like Ramadan (Muslim fasting month), weddings, kenduri (Muslim thanksgiv-ing) and anniversaries.

The dish is divided into four por-tions: Rice, fried noodles, chicken/beef, and serunding/tempe (tofu and

soybean mix). The main portion of the dish is

steamed rice while the side dishes could be anything from fried tempe; fried tofu; serunding kelapa (savoury co-conut) ; ayam kicap (chicken in soysauce); fried long beans; vermicelli noodles and tofu; and fried brinjals

(Indian eggplant) with dried prawns among other things.

More often, the bitter malinjo or em-peng crackers and a kind of mango sam-bal (chilli) will accompany this rice.

A generous amount of rice is placed in the centre of a dulang or large plat-ter which is lined with banana leaf. This serving is normally shared by a group of four to eight people. Lefto-vers are packed and taken home.

Nasi Ambeng is normally eaten by hand and the standard practice is to sit around the platter on a mat. And that’s why it is called a communal

dish. Nowadays, the por-

tions vary with other interesting side dish-es. They even have takeaway Nasi Ambeng which is packed like nasi lemak bungkus (co-conut rice with an-chovies) except the packets are much larger.

According to Ma-laysian celebrity chef Redzuawan Ismail, the speciality of Nasi

Ambeng’s gravy lies in the spices which should be pounded or grinded the old fashioned way.

“That’s the crux of a beautiful-ly-flavoured Nasi Ambeng. You should not use a blender to grind the spices in order to retain the au-thentic f lavours,” said the famous

cook who is also known as chef Wan. He added, “It is an authen-tic Javanese dish and is normally served and shared on a dulang.

“Nasi Ambeng is to be shared among four, six or even eight people sitting on the floor. Men normally sit sepa-rately from the women and they all eat with their hands in true commu-nal style,” said chef Wan.

According to chef Wan, the rice was often packed in a container called takir, which is made of banana leaves, in the good old days.

“These days, it’s difficult to get ta-kir so they opt for plastic containers. The secret of Nasi Ambeng not only lies in its spices, preparation or the name but in its history.

“History has it that Nasi Ambeng is a kind of evidence for jealous wives. Wives are pleased when their hus-bands take home leftover Nasi Ambeng as prove that they were at a kenduri (thanksgiving feast) and not anywhere else,” said chef Wan.

It is said that the bond between the people who prepare this rice dish is enhanced and further strengthened as they eat the dish together. For chef Wan, the experience of eating Nasi Ambeng is immensely intimate.

“There is a certain joy which cannot be explained when you share this gastronomical delight with many people. As you eat with your hands, you talk and exchange pleasantries . This enforces the bond between us,” he said.

Communal DishSome call it an extravagant Javanese dish while others regard it as a stylish ‘togetherness rice’

❖ Beijing

Food lovers in China's capi-tal can certainly take their pick from the masses of Si-chuan restaurants on offer, a figure that seems to ex-

pand daily, but getting hold of au-thentic cuisine is not so easy.

That’s why the opening of Yi restaurant, by Sichuan native Zhou Yuanyi, is helping to warm the hearts of many spice-lovers on these chilly autumn days.

“They don’t make any authentic Sichuan dishes,” said 22-year-old

Zhou, referring to chefs at other Sichuan restaurants. She added that her chefs also sometimes don’t listen to her because of her age.

Zhou said her family has owned a restaurant in Lhasa, capital of the Tibet autonomous region, for decades . Growing up between Sichuan and Tibet explains the inf luences in some of her dishes.

Her eyes sparkle when she discuss-es old recipes from her grandmother or the various spices she incorporates into her cooking. Several times she

stopped in the mid-dle of describing a dish to run to her kitchen and grab a sample of something that words alone couldn’t justly ex-plain.

First on the list to try was Mizhi Xiao Niurou, a tender braised beef, thinly sliced and arranged between slivers of cu-cumber, then served

with a Tibetan sauce.

This unique sauce is a blend of f e n n e l s e e d s g rown in the highlands of Ti-bet—which has a minty flavor and a powerful aroma akin to cumin—as well as ground Si-chuan chillies and

some of her grandmother’s homemade broadbean chilli paste.

Next up was Yuxiang Roumo Qiezi. This eggplant dish, dotted with minced pork, wasn’t swimming in oil.

I fo l lowed th i s wi th Suanl a Machixian, a wild vegetable bathed in a vinegary dressing, which was light and refreshing.

The twice-cooked pork is an-other dish to rave about. Again it wasn’t greasy at all, but does have an unusual taste because of the addition of a Tibetan spice.

Laoganma Tudouding is an earthy dish smothered in diced scallion, black beans and a handful of fresh chillies, resulting in a union of scal-lions, salty black beans and the kick of something hot.

Huoxiang Jiyu is a braised fish with broad bean chil l i paste served with diced sour radish pickles and garnished with hyssop, a liquo-rice herb. The pair-ing of sour pickles and hyssop was a lit-t le disappoint ing though because two power fu l a romas seemed a bit antago-nistic and worked against each other.

However, the Dan-dan Mian is a must try and definitely one of the best noodles in town. It was pre-pared with just the right amount of con-diments, ref lecting the true flavours of Sichuan cook ing:

sweet, salty, hot and sour. Lastly, the addition of preserved mustard greens really highlighted the flavour of this popular dish.

The pan-fried scallion buns are equally impressive as the meat filling tastes like real meat and is not diluted with water or cornstarch. The sticky rice cakes with brown sugar are a nice treat to wrap a meal up with.

