Asia's top 20 heartbreakers
Thu, September 22 2005
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She can model, she can cook, she can speak five languages, make movies and she is married to Salman Rushdie. This babe of Indian origin has just about everything a man could ask for. After modelling for Versace, Armani and Ralph Lauren, she landed her own cooking show, ‘Padma‘s Passport‘, on the Food Network. She also appeared in the movie Glitter, alongside Mariah Carey; a rare jump from Bollywood to Hollywood.
Dubbed as the ‘Liz Taylor of China,‘ Joan Chen was born into a family of doctors and educated in China at the Shanghai Film Academy and the Shanghai Institute of Foreign Languages. She was discovered by veteran Chinese director Xie Jin while observing a filming with a school group. Hollywood actually ‘discovered‘ Joan Chen when she was cast as the ill-fated Empress in Bertollucci‘s The Last Emperor, which won critical acclaim. This, and her role as enigmatic mill owner Josie Packard in the cult TV series Twin Peaks, are her best-known roles to date.
She is MTV‘s most popular VJ, an Indonesian-Australian, born in Sydney in 1974. Her career started at 12 when she travelled to Tokyo to start her modelling career. Her unique features made a successful model. She was recently chosen by Star Magazine as the most beautiful and the sexiest woman in Singapore. After leaving MTV in 1998, she started her own business.
She is a Singaporean-Thai-English music prodigy. The beautiful young violinist was just in her mid-teens when she shattered the mold of the classical virtuoso with the release of her first fusion album ‘The Violin Player‘, forging a new style that has made her a multi-million-selling worldwide phenomenon and the breakthrough artist who virtually defined the fusion of classical and pop that became known as crossover.
Karen Mok
A singer-actress, beauty from Hong Kong. Karen Mok fluently speaks English, French, Italian, Mandarin and Cantonese. She attended university in London. This Hong Kong beauty supplied the voice of Princess Kida for the Cantonese dub of Disney‘s Atlantis in 2001.
A top Malaysian jazz queen who has been on the music scene for over two decades, her music career has been growing with numerous albums. She has won key awards throughout her musical career.
A super-tracker Thai supermodel, she has modeled for Chanel and has been featured on the cover of Asiaweek. Rojjana Phetkanha, 22, better known as Yui, is from the rural northeastern Thailand town of Ubon Ratchathani.
In North India she is mostly recognised as the ‘Fair and Lovely‘ girl, though Shewta Konnur has been a regular in South Indian films. She hit the Hindi silver screen with a skin flick CU at 9 which sank beyond a trace. Thankfully, this Indian Southern beauty landed a part in the Bollywood movie Naina as a psychic Khemi.
Model/actress Lee Ann d‘Alexandry can barely communicate in Cantonese-she struggles with the pronunciation of the names of her famous co-stars, yet her fresh and exotic appeal has won over the hypercritical Hong Kong audience. Lee Ann currently resides in Singapore and Hong Kong. She speaks fluent French.
In November this Filipina-American singer will debut at Carnegie Hall‘s Isaac Stern Auditorium. She is the voice of Princess Jasmine in Aladdin, and the voice of the heroine in Disney‘s Mulan.
She is an anchor on CNN International (CNNI) based at the network‘s global headquarters in Atlanta. Since joining CNN International in 2000, Verjee has covered numerous breaking news and world events such as the Agra Summit, the conflict in the Middle East, the trial of former Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic, the September 11th terrorist attacks, the Hajj and the war in Iraq. She also reports on African business news for the weekly program Inside Africa, which offers an in-depth look into news on the Continent.
A Vietnamese-French-American model from Hong Kong. She represents La Perla lingerie, Gucci, and Calvin Klein. She is also a spokesperson and entrepreneur. Her appearances at fashion shows and promotional launches are guaranteed large-scale attention and wide coverage.
This charmer — born in Macau, grew up in Hongkong and Pittsburgh. She starred in Joy Luck Club, One Night Stand and on Broadway‘s Golden Child. A Chinese-American actress who can play period drama as convincingly as contemporary comedy, Ming-Na Wen was the first Asian-American to be a regular on a daytime soap.
Also known as ‘the overachiever‘ this Malay-Swiss model-actress-singer is fluent in Malay, English, German, French, and Spanish, with a degree in accounting. Deanna was born in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to a Malay father and a Swiss mother. She was educated in Switzerland, her mother‘s home country.
This former Miss Hong Kong starred with Jackie Chan in Police Story and also in As Tears Go Buy. She moved at the age of 8 with her family to the UK. Currently she stars on both TV and films in Hong Kong.
She‘s a pop diva with a rebellious streak. Of Canto-Mandarin origin, Faye Wong left Hong Kong early in her career to study music and literature. Faye Wong fans like to call themselves ‘Fayenatics‘! Her first name ‘Faye‘ can mean ‘Fairy‘, ‘Princess‘, and ‘Queen‘ in English.
She was born Lucy Alexis Liu to Chinese immigrants in Queens, New York. Lucy Liu has always tried to balance an interest in her cultural heritage with a desire to move beyond a strictly Asian-American experience. Once relegated to ‘ethnic‘ parts, the energetic actress is finally earning her stripes as an across-the-board leading lady. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
