In 1966 China entered a decade long period of darkness. Mao Zedong, Chairman of the Chinese communist party, fearing that his country would drift astray from the foundation of communist ideals that he had originally created and intended for the Chinese society, decided that there had to be a total revitalization of his philosophies and country. This disastrous movement was called the "Cultural Revolution." His main goals for the movement were set forth as the removal of everyone in line to succeed or compete with him, replacing them with more trustworthy compatriots that would therefore uphold his foundations for years to come, rectifying the Communist Party. He aimed at providing the youth with a revolution of sorts in the effort of defining his words for themselves, renewing their spirits as a new generation of "Maoists." His main intention was to revamp the health care and class system, focusing on the overall tendency of the social structure to lean toward elitism. There would be no more classes. Instead, the youth, who were called the "Red Army," were encouraged to run rampant throughout China, persecuting, punishing, and frequently killing anyone or anything associated with traditional values or bourgeois in nature.
Mao, together with his wife and a group of radical leftist intellectuals, formed a new governing body. Schools were closed, people were executed, thinking became a crime, and chaos in general ensued. The result of this movement was the paralyzation of China. Many of the countries greatest intellectuals, leaders, and individuals were killed. However, the surviving members of their families have lived on to see a new day in Chinese history quite parallel from Mao's intentions with the future.
Ting Liu, Ye Ming Tze, and Liu Sola are all daughters of the Cultural Revolution. Ting Liu and Liu Sola's powerful families were killed and persecuted. Ye Ming Tze's grandfather is credited with leading his armies after Mao's death to end the fanatical rule of Mao's successors, putting China back on track for economic prosperity. With China headed in a new direction, these daughters are leading the country in each of their fields. They are presently at the forefront of music, literature, business, and fashion. Tributes to the power once held by their families and pre-Cultural Revolution China, leaders of present day China, one filled with so much opportunity and hope.
Liu Ting Ting
Ting Ting Liu is one of China's most powerful and successful entrepreneurs and members of the Chinese international community. Her story is one of struggle and ultimate success. President of China, and second in command to Chairman Mao Zedong, Ting Liu's father Liu Shaoqi was advocating political growth and stimulation of the Chinese economy. Threatened by Liu Shaoqi's political agenda, after years of debating over the future of China with each other, Mao's armies overwhelmed him, persecuting him to death. Ting Ting's brother, a leading nuclear weapons researcher was also killed. Her mother, the premier nuclear physicist, was jailed in solitary confinement. With her once influential and powerful family completely decimated, at the age of 7, Ting Ting was put to work in a hazardous chemical factory where education was completely forbidden except for her factory responsibilities. She would not see the inside of a classroom until her early twenties.
When she was in her late teens a Harvard professor who had been invited to come back to China to head the Foreign Information Bureau discovered Ting Ting and took her under his wing. As part of his job, he was one of the very few people in the whole of China with access to international newspapers. Everyday, while Ting Ting worked under inhumane conditions, her new tutor would hand copy the American newspapers to bring back to her, teaching her in secret the English language as well as current news of the world. By the end of China's dark period, Ting Ting was fluent in English, and knowledgeable about current affairs.
After 15 years, at the age of 22, Ting Ting was allowed to return to school, attending the People's University of China. Majoring in English, she received a second stroke of luck when she was put in a classroom taught by two American professors who would further change her life forever. As an assignment, the class of 36 was given the task of applying to college in the United States. To her surprise, she, and 24 of her other classmates were accepted to the colleges they applied. They were all given scholarships as the first group of Chinese students to attend American schools.
Ting Ting used her time wisely at Boston University where she studied rigorously, making the most of her opportunity abroad. She worked three jobs while obtaining her undergraduate degree in International Affairs; teaching Chinese, working as a Resident Advisor in a dormitory, and as a book checker in the library. She hadn't seen her mother in over a decade.
Ting Ting graduated from Boston University cum laude, applying to Harvard University Business School for her master degree studies. Given her background as the daughter of China's former President, Harvard refused to give her a scholarship. She applied to foundation after foundation, but they were all unconvinced that she was unable to afford the tuition. It was not until a BU professor contacted the Rockefellers that Ting was able to obtain the funding necessary. After explaining her situation, David Sr. and David Rockefeller Jr. both wrote Ting Ting personal checks along with a summer internship at their company. To say the least, she had earned the opportunity.
Upon completion of her summer internship, Ting Ting paid back a small percentage of the money that she had borrowed. David Rockefeller Sr. was astounded by the gesture, as no student had ever tried to return his generosity.
After graduating from Harvard Business School and obtaining her MBA, Ting Ting was hired by the Rockefellers for a full time position. It was at Rockefeller & Co. where she worked during the week as an analyst, speculating on nearly 1,000 companies across the country on behalf of the 150 million dollar fund. On weekends she took classes at the Kellog Business School at Northwestern University, earning her Executive Diploma in Managing Financial Risk With Futures and Options. Meeting with all of these companies gave her an incredible base of experience and knowledge for what it takes to be a successful CEO, all the while retaining this knowledge for her ultimate goal of starting a business in China, the country she had remained distant from for so long.
In 1990, five years after being released from prison, Ting Ting's mother was diagnosed with cancer. Ting Ting decided that it was time to go back to Beijing and be with her mother during her last days.
While back home, Ting Ting personally financed her first business, Asia Link Group. Asia Link Group has gone on to be the premier consulting business in its class, representing the top five companies in each of their fields, helping over 50 North American and European corporations establish business in China. She is also the founder of Sungari Auction House, China's second largest auction house, where she has introduced western masters such as Picasso and Basquiat to the Chinese wealthy class. Not to mention her positions on numerous Fortune 500 directory boards including Boeing and Aventis.
