20 lifepeople FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2014 CHINADAILY A QUIET DESIGNER

Ma Ke’s rise to fame after dressing up first lady Peng Liyuan isn’t coming in the way of her pursuing an inner purpose. Chen Jie reports.

Chinese fashion doyenne Ma Ke’s show is staged at a factory­turned­creative space in Beijing earlier this month. PHOTOS PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY

or people like me, who dislike primping up for a fashion show but sometimes have to go owing to professional reasons, a recent event was a welcome change. The organizers insisted on a dress code, though, but it read: “Please dress in a casual and comfortable way — no tight skirts or high­heels.” The fashion show was held at a factory­turned­creative space behind Beijing’s National Art Museum on a Mid­Autumn Festival evening, and I wore my jeans and sandals. As soon as I arrived, I knew why high­heels were barred. We climbed up a set of steep steel steps Fthat led us to the roof of a building, where we were served fruit in handmade bowls, traditional desserts wrapped in leaves and homemade rice liquor.

It was Chinese fashion doy­ town, Changchun in north­ enne Ma Ke’s show. eastern Jilin province, to study Then we walked to the roof design at the Suzhou Silk Insti­ of a neighboring building, tute in eastern Jiangsu prov­ where guests sat on grass ince. cushions on the floor to watch After graduation in 1992, the show. That is why the advi­ Ma joined a fashion company sory against tight skirts was in Guangzhou in southern issued. China’s Guangdong province. There was no fancy lighting After three years, she felt it A bedroom designed with items from Ma Ke’s new label Wu Yong. either, with a big full moon was “a disaster for a designer hanging in the dark sky serv­ to work in a company that only “I believe if the first lady my grandmother’s clothes and present at the Paris Fashion ing as the perfect backdrop. A pursued profit”. dresses in a simple but elegant my mother passed hers to me. Week. woman was seated by an old And then, she met designer way and presents unique Chi­ It still happens in villages,”Ma In 2008, at her Paris Haute wooden machine, spinning Mao Jihong and married him. nese traditions, people of the says. Couture Week showing, mod­ cotton, while another wove The couple founded Exception country would follow the She rented a private garden els performed tai chi to Mon­ clothes at a distance. in 1996. It is one of China’s first style,”she says. that had once belonged to golian music. An ensemble of some 30 independent fashion labels. Exception, meanwhile, has Tang Shaoyi (1862­1938), the The idea of offering people people aged between 6 and 70, Mao took care of marketing grown into a big company, first premier of the Republic of an eco­friendly lifestyle came including several from differ­ and branding while Ma driven by Mao’s ambition. But China. She turned it into a to her last year after she was ent continents, was gathered focused on designing. Ma’s true calling lay else­ workshop and recruited some invited to visit the 77 Creative for the show. They all dressed Exception produced sim­ where. 20 rural craftsmen to spin cot­ Industry Park in Beijing. She in basic single­color hand­ ple yet attractive women’s The more she traveled ton, weave and dye the cloth­ decided to step outside the made clothes and moved slow­ ready­to­wear clothes and through China’s countryside, ing on machines that were comfort of her Zhuhai work­ ly from one end of the rooftop secured a number of loyal she says, the more she realized used a century ago. shop and move beyond to another. high­end customers, includ­ that traditional craftsmanship Ma’s new label Wu Yong clothes. Unlike usual fashion shows Ma Ke (left) works with a rural artisan on a fashion design in ing Peng. was dying in the villages and means “useless” in Chinese. Following months of that blast recorded music on her Zhuhai workshop. In 2001, when Peng, then a that she could help revive the “Everything in nature is use­ preparation, Ma opened her speakers, this instead had popular singer, was perform­ heritage through alternative ful. There are many things that new workshop at the same one folk singer from the Kat­ became a household name tion with Exception, a ing in Guangzhou, Ma was fashion. people consider useless and industry park in Beijing, atipul tribe, members of overnight after President Xi Guangzhou­based brand that introduced to her by a TV In 2006, Ma moved to throw away, but they are in where she displays clothes which live in southeastern Jinping’s wife, Peng Liyuan, she and her former husband reporter. Ma designed the Zhuhai, another city in fact useful. It’s dangerous to and household goods that Taiwan. wore clothes designed by Ma created. dress for Peng’s performance Guangdong. She and Mao use up all of nature’s resources are all made from natural The city’s neon lights were during Xi’s first state visit to A few days later, Ma publicly at the 2002 China Central divorced. and not recycle them,” she material. visible from where I was seat­ Russia in March 2013. acknowledged that she was Television Spring Festival “The fashion industry push­ says. Her vision helps rural arti­ ed, but in a way I was lost in After media reports suggest­ indeed behind the first lady’s Gala, the popular annual TV es people to change their war­ Didier Grumpach, then­ sans too. the quiet evening that Ma had ed that Ma, 43, may have look, but also clarified that she show. drobes every season. Actually, chairman of the Federation “I will not sell clothes in big created. designed Peng’s clothes, peo­ had left Exception in 2006 and When Peng asked Ma to we don’t need to. I can wear a Francaise de la Couture, a shopping malls,”Ma says. Although known in Chi­ ple started to look for Ma had since taken a different design a dress for her first comfortable piece for five, six respected figure in world na’s fashion industry for the online. Websites showed that direction. state visit, she agreed without or even 10 years. When I was fashion, visited her in Zhu­ Contact the writer at past two decades, Ma the designer had an associa­ In 1988, Ma left her home­ hesitation. young, my mother would wear hai and invited her to [email protected] Actor Feng Shaofeng ‘doesn’t care’ for Hollywood cameos