The decoration at Yi is somewhat more Western than old Sichuan, ex-cept for some of the antique rustic furnishings from Dayi county, Yu-anyi’s hometown. Carved wooden an-tiques are implanted in the walls, con-trasting with modern sofas and glass walls, and the comfortable loft-like second floor is decked out with 1920s Western knick knacks, framed photo-graphs and potted plants.

On the two nights I dined at Yi, the mellow voice of Jack Johnson could be heard softly in the background, reminding me that while the food lays claim to be authentic, the location it-self is nothing short of unique.

By Eileen Wen MooneyChina Daily

Sichuan chef and owner of Yi restaurant Zhou Yuanyi says her cuisine is the real deal.

Sichuan With A Twist

Pan-fried scallion buns

Mizhi Xiao Niurou is slices of beef alternated with cucumber

Dandan Mian

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Maga2ine.info38 • November 5-18, 2010 November 5-18, 2010 • 39

ArtsBy J. Sebastian The Star

❖ Macau

Lawrence Ho wants to blow people away. And he has just the thing to do it with: the world’s largest water-based entertainment show.

The co-chairman and chief execu-tive officer of Melco Crown Entertain-ment Ltd premiered The House of Danc-ing Water at Macau’s City of Dreams entertainment resort last month. And judging by what this writer saw that night, Ho will certainly be tickling fancies if not blowing minds with his HK$2 billion-plus (US$257.7 million) show and its cast of 77 performers from 18 countries.

The 70-minute extravaganza was created and directed by Belgian thea-tre director Franco Dragone, who worked with the renowned Cirque du Soleil and on Las Vegas shows.

The House of Dancing Water starts with a shipwreck scene that has the ship’s crew, clad in seamen’s attire of olden days, emerging from the flooded deck and climbing the masts accompanied

by the theme music of the Pirates of the Caribbean and dramatic f lashes of lightning and claps of thunder.

Among the survivors washed ashore is a dashing Stranger (played by Jesko von den Steinen) who meets the kingdom’s lovely Princess (Faye Leung). Love soon follows, but the pair are threatened by the princess’ evil stepmother, the Serpent Queen (Ana Arroyo), who wants to supplant the princess with her own son on the dead king’s throne. And so the drama unfolds—with no dialogue but plenty of action to drive the story forward.

Water, of course, played a big part in the proceedings; there was a won-derful scene in which the Princess and her entourage performed a ballet among 258 mini fountains, each “dancing” as if they were themselves alive, as they rose into the air, some as high as 18m.

The lighting, too, was very good in setting the mood and adding drama. The romantic scene in which the

Princess and the Stranger meet in a moodily-lit pavilion was certainly a moment for the lovebirds in the audi-ence to cherish. And lighting and wa-ter were used very effectively together to create the illusion of snow.

Apart from the main characters, there was a host of minor figures that added colour to the show, from the Queen’s hilarious Minister, who had the audience in stitches over his an-tics, to gymnasts forming structures, tumbling and dancing.

In particular, the human chande-lier, which had acrobats performing high in the air on what looked like a three-level chandelier, was a sight to behold, as were the two people who dived from a height of 24m into the pool! Also attention-grabbing were the seven motorcycle stunt riders—and, in a suitably modern twist on the traditional fairytale ending, the Stranger sweeps the Princess away on his snazzy bike!

A fitting setting for this spectacular show is the purpose-built 270˚, round Dancing Water Theatre, a marvel in itself. Its pool holds more than 16 mil-lion litres of water–more than five Olympic-sized swimming pools. Seat-ing 2,000, the theatre also has 258 au-tomated fountains and eleven 10-tonne elevators that allow the pool to quick-ly disappear and be replaced by a solid, dry stage floor.

The audience at the show’s world premiere fittingly gave the cast a standing ovation. It was, after all, Ma-cau’s—and Asia’s—first water-based show and the biggest show anywhere, as Ho asserts.

“None of the shows in Las Vegas has really spent more than US$250 million. Ours is the biggest show in history, the biggest show on earth,” he says emphatically.

It’s big, yes, but the question is, will the show appeal to Asians, what with its international cast and a venue that is best known for its casinos?

Ho is convinced it will because show creator Dragone really tried to understand Chinese culture in design-ing the show, he says.

“It has lots of Asian and Chinese elements that the audience will con-

nect with. The House of Dancing Water is determined to appeal to Chinese visi-tors and their families. We have tailor-made it for Macau and for the Chi-nese market. There are a lot of Chinese mythologies in it,” says Ho.

Besides China, Hong Kong and Ma-cau, City of Dreams is also targeting visitors from the Asia Pacific region. “Some 55 per cent of our visitors come from mainland China, 30 per cent from HK, 7 per cent from Taiwan and the remaining balance from the rest of the world,” says Ho.

When we ask von den Steinen (he plays the Stranger) if he thinks Malay-

sians should travel to Macau to catch the show, he replies that The House of Dancing Water is a unique show never seen before, anywhere in the world.

“There may be other shows that do better acrobatics... but what we have here is an augmentation of technique, acrobatics, theatre and expertise to tell a beautiful love story.

“You will be amazed, touched emo-tionally and, hopefully, you will walk away having drunk champagne with your imagination,” he says poetically during a interview with journalists from Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan. Also present are Leung (Princess) and Arroyo (Serpent Queen).

At another press conference, Drag-one says that he intends to get feed-back from the audience, critics and others and make changes if need be, as well as incorporate new elements into the show to make it more entertaining.

“I will do everything to give the people the best. I will keep on doing something over the top to fill the house,” says Franco, who made his name in the 1980s and 1990s as the leading creative force behind Cirque du Soleil and its ground-breaking shows such as Mystere, Saltimbanco, Alegria, Quidam, O, and La Nouba before setting up his own company.

“He told me to think big or go home,” says Dragone, referring to Ho.

