AsiaNews Dec26-Jan1_2008

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2008: THE YEAR THAT WASDECEMBER 26, 2008-JANUARY 1, 2009

ASIA’S BeStrestaurants

US$2.50 / Bt100

9 771905 265009

ISSN 19052650

36781

36781


http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/asianews-dec26-jan12008 2/36Information correct as at 02/2007

We’ve developed a concept where a ll our member a ir li nescome together at one terminal, under one roof: we call themCo-Location airports. It means much faster connectionsbetween flights. For instance, at Terminal One at Narita inJapan, we’ve cut the waiting times by over 50%. There’ll besix more by the end of 2008, in Bangkok, Miami, Shanghai,Beijing, Singapore and Seoul. That’s one more innovation from the Star A ll iance network to make your journey easier.

To f ind out more , vi si t www.staral liance.com

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FASTER

TRANSFER

TIMES



COVER IMAGE | PHOTO COURTESY OF THE MIELE GUIDE

DECEMBER 26, 2008-JANUARY 1, 2009 • Vol 3 No 52

EXPLORE 32

THE CApE ESCApE

Hot movie Cape No 7 is bringing in touriststo Taiwan’s southerntip

COVER STORY 10-17

THE MiElE GuidE

A new restaurant guide weighs inthe best food and places to check out in Asia

PHOTO ESSAY 18

COld FROnT

Chilly weather has brought in snow to Jilin, creating a minicity winter wonderland

ENTERTAINMENT

24

BOllYWOOd’S FuTuRE

Directors, not stars, will determine what’sahead for India’s movieindustry

LIFESTYLE 20

MR HOST

In Singapore, men areplaying hosts at a bar

catering to women

TRENDS 26

HipSTERS: TREnd OR FAd?

Trademark skinny jeans,Converse and vintageannels, plus a smattering of

magazines catering to thehip, begs the question: arethere hipsters in Korea?

PEOPLE 30

TAiWAn’S ABCs

Wang Lee-hom, Vanness Wuand Wilber Pan are three of the most famous American-

born Chinese who hasconquered music, lm anddramas

C O U RTE S Y OF THE MI E L E G UI DE

CHI NADAI L Y

THE S T RAI T S TI ME S

WRITE, FAX, EMAIL

Please include sender’s name and address to: [email protected] | Asia News Network Nation Multimedia Group Plc 44 Moo 10 Bang Na Trat KM4.5 Bang Na, Bangkok 10260 ThailandSubscription inquiries Nation Multimedia Group Plc 44 Moo 10 Bang Na Trat KM4.5 Bang Na, Bangkok 10260 Thailand Fax: (66) 0-2317-1409

Copyright © 2006 of Asia News Network. All rights reserved. AsiaNews (ISSN 1905-2650) is a weekly magazine. Printed by WPS (Thailand) Co, Ltd Subsidiary of Nation Multimedia Group Plc.


http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/asianews-dec26-jan12008 4/364 DECEMBER 26, 2008-JANUARY 1, 2009 • ASIANEWS

2008

i photos

UP, UP AND AWAY: A Korean National Oil company ofcial points to an elec-tronic graphic on oil prices at the company’s main ofce in Anyang, on the south-ern outskirts of Seoul, January 3. South Korean government said the surge in the

benchmark Western Texas Intermediate (WTI) that surpassed the US$100-per- barrel mark for the rst time did not justify making fundamental changes inSeoul’s broad economic policies.

TOY CAR?: Chairman of India’s giant Tata Group Ratan Tata poses infront of the Tata ‘Nano’ car during the launch in New Delhi, January 10.

Tata Group unveiled a $2,500 car it bills as the world’s cheapest amidpredictions the compact, no-frills vehicle could revolutionise how thenation of 1.1 billion people travels.

AF P P H OT O / D O N G-AI L B O

AF P P H OT O / RA VE E ND RA N

Nano car, cycloneNargis, Sichuanearthquake,

Lhasa unrest, theformer king Gyanendra,King Jigme, milk scare,Beijing Olympics, F1night race, Mumbai

attacks, Marriott bombing, Suvarnab-humi closure. Asia has been busy in 2008. Witness these events in AsiaNews’ photo yearender.


http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/asianews-dec26-jan12008 5/36ASIANEWS • DECEMBER 26, 2008-JANUARY 1, 2009 5

NARGIS’ FURY: Survivors stand on houses destroyed

by cyclone Nargis in the devastated area of Haing Gyiisland on May 11.

FLATTENED: A taxi lies under one of the boulders that crushed it on the earthquakedamaged streets of Beichuan in SichuanProvince on May 16. Beichuan is one of the areas hit hardest by the quake, whichhas caused deaths across at least fourprovinces and regions.

AF P P H OT O / MA Rk RAL S T O N



2008 i photos

BYE BYE BEIJING: Fire- works light the night sky above the National Stadi-um or ‘Birds Nest’ during the closing ceremony of the 2008 Beijing OlympicGames on August 24.

COMMONER: Former Nepalese mon-archs King Gyanendra (L) and QueenKomal ride in the back of a vehicle as

they leave Naryanhiti Palace in Kath-mandu on June 11. Nepal’s formerking Gyanendra has left his main pal-ace in Kathmandu to live as a com-moner in a former hunting lodge onthe outskirts of the capital.

A F P P H O T O / R A V I M A N A N D H A R

A F P P H O T O / F R A N C k

F I F E



FINANCIAL MELTDOWN: A trader gestures infront of the electronic index board as trading closes for the day at the Philippine Stocks Ex-change in the nancial district of Makati inManila. Philippine share prices closed 1.4 per-cent lower on September 30, but off the day’strough, following the collapse of the deal for a

bail-out package in the United States, dealerssaid. The composite index fell 37.93 points to2,569.65.

NIGHT DRIVE: Spanish driver Fernan-do Alonso of team Renault races dur-ing the nal practice session at the Sin-gapore Grand Prix on Sept 27, 2008ahead of Formula One’s rst ever nightrace on September 28.

BOMB BLAST: Pakistani policemenand onlookers gather as a cloud of smoke billows from the burning Mar-riott hotel following a powerful bomb

blast in Islamabad on September 20. At least 40 people were killed in a massive bomb blast at the hotel inthe Pakistani capital which wasfeared to collapse.

AF P P H OT O / F A R O O q NAE E M

A F P P H O T O

/ J E S A Z N A R

A F P P H O T O / R O S L A N R

A H M A N



MILK SCARE: Chinese

mothers with their babies who were on the contami-nated Sanlu milk powder,

wait to see the doctors at a hospital in Hefei, centralChina’s Anhui provinceon September 16.

GOING NOWHERE: A foreign tour-ist rests on his luggage while wait-ing at a check-in counter at Suvar-nabhumi International Airport inBangkok early on November 26.Thai protesters on November 26tightened their hold on Bangkok airport, where two people were

wounded in a blast and thousands

of travellers left stranded by dem-onstrators vowing to topple thegovernment. Suvarnabhumi Air-port, a major Southeast Asian hubfor millions of passengers, wasclosed down as guards from thePeople’s Alliance for Democracy protest movement sealed off roadsto the facility.

A F P P H O T O

AF P P H OT O / P O R N CHAI kI TTI W O N G S Ak UL

2008 i photos



THE WORLD’S NEWEST KING: Bhutan’s King, Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck smells a ower during a public presentation in Thimphu onNovember 6. The isolated Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan crowned hisnew king, placing a charismatic Oxford-educated bachelor as head of state of the world’s newest democracy. Twenty-eight-year-old Jigme

Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck also becomes the world’s youngest reigning monarch.

AF P P H OT O / P AL P I L L AI

MU MB A I A TTA CK S: Smoke rises from the

Taj hotel in Mumbai onNovember 27. Up to100 people were killedand around 100 more

wounded in coordinatedattacks by gunmen inIndia’s commercial cap-ital Mumbai, The Taj

was one of two five-starhotels targeted by mili-tants.

AF P P H OT O / P E D R O U GA RTE



COVER STORY

SINGAPORE

Laksmi Pamuntjak The Jakarta Post

N

ow that restaurants have be-come big and necessary, theone industry we know doesn’tcave in during a recession,cooks and restaurateurs and

eaters and writers weigh inon the question: what is a restaurant guide?

At its most basic, restaurant guides select andrate restaurants, often ranking them or providinginformation for consumer decisions (type of food,ambience, facilities, price range and so on).

The first ‘guide’ dated back to 12th century Hangzhou, also believed to be the location of therst restaurant. They appeared as signs that couldoften be found posted in the city square listing therestaurants in the area and local customer’s opin-ions of the quality of their food.

As one can imagine, this was the precursor of much of the bribery and even violence still foundin today’s (supposedly) civilised culinary scene.

