By APA Staff

Winter Sonata in anime, China wants their own Ugly Betty, and fashion reports from around the globe. All this and more in the latest edition of News from Abroad.

Fashion Week in India

Indian designers showcased their Fall/Winter 2008 lines at the Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week in New Delhi. Held at the Pragati Maidan exhibition complex, the five-day event featured forty runway shows for sixty-one of the designers, and display stalls for the rest.  Both up-and-coming and well-established designers presented their pieces to buyers from London, Paris, Tokyo, and Europe under three categories: Contemporary, Heritage/Synthesis, and Creator. Contemporary lines stuck to current international fashion trends, Heritage/Synthesis collections celebrated traditional Indian clothing with a twist of contemporary and international flair, and Creator lines were less ready-to-wear, reflecting designers' original ideas. Some standout shows included Rohit Bal's space age-gothic chic fusion with wire petticoats, silver accents, and purple lace, Deepika Govind's down-to-earth call to nature entitled "Conference of the Birds, Concert of the Sea,” and Manish Arora's suits of armor and warrior masks. Even the influence of Hollywood socialites was to be seen, as Paras Bairoliya and Shalini Jaikaria of Geisha Designs presented evening wear meant to capture the "haughty self-display” among celebrity "dandies” (hint: think Paris Hilton). The eleventh annual Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week ran March 12th through 16th. --JoJo Yang

Tang Wei Blacklisted

Tang Wei, the leading actress of Ang Lee's erotic thriller Lust, Caution, won Best Actress at Taiwan's Golden Horse Award and was nominated for Best Actress Award at the Asian Film Awards in Hong Kong. The Chinese actress has however, been blacklisted in China for her allegedly sexually explicit and unpatriotic debut role. The Chinese State Administration of Radio and Television (SARFT) sent an unofficial report banning advertisements and other works featuring Tang, including a Pond's skin care commercial worth $834,000 which seemed to be the catalyst for the commotion. Director Ang Lee, who is also artistic adviser to the Beijing Olympics was however, exempt from the ban, although he made a public statement in defense of his lead actress. He also allegedly skipped out on the Asian Film Awards because she had been banned from it, although the official comment from Tang Wei is that she had professional committments which prevented her from attending.  --Christie Liu


Author Taslima finally released

Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasrin, after being held in a safe house for over four months because of her highly controversial feminist and anti-Islam views, finally left India for Canada on March 18th, 2008. While transferring at Heathrow Airport, London, she was asked to reveal her destination, but responded: "If I disclose my destination, my security will be compromised. My face has now become recognizable and I could be a target of religious fundamentalists." After a charge of blasphemy in 1993 by an Islam Bangladeshi government, Taslima was exiled and had since been living in India, France, and Sweden. Her highly provocative autobiographical writings have been banned in Bangladesh and India. Though India has a secular government, Muslims consist of over 151 million, or 13%, of its population. --Ian Shaikh


Japan's purrfect new ambassador

Iconic children's cartoon character Doraemon has quite a storied resume, namely as a time-traveling blue robot cat that has remained popular for several decades. He's also famous for being an all around friendly cat that is always willing to lend a helping hand to children. Now he's been a assigned a new role: Japan's first anime ambassador. He received his first official assignment letter from Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura this past Wednesday. His mission? To appear in overseas films that promote the Japanese lifestyle and culture. He's been to the the past, lived in the future, and may soon even make an appearance in your country. Already beloved by millions in Asia, the Japanese government hopes their rotund ambassador will stir interest in Japan from other parts of the world. The recruitment of the timeless feline is the latest campaign effort ("Cool Japan") by the Japanese government to promote interest through its anime and manga industries. --William Hong