Well, it is big and it’s certainly spec-tacular, so in this writer’s opinion, The House of Dancing Water is well worth checking out the next time you’re in Macau trying your luck at the casinos or visiting the island’s heritage sites.

The House of Dancing Water is on at the Dancing Water Theatre in City of Dreams, Macau, until further notice. Ticket prices start at HK$380 ($50) for adults and HK$270 ($35) for children. There are also hotel stays and show packages start ing at HK$1,188 ($153) . Go to thehou-seofdancingwater.com for details.

Water WonderIt’s the biggest show on earth. But don’t watch it because of that, watch it because it is a spectacular melding of water, lighting and stunts that tells a love story

The Princess (Faye Leung) dancing in joy among miniature fountains in this scene from ‘The House of Dancing Water’.

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The Dancing Water Theatre is as spectacular as the show it hosts: the

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Maga2ine.info40 • November 5-18, 2010 November 5-18, 2010 • 41

P O P D O MBy Yasmin Lee ArponAsia News Network

❖ Bangkok

In a small room in a resort in Gwang-ju, South Korea, four years ago, five young men strode in wearing identical white suits. But one of them

stood out, he with the wavy hair: Do-myouji Tsukasa. Or rather, he was Matsumoto Jun of the Japanese idol group Arashi.

Matsumoto played Domyouji in the Japanese drama Hana Yori Dango (Boys Over Flowers) and its sequel as well as in the movie version. That time in 2006, he was in between the two dra-mas and his hair was far from permed, but he still exuded that Domyouji aura: imposing, over-confident and stand-offish. It made me wonder if he was going to display the infamous Domyouji temper too.

That is how much Matsumoto owned the Domyouji role that many consider him as the best among the three actors who have played the character on TV.

Domyouji Tsukasa is perhaps one of the most iconic and unforgettable manga characters. The young man with a childlike personality that was often thought of as unreasonable, a thick mop of curly hair that made him look ridiculous, he was stupid... and rich. But he was also hilarious without meaning to and had his charming ways, especially when it comes to the woman he loves. This is what endeared him to the female fans of Hana Yori Dango, the Japanese manga that started its own wave in Asian pop culture.

Published from October 1992 to

September 2003 in Japan, the manga was adapted into an animé before Taiwan’s star maker, Angie Cai Zhi Ping picked it up to produce an ad-aptation, Meteor Garden, in 2001. She cast an unknown model, Jerry Yan Cheng Xu as Dao Ming Si or Ah Si, Domyouji’s Taiwanese version.

The series was a surprise hit in Tai-wan and took the rest of the region by storm, turning Yan and his co-stars who made up F4—the lead’s equally rich and good-looking friends—into major stars.

It was just a matter of time that Ja-pan would make its own version and so in 2005, Matsumoto came out on TV screens wearing that now famous Domyouji perm. Unlike Yan, Matsu-moto was not a virtual unknown when he took the role having been a

member of Arashi for six years, but his role in the drama expanded his fan base, as well as that of the group's.

Obviously inspired by the success of the Taiwanese and Japanese dra-mas, South Korea was not about to be left behind and Boys Before Flowers pre-miered in 2009 with former model and little-known actor Lee Min-ho taking the lead role as Gu Jun-pyo. Needless to say, the “Domyouji effect” happened with Lee being propelled into A-list stardom overnight.

One of the things that fans would al-ways nitpick was the hair of Domyouji, which was one of the pegs of the char-acter. Many jokes about the character came from the curly hair after all.

Yan did not curl his hair and in-stead had it held up by bobby pins, but in the middle of the drama, the hair element was totally set aside and promptly forgotten. It must have been mafan (troublesome) to have it set every time considering that Meteor Garden was a low-budget production.

Lee’s hair, on the other hand, looked so overly done and unnatural that many fans criticised it as a bad version of an ajumma (auntie) perm. Many could not help compare it to Matsumoto’s hair, which was permed for the first season but was styled the same way for the second one.

What’s the big fuss over the hair anyway?

When I met Yan earlier this year in Taipei, it has been nine years since Meteor Garden was shown but he still had that longish hair that was the

rave in the region at the height of F4’s fame. Reports say he has been advised that it was best for him to wear his hair long to bring luck to his life. But seriously, the old hair-style made him look dated.

Yan still considers Ah Si as the closest to his person-

ality among the roles he has played, describing himself as childlike and playful like the famous character. I thought, maybe often misunderstood too, as Domyouji was. There have been reports of Yan being moody and difficult to work with and while spending an hour with him was not enough to give a full picture of who he is, I saw a soft-spoken, even shy man who would insist on his stand-ards and had his own mind. For example, when I requested for a photo with him, h is handlers quickly declined saying he was not made up yet. He listened to them quietly and after they have said their

piece, asked if I had a camera and gamely posed, not caring whether his hair was sticking out in the wrong direction. I thought this Do-myouji had a soft and gentle side to him. Not really unlike the character who had his weaknesses too.

Many, meanwhile, have pointed out to the physical resemblance between Yan and Lee that they could even play brothers. Both are tall too.

Lee’s height, in fact, came as a sur-prise when I saw him at a recent press conference in Bangkok. Gone was the ugly perm and in place was a boy-next-door hairstyle that made

him look, well, generic.He was good-looking all right, or

rather, too pretty. But he did not ex-ude the imposing presence of Matsu-moto nor the magnetic aura of Yan. It did not matter, however, to the fans who came to see him as they screamed in delight when he appeared onstage. As Thai fan Nummon, 23, said, he’s the best Domyouji for her because he’s very funny. But observing Lee onstage, “bland” was the only word that came to mind.