EXQUISITE: Alaskanking crab topped withroyal snapper carpaccioand spicy sorbet

gazpacho with reshherb salad.

The MieleGuide

the BAttlefor the moStdemoCrAtICreStAurAnt

guIde IS on


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Today the Michelin series

of guides, which dishes outone to three stars to usually high-end, big-ticket restau-

rants, still causes the sort of utter in the heart people get when presented with a vintage Prada or a bottle of Chateau Petrus.

Its main competitor in Europe, theguidebook series published by GaultMillau, doesn’t shoulder as large a mythical burden, and is by naturequite different.

Unlike the Michelin guide which

takes such factors as decor, ambienceand service into consideration, GaultMillau only judges the quality of thefood. Its ratings are on a scale of one to 20, with 20 being the highest.

The popular Zagat Survey compilesindividuals’ comments—mostly avid local restaurant-goers—about restau-rants but does not put them throughan ‘ofcial’ critical assessment.

Then there is Time Out , beloved forits snappy, comprehensive writing. Itoffers the inside scoop on some 2,000restaurants in major cities of the world—big, little, stylish, grungy, andeverything in between—and anoint the best of the best.

Close in wit and spirit to Time Out is The Good Food Guide series, published by the Fair fax NewspaperGroup in Australia.

One to Three Chefs Hats are award-

ed for outstanding restaurants, with

sections on bars, caf és and providers.Today, nearly all major newspapers

employ restaurant critics or at leasthave a restaurant review section.

Then for every major city you can think of, there is at least one lunatic who would gladly sacrice his or her waistline and live for months withamnesia, atulence and indigestion inorder to enlighten their fellow menand women on the gems of the cities.Known otherwise as a one man/wom-an show, this is certainly not for the

faint-hearted. When such people publish the fruits

of their labours, the results tend to beindependent and intensely personal.Think John Kennerdell in Tokyo, Ju-rgen Goethe in Vancouver, Mietta inMelbourne.

Yet it should come as no surprise thatsome of the best of the independentreviews—whether by food critics or by the general public—are to be found online. In addition to popular blogs, several websites are gaining traction including

eGullet.com and chowhound.com.

What all restaurant guidesshare in common, ultimately,is that they are about holdingrestaurants to a certain set of standards: the mechanics de-signed not just to nose out in-competence or any slip in

standard, butalso to recognisea good thing when they see it.

It is against this background that The Miele


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COVER STORY

Guide was launched onOct 31, 2008 at a star-studded dinner at theGrand Hyatt Singapore.

Pitched by its foundersas Asia’s rst truly inde-pendent and authorita- tive restaurant guide, itis partially similar to Za-gat in that it is essentially a mix of professional andpublic voices.

To arrive at the final list of 320 restaurantsfeatured in the inauguraledition, there were four

rounds of selection andadjudication.First, there was the

shortlist of ‘best restau-rants’ drawn up by 84 of the region’s top food writ-ers and restaurant critics.

Polling was then con-ducted online amongstfirst over 15,000 regis- tered voters from over 40countries, then, separate- ly, a jury of 1,500 respect-

ed foodies, journalistsand F&B professionals.The results of these two

votes were then combined with slightly more weightgiven to the public vote.The guide’s Top 20 list was then conrmed after the Miele team dined in-cognito at the top-rankedrestaurants.

As a self-professed independentguide, The Miele Guide naturally

claims to have accepted no advertis-ing, sponsorship or free meals fromany of the restaurants reviewed. While the guide bears the name Miele, theGerman manufacturer of premiumand innovative cooking also insists that as naming sponsor it did not in-fluence the selection and judgingprocess.

No rating system, of course, is with-out aw. However democratic it tries to be, it is predicated on a meeting of subjective minds to set it down in the

first place, as with the case of The Miele Guide’s rst round of selection.

The ‘democratic’ mechanics that fol-

lows can also yield some results.That the Top 20 list shows an over-

whelming presence of Hong Kong

and Singapore restaurants is doubt- less to do with the fact that online voting—for many possible reasons that include lifestyle—is highest in the two cities.

Two of the top three restaurants arefrom Singapore (Iggy’s in rst place,Les Amis in third) while a resoundingeight are from Hong Kong. One restaurateur-chef, the indomitable JoelRobuchon, enjoys a booming triumph with three of his restaurants—inMacau, Hong Kong and Tokyo-mak-

ing it to the Top 20. The only Indone-sian restaurant to make it to the list isMozaic in Bali, at number ve.

This doesn’t, however,urge against popular vot-ing systems in which restaurants are rated by a supposedly impartial andknowing public rather than by ‘experts’, profes-sional or otherwise.

A recent survey of New York City showed that20,424 people ratednearly 2,000 places forZagat, which is, after all, the ultimate ‘democratic’institution. As a point of comparison, The Miele

Guide y ie l ded o ver75,000 votes for Asia be-fore the list was whittleddown.

Still, as the respectablefood critic Mimi Shera- ton points out, almost allof the restaurants with the highest ratings forfood in Zagat are extremely fancy-lookingand expensive.

The Miele Guide is no

different. One has to wonder whether there issomething to be saidabout the psychology of taste that renders it dif-cult to separate the cook-ing from the surround-ings. As we know, this tendency will remain a thorny issue in a region

best known for the richness and con-sistency of its casual and street food.

“We expect that this list will be con-

troversial,” says Aun Koh, Director of Ate Media, publisher of The MieleGuide. “Like any list, we expect people to dispute the rankings and to criticiseus . But the more people talk about anddebate which restaurants and chefs they think are Asia’s best, the more wecan help the restaurant industry in Asia grow.”

To that end, The Miele Guide hascreated a culinary scholarship pro-gramme which aims to promote for-mal culinary education through col-

l a b o r a t i o n w it h e x p e r i e nc e dinternational chefs and other F&Bprofessionals.



MWORK:Restaurateur Ignatius Chan and part of the 25-strong team that runs Iggy’s at The Regent Singapore.

Iggy’sWithout

The IIgnAtIuS ChAn, owner of ASIA’SBeSt reStAurAnt ACCordIngto ‘the mIele guIde’AttrIButeS hIS SuCCeSS toteAmwork

DE S M O NDF O O / THE S T RAI T S TI ME S

SINGAPORE

Andy ChenThe Straits Times

When he was in Pri-mary 5, restaurateurIgnatius Chan andhis mother livedalong the ve-foot-

way outside their shophouse home inSerangoon Road for one week.

They had been thrown out after they failed to pay their rent.

Now, home is an apartment in Chan-cery Court. Chan co-owns and runs the

28-seat Iggy’s at The Regent Singa-pore, which was recently named Asia’sBest Restaurant by The Miele Guide.

The luxe eatery was also ranked No77 on British magazine Restaurant’sWorld’s 100 Best Restaurants honourroll this year, the only establishmentrepresenting Southeast Asia.

Despite such acclaim, Chan has nev-er forgotten his background.

“I am not rich and famous,” he says.“I am a kampung (Malay for village)

boy who has the opportunity to experi-

ence the lifestyle of the rich and famous. About 70 per cent of my meals arehawker food.”

He adds that he and his wife Janice Wong, director of Iggy’s, live in a 990sqft apartment. They have no children.

“We don’t have a maid, only some-one who comes in periodically to helpus with household chores,” he says.

“We have three very charming cats which have destroyed our furniture very thoroughly, so we are embarrassedto even invite friends home now.”

Before setting up Iggy’s, he co-founded Les Amis in 1994, and it wasarguably Singapore’s rst acclaimed in-dependent restaurant. It is No 3 in The

Miele Guide.But he seems averse to talking about

himself in the rst person, especially when he smells anything faintly resem- bling praise.

He prefers to say “you” or “we” whenhe really means “I”. He slouches slight-ly when he sits and when he walks. Hisis not the posture of a cocky guy.

Mention the success of the restau-rant and he immediately defers to theefforts of its 25-strong team.



He says: “Iggy’s is not a personal-ity restaurant. We are very team-driven. I am, by default, only itsspokesman. Please don’t relate Ig-gy’s as Iggy. Iggy’s the name be-longs to the entire team who has

worked extremely hard.“You are just one of the ele-

ments.”Modest or not, there is no deny-

ing an apartment in Chancery Court is a long way from the som-melier-turned-restaurateur’s five-foot-way past.

He was born in 1963 on the wrong side of a wealthy family. His

mother, who suffered from schizo-phrenia, was a second wife with noofcial status. He had 10 stepsiblings.

His father, who owned a printing business, died when Chan was three years old, a shocking turn that exacer- bated his mother’s condition.

Asked about life with his mother, he would only say: “She had a hard time bringing me up and growing up wastough for me.”

The S$300 (about US$200 in to-day’s exchange rate) monthly allowance

given to his stay-home mum saw themthrough until he nished his O levels. Although it was a large sum in the

1960s, the S$300 got increasingly smaller with ination and the expensesof a growing child.

