The rise of the asian trophy wife

Many successful men have always found younger (and beautiful) wives later in life. Recently, it seems that more of these "trophy wives" are asian. Chinese-born American Wendi Deng (邓文迪) has been in the news a lot lately because her husband, Rupert Murdoch, is trying to purchase the Wall Street Journal. We saw Vietnamese-American Hong Le Webb, the second wife of Jim Webb, at his side when he was elected to be the junior Senator from Virginia last November. There is also Woody Allen's marriage to Soon-Yi Previn, which has now lasted for almost ten years.

These women are not bimbos. Wendi Deng has a Yale MBA and is head of MySpace China while Hong Le Webb is a securities and corporate law attorney in Washington D.C.. An exception might be Korean-American Alice Kim (pictured here with her husband Nicolas Cage). Although she had a bit part in his movie, "Next," her career prior to marriage is described on wikipedia as "sushi restaurant waitress."

Maya Sakura is stunning

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Ricebunny Michelle Phan - an artistic work in progress

Vietnamese-American artist Michelle Phan's life is devoted to the creation of beautiful and interesting work. Her art is all about change. On her xanga site she often shows many stages of works in progress, and her photos play with the process of artistic creation, like one from her Xanga site that appears to be a still photo of her looking down, but slowly changes as she looks up at you with those beautiful round eyes. Her most popular xanga entry (by far) is a makeup application video, which is, of course, about the act of creating beauty.


Links for Michelle Phan:

Xanga: RiceBunny (photos, makeup video)
ricebunny.com (in her future)
myspace (in her past)

Photographs of Sarah Chang by Sheila Rock

A few times lately, while flipping through the playbill at a concert, I've been struck by pictures of the violinist Sarah Chang. It turns out that they are all photos by Sheila Rock

Links for Sarah Chang:

IMG Artists (photos)
wikipedia

Links for Sheila Rock:

photos (at terrimanduca.co.uk)
blue tulip gallery (includes biography)
Sera: The Way of the Tibetan Monk, a hardcover book of photos

Rinko Kikuchi

Rinko Kikuchi has been nominated for best performance by an actress in a supporting role by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for her role as Chieko in "Babel." Born January 6, 1981, Rinko has performed in a number of Japanese films, but is new to U.S. cinema. It will be interesting to see what she does next.

Links for Rinko Kikuchi:

IMDB (photos)
Allmovie ( Biography)
Anore.co.jp
Wikipedia
Film Monthly An interview with Paul Fisher
New York Times (a slide show of great performers)
asian-sirens