A random poll among people I know who have seen all three adapta-tions of Hana Yori Dango picked Matsu-moto as the “best Domyouji” because

of his acting. He IS Domyouji, they insist. Even Arashi members agree so, except that he ain’t stupid.

But for many, Yan would always have a special place because he was the “first Domyouji” and for most, the one who opened the door to Asian pop culture.

I fell short in asking if Lee would be considered as the “third-rate Do-myouji” though, ugly perm notwith-standing.

Oh and I forgot, there’s a fourth Domyouji, made in China.

asianpopdom@gmail.com

popboxDrama name Screen name Age Height Domyouji trait

Dao Ming Si (Taiwan) Jerry Yan Cheng Xu 33 5’10” Childlike

Domyouji Tsukasa (Japan) Matsumoto Jun 27 5’6” Straightforward

Gu Jun-pyo (South Korea) Lee Min-ho 23 6’1” Funny

Meeting The Three DomyoujistAiwAn’s Jerry yAn cheng Xu, JApAn’s mAtsumoto Jun And KoreA’s lee min-ho. who’s the ‘best tsuKAsA’ of the three?

Lee Min-ho

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Maga2ine.info42 • November 5-18, 2010 November 5-18, 2010 • 43

PEOPLEBy Tiffany Tan China Daily

❖ Beijing

If you go to a café at China World Trade Centre at the right time of the year, you’ll find tapping on her laptop just like any latte regular, a US best-

selling author of urban fantasies, paranormal romances and Marvel comics. Oh, and now creator of a video game. Marjorie M. Liu, 32, de-scribed as a “renaissance woman” by a comic book forum, spends about two months a year writing in China.

The pattern began in 2000, when-ever she visited her parents who spend most of their time on the Chi-nese mainland—her father hails from Taiwan, while her mother is an Amer-ican of french, Scottish and Irish de-scent. After Liu sold her first novel in 2004, writing in Beijing or Shanghai was cemented into her routine.

“I didn’t set out to say, I’m gonna come to China for the express pur-pose to write books, but I was here anyway, and I love it,” Liu says.

Her thick flowing hair and cow-boy boots are reminiscent of some of her heroines’ appearance.

“Shanghai (and Beijing, to some ex-tent),” she said, “is that crazy Great Aunt who likes to run around in her bra and undies and flirt with the UPS man. Anything goes here. You can be yourself, in all your quirky charm.

“The rest of China has that same wild energy; a sense of unabashed possibility and individualism that is addictive to be around my brain fires on all cylinders when I’m in this country and the words flow and flow.”

China gives Liu such a creative spark that it has become her not-so-secret weapon.

“If I’m having trouble with a book,

I have been known to come over to China,” says Liu, who was born near Philadelphia, grew up in Seattle, went to university in the state of Wisconsin and now lives in Indiana.

Observers wonder how deftly she straddles the genre of urban fantasy, romance and superhero comics. Liu says the transition is not that diffi-cult since they are all “storytelling”.

Her drive and wide range of inter-ests translated into a bachelor’s de-gree in East Asian languages and cul-tures with a minor in biomedical ethics, and a law degree. She passed the bar but never practiced because she soon sold her first book, Tiger Eye, a paranormal romance about a female American tourist in Beijing who buys a puzzle box that contains a handsome warrior from 2,000 years ago who is being pursued by his age-old nemesis. The novel became the first in Liu’s New York Times best-selling Dirk & Steele series, and in April was reincarnated into Tiger Eye: Curse of the Riddle Box, a video game geared toward women.

The past six years have produced 17 other novels, including the Hunt-er Kiss urban fantasy series, about a woman whose tattoos come alive at night to help her hunt demons. Then there is Liu’s work on Marvel titles, including Dark Wolverine, centering on Wolverine’s estranged son Daken, and Black Widow, a So-viet spy turned superhero. Liu con-tinues to produce three to four books a year, in a writing process self-described as “disorganised” and “all over the place”.

With 2 million book copies in print, Liu is still that rare US author of mass-market fiction with a Chi-nese last name. At the beginning of her career, a couple of publishers hinted she should use a pseudonym to help her works sell.

“They thought that the market couldn’t handle it, or the market would be too sensitive,” Liu says, “and so I understood where it was coming from. But it did irritate me a little.

“If I had written under a pseudo-nym simply because I was afraid people wouldn’t get my books be-cause of the Chinese name, that smacks almost of being ashamed of who you are. I think actually read-ers are smarter than that and I think readers care about a good story.”

And for her, this includes ro-mance novels—derided by some as “trash” but at their core, well-craft-ed stories about hope, says Liu.

“The thing about romance novels, they always have a happy ending...”

Hope reflects Liu’s own attitude about love as she waits to meet the man with whom to share her life. In the mean time, she’s busy writing about the exploits of heroines who protect the human race from evil forces, and mutants with tortured souls who nonetheless aspire for the greater good.

Marjorie’s FantasiesThis Chinese-American best-selling author deftly straddles the genres of urban fantasy, romance and superhero comics

Liu shows off an impressive library of works.

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❖ Taipei

From the little boy who played with Barbie dolls to one of the most talked about fashion designers today, Jason Wu has come

a long way.Of course, one cannot talk about

the Taiwan-born designer’s fame without mentioning US first lady Michelle Obama, who wore Wu’s one-shoulder chiffon gown to US President Barack Obama’s inaugu-ral ball back in 2009.

After that night, Wu became a household name in fashion circles and in Taiwan almost overnight.

The 28-year-old recently came back to Taiwan for his brother’s wedding, using the opportunity to introduce himself and his work to his hometown.

“When I was growing up, it wasn’t an industry that was very well known here, and I think that has re-ally changed in the past few years. I hope my trip here can highlight that,” Wu said when he met with the press in Taipei.