He says: “When I was in Primary 5, Icame home from school one day andfound all our furniture thrown outsidethe house.

“The house was locked up and thepolice came. We lived along the ve-foot-way for a week. Because my mum

was schizophrenic, she thought my latefather had bought the house for her,not knowing that she had to pay rent.”

His oldest stepbrother helped themout, as he would whenever things gotreally bad.

Such hairy experiences in a harrow-ing childhood could have ruined him,Chan admits.

“My mother did beat me and correctme, like when I didn’t eat at the properhours, but not really in terms of teach-ing me values.

“You play with the kids in your neigh- bourhood and you pick up their values.I’m glad I didn’t turn out that bad. I

could have, very easily.“I didn’t do very well in school—I at-

tended St Andrew’s Primary and Sec-ondary schools. I am one of those whonever made it to A levels.”

After serving national service, heknew he had to get a job but all he got

were rejections.“I applied to an interior design com-

pany and was rejected. I applied to a furniture shop to be a salesman and

was rejected.

“When you have no proper home fora long time—we were almost like vaga- bonds or gypsies—you really want to work in a place related to homes, withnice furniture.”

Then, he answered a Goodwood Park Hotel advertisement for a front-ofcereceptionist (“I thought it was execu-tive-like,” he says), a position for whichhe was under-qualied.

Instead, he was offered a job as a jun-ior waiter at the L’Espresso coffee loungeand he took it. He was not necessarily set

on a career in food and wine at the time but it was a job nonetheless. And it was there that he discovered

the ticket to a better job—the Singa-pore Hotel Association Training andEducation Centre (Shatec).

He says: “I found out about Shatecfrom some graduates who were spon-sored by Goodwood Park. I was thrilledthat it was an opportunity to go back toschool and get a better job.”

He did not know it then but his lifegraph was about to spike. He just need-

ed to stare down another “no”.There was no chance, he was told,

that Goodwood Park would sponsor his

food and beverage (F&B) studies atShatec since there were others ahead of him in the queue.

He says: “I was very determined. I wentto Shatec, submitted my application andtold them straight that I needed a spon-sor since I couldn’t afford the fees.

“They found me one—The Orientalhotel, where I started work and train-ing in April 1985. I told myself this wasan industry where I could build a ca-reer, since I needed only O levels to

qualify for Shatec.” After graduating with a diploma inhospitality studies, he was assigned to

work at French restaurant Fourchettesat The Oriental.

In 1989, he won a scholarship fromthe hotel, now renamed Mandarin Ori-ental, to train at wineries and restau-rants around Europe for six months.

The F&B director at the time recom-mended Chan to the head ofce for thescholarship, having discovered throughconversations about food and wine that

he had a gifted palate.In Europe, he rubbed shoulders andgot tips from experts at the best winer-ies and restaurants around the region.

The next year, after his Europe stint,Sopexa—which promotes French foodand agricultural products worldwide—named Chan Best Sommelier. He was

just 27.It was also at The Oriental that he

met and befriended another trainee, Justin Quek, a talented chef with whomhe would eventually set up Les Amis.

Quek, tells The Straits Times overthe telephone from Shanghai where heis now based: “After work, we went out

COVER STORY



on a motorbike to makan (Malay foreat) and Ignatius took his wines along to try with local food. It was our dreamto start a restaurant.”

In 1994, they did, with financialmuscle from investors including stock-

broker Desmond Lim. With Quek’s ski ll at the fire and

Chan’s exceptional palate at the front of the house, Les Amis’ success was nosurprise. But the duo’s departure fromthe restaurant group was.

In 2003, just before Chan’s motherdied at age 70, they left Les Amis, whichhad by then expanded to

become a group of eating

outlets.Foie gras- and truffle-loving tongues wagged andspeculated on their reasonsfor leaving.

Chan states for therecord: “It was a push.

When Les Amis expanded,I went along with it becauseI am a team player, eventhough I thought it mightnot be good for me. I felt re-sponsible for the expansion

but not in control.“Then when Justin left, itdidn’t take me very long toleave as well—I decided thefollowing day. The teamand friendship were nolonger there.”

Lim, one of the co-found-ers of Les Amis and thechairman of the group, whois known to be media-shy,declined to comment.

That Quek would go on to

greener pastures with new restaurants was perhaps a foregone conclusion.

But Chan, a sommelier by training, was in a different position.

He says: “What was I to do? Go back to a hotel to be a restaurant manager? Ihad already co-founded Les Amis.”

So he went on to start Iggy’s in Sep-tember 2004. He and his wife are ma-

jority shareholders of the restaurant.He has built a name for the restau-

rant, despite the fact that neither its

rst head chef, German Dorin Schus-ter, nor current chef, Singaporean Su-an Zain, are big names.

How did he do it?He says: “You travel a lot and eat a lot

around the world - that is the key. Then you have a huge database of tastes andexperiences.”

Quek says: “Ignatius is not a chef buthis palate is excellent. He travels aroundthe world to tune his palate, so heknows where all the best food are andhow they taste.”

Chan admits to being an assiduouslearner and he is happy to let otherstake the limelight, so he can observefrom the shadows quietly.

That is how this kampung boy grew up to be humble, polite and soft-spoken.

He says: “Along the way, when youmeet people of great importance to so-ciety—ministers and great leaders of countries—you observe, you learn and

you embrace certain solid values suchas integrity and keeping your promiseand keeping your deadlines.

“When I was growing up, I was a very, very tardy person because I simply

lacked discipline. I am lucky to have a wife who grew up in a very strict family, where her parents had to work very

hard in factories.”He adds: “She is very logical while

I’m better with creativity and food,combining avours and all that. She isalso extremely strict and disciplined,

whereas I am the salesman, the per-former.”

His wife says, laughing: “We clash allthe time. Just ask my staff. I’m a type-A personality. Discussing problems andeven raising voices is okay to me.

“But it’s something new to him. We’re better at thrashing things out now. Pre- viously, he just called me aggressive.”

A couple of weeks after be-ing named Asia’s Best Res-

taurant, it is business asusual at Iggy’s.Chan will not change what

he and the team have beendoing. He knows full wellthat accolades lure restau-rants to outdo themselves

with shinier cutlery, biggercuts of meat and fancier a-

vours, leading to theirdoom.

“It happens to hawkers,too,” he says. “A bowl of good

laksa (a spicy noodle soup),sometimes with cockles, issimple and so good to eat.

“But people start putting in lobster, craysh and geo-duck clam, instead of cock-les. It’s no longer laksa. Idon’t know what you callthat. Does it make sense?

Are you bettering or batter-ing a product?”

For that same reason, he isa one restaurant man—for

the moment. Any changes orexpansion must be “organic”,he says.

The restaurateur, who says he plansonly for “tomorrow and tomorrow andtomorrow”, admits to being a worrier.

“My ex-partners at Les Amis, likeDesmond, say I’m a worrier. I was al-

ways the one who basically said ‘no’ to whatever they wanted to do,” he says.

“Some people misinterpret this andthink I am a lazy person, that I lack am-

bition. But it’s this worrying nature that

has planted my feet in a very solid way.“It’s a big contributor to the success

of Iggy’s.”

“I love personality-driven restaurants, if

they are trulypersonality-driven

restaurants. Anexample would be thissmall sushi restaurantin Tokyo’s Ginza. It has

seven seats and it’scalled Sushi Sawada.

Sawada is the name ofthe chef, and it’s himalone preparing the

food every day. That’spersonality”

— Chan on big-name restaurants



COVER STORY

BukHARANew Delhi, India

delhi has its QutabMinar — and it has itsBukhara. The rst is a

towering pillar that touristsmust view; the second isone of India’s best knownrestaurants. And ever sinceBill Clinton dined there,Bukhara has found its placeon the global culinary map.

Of course, die-hard Bukhara fans would say it was alwaysright up there.

The restaurant in ve-starITC Maurya Sheraton wasset up in 1977. It serves foodfrom the North WestFrontier Province, a regionknown for its rugged terrainand simple but deliciouscuisine. The food is mostly grilled and cooked withminimal spices. You are

expected to eat with yourngers (though you canalways ask for cutlery) andthe restaurant will provide

you with a lovely red-and- white apron to ensure that you don’t mess up yourclothes. There are people

who swear by Bukhara, andsome who believe that itsfood is overrated. Either

way, the place — which canaccommodate 130 people

— is always packed, even on weekdays. Tables are spreadout in three meandering rooms.

