Some Chinese fashion watchers are dumbfounded by the rise of Lu Yan as Europe's most sought-after Asian model. Her looks, they say, are common. But the brash 20-year-old Jiangxi Province native, who works the runways of Paris and has graced the cover of Elle, pays scant attention to her detractors.
Lu Yan is a fashion model. All fashion models possess beauty. Therefore, Lu Yan is a beauty.
But perhaps not in the eyes of some of her fellow countrymen, whose highly selective definition of Chinese beauty is often at odds with the rest of the fashion world.
That doesn't trouble Lu, who, at 1.78 meters, could probably hold her own in a bar fight, and is one of Europe's most sought-after Chinese models. Runner-up at the World Final Model Contest in Beijing in 2000, Lu is getting plenty of work at top agencies like Paris-based Metropolitan, and has graced many catwalks during French fashion weeks.
She's a favorite model at houses like Christian Dior, Gucci and La Coix, and she's been on the cover of Elle and Paris Match.
Meet her in person, and she wins over the most catty critic instantly.
She talks a mile a minute, she's loud, with a raucous peal of infectious laughter, she's lively and animated (not the kind of attributes that would go over well with conservative Chinese modeling agencies) - and after a few minutes with her, you like her. You really like her.
Maybe you like her so much because China's most controversial beauty doesn't really care whether you like her or not.
She says, philosophically, "I have my fans, and I will work hard for them and for myself. I don't feel it necessary to please those who dislike me."
Who could dislike this gregarious 20-year-old model?
Well, for starters, those who feel her looks run counter to Chinese perceptions of beauty - and that she's had incredible success with it. The Chinese, it seems, take a rather condescending view of Western notions of Asian beauty. Lu says that "this may because what Westerners consider a Chinese beauty is based on classical images like those found in traditional Chinese paintings."
What comes closer to the truth, however, is that the Chinese like to anoint their own beauties, and take umbrage at the West's "monopoly" on what constitutes Asian attractiveness.
Born in 1982 to a poor family in a small coal-mining area in De'an County, Jiangxi Province, Lu grew up as the eldest of three siblings. Life was hard but happy. Lu's ambition was to become an accountant, but a chance to participate in a Beijing modeling competition changed her life. Lu didn't win, but with her eyes opened to the possibilities, she stayed in Beijing, nursing the dream of becoming a model.
Fate smiled on her. She met Tony Li, China's top image designer and noted fashion photographer Feng Hai. They, in turn, felt as if they had a major discovery on their hands. It wasn't long before Lu's image was seen in Chinese fashion publications in Beijing.
Fate smiled even brighter in June, 2000, when two French representatives with the Metropolitan Model Agency approached her as they were checking out of a Beijing Hotel. Within 30 minutes, they had a verbal agreement, and three months later Lu arrived in Paris. Three days later, she landed her first job with a Paris fashion magazine.
Lu's Cinderella tale has added to the controversy - jealous models (they're a merciless lot) bitterly resent her run of good luck.
She is quick to point out that her path to success was no walk in the park.
"When I first came to Beijing, I shared a basement with a roommate and spent all the money I had with me. Far away from my family, no one smiled at me and there were no job offers. What little money I made came from small fashion shows, until I met Tony," she recalls.
And for those who envy her Paris existence, she makes no bones about the difficulties of her early days there.
Her unfamiliarity with the city and the language meant that she often got lost, and for a country girl from Jiangxi, French food was close to inedible. She lived on instant noodles, eating more than 100 eggs in her first month.
The memory still brings tears to her eyes - that, and the injustice of being accused of a free ride. "Are experiences like this part of my good luck?" she asks indignantly.
"Nothing in the world comes easy, and I don't give up easily, either," she says. "The most important thing is that I am not afraid of losing. I cherish every opportunity, and always want to give something a try."
Life became easier in Paris after a year and a half: Lu now speaks good English, and two months ago she arrived in New York to further her study of English, and perhaps enroll in a university.
In the three years since Lu left her hometown, she feels that she has learned the lessons of a lifetime.
(eastday.com August 15, 2002)