He met with Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou before the event and pre-sented a dress from his new collection as a gift for first lady Chou Mei-ching.

“I am very excited that he made the time for me. I was so touched he took the time to learn about my work,” Wu said about his meeting with the president.

Chou arrived at the National Day celebrations on October 10 in the brown and gold knee-length dress that suited her conservative style yet accentuated her curves, which she normally keeps hidden in less

form-fitting attire.On the same day, the designer’s

brother and his future wife walked down the aisle in their wedding ceremony. The de-signer’s sister-in-law wore a simple white gown custom designed by Wu.

“I really want to bring out the women (with my de-signs),” Wu said.

Wu brought along pieces from his 2011 spring and sum-mer collection, which he con-siders his most accomplished one so far, for his Taiwan trip.

“(The collection) was inspired by Brazilian artist Beatriz Milhaz-es. She’s known for using bright colours in her work. I look to art-ists a lot for inspiration,” he said.

The designer has always em-phasised details in his work, and combined his attention to little details with his appreciation for flowers in his new collection.

“I’ve always loved flowers. I actu-ally went to Paris to work with arti-sans there to make flowers out of chiffon and fabric,” Wu said.

The realistic-looking flowers were later carefully brought back to New York, where the de-signer is based, and indi-vidually sewn onto some of the dresses in the collection.

Many Tai-wanese de-signers often get asked the q u e s t i o n i f they reflect their

ethnic roots in their designs, and it was no different for Wu. The de-signer said he expresses his roots with the details rather than with blatant display of Asian influence. “I think there’s so much more to Chi-nese culture than obvious Chinese symbolism.”

He further stressed the impor-tance of having one’s own sense of

style rather than following trends blindly.

“I always say trends are trends and they pass, but having a distinct style is

something you can keep for a long time,” Wu said.

“The most stylish women are not the model or actress.

They are everyday women who just have great style. They are who I look to for inspiration.”

Aside from Michelle Obama, the young de-signer said he was thankful for his family’s support. Wu showed interest in designing clothes at a young age, often making clothes for his dolls.

I n s t e a d o f frowning upon his interest, his par-

ents decided to bring him to Van-couver, Canada,

when he was nine years old, for a less

conservative educa-tional environment.

“I hope parents let their kids (develop) the ir indiv idual i ty, even i f i t ’s no t the conventional, even if it ’s not the ordinary, and great things can happen,” Wu said.

“My parents really ap-preciated me for who I am

and supported me in every-thing I did. I think they knew who I was before I

knew who I was,” he con-cluded.

From Dressing Barbies To First Ladies

By Deborah LuThe China Post

The up-and-coming designer emphasises details in his work

Maga2ine.info44 • November 5-18, 2010 November 5-18, 2010 • 45

By Jofelle P. TesorioAsia News Network

M A L D I V E STRAVEL BITES

❖ Male’

The Maldives tourism dis-courages independent trav-elling. Island resorts in this archipelagic country prefer well-heeled guests who can

fork out at least US$300-a-night ac-commodation. But as Maldives be-comes more famous among divers who are more interested in dive sites than staying in lavish resorts, the cap-ital Male’ has a chance of becoming a destination for independent travellers. In fact, there’s a clamor among like-minded tourists, entrepreneurs and local Maldivians to open up the coun-try for middle-income tourists so the local community can benefit more from tourism.

While in Male’, a walking tour is advisable. Places of interests are not far from each other and there are enough restaurants and cafés to pro-vide refuge when the heat is no long-er bearable.

8:00am BreakfastStart your day by having breakfast

at Seahouse restaurant, which pro-vides a vantage view of the sea and some of the islands. The constant movements of traditional dhonis (boat) and speedboats juxtaposed with clear waters and blue sky will pump your energy to start the day-walk. This café, popular among locals and tour-ists having short stop-over, serves Western and traditional food. It has a daily breakfast buffet for about US$10. It is located on the 2nd floor of the Hulhumale ferry terminal along Bodu-thakurufaanu Magu (street).

9:00am PromenadeBegin your walk through the prom-

enade along Boduthakurufaanu Magu where jetties are lined up. Here, you will witness the daily life of Maldivi-ans who round the clock embark or disembark on boats to go to nearby islands either for work or for some chores. Walking further you will no-tice that important offices are mostly located along the promenade such as the foreign ministry and the presi-dent’s office.

9:15am Official JettyThe Jetty No. 1 or the official presi-

dential jetty is just across the presi-dent’s office and the Jumhooree Maid-han (Republic Square), a park where Maldivians (and some exhausted day-tourists) love to hang around. On Fri-days, you will see more people (in-cluding foreign workers) converging in this area.

9:45am Fish MarketMaldives is known for its sustaina-

ble fishing methods by using only hook and line to catch fish. To see fish being hauled from fishing boats to the market and witness how the catch are being sold, the fish market is the place to be. Mid-morning is also the perfect time to see the buzz of activity. Go further along Boduthakurufaanu Magu. The walk from the Jetty No. 1 only takes about 5-10 minutes. Walk-ing from Jetty No. 1 to the fish mar-ket, the sight of lavish yachts and speedboats changes to traditional fish-ing and cargo boats. This is where

most of Male’s imports—from nails to tomatoes—are being loaded.

10:30am Chandhanee Magu Go back to the direction of Jum-

hooree Maidhan. Before you reach this park, turn right to Chandhanee Magu, the street where you can find souvenir shops. Despite a strong ban on catching endangered species, you will still see shops selling shark jaws’ skeletons and shells. Shopping is not really spectacular in Male’ but it is cheaper to buy souvenirs here than in resorts. Two postcards cost around $1 and a fridge magnet is $6. Simple sou-venirs cost a minimum of $10.