The interiors are simple, with broad wooden beams,stone walls and copperutensils placed in littlealcoves. In the midst of therestaurant is an openkitchen where you can seechefs grilling meat and

vegetables in clay ovens

known as tandoors. Serversare clad in loose pyjamas, a long shirt and a neat

waistcoat. Menus are thick planks of wood, with thechoice of dishes painted onthem. The range is small,

but you must not miss the

famous Bukhara dal andits sikandari raan. Thelatter is a whole leg of baby lamb that had beenmarinated for hours withspices such as cumin andcinnamon before being grilled in the tandoor —utterly delicious. Thespices really seep into themeat, which is grilled inthe deep charcoal oven toperfection. The dal — len-

tils cooked with tomatoes,spices and butter overhours — is equally superb.

In fact, you could have a truly enjoyable meal with

just the dal and pudina paranthas — baked breadsmeared with butter and

infused with mint leaves.The desserts, however,are all fantastic. The

phirni — powdered rice inthickened milk tempered

with saffron, rose waterand slivers of almonds —is light yet creamy. The

gulab jamuns — milk-and-flour balls, deep-friedand dipped in sugar syrup— are wonderfully softand delicious. No doubt

about it, Bukhara is not just a restaurant, it ’s anexperience.

1. Iggy’s, Singapore2. L’Atelier de JoelRobuchon, Hong Kong,China

3. Les Amis, Singapore4. Gunther’s, Singapore

5. Mozaic, Bali, Indonesia6. Robuchon a Galera,Macau, China7. Garibaldi, Singapore8. Yung Kee, Hong Kong,

China9. Hutong, Hong Kong,China

10. Antonio’s Fine Dining,Tagaytay, Philippines11. Caprice, Hong Kong,China

12. Zuma, Hong Kong,China13. L’Atelier de Joel

Robuchon, Tokyo,Japan14. Bukhara, New Delhi,India

15. Grissini, Hong Kong,China16. Nobu, Hong Kong,

China17. M on the Bund,Shanghai, China

18. Fook Lam Moon,Hong Kong, China19. Zanotti IlRistorante Italiano,

Bangkok, Thailand20. Kyubey, Tokyo, Japan

The MieleGuide A Sampling Of The Best

20Top Asia’s

Che J P Singh



FOOk lAM MOOnHong Kong, China

f

ook Lam Moon(Wanchai) is theagship restaurant of

the Fook Lam Moon group(with another branch inTsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong,four in Japan and one inShanghai). Started in 1972

by founder and chef, ChuiFook, the eatery has adheredto his simple philosophy that a chef’s food is never upto par without premiumquality ingredients nomatter how talented he may

be. And it is this belief thathas led Fook Lam Moon to become a bastion of Cantonese cuisine in Hong Kong.

Despite some refurbish-ment four years ago, therestaurant’s decor stillretains much of its old-Hong Kong feel. Mercifully,

what the refurbishment hasdone away with is theindifferent service of the oldFook Lam Moon, where its

wait staff would deignniceties only to its regularcustomers. The service today is attentive and efcient toall who dine here, with staff providing appropriaterecommendations fromtheir menu (rather thanpushing the most expensiveitems listed). Naturally, asone of the city’s top Canton-ese restaurants, Fook LamMoon’s prices are high. Butcustomers are happy to fork

out for exquisitely preparedpremium and classic disheslike braised shark’s n in

brown sauce, braised wholeabalone with goose web,and double-boiled bird’snest with coconut milk.Other must-haves includethe deep-fried crispy pigeonand baked stuffed crab in

shell. The former isparticularly notewor-thy for its deliciousaroma and softly gamey meat. Which-ever end of theextensive menu’sspectrum you choosefrom — the exotic andexpensive include thelikes of shark’s n,

bird’s nest andabalone, while themore down-to-earthincludes braised frog legs with preservedcabbage and friedcrispy chicken — every dish

is almost guaranteed to be a memorable one. And don’texpect to be shown a winelist because this is asauthentic a Chineserestaurant as they come. Inother words, if you want a drink to pair with yourmeal, then choose from a small selection of brandies,

whiskeys, beers and baijiu (Chinese rice wine). If you

simply must have wine, bring your own and beprepared to cough up thecorkage.

Fook Lam Moon ispopular to say the least. Therestaurant doesn’t require

you to place reservations, but it would be prudent to,especially for dinner.

kYuBEYTokyo, Japan

for years, Kyubey has

been synonymous withthe best (and the most

expensive) sushi in Japan.Fittingly, all its outposts(four in Tokyo and one in

Osaka) are sited in prestig-

ious hotels, save for its

agship in Ginza, which despite itshumbler location, isknown to offer the

best sushi of theKyubey group.

The best way toexperience theexquisite food atKyubey is to ask forthe omakase (tasting menu). It starts off

with small plates of

beautiful sashimi,grilled seafood andsnacks specially madeto serve alongside sake

or beer, before graduating todifferent varieties of sushideftly made by skilledcraftsmen (yes, they arereferred to as craftsmenrather than chefs). Thanksto its impeccable reputationand large number of customers (and thus,

incredible buying power)

Kyubey can boast the nest

quality seafood from the best suppliers in Japan. Insummer, order the sea urchin that is so fresh, itliterally goes straight fromthe seawater it’s packed inand onto diners’ plates.

The otoro, or fatty tuna, isimmensely popular and is asavourful and meltingly unctuous as they come. Alsoin summer, try the shinko — refreshing baby gizzard

shad pickled in vinegar. While the sake and wine listaren’t particularly extrava-gant, expect quality brandsselected specially to pair

with sushi, such as Ara-masa, which has a light andpleasant acidity, making itthe perfect accompaniment.

Both the food and drink are well matched by thesplendid service. Uncom-monly for Japan, the wait

staff here speak some

English and are delightfully

generous towards foreign visitors. They are alsochildren-friendly, which isalways lovely for foodieparents travelling with their

brood in tow. Despite theirsuccess, the chefs at Kyubey never fail to ask theircustomers if they areenjoying their sushi afterserving the rst few pieces.

And if you prefer your ricermer or softer, or a

particular type or cut of sh, don’t hesitate toexpress your preferences.Indeed, sushi chefs in

Japan have a bit of a reputation for being surly craftsmen, but not atKyubey. Which ultimately makes Kyubey the bestdestination in Tokyo forthose with a generous

budget and an appetite forthe best quality sushi and

service.

Reprinted with permission from The Miele Guide (www.mieleguide.com)

Che Chui Wai Kwan

P H OT O S C O U RTE S Y OF THE

MI E L E G UI DE

Che Yosuke Imada



pHOTO ESSAY



Freezing weather with a steep drop of over 12˚C intemperatures has brought the snow to Jilin and otherparts of China.

The cold front from western Serbia has been forecasted to bring gusty wind, sand storm and heavy snow in December.

In Jilin, while workers struggled to clear roads of ice,children and the young-at-heart had fun building icesculptures.

China’s Cold FrontPHOTOS BY CHINA DAILYTEXT BY ASIA NEWS NETWORK



liFESTYLE

SINGAPORE

Cara Van MiriahThe Straits Times

Forget karaoke bars with sim-pering, scantily clad hostessesfawning over men—Singa-pore’s night scene has just gota taste of girl power.

A trendy bar that opened here lastmonth is singing a new tune: The pa-trons are mainly women and the hostsare all young, good-looking men.

The cosy bar with all-male hosts isSoufflé—named after the eggy, air whipped French dish—located in a row of ashy karaoke pubs and billiard sa-loons along South Bridge Road.

It consists of a main bar playing down tempo music, plus two rooms forkaraoke singing, and has a total of vemale hosts, including local and foreignpart-time models.

The English-speaking hosts greetgroups of women—with the odd be-mused boyfriend or male business con-

tact in tow—as they stroll in. Onceseated, guests can take their pick of themale hosts, who introduce themselves,pour a drink and turn on the charmamid light-hearted banter.

Soufé’s hunky hosts earn their mon-ey by being booked to chat with theguests, and by keeping a percentage of the drinks they sell them.

They charge guests S$100 (US$69)to drink, talk or sing karaoke with themthe whole night—cheaper than a femalehostess in a regular nightclub who

charges between S$100 and S$150(US$104).

The chatty chaps at Soufé keep the

whole booking fee,

plus part of theirsales of shootersor small glassesof spirits.

Patrons not wanting to fork out S$100 for a constant com-panion can optto pay S $35(US$24) for oc-casional atten-tion from a ‘but-

tery’, which is a slang term forhosts who flutterfrom one table toanother entertain-ing guests. Again,that is cheaper thanthe $50 (US$35) go-ing rate for butteriesof the fairer sex.

The owner of Soufé,28-year-old Jennifer Ou,describes her establish-

ment as “Sex And The City without the sex”.She says: “Women can enjoy

good, clean fun in a girly environ-ment.”

Indeed, any clueless male who wan-ders through Soufe’s dark-tinted glassdoors is in for a shock: The decorscreams sugar and spice, with purplefloral wallpaper, glitter walls, plush

velvet couches with fuchsia cushionsand a pair of pink love-seats.