Ugly Betty goes to China

Hunan Satellite TV has plans to produce a Chinese version of Ugly Betty, which will be titled Invincible Ugly Woman. The plain but winsome Betty was originally conceived in a Columbian telenovela called Yo Soy Betty, La Fea, which already broadcasts in over twenty countries in South America, Europe, and Asia. Additionally, there are home-grown versions of Betty La Fea in India (Jassi Jaissi Koi Nahin), Croatia (Ne daj se, Nina), and the United States (Ugly Betty). An unknown actress is playing the "Invincible Ugly Woman." The Chinese Ugly Betty has gotten a generous deal of four hundred episodes spread across five seasons. If the lead actress has Betty's pluck, she may even outlast America Ferrera's award-winning run on the American version. --Lisa Leong


Winter Sonata Soon to be made an Anime

South Korean media company Key Eat and Japanese entertainment company Total Promotion signed a memorandum of understanding earlier in December.  Production of an anime series based on the 2002 South Korean live drama series Winter Sonata has now been confirmed. Also known as Winter Love Song, the series is about the romance between two childhood friends whose relationship is affected by tragic events as they enter young adulthood. The original series was a popular hit in South Korea. In 2004, it was broadcasted in Japan and became a sensation, launching the "Korean Wave" of popular culture in the country as well as other Asian countries. The series will soon enter the Middle East, South American, and Africa. --Christie Liu


Tokyo Fashion Week

Tokyo fashion week brought bright colors down the runway in an attempt to dress down the Japanese kimono that has been around for centuries. Third generation designer Jotaro Saito did not just experiment with a vibrant color palette but also with different materials. His line featured denim kimonos that could be put in a washing machine and worn to any event, unlike its tradition of only being worn to weddings or funerals. Born in the historical city of Kyoto, Japan, Saito's line of avant-garde kimonos was inspired by the camellia, a flower that symbolizes birth and misfortune in the Japanese culture. --My Thanh Mac


Rags2Riches for Filipino Fashion

The region of Payatas is home to Manila's main garbage dump, and now, a new and innovative company started by a group of young professionals called Rags2Riches. A few years ago, Cynthia Cabrera was a rag picker in Payatas sewing scraps of cloth into rugs and trying to sell them to the public through a middleman where profits were equivalent to .02 USD. Today she is a member of the management committee in Rags2Riches which helped train women like Cabrera to become business savvy in hopes that they one day can start their own enterprise. This year, the women are teaming up with local designer Rajo Laurel again for a line titled RIIR that created 11 products last year that ranged from clutches to a yoga mat case. The women of Payatas hope to one day start their own enterprise and export their products to around the globe. --My Thanh Mac


Soo-il's Film Wins at Deauville

Director Jeon Soo-il's With a Girl of Black Soil (Geomen tangyi sonyeo oi) won its fifth and sixth awards at the 10th annual Deauville Asian Film Festival in France, March 12-16th. Debuting in Venice and securing both the C.I.C.A.E. Award and the Lina Mangiacapre award there, it also won two awards at the Las Palmas Film Festival and was nominated at Marrakech. Located in Kangwando, South Korea, it tells a tragic tale of a 9-year old girl, her mentally handicapped brother, and her father, Hyegon, who has lost his job in the mines and has taken to drinking. The festival took place at the beautiful seaside commune of Deauville, in northern France. French director Patrice Chereau headed the jury, which awarded the second prize to two films--from Malaysia, Liew Sang Tat's Flower in the Pocket; and from Thailand, Aditya Assarat's Wonderful Town. --Ian Shaikh


America Meets China

China continues to polish their reputation before the 2008 Olympics. Boy Meets China will be a film vignette and profile series designed to inform Americans about the icons of "New China." Production members describe their intention to present a much better view of the daily scene in contemporary China. The "boy" is a 22-year-old New Yorker exploring China for the first time. On this journey, China's most influential sports figures, superstars, young entrepreneurs, and top artists are introduced. Figures expected to be featured include Jet Li, Yao Ming, Taiwan's Lin Chi-Ling, Hong Kong's Karen Mok, Mayday, and cosmetic empire founder Yue Sai Kan. Foreigners such as Dian Von Furstenberg and Japanese actress Noriko Saki will be featured as well. --Christie Liu

Published: Friday, March 21, 2008