Art of Life
SHOW #23
China: Wealth, Lifestyle and Culture
Anchor: Monita Rajpal
The Great Wall of China provides the dramatic backdrop for Fendi's Spring/Summer 2008 collection and the scene for this month’s Art of Life. This multi-million dollar event is a glittering example of how seriously luxury groups like Fendi owner LVMH are taking Chinese consumers and their growing spending power. Fendi reportedly received "unwavering" support from the People's Republic. We talk with Bernard Arnault, Chairman and CEO of luxury goods group Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessey (LVMH), to talk about the future of luxury goods brands in China
CHINA VOGUE
If you want a symbol of how fast the luxury market in China is growing look no further than Vogue China. The world’s number one fashion magazine has a reputation for not entering a particular market until its consumers have reached at a certain level of development. Chinese Vogue editor-in-chief Angelica Cheung says the Western view that China is a nation of logo-loving conspicuous consumers is outdated, that the market for high-end fashion brands in China is far more sophisticated than it is portrayed to be in the media. We talk to Angelica about the role of Vogue in educating women about style, the future of China’s up and coming designers and the luxury brands eager to cash in on China’s economic boom.
CHINESE LIFESTYLE
China's economic boom means Chinese Americans are looking at their motherland and investing millions in businesses to bring China up to a level perhaps only seen in Shanghai back in the 1920s when it was then known as the Paris of the Orient. We speak with Handel Lee, a Chinese American lawyer turned businessman who has brought the west to the east with a massive mall with a state of the art spa, Armani flagship store, and restaurants. Just last year he began the restoration of the old American legation around the corner from Tiananmen Square. It will be turned into a massive complex of stores and expensive restaurants. We pay a visit to the old American legation and find out why it’s Handel’s mission to bring the best of the west to the east.
CHINESE CULTURE
Outlandish and outspoken Pearl Lam is the self-proclaimed empress of China’s contemporary art scene. Part party-girl, part intellectual aesthete, Pearl introduces us to some of the hottest names in Chinese contemporary art. We meet two ground-breaking members of the Chinese literati (Shao Fan and Zhang Huan) who are drawing on Chinese tradition and history to explore a rapidly changing modern culture. We find out why Chinese Art is experiencing such a boom in the West and how western perception of Chinese Art differs from the Chinese view.
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