By XU FAN 2011, tells China Daily that he “Hui didn’t cast me as Xiao for the movie was only 3.7 mil­ [email protected] is lucky to play Xiao Jun, a left­ Jun in the beginning,” Feng lion yuan ($603,000), which wing author and the husband says.Buthesayshecouldrelate was tight for a full­length mov­ It is hard to miss Feng Shao­ of novelist Xiao Hong (played to the strong personality of ie starring A­list stars. feng’s face in large posters by Tang Wei), in The Golden Xiao Jun, who saves the then­ According to Chinese enter­ plastered on the walls of Bei­ Era. pregnant Xiao Hong when she tainment websites, a showbiz jing’s subway stations, pro­ Slotted as the closing film of is abandoned by her fiance, celebrity can easily pick up moting The Golden Era, a this year’s Venice Internation­ and marries her afterward. about 10 to 30 million yuan Chinese movie that will be al Film Festival that ended on Feng calls Xiao Jun, a man when starring in a movie. The screened in cinemas during Sept 6, The Golden Era tells the “very close to his heart” going rate for Zhao Wei — the the country’s upcoming “gold­ story of Xiao Hong’s eventful because he is never the one to youngest Golden Eagle­win­ en week”, the National Day life in the most turbulent hesitate in expressing love or ning actress — for example, is holidays. times in modern Chinese his­ hate. 30 million yuan a film. Feng, 36, a mainland A­list­ tory. Her birth in 1911 in Hei­ He is glad he finally got to When asked if this is a “gold­ ed actor, recently made head­ longjiang province coincided play the character and is enera”forChinesestarstoraise lines with two new movies, with China’s shift from dynas­ proud that he didn’t disap­ their stature in more mature The Golden Era and Wolf tic imperial rule to becoming a point the 67­year­old director, movie markets such as Holly­ Totem. modern republic. who applauded his perform­ wood,Fengisdismissive.“Obvi­ The former movie has been The Golden Era’s director ance at a Beijing media confer­ ously the era is different. But it’s selected to represent Hong Ann Hui, the only artist who ence in September. not worthwhile to appear in a Kong in the foreign films cate­ has won Hong Kong Film He cites a scene on the set in movie for just a few seconds, gory at next year’s Oscars and Awards’ Best Director four frigid Harbin in northern Chi­ even if it is directed by a top the latter is an animal epic by times, is his idol, Feng says. “I na’s Heilongjiang province, international director,”he says. French director Jean­Jacques had wanted to work with her where he had to dump a buck­ “I don’t care for cameos. I Annaud, a Sino­French pro­ for many years.” But when he et of icy water on his own already have an excellent stage duction adapted from a Chi­ finally met Hui in 2012, the head. “I almost froze, but it did to showcase my talent in Chi­ nese best­seller. two just had a casual chat, and have a pretty good effect,”Feng na, so why should I go to the The Shanghai­born actor, the director didn’t talk about recalls, smiling. West?” who began his career in 2001, the movie. Tan Hong, the producer of But some industry insiders and has gained fame from But a few days after their The Golden Era, reveals that believe that Feng is among the starring as a Qing Dynasty meeting, Feng received a Feng had asked not to be paid few top Chinese mainland (1644­1911) prince in the time­ script from Hui and was to support the director he has stars who may have a future in travel TV series Palace I in immediately taken by it. always admired, as the budget Hollywood. A scene from The Golden Era features Feng Shaofeng as Xiao Jun and actress Tang Wei as Xiao Hong.