Famous Asian Women
Asian countries have always been enigmas to western civilizations. The biggest mystery is hidden in Orient women. Throughout the history Western men have taken many attempts to discover Asian world, understand mentality, but haven’t succeeded much.
It is obvious that the combination of Asian women’s exotic and extraordinary beauty and cultural traditions makes many male minds melt and fall in love with Asian beauties. Here are several life-stories of gorgeous Asian women who have managed to win the West and become very popular abroad.
Anna May Wong is one of the most world’s most famous Asian women. She was the first Chinese American movie star to achieve international popularity. Her career as an actress involved playing roles in both sound and silent films, on television, stage and radio.
She was born in 1905 in the Chinatown neighborhood of Los Angeles. Her parents were second-generation Chinese-Americans and she was the fifth child in their big family.
She became fascinated with movies and started acting at the early age. Silent films such as The Toll of the Sea (1922) and The Thief of Bagdad (1924) brought her global stardom.
One of Ana May’s highlight roles of came in Shanghai Express (1932) directed by Josef von Sternberg where she starred with Marlene Dietrich.
Throughout her life and career Anna May battled racism and discrimination while trying to break the stereotyping of Asian-Americans. With her sophistication, elegance and beauty she managed to embody Asian femininity for a whole generation of American and European audience.
Anna Sui is a Chinese-American fashion designer. She has her own brand “Anna Sui” and produces lines of women’s clothing, accessories, cosmetic and fragrance that are retailed through stores and boutiques in over 50 countries.
Wanting to become a designer from an early age she studied at Parsons School of Design in New York after graduating from high school. She presented her 1st collection of 5 pieces in 1981 which was featured in an advertisement in The New York Times. But the breakthrough in her career came on her first participation in an actual fashion show with a Fall collection in 1991. After this she opened her first boutique in New York and began a collaboration with Japanese and East Asian department store giant Isetan, who eventually backed the opening of her own label boutiques in Japan.
Anna Sui’s creations attract women from all over the world due much in part to a very sweet, feminine, girly aspect, a touch of nostalgia and a rock-and-roll coolness.
Interesting fact: Anna Sui was a classmate of fashion photographer Steven Meisel and acted as a stylist on his early photo shoots.
Tia Carrere, birth name Althea Rae Duhinio Janairo, is an American actress, singer and model born in Hawaii of Filipino descent. Her first film was Aloha Summer, after which she moved from Hawaii to Los Angeles in 1985. Initially an independent film action star, Tia’s real fame was gained from her role as Cassandra in feature films Wayne's World and Wayne's World 2.
Tia had an even more successful singing career. Her first album, Dream, was released in 1993 and went platinum in Mexico. The same year her song I Never Even Told You was made the end theme for Batman: Mask of the Phantasm. She recorded her second album, Hawaii, together with her producer Daniel Ho, who accompanied her on Hawaiian musical instruments. This album received a Grammy Award nomination in 2008, and in 2009 Tia finally won a Grammy Award for her third album, Ikena, produced in team with Daniel Ho.
Lucy Liu personifies the harmonious balance between Chinese cultural heritage and the American freedom experienced by Asian women living in the United States.
Born in New York to a family of Chinese immigrants, Lucy wanted to act in films since childhood. While studying Asian languages and culture at the University of Michigan, her career officially began having the absolute opposite appearance to the traditional main character in the part of Alice in a school production of Alice in Wonderland.
Following a significant movie debut as the ex-girlfriend of Tom Cruise’s character in Jerry Maguire in 1996, Lucy made a real breakthrough in her acting career in the comedy series Ally McBeal. In it, Lucy initially had a one-episode role as Ling Woo. But the director was so impressed by her performance that her character was left in which in 1999 earned her an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series and a SAG Award for Best Ensemble Comedy.
Lucy’s real came starring as Alex Munday in Charlie's Angels (2001), its sequel, Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle (2003) and as O-Ren Ishii, Queen of the Tokyo Underworld, in Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003) which won her an MTV Movie Award for "Best Movie Villain".
In 2007, Lucy starred in Cashmere Mafia, a TV series on ABC and was named among the "100 Sexiest Movie Stars" by Empire Magazine.
One of her latest works was in the animated film Kung Fu Panda where she voiced Master Viper.
Interesting facts: In 2005 Lucy Liu was a U.S. Fund for UNICEF Ambassador and traveled to help survivors of the major earthquake in Pakistan and to witness the impact of AIDS on children in Lesotho.
Michelle Yeoh is one of the most famous of all Asian actresses. Her real name is Michelle Yeoh Choo Kheng, born in Ipoh, a city in West Malaysia to ethnic Chinese parents. Unlike many film stars, Michelle didn’t dream of being an actress and had a strong wish to tie her life to ballet. But her dream had no opportunity to come true as she suffered a spin injury while practicing ballet in college.
She started her acting career in the early 1990s after she appeared in several commercials in Hong Kong and was offered a film contract with a new film production company in 1984. Michelle’s first role was in an action comedy The Owl vs Dumbo (1984) where she had a simple part. So fascinated by all the stunts in the movie she made the decision then and there to become an action actress. After this she starred in a great number of action films performing all manner of difficult and often dangerous stunts by herself. Michelle is known as the greatest action actress working today.
Now world famous, Michelle won the role of Wai Lin in the 1997 James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies. But the jewel in her acting crown was the part of Yu Shu Lien in the Academy Award winning Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2003), for which she was nominated for BAFTA’s "Best Actress". One of Michelle’s most successful projects was Memoirs of a Geisha which was reviewed in that regardless her part not being the lead, she held the screen with her warmth, grace, and wit. In 2008 Michelle stared in The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, teaming with actors Brendan Fraser and Jet Li.
For some time now Michelle has been the highest paid actress in Asia.