11:30am national MuseumAfter hopping from one souvenir

shop to another, head further down the road and you will not miss the newly built national museum build-ing. This is one of the best places to cool off while understanding a bit of the Maldives’ history. The artefacts in the museum include early Bud-dha sand footprints and old Korans in Dhivehi language. It also houses a collection of stuffed (in bottles) ma-rine species found in the Maldives. Only the first and second floors are opened to the public but improve-ment is underway. There is an en-trance fee of $5.

12:30pm Kalhuvakaru MiskiiyGo further Chandhanee Magu

then turn left to Lily Magu. A few metres from the corner, you will see Kalhuvakaru Miskiiy, a small mosque with old charm. History P

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Walking Trail: Male’strolling Around the mAldiviAn cApitAl is not A bAd ideA to discover the country’s culture And people

has it that pieces of this mosque were transported from an island to Male’. It was then re-arranged by skillful masons.

1:00pm lighthouse CaféSince dinking alcohol is not per-

mitted in the Maldives, tea shops abound in the island. One of the most popular here is Lighthouse Café, just a stone’s throw away from Kalhuvakaru Miskiiy. It has a menu translated in English. A lunch meal costs around $10.

2:00pm Dharumavantha MiskiiyFrom Lighthouse Café, go back

to the direction of Kalhuvakaru Miskiy then turn right. Go straight ahead and turn right on the first corner. There you will find the old-est mosque in the Maldives known for its calligraphy and woodwork.

2:30pm Minaret/hukuru MiskiiyFrom Dharumavantha Miskiiy, go

further and turn left until you reach the corner of Medhuziyaaraiy Magu

where you will see the blue and white minaret of Huruku Miskiiy, which is also called the Friday Mosque. The 1565AD mosque is built in coral stones and boasts of intricate carvings on the walls. The burial place around has tombstones of important persons in the Maldives.

2:45pm MuleeaageOpposite the Hukuru Miskiiy is the

Muleeaage, which was the former presidential palace. You will only ap-preciate the palace from outside of the gate as it is closed to the public.

3:00pm Parliament houseThe Parliament House is further

down Medhuziyaaraiy Magu, left di-rection if you’re facing the Muleeaage.

3:30pm Rooftop RestaurantIn front of the Parliament House is

a small street called Nasreem Goalhi. Go straight towards that street and you will find at the corner the Holi-day Inn (which by now is already Shangri-la Hotel). The Maldives’ tallest

building (15 floors) has a rooftop res-taurant that gives you an almost 360-degree view of the Maldives. This is the best place to wind up the day by ordering cold drinks while enjoy-ing the naked view of the airport and the other islands. It also has an infin-ity pool. A drink costs around $5.

Male’s artificial beach is not part of the walking tour because of its distance from many main attrac-tions. It can be reached by walking from the Hulhumale ferry terminal (about 10 minutes). Follow the path along the sea (opposite the direction going to the jetties) in Boduthaku-rufaanu Magu and you will find a white artificial beach enclosed by a long seawall. There are interesting cafés and restaurants around the area. Maldivian families usually spend the mornings and afternoons having a dip in the artificial beach, the most they can get but not even close to the island resorts.

travelbites.asia@gmail.com

Parliament House

Ameer Ahmed Magu

Orchid Magu

Fareehee Magu Medhuziyaaraiy Magu

Lily Magu

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Boduthakurufaanu Magu

Official Jetty

National Museum Promenade

Fish Market

Rooftop Restaurant

Muleeaage

Minaret/Hukuru Miskiiy

Souvenir shop in Chandhanee Magu

Maga2ine.info46 • November 5-18, 2010 November 5-18, 2010 • 47

C H I N AEXPLOREBy Rupak D. SharmaAsia News Network

❖ GUANGZHOU, GUANGDONG

Victor Cheung gushed with ex-citement as the door of the lift opened on the 84th floor of the Canton Tower in southern Chinese city of

Guangzhou. Cheung, a student in Guangdong Uni-

versity of Foreign Studies, has been living in Guangzhou for a couple of years now but he had never visited this t owe r , wh i ch wa s opened to the public in September and is the tallest in China.

“This is amazing,” he said, swiftly walking to-wards the window pane from where one could get a bird’s eye view of bustling Guangzhou.

The scene from the top of the tower was, in fact, wonderful, as you

could see the entire city: the buildings, the flyovers that crisscross all over and the Pearl River, which divides Guangzhou city into two.

Perhaps, the experience would have been much better had the haze not cov-ered the entire skyline. But this is the price the city has paid for its rapid indus-trialistion and urbanisation.

Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong province, is one of the prosperous cities in China and has largely benefited from the central government’s economic reform policy introduced in 1978. Since that time, it has emerged as a manufacturing base for many domestic and international compa-nies that produce goods for the entire world. If you want to know how many manufacturing units are located here just take look at the number of high-voltage transmission lines that dot the city and sometimes make it look ugly. Little won-der where all that haze comes from.

But this is not the time to indulge in this discussion. Guangzhou is hosting the 16th Asian Games and it is doing all it can to present the best of itself. It has also in-vested quite some amount in treating the industrial waste water and cleaning its polluted air. And the lush green surround-ings, almost everywhere in the city, pro-vide comfort to those who find themselves bewildered and lost in the concrete jungle.

So try to make the most of the visit and explore places inside the city from where China's economic devel-opment began.

The city is well connected by high-speed railway network, so you can just hop on to one of the trains and visit places like Pazhou Complex, where one of the largest international trade fairs is held. Or you can also visit places like Zhanxi Road and Lian Quan Road where wholesalers

of various consumer goods have opened shop.