Inside, single women in their 20s

and 30s dressed in office suits andtrendy gear enjoy a boozy night in a safe, relaxed atmosphere.

M Htmen Are plAyIng hoStSAt A BAr CAterIng to women



Flight atten-

dant SusanneLin, 37, says:“I feel very comfortablehanging out

in a women’s bar. It is not a sleazy joint asthe hosts keeptheir hands tothemselves.”

Owner Ou, a jewellery design-

er, got the idea for the bar three years ag o wh enshe visited male-h o s t c l u b s i nShanghai, Hong

Kong, Taipei andTokyo.

She tells The StraitsTimes: “Singapore’s

nightlife has evolvedover the years, but what’s

missing is a place for wom-

en. Many have been toShanghai and Tokyo to check out the male host clubs.“If there are bars with female

hostesses for men, there should beone for women.”

She, together with two businesspartners , sank in S$43,000

(US$29,921) last August to takeover a former karaoke pub, ands p e n t a n o t h e r S $ 3 0 , 0 0 0

(US$20,875) on renovations. Basedon a two-year lease, the monthly rental

for the 130sqm space is a four-guresum.

Ou, who is single, spent several

weeks on the enviable task of selecting

Soufe’s male hosts. “The hosts must be well-mannered,” she says, adding that she also places emphasis on looks,the way they dress and their conversa-tional skills.

Freelance male hosts such as under-graduate Juan, 23, work at Soufé twoto three times a week.

He says: “It’s a decent part-time jobto earn some extra cash. The patronsare mainly professionals and it’s a great place to meet new people.”

When the bachelor is asked if he has

received any indecent proposals, he blushes and shakes his head.There are other nightspots here with

male hosts, but the guys also doubleup as stage entertainers. The clubs in-clude Volar at Club Street and ClubGiorgio at Lavender Street and attract

both male and female patrons. At Soufflé, female patrons are al-

lowed to bring their male friends, butit will turn away rowdy groups of men,says Ou, stressing that it aims for a mostly feminine crowd. As the bar can

hold up to only 60 people, it is advis-able for groups to make a booking, sheadds.

Soufflé also holds private eventssuch as hen nights and birthday par-ties, complete with a tarot reader, a magician and a manicurist—just thething when a gal wants her nails tolook perfect as she holds the karaokemike and belts out a tune.

As for the question at the back of many people’s minds—has any femalepatron booked a male host beyond bar

hours—Ou says: “The boys are underinstructions to offer companionshiponly at the bar.”DESMOND WEE/THE STRAITS TIMES

EVOLVING NIGHTLIFESCENE: Jennier Ou, owner

o Soué, (centre) with malehosts Juan, 23 (seated) andDanier Tang, 24.



liFESTYLE

BANGKOK

Philip GolingaiThe Star

t ype “hi-so” in The Nation’s— www.nationmultimedia.com—search box, and you’llnd some 160 entries.

The page features “New,mega rich hi-so superstars of the Thaieconomy”, “Hi-so wives and mia nois (Thai for minor wives)”, “Hi-so crowd”,“Hi-so denizens” and “Hi-so parties”.

What’s hi-so?“Not that easy to dene any more,”

says Thailand Tatler editor-in-chief

Naphalai Areesorn.“In the past it used to be the family you come from which set your socialstatus,” she explains. “And in Thai-land—which is a country with a royalfamily—we have established familiesthat can trace their line way back tothe initial days of the Chakri dynasty.”

Now, Naphalai continues, there’snew money—especially during theThaksin Shinawatra days when many Thais became rich.

And there’s the social climber.

Usually they are the wannabes whoincessantly patronise high society functions and get themselves photo-

graphed ceaselessly (because they areeccentric or dress outstandingly) andthen sort of get themselves into thehi-so circle, although their “back-

ground is not quite what it should be”.For a description of a hi-so, returnto the rst page of The Nation’s searchresult and click on the article “Two

women take over husbands’ politicalroles”, which was published on

January 12.Towards the end, the article

states: “Pojaman (Damapong—her maiden name, which shereverted to after divorcing Thaksin Shinawatra) mightlook like any rich madam with

her big hairstyle, neatly cutdress and designer handbag.“She also loves to shop at

upscale department stores.But what makes her stand outfrom the hi-so crowd is the strong political network she has built sincethe premiership of her husband.”

Well, the days of big hairdos aregone. The khunying (Thai slang for a

woman which Lonely Planet charac-terises as having “Imelda Marcoshelmet hairdos, jewel-toned Thai silk

and thick pancake make-up”) has now gone modern.

“The khunyings have lowered the

height of their hair,” adds Naphalai, who joined Thailand Tattler as a contributing editor when the magazine

was launched 17 years ago.Being a hi-so comes with a certain

look.“Don’t forget, within this crowd,

there is a lot of keeping up with the Joneses. If you—especially a hi-so wannabe—want to be accepted by

one’S fAmIly BACkgrounduSed to defIne one’S SoCIAlStAndIng. But todAy, thAIwAnnABeS mAke theIr wAy InBeCAuSe they Are eCCentrICor dreSS outStAndIngly

Low-ow

O Hi-So



them, you have tolook like them,”explains Naphalai, who isthe perfect source to give thelow-down on Thai high society.

Designer dress is a must. “If it is notdesigner wear, then it must be (made

of) Thai silk,” she adds. A must-have accessory is designerhandbags—at the least, Hermes’ Kelly or Birkin.

But it is not all about internationaldesigner labels. The in-thing ishigh-end made-in-Thailand labelssuch as Asava (a new brand by a designer who is in the hi-so circle),Disaya or Munchu’s.

Ostentatiousness separates the Thaihi-so from her southern counterpart,the Malaysian socialite.

Thai hi-so tends to be more ostenta-tious, observes Naphalai, who isfamiliar with the Malaysian social

scene asshe lived in Kuala Lumpur in the 1960s when her father

was Bangkok Bank manager.“Thais tend to show off. Malay-sians—and I know some very wealthy Malaysian Chinese—don’t seem to careso much about having to put up withappearances,” she observes. “The

wealth is there but Malaysians do nothave the need to display their wealth.”

How ostentatious is the Thai hi-so?She’s dripping with the biggest

stones in a social function that doesnot require her to wear all the jewellery in her safety box.

“When one piece of jewellery isenough to draw attention, there arepeople who wear jewellery on their

ears,

neck, wrists, ngers … everywhere,”laments Naphalai. “In Thailand being frugal is not always considered a positive value.”

Eeeem, sounds like the Mak Datins (who are Malaysia’s equivalent of thekhunyings).

The other difference is that Malay-sian socialites are less fashionable thantheir Thai counterparts.

KLites tend to dress more simply than Bangkokians, notes Naphalai,

who does not consider herself a hi-so.

A hi-so, she adds, is very quick toown the latest trend so that she can

wear it and show it off.



EnTERTAinMEnT

KOLKATA

Derek BoseThe Statesman

A

s the year draws to a close,some clarity is beginning toemerge on what the futureholds for Bollywood

cinema. For one, directors,rather than stars, would determine thefate of lms at the boxofce. For another, therole of heroines is getting minimised. In content,narrative style, technicalnesse and treatment of stories, Hindi lms wouldincreasingly resembleHollywood productions.

But more than all theseprojections on expected

lines, what has come as a surprise and in many ways will have a denitiveimpact on Bollywoodlmmaking is therecession trend sweeping across the globe. Money isalready scarce andcorporate producers areslashing their budgets big time. Multi-star projects are on hold. Soare the many multi-lm deals struck

with top-ranking actors and directors

recently. In their place, several low budget, non-star productions are being green-lighted, most of them with

rst-time directors. Clearly, this is notime to go overboard and splurge.

That small is beautiful has beenestablished by recent box ofce hitslike Khuda Ke Liye, Aamir , AWednesday, Mumbai Meri Jaan and

Rock On. These lms were made onunusually small budgets and haverecovered their costs many times over.

Aamir, for instance, was made for 20million rupees (US$427,761—much

less than what a known actor chargesthese days) and has reportedly netted50 million rupees ($1.06 million).

Likewise, A Wednesday (which is stillrunning to full houses in many parts of the country) was made for barely 35

million rupees ($748,583) and hasalready raked in 140 million rupees($2.99 million). Even a ShyamBenegal lm, Welcome To Sajjanpur ,

which made on a budget of 3.5 crorerupees (with a rural setting) hasgenerated more than 80 million rupees($1.71 million).