If you are tired visiting com-mercial complexes you can go to the coastal city of Zhuhai, which is about a two-hour drive from Guangzhou. This city, which offers one of the best climatic conditions in southern China, is made up of many islands, from where you can go for a cruise or just stay on the beaches and soak up the sun.

If you have time, do visit Heng-qin New Area—an island—where lots of exhibition and convention centres and glitzy hotels are being constructed to promote corporate tourism. Macau, the Sin City of Asia, lies just a stone’s throw away from this island and Hong Kong is not far away from here either.

But before leaving Zhuhai, do visit Landmark Shopping Centre at Gongbei Port, where replicas of

brands ranging from Louis Vuitton, Adidas and Nike to Blackberries and iPhones, among others, are sold. You may find the goods here overrated—despite being counterfeit products—so don’t hesitate to bar-gain as much as you can.

Now, if you are looking for a place to spend your night away, head to-wards Shui Wan Lu (Bar Street). Most of the bars here open till 2am and some even continue their parties till

the wee hours of the morning.Another place worth visiting in

Guangdong province is Shunde in Foshan city, the hometown of Bruce Lee. But on the way to this town you will come across another small town called Guzhen in Zhongshan, which is better known as the City of Lights.

This small town got this name be-cause of the extensive number of lighting shops it houses. With over 5,000 light manufacturing companies, it is the biggest manufacturing base and wholesale market of decorative lighting in China. You’d definitely be amazed to see the entire town filled with shops full of chandeliers, wall sconces, ceiling lights, table lamps and floor lamps. And at night, the town turns into a colourful dome with cocktails of lights flashing all over.

One of the places here to make the best purchase is Lighting Era Centre, a mall dedicated to these decorative

pieces. But most of the outlets here are wholesalers so you might have to pay a little extra if you want to pur-chase just a piece or two.

If you are done with shopping, you can head towards the hometown of Bruce Lee in Shunde.

Although the king of kung-fu was born in the US and only visited this town once in 1945, it is a place which his father and grandfather called home. Considering this connection,

the local government has dedicated an entire park (entrance fee: 40 yuan or US$6 for adults) to his name where an 18.8-metre tall statue of him has re-cently been erected. The bronze stat-ue, which was completed in a period of three and half years, is a work of art and is the tallest statue of Bruce Lee in the world.

The house of his grandfather and father, which has now been turned into a museum, is located at a dis-tance of around 500 metres from the park. It is a traditional house with two small rooms and a kitchen and spreads on 60sq m of land. There is nothing much here except for some pictures of him, few of which were taken when Lee was as young as three months old. But to martial art fans, even the tour of this small empty house could be equivalent to a pil-grimage, memories of which they can take home and cherish forever.

NI HAOguangDOngif you Are visiting guAngzhou for the AsiAn gAmes, tAKe some time And eXplore some of its surrounding cities THE TALLEST: The Canton Tower in

Guangzhou is the tallest tower in China.

FOOD: A buffet restaurant in Four Seas International House on Panyu Yingbin Road in Guangzhou. For around 200 yuan (US$30) you can try more than 800 kinds of food here.

KING OF KUNG-FU: An 18.8-metre-tall statue of Bruce Lee at Bruce Lee Ecological Park in Shunde, Foshan.

LIGHT OVERDOSE: Customers take a look at chandeliers and other decorative lighting pieces at Lighting Era Centre, a mall dedicated to lights, in Guzhen, Zhongshan.

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Maga2ine.info48 • November 5-18, 2010 November 5-18, 2010 • 49

1 6 t h A S I A N G A M E SSPORTSBy Rupak D. SharmaAsia News Network

❖ GUANGZHOU, GUANGDONG

Stadiums. Check. Athletes’ Village. Check. Security. Check.

With everything set in place, China is ready to

host another mega sporting event after the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

The 16th Asian Games, which will begin on November 12 in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou, will pro-vide the country another opportunity to exhibit its wealth and achieve-ments. And the government is leaving no stone unturned to ensure the smooth execution of the event.

Guangzhou, one of the prosper-ous cities in China, had started making preparations for this sport-ing gala soon after winning the bid for the Games six years ago. In this period of time, it has spent over 100 billion yuan (US$14.9 billion) to build world-class stadiums or reno-vate the old ones, beef up security and partially clean up its polluted environment.

The arrangements made so far give assurance that Guangzhou will not repeat the mistakes made by New Delhi, which nearly bun-gled the Commonwealth Games in October.

The Indian capital was in a mess even weeks prior to the beginning of the Commonwealth Games. At Connaught Place, the commercial district of New Delhi, and many other parts of the city, heaps of mud, sand and cement laid strewn, which left one wondering whether India’s capital was a big construc-

tion site or a venue for one of the biggest sporting events in years.

Then there was a shooting inci-dent days before the beginning of the Games in which two Taiwanese television cameramen were in-jured. A major disappointment for the government at that time was the incomplete work at the stadi-ums and athletes’ village over which many players threatened to boycott the event.

Guangzhou, on the other hand, has said all its 70 stadiums and gym-nasiums are ready for use and have been handed over to the organising committee. The construction works at the athletes’ village, where the participants of the event will stay, are also complete.

“We have also held 47 test events in the sporting facilities since Au-gust 2009 and all the problems and issues have been dealt with,” Sun Xiuqing, aka Michael Sun, external relations director of Guangzhou Asian Games Organising Commit-tee told an Asian media delegation that recently visited the city.

A visit to the city also shows that it is well prepared to host the grand sporting event. Roads have been widened and the Pearl River has been cleaned up. Security cameras can be spotted throughout the city and the number of checkpoints has also been increased. The city has also invested a significant amount on extending its high-speed railway network for the convenience of peo-ple, who will be visiting the city during the Games.