Now, compare this with the

performance of the big-budgetso-called ‘blockbusters’ like Sarkar Raaj , Tashan, Karzzzz and of late,Yuvvraaj . Nobody likes to be seen a loser in these timesand producersespecially, wouldnever admit toturning out a turkey.They would rathergo about assiduously

fudging gures andcontinue to claimthat their lms were‘blazing hits’. Butanybody who haskept track of how long the lms hadlasted in the boxofce would know

where the claimscome from. These are no more than

weak ploys to keep the pot on the boil.This is, however, not to suggest that

all big-budget productions arepotential disasters and small-budgetlms are guaranteed successes.

Th Futu Of

BllywddIreCtorS, rAther thAn StArS,would determIne the fAte of

fIlmS At the Box offICe

LORDS OF BOLLYWOOD: Indian actor Abhishek Bachchan (R) and directorRam Gopal Varma (C). A-list stars out-priced themselves and now are let withvery little option but to take a voluntary ee cut or bankroll flms on their own.

I ND RA NI L M UkHE R J E E / AF P

THE KING: Even upcomingprojects o ormidable actorShah Rukh Khan are being

stalled because o what lookslike a recession in Bollywood.



Casualties occur for both types of lms,the only difference being the level of nancial risk involved. In these bleak times when the appetite of producersfor risk-taking is severely reduced, a

big project is doomed right from theconception stage itself. Even bankshave frozen their credit lines toproducers and private money lendersare charging unheard-of rates of interest. Little wonder, the productionof a number of big lms, including

Vipul Shah’s London Dreams, themuch-hyped Himesh Reshammiya-starrer Kajra Re and a Shah RukhKhan FX lm (hithertountitled) has been

stalled indenitely.Given this scenario,makers of small-budgetlms will have an edgeover the biggies in the

business. After all, itmakes more sense for a producer to spread hisrisks across multipleprojects than put all hiseggs in one basket.Thus, all majorproduction houses are

going all out to lure theso-called ‘minnows’among the directors,such as Sriram Ragha-

van, Dibakar Bannerjee,Neeraj Pandey andRajkumar Gupta.

Signicantly, theseare the names generat-ing the biggest buzz inBollywood today. All of them are young andenterprising with a fair

understanding of the sensibilities of the target audience and a proven track record to boast of. Most importantly,they have worked with some of themost talented, but affordable actors inHindi cinema like Paresh Rawal, Vinay Pathak, Ranvir Shorey and Sharman

Joshi. A winning combination betweenthe new generation of directors andactors has thus been already estab-lished. And it is this synergy that willtake Bollywood lmmaking ahead, notthe success of stray multi-starrers like

Race, Fashion and Dostana.There are of course, some more big

lms left like Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi

(with Shah Rukh Khan), Ghajini (with Aamir Khan) and ChandniChowk to China (Akshay Kumar); butagain, these are in the nature of ashesin the pan. These productions werelaunched in better times when mostproducers did not understand, letalone expect something called a ‘globalmeltdown’. In effect, all the A-list starsout-priced themselves and now are left

with very little option but to take a voluntary fee cut or bankroll lms ontheir own.

Scores of such small, but intelligentlms are currently in the making,

including some by the veterans SaeedMirza ( Ek Tho Chance) and KumarShahani ( Anna Karenina).

The lms are uniformly shorn of allglamour and glitz by way of a star-studded cast, ostentatious sets andcostumes, needless songs and dances;unless of course, there is a historicalpoint of reference.

Most of them are shot in one or twooutdoor locations, and the rest, indoors.This is because with every change of location, production costs multiply and

surely, scenes in the Swiss Alps do nott in the scheme of things.

There is no room for incredible feats,

exaggerated heroism, larger-than-lifecharacters, villains. The lms aremostly about ordinary people ineveryday situations that audiences canidentify with.

Age-old Bollywood clichés likeconvenient coincidences, lost-and-found brothers, triumph of good overevil and happy endings do not gure atall. In fact, anything that smacks of

being formulaic is shunned. As these lms are targeted at a

so-called ‘multiplex audience’, typically concerns of the urban youth, theirhopes, sentiments and sensibilities, the

language they speak in (Hinglish) arehighlighted. These are the elementsthat would determine the complexionof Hindi cinema in times to come.Even more signicant is that theconventional star-driven, lavishly-mounted escapist fare Bollywood isknown for would eventually be viewedas parallel or avant garde cinema.

Already, the lm trade has stoppedcalling them ‘lms’. That is a termreserved for the small-budget produc-tions. Big-budget lms are now

colloquially referred to as ‘projects’.This itself, is saying a lot about thedirection Bollywood is headed.

DAWNING: There is no time to go overboard and splurge on production costs or upcoming Bollywoodprojects. This is now the direction India’s tinseltown is headed.

AF

P



TREndS

SEOuL

Jean OhThe Korea Herald

T

ype in the word ‘hip-ster’ and Naver’s dic-tionary spits out thedenition: “a personin the know, a well-

informed person, a follower of fads.” Then follows it up with a couple of alternatives: “jazz per-former, jazz acionado.”

Hard to say that Naver has hitthe nail on the head, but the ap-pearance of ‘hipster’ on the pop-ular Korean Internet portal sitehints at something that be-comes more obvious when youhit the streets of Seoul.

In small but growing numbers , t rademark

skinny jeans, Conversesand vintage flannels popout from the crowds. Add to that therecent introduction of NYLON Korea and Dazed and Confused Korea to thedomestic magazine market, and it givesrise to the question: Are there hipstersin Korea?

Before delving into the current statusof this nation’s youth culture, the term‘hipster’ requires clarication. Taking its roots from the 1940s, when it ini-tially referred to jazz enthusiasts, the

word ‘hipster’ is believed to come froma derivative of “hop,” slang for opium.

Now, it serves as a somewhat ambig-

u o u scatchphrase used to describethe young and the hip. To-day’s hipster is into thingsthat are cool, new and notmainstream.

In the recent past, coolmeant xed-gear bikes, skinny

jeans, Converses, vintage anneland the so-called “international

hipster bible” Vice magazine. Whether any of this still holdstrue remains to be seen and prov-en.

Hipsters have been ridiculedand criticised for their lack of identity. They have also beenupheld as trendy young peo-ple who do not deserve the bad rap the media some-

times gives them.Good or bad, it looks

like the legions of hip-

s te rs a re growing ,spreading through the inter-net and through the global prolifera-tion of reportedly hipster-friendly

brands like American Apparel, UNIQ-LO and Converse.

Has it reached Seoul?“I am not a hipster,” says Dos A Dos

founder and director/artist Oh Suk-kuhn.

Dressed from head-to-toe in vintage,including his 1,000 won (75 US cents)cardigan, Oh is the force behind Dos A

Dos, a party known for attracting anexciting and unusually dressed crowd--think swimsuits and guys wearing

dresses. And he does not seem to be too fond

of hipsters.“I don’t like hipsters,” artist Oh says

rmly. “I’m too creative to be a hipster.” When asked if they come to his party,

he answers, “Of course, lots of hipsterscome. When we rst started out, it was a sort of meeting of music acionados and

fashionable people. And then hipstersowed in and I am not too crazy aboutit.”

What about ‘real’ hipsters? Oh paus-es: “A real hipster is someone who hastheir own distinct and clear-cutcolour.”

Oh is quick to separate himself andhis Dos A Dos members from thecrowd.

“I do not think that we are like thosecurrent New York hipsters who follow that which is hip, thoughtlessly,” he

elaborated.It is hard to know what group Oh is a part of. A staunch devotee of vintage, “Ican’t wear new clothes,” he explains.

Whether or not he means hipsters when he says, “people came with a dif-ferent attitude”, is unclear. But Oh be-lieves that hipsters are here to stay.

“I think hipsters will continue to ap-pear.”

According to Oh, the publication of domestic versions of magazines like

Dazed and NYLON came as no sur-

prise.“They knew that it was time,” he said.

“A lot of things had already shown up.

HipsTers:

TrendOr Fad?

P H O T O

C O U R T E S Y

O F M A P S M A G A

Z I N E

RyuDo-yeon.



Street brand mags,(multicultural space) Daily Projects andDos A Dos. So, of course, NYLON and

Dazed came.”The original London-based Dazed and

Confused and the US-based NYLON havemade a name for themselves for theirunique approach to fashion, art and mu-

sic. And now they have entered the Koreanmarket. Dazed and Con-

fused Korea kickedoff with its May issueand NYLON Korea

with its Septemberissue this year.

“Magazines like NYLON and Dazed don’t show the trendsof the masses,” said

NYLON Korea edi-

t o r - i n - c h i e f Ketherine Koo. “It isfor those who want tocreate their own style.They want something new all the time.”

“We want to make a magazine forreal hipsters,” explained editor Koo.“But it is a mass market ... We hope thathipsters, at this point a minority, willlead the culture of the masses and that

we will be, in turn, a medium that ap-peals to them.”

The 38-year-old editor-in-chief maintained a positive outlook on thefuture of Korean hipsters.

“Right now, Ithink there a lot of young people

with a hipster mindset and that they are increasing in great numbers,” saidKoo.

Dazed and Confused Korea editor-in-chief Annie Kim adopted a more

conservative stance.“Aren’t they just

one part of society?”Kim asked. “Like twoor three, three or fourout of 10? I think itmay be exaggerated.”

“There are hipstersthough,” the 33-year-old editor-in-chief continued. “It defi-nitely seems to haveincreased. Kids who

have just graduated,university studentsand contributing edi-tors and people Imeet seem to havethat disposition.”

When asked if Dazed and Confused Korea was a hipster magazine, Kim an-swered: “There is that inclination, but if

you mean ‘hipster’ as in ‘street-basedsubculture,’ then we may have hipster-like elements but our magazine is up-scale.”

Yet, oddly enough, there is no ofcialterm for this group of Korean hipsters.

“No, there are no terms for trendy kids in Korea,” said Kim.

Ryu Do-yeon, CEO and publisher of maps magazine, suggested ‘skinny tribe’ and ‘BigBang style’ as potentialcatchphrases for those who wear skin-ny jeans or subscribe to the air of thehit Korean boy band.

In addition to artistic layouts, maps sports a hefty set of street shots featur-ing hip Koreans decked out in animalprint skinny jeans, stylishly assembled

blends of American Apparel and Com-me des Garcons and, of course, vin-tage.

“I wanted to show Korean style toKoreans and to those overseas,” saidRyu of his street section.

When asked if he thinks his maga-

zine caters to hipsters, he answered:“You can say that it does. And you cansay that it doesn’t.”

According to publisher Ryu, fashion-forward people are the rise, and the

boom in select shops serves as a resultof the desire for “something new”.

Among the slew of select shops thathave hit Seoul, Cheongdam-dong’sDaily Projects emerges as a pioneer inthe world of fashion, due in part, to itsexecutive manager Lee Jung-hee.

Educated at Parsons, Lee master-

minded the Daily Projects’ event that was part of Seoul Fashion Week’s Gen-eration Next, causing a stir in October.Her high prole participants includedprominent fashion expert, Diane Per-net, who screened ‘A Shaded View onFashion Film’ in Korea for the rst time,and Danish designer Henrik Vibskov,

who presented during fashion week.“I invited him (Vibskov) here,” said

Lee. “I went to Denmark to meet him. I was like, ‘Yo, do you want to come?’”

Lee’s multicultural space, complete

with a cafe where one can pore for hoursover a serious collection of reading ma-terials—including the Dazed and Con-

fused , i-D, and Monocle—and two oors worth of hip brands like Band of Outsid-ers and Bless, also showcases art.

“For some reason, we attract the younger public,” said the 34-year-oldexecutive manager.

When asked if she thinks the hipstertrend has hit Korea, Lee answered: “Yeah,denitely. They are fashion masters.”

“Young kids, like Japanese kids, starve

themselves to buy something,” she said.“I see that here too. (They) use all theircash on clothes and eat ramen.”

Hong Suk-woowearing PatrikErvell.

The cover o the magazine ‘Dazed’

THE k O RE AHE RAL D

THE k O RE AHE RAL D

Dos A Dos

ounder anddirector/artistOh Suk-kuhn.

Lee Jung-heedecked out in

Bless.



pEOplE

KuALA LuMPuR

Noorsila Abd MajidThe Star

Ah, Mallika Sherawat ... whocan resist her? While hot-

blooded males are xated with her heaving chest, we women can’t help but envy

her ‘droolicious’ curves. Even if theoriginal Bollywood bombshell tried todress down when she was in Kuala Lumpur, you could still see her slip-ping out of her semi-transparent, tightangelic white dress.

But the 32-year-old actress is quick

to point out that she is more thanmeets the eyes.“Sexy is just one part of me,” said

Mallika matter-of-factly during this backstage chat at the Kuala LumpurInternational Film Festival.

“There’s more to come from me,acting-wise.” She is, of course, talking about her buzzworthy Hollywood--nanced Bollywood project, Hisss. Di-rected by indie filmmaker JenniferLynch, the India-set mystery is tippedto boost Mallika’s prole as an A-list

actress worldwide.“We’re taking the Indian legend of a

shape-shifting snake to Hollywood,”

enthused the actress. “I’m thrilled toplay the snake-woman.”

Will Smith’s Overbrook Entertain-ment has inked a deal to produce two

movies with Indian entertainmentcompany, UTV.Trust the Bollywood sexpot to make

sound remarks about current affairs. After all, the conservative segments inIndia, including the Indian press,

would like to hang her out to dry forspeaking her mind all the time.

“If a chemical drug like Viagra is ac-cepted by society and by the world toignite desire, then what is the problem

with my audio-visual called cinema which ignites desire?” Mallika was

once famously quoted. “Both are basi-cally doing the same thing!”It turns out that Hisss is not her

only deal with Tinseltown. Come next year, you’ll get to see the actress in The Aquarian Gospel , a semi-religiouslm that explores the missing years in

Jesus Christ’ s ear ly life, somewhere when he was between 13 and 30. Ac-cording to her, the more popular be-lief is that Jesus had visited Kashmir.

And the movie chronicles his journey from Israel as a young boy, through

India, Tibet, Persia, Greece and Egypt where he meets people of all creedsand sages from different faith. “We’ve

already nished the principle photog-raphy.”

The actress plays Saraswati, one of Jesus ’s loyal friends whom he bonds

with while he travels through India.“Saraswati is celibate (a brahmach-arini),” she gives a gist of her charac-ter. “It’s a nice contrast to the kind of image I’m known for.”

Nice, but controversial. Yes, that isso Mallika.

“Who cares what people say aboutme? I am right on the ball,” she has

been quoted as saying about her con-troversial choice of lms (and publicpersona) in a previous interview. “AndI don’t think one should take oneself

too seriously.“Be like the Buddha, I always say,smile through life. It will immediately look better.”

Now, if only her love life could be better, too. Mallika, despite her statusas Bollywood’s kissing queen, has sur-prisingly managed to stay man-free.

You don’t even hear the slightest ro-mantic rumour about her. Well, shehas admitted to being married once,

but that was before she joined the lmindustry.

“I use my free time to read scriptsand prepare for my next starring roles,”she said, with the longest of smiles.

A drve

SremAllIkA SherAwAt,Bollywood’S ‘BeStkISSer’, SpellS out

her AmBItIouSplAnS to tAke onhollywood

THE S TA R



pEOplE

BANGKOK

Yasmin Lee ArponAsia News Network

In 1995, an American-bornChinese (ABC) called Wang LeeHom debuted to little fanfare inTaiwan. Nine years later in 2004,Lee Hom launched his 10th

album called Shangri-La, where herst introduced his brand of musiccalled “chinked-out” to mean a musical style that fuses Westernsounds of R&B, hip hop and rap withtraditional Chinese instruments likekoudi, tuhu and ijac.

Before Lee Hom’s brand of musicmade it to the airwaves, however, a fellow ABC was already making it big on the small screen. The name Wu

Jian Hao may not ring a bell to many but Vanness Wu certainly would. Vanness was catapulted to famethrough the TV drama Meteor

Garden. He went on to form the popgroup F4 with his three other co-stars

AmerICAn-Born ChIneSe hAvelong Been Stereotyped ASrICh And ArrogAnt wIth poormAndArIn SkIllS; theSe threehAve helped ChAnge thAt

Tawa’s

ABCs



in that drama. At about the same time that

Vanness was gaining a strongerfoothold in the business, Pan Wei Boor Wilber Pan returned to Taiwanfrom the US hoping to make it big inthe e-circle as the Taiwanese refer tothe entertainment circle.

Locals often stereotype ABCs as being rich and arrogant, with a poorcommand of Mandarin. They are often

boxed in certain roles on TV dramas as bumbling homecoming kings.

Their poor command of Mandarinmay not be far from the truth.

Although growing up in a Chinesehousehold, Lee Hom would be the rst

to admit that he was not uent in thelanguage at all and that it was initially difcult for him to write songs. But hestudied the language overtime, as did

Vanness, who at rst had a difculty looking for work in Taiwan because of the language barrier. Wilber’s mistakesin delivering his lines, meanwhile, hasturned into a form of entertainmentfor his fans and co-workers.

The road to success was not easy forthese three though and it was littered

with sacrices. Upon the launch of Lee

Hom’s rst album Love Rival Beethoven, his record company askedhim to abandon his studies at WilliamsCollege, where he was majoring inmusic with a minor in Asian Studies.But Lee Hom was determined to earnhis degree and would y to Taiwan to

record during school breaks. It wasonly in 1998 when he nished collegethat he devoted his full attention to hismusic, going on to win awards at theprestigious Golden Melody. His lmdebut in Ang Lee’s Lust, Caution was

well-received but it appears that LeeHom wants to focus more on hismusic, and is due to perform with theHong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra this month.