The Guangzhou government has said the works it has conducted in the name of the Asian Games is ac-tually facilitating urban develop-ment which will benefit the city in the long run.

for instance, the government has spent quite some amount on indus-trial waste water treatment. “This is crucial for the residents and they will be able to reap benefits for it even after completion of the Games,” Sun said. Likewise, huge chunks of money have also been poured into building bridges, sew-

age treatment, subway extension and environmental protection.

“That’s how our investment on the Games crossed 100 billion yuan,” Sun said, trying to silence the critics who have been claiming the government is overspending on projects related to the Asian Games. “This money would have been spent (on these projects) even without the Games.”

According to Sun, only 6 billion yuan ($899 million) has been spent on the construction of sporting fa-

cilities and another 7 billion yuan ($1 billion) has piled up as operating expenses. The government is confi-dent it will be able to raise this amount through sales of tickets and broadcasting rights, among others. Sun said critics should also consid-er that “the places where the facili-ties have been built will have high market value”, which will indirectly benefit the residents.

But above everything, it is the spotlight that the city will get which will matter the most in the long run. This will give Guangzhou—which is only known as an international la-bour-intensive manufacturing base—an opportunity to show the work what it is doing to attract high-tech industries. The Games will

also promote surrounding cities like Zhuhai and foshan, which have am-ple tourism spots but are largely un-known to the outside world.

Now, the only thing that might draw criticism is the quality of the city’s air. Even after doing quite some work, the haze has not stopped covering the sky of the city, al-though the government claims that the air quality in the Pearl River Delta has improved drastically in the first nine months of this year. The city does not want to draw neg-

ative publicity due to this weakness like Beijing did during the Olympic Games in 2008.

But the government believes that relocation or the complete shut-down of more than 30 chemical plants will make some contribution in its effort to clean the air. The gov-ernment has also ordered owners of large vehicles to use the highest-octane gasoline to reduce emissions and the city’s environmental pro-tection bureau has set up 29 check-points to monitor vehicle emissions.

“The aim of the Games is also to promote a healthy and civilised life-style with bluer sky, cleaner water, smoother traffic and more beautiful buildings,” the organising committee has said. “We are serious about it.”

Guangzhou Is Ready

The Chinese city of Guangzhou is all set to host the 16th Asian Games

ANOTHER MEGA EVENT: A woman walks past an Asian Games advertising in Guangzhou in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong.

COMBAT ZONE: The stadium where the football events will be held during the 2010 Asian Games in Guangzhou.

THE GOATS: The mascots for the 16th Asian Games are seen in almost every corner of Guangzhou.

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Maga2ine.info50 • November 5-18, 2010

DATEBOOK

Guo Fengyi, My Master, 1996Ink on rice paper, 480 x 89 cm

Buriram(Thailand)

BuRiRaM lOng BOaT RaCES

Around 50 colourful boats take over Thailand’s Mun River every year during the Buriram Long Boat Races. The elephant swimming races and parades

are a fantastic sight and there are also spectacular boat processions.

The races pay homage to Chao Pho Wang Krut, a whirlpool in the Mun River.

When: November 6-7 (annual)Where: Mun River

hOnG KOnG

aSian FilM FESTiVal

The 7th annual festival has previously focused on Hong Kong-made films as well as those from Japan and Korea. But this year, its focus has shifted to highlight Greater Chinese cinema, showcasing films from China and Taiwan. The selection includes Zhang Yimou’s latest love story Under the Hawthorn Tree, Jia Zhangke’s I Wish I Knew, and Taiwanese director Hsiao Ya-chuan’s Taipei Exchanges.

When: Until November 8Where: Broadway Cinematheque, Yau

Ma Tei; PALACE IFC, Central; Broadway The ONE, Tsim Sha Tsui

Info: www.hkaff.asia

india

DiWali: FESTiVal OF lighTS

Diwali, or Deepavali, the Festival of Lights, is the most important pan-Indian Hindu festival. Every Hindu home in Mumbai, no matter how humble, as well as many non-Hindu households, light lamps and lanterns in celebration. Diwali symbolises light conquering darkness and good triumphing over evil. It marks the return of Lord Rama to his capital Ayodhya after vanquishing King Ravana, who had abducted his wife Sita. The festival coincides with a post-harvest sense of plenty across the country, so it is a time for big spending, particularly on jewellery.

When: November 5 (annual)Where: India, also celebrated in

Singapore and Malaysia

GWanGJu

8Th gWangJu BiEnnalE

More serious and profound compared to the previous biennales, this year’s event, titled ‘10,000 Lives’, presents a wide range of exhibits including paintings, photos, sculptures and installations that explore our love for images and our need to create substi-tutes, effigies and stand-ins for ourselves and our loved ones.

When: Until November 7Where: Gwangju Biennale Hall,

Gwangju Museum of Art, Gwangju Folk Museum, Folklore Education Centre and Yangdong Traditional Market

Info: www.gb.or.kr

SaBah

BaMBOO MuSiC FESTiVal

Bamboo isn’t just a panda thing. Sabah’s Bamboo Music Festival shows you how to get the most out of these hollow sticks. Hear bamboo orchestras performing on traditional instruments such as the sompoton, seruling (flute) and the tagunggak (percussion).

When: November 24 (annual)

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The Holcim Awards competition for sustainable constructionprojects and visions attracted almost 5,000 entries from 121 countries – the most outstanding were honored with GlobalHolcim Awards 2009. Find out more on page 15.

The Holcim Awards are supported by Holcim Ltd – one of theworld’s leading suppliers of cement and aggregates – and itsGroup companies in more than 70 countries including Australia,Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, Fiji, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore,Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Vietnam.

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