Vanness, meanwhile, was working asan agent at a telecommunicationscompany in the US, hoping to savemoney to buy a plane ticket to Taiwan,

where he has set his sights on a musical career. In 2000, he nally

saved enough to buy that ticket only torealise belatedly that it was only half of the journey done. Because he didn’tspeak Chinese, it took a while for himto get gigs and in the meantime, hehad to work as an English teacher andpart-time model to make ends meet,even staying with friends.

In 2001, the big break nally came,and how. He was asked to audition fora part in Meteor Garden, and sincethen, Vanness has not looked back,catapulting himself to the conscious-

ness of pop fans not only in Taiwan but the rest of Asia as well. In no time,he realised his dream as a musician,collaborating with artistes from othercountries. But he is not one typical popstar; for example, he discouraged hisfans to buy a “re-invented” CD of F4’s

latest album telling them it was just a marketing ploy aimed at making moremoney for the recording company. Heeven celebrated his release from hisrecord label after being tied to a contract for several years saying he hashad it and was looking forward toproducing his own kind of music. Hehas also appeared on the silver screen,including getting parts in movies thattake advantage of his dual expertise inMandarin and English, like in theupcoming LaMB the rst originalhigh-denition animation productionfor Sony’s Animax Asia.

As for Wilber, he jumpstarted hiscareer as a VJ (video jock) in 2001,

practicing in KTVs to hone his singing and Mandarin before launching hisrst album in 2002. The same year, he

ventured into acting in Spicy Teacher .But it was his appearance this year inthe idol drama Miss No Good that hasmade him a household name.

Indeed, Taiwan’s ABCs have helpedshape their motherland’s e-circle andchanged people’s perception of them.

To recall what Lee Hom said two years ago when he rst introduced theterm “chinked-out” that used to be a

derogatory racial slur to put downChinese: “ I don’t want to offendanybody. I want to repossess the word,and this is a word I heard growing upin New York. It was derogatory at thetime. And you know, I hope I canmake it cool.”

Name: Pan Wei Bo, 28

English Name: Wilber/Will PanBirthdate: Aug 6, 1980Birthplace: West Virginia

Breakthrough: VJ for Taiwan’sChannel V

Learn Your ABCs

Name: Wang Lee Hom, 32English Name: Leehom Wang (neveruses birth name Alexander)Birthdate: May 17, 1976Birthplace: Rochester, New York

Breakthrough: Revolution albumreleased in 1998

Name: Wu Jian Hao, 30

English name: Vanness WuBirthdate: Aug 7, 1978Birthplace: Los Angeles, California

Breakthrough: As Mei Zhuo in Meteor Garden



EXplORE

TAIPEI

Yong Shu HoongThe Straits Times

Popular culture has oftenevoked a fascination forplaces immortalised by memorable works.

Just look at how The Lord Of The Rings lms (2001 - 2003), shotin New Zealand, have boosted thecountry’s tourism industry.

Similarly, loyal fans of Korean TV dra-ma Winter Sonata (2002) ock to pic-turesque lming locations such as Na-miseom Island and Yongpyong Resort.

So it is no surprise that the frenzy overthe recent Taiwanese box-ofce hit, Cape

No 7 , winner of six prizes at the recent

45th Golden Horse Awards, has now translated into an increase in domestictourism in Taiwan’s southern tip.

Directed by Wei Te-sheng, the heart-

warming comedy depicts how a groupof Hengchun residents form a band fora beach concert, while romance blos-soms between the brooding postman-turned-singer Aga (Van Fan) and a

Japanese musical adviser Tomoko(Chie Tanaka).

Since opening in August, Cape No 7 has chalked up ticket sales of more thanNT$460 million (US$14 million) inTaiwan to become the second all-timetop-grossing lm on the island behindHollywood blockbuster Titanic (1997).

When I visited the town of Hengchunin late November, I found memories of the lm lurking on every street corner.

And it was not just because I recognisedsome of the locales featured in it.

Persistent reminders came in theform of street stalls selling all kinds of

film-inspired souvenirs and catchy songs from the movie soundtrack con-stantly wafting through the air.

Close to two hours’ drive from Tai- wan’s second-largest city of Kaohsiung,Hengchun is a southern township witha population of over 30,000.

Reminiscent of small Malaysiantowns, it retains its Taiwanese identity through street signs and shop signagein traditional Chinese text and storeshawking betel nuts and locally harvest-ed onions.

A town wall was built in 1875 aroundHengchun to protect against Japaneseinvasion and rebellious aborigines.

Th Ca ecatAIwAn’S hIt movIe IS BrIngIng throngS oftourIStS to See the ISlAnd’S Southern tIp

LOCAL FLAVOUR: A scenic locale eatured in the flm, Shanhai Fishing Harbour, is one o the places Aga delivers mail to.



Today, only parts of that wall remain,

but all four of its original gates are intact.In particular, the West Gate has becomea popular photo stop after being featuredin Cape No 7 ’s opening scenes.

Within easy driving distance, you will nd several residences featured inthe lm, all of which have become tour-ist attractions. Due to the influx of sightseers, the owners have startedcharging each visitor a ‘maintenancefee’ of between NT$20 and NT$50 (60US cents to US$1.50).

A two-storey house at 90 Guang-

ming Road in Hengchun served as Aga’s home.

Owner Zhang Yong-yuan said he

wanted to support local film-making and had loaned the house for free forfilming that took place from October2006 to January last year. Aga’s room,he explained, was originally his 17-year-old son’s bedroom.

Guests can now rent the entire housefor accommodation (details at tw.myblog.yahoo.com/ppp0819) atNT$3,700 (US$110) a night (Saturday,NT$5,000 or US$149).

The attraction, of course, is the chanceto lie on the same bed that hosted a pas-sionate scene between Aga and Tomoko.The wooden bed was left behind by thedirector after the shoot and its framenow sports the autographs of the twoleads.

But Zhang cautions guests about thepossibility of disrupted sleep, as fans areknown to loiter outside the house atnight and even shout out for Aga.

In nearby Yongjing Village is lute

player Uncle Mao’s home, an elegant ce-

ment house owned by the You family.Other filming locations include Wanlitong Beach, Aga’s favourite spotto admire the coral-fringed sea, and thepopular Baisha Beach, where Tomokocoordinates a fashion shoot.

Visitors who do not wish to bother with maps and car rental can take a bustour to the lming locations.

Stay at the many beach resortsaround the town of Kenting and ask the hotel staff about the Cape No. 7 full-day guided tour ( www.taiwantour

bus.com.tw ), which costs aroundNT$1,300 (US$39) per person.

The itinerary includes stops at the

idyllic Shanhai Fishing Harbour, oneof the places Aga delivers mail to, andChateau Beach Resort, where the cli-mactic beach concert and other scenes

were lmed. According to Chateau’s publicist Ti-

tan Kuo, this was where the two leads were shot embracing on a beach, a scene captured for Cape No 7 ’s poster.

He added that the film’s fans have been visiting the resort since Octoberand occupancy rate has gone up 20 percent. Tourists from Singapore and Hong Kong are expected to follow suit, afterthe lm has opened in the two cities.

Couples request for the same room oc-cupied by Tomoko in the lm, the Hon-eymoon Suite No 5250, but Kuo said that

room assignment is not guaranteed.The resort has 14 such ocean-facing suites, each for NT$11,600 (US$347)per night.

While there is no actual place named

Cape No 7, there are many scenic spots

along the coasts that you can visit whichare not featured in the lm.Maobitou, or Cat’s Nose Cape, parts

the Taiwan Strait from Bashi Channel. You can view a large coral reef rock re-sembling a cat lying on its stomach.

Eluanbi, also known as Taiwan’sSouth Cape, separates Bashi Channelfrom the Pacic Ocean. It has a histori-cal lighthouse built in 1882, surround-ed by lush parklands featuring tropicalcoastal trees and plants growing on el-evated coral reefs.

These are Taiwan’s two southern-most reaches that you can visit for thatedge-of-the-world feeling.

IME ADDRESS: The bedroom o Aga is in ao-storey house in Guangming Road in Hengchun.e house can be rented rom US$133 a night.

PRIVATE SPACE:

The leadprotagonist’sroom in the flmhas become amust-see or ans.

ANDMARK: The West Gate o a wall built in 1875 to protect Hengchun townrom the Japanese and rebellious aborigines has become a popular photo stopter being eatured in the flm’s opening scenes.

HANGOUT: Check out Wanlitong Beach whichwas Aga’s avourite spot to admire the coral-

ringed sea.



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AsiaNews Dec26-Jan1_2008

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