Now, at over 50 years old, not looking a day past 40, Ting Ting sits back in her 400-year old home where some of the top commanders of the Qing dynasty once lived. You drive down 3,000 genuine Beijing alleyways or "Hutongs" that encompass the old parts of the town. Walking through a very unassuming back door and through her courtyard you can find an incredible mix of contemporary avant garde side by side with ancient Chinese masterpieces. Sitting back on her couch she serves green tea in a new Armani dress. When asked about her life and the new China she states simple and plainly "If you are going to work, you have to love what you are doing, be focused, and be balanced. I am still a student, and I will never stop being one. Every day I meet people who are smarter, and have better ideas than even I do. I'm curious to learn from them as well as give. China, like myself, is continuing to learn and grow. Everyone yearns for knowledge, opportunity, and a better life. Some of my employees are buying their first cars in this demand driven economy. The rest of the world, on the whole, fails to comprehend that we have had 26 years of over 9% growth in our GDP, and they are now just realizing the opportunities here, as are the Chinese people. When people don't buy a Jackson Pollock painting at my auction house, I will purchase it myself. Because I know that it is just a matter of time."
Ye Ming Tze
Ye Ming Tze is one of China's leading fashion designers and representatives of Beijing fashion houses in the international fashion market place. She is the granddaughter of former Chinese leader Marshall Ye Jianying. In addition to being one of the original ten marshals of late 1920s China and the initial years of communist rule, Marshall Ye became the effective country leader during the turbulent aftermath of Mao's death in 1976. He is widely cherished in China for his actions to change the course of Chinese history from dark to light by arresting Mao's wife and the Gang of Four, ending the Cultural Revolution. He elevated Deng Xiao Peng and the new policies of economic liberality that have brought about China's current state of prosperity. The story of his rise to power, and then relinquishment of it to who he thought would be the best leader of China in Deng, is one of the most powerful in modern Chinese history. His granddaughter is truly continuing his legacy as one of China's leaders in a different industry.
Ye Ming Tze was born in 1979 in Beijing at the pinnacle of the country's transitional period and Cultural Revolution aftermath. She grew up at Marshall Ye's side, living with her parents and grandfather in his government residence. Playing at the feet of Marshall and Mr. Deng, she didn't realize the significance of these men or the changes they were making while she scribbled underneath her grandfathers desk. She did however take great influence from their artistic passions, mainly calligraphy and poetry, which they would sometimes do together. She also derived early influence from her mother, an established oil painter trained by Efay. From an early age, art became her passion. This and the patriotic influence of her grandfather now result in her goals of basing her studio in Beijing, helping to put Chinese fashion on the map.
Ye Ming Tze graduated from Central St. Martins in 2003, a school she attended because of her leading fashion industry influence, John Galliano. After graduating, she returned to China with the goal of helping to elevate Chinese high fashion to levels of international notoriety.
Ye Ming Tze is a designer of couture ladies event wear including evening dresses, accessories, and outer wear. She runs her own fashion studio in Beijing, producing one-of-a-kind pieces for a private group of not only Chinese, but vast international clientele, including actresses, singers, and other celebrities seeking a current but unique look, at the same time deriving much inspiration from the past. Following the model of the old elite French fashion studios, her emphasis is on seeing fashion as a pure art form focused on accentuating the beauty of the female body. At heart she is an artist and painter, and her main goal has always been to make her visions materialize beyond just art works on canvas, but becoming them.
Her pieces are actually handmade in her workshop using mostly silks, drawing influence from the high-glamour periods of the 1920s and 1930s. She often seeks to combine the unbelievable sophistication and refinement from these periods with current style movements in French and Italian runway couture, creating a unique look that is at the same time sophisticated and sexy.
Ye Ming Tze's studio and showroom are indicative of her place in the new Chinese economy. Set in the modern development of Soho Beijing, surrounded by Starbucks and Bally's Fitness Centers, Wendy, as she likes to be called, blasts the Pixies at a tremendous decibel level while surrounded by her mannequins, future collections, and a view of the courtyard where everyday a new store seems to appear. She says that "people here are looking more and more optimistic everyday, their faces reflect it. They all feel like there is a place for themselves to achieve goals in this country, achieve success." These everyday changes seen through her window also appear in her creations and upcoming line that is a fine mix of radical summer colors on dresses that could have otherwise been worn by the best looking women at Chiang Kai Shek's birthday. While influenced by her countries evolution and worldly fashion trends, Wendy has kept in mind the timeless style and history of the women of China. She states that, "While during communism women and men were all wearing a unisex uniform of sorts, I am trying to bring back what was once elegant and fabulous. I am trying to reflect the personality of the modern day successful Chinese woman. I am trying to inspire them to be even more, and feel even better about who they are. I feel that today there are no boundaries or obstacles for these people. The sky is the limit. Women should dress such as this. I will make the clothes that help them do so."
Ye Ming Tze plans to expand her collections to not only accessories such as handbags and shoes, but going on to men's wear. With her incredible drive and focus, and attunement with her surrounding Chinese market and people, she will be surely successful for years to come. While fashion shows in Milan or Paris seem several years ahead, she doesn't seem to be so concerned with the international trends, as she is setting her own in the worlds fastest growing economy.
Liu Sola
Liu Sola, composer, writer, musician, thinker, and China's first rock star is one the most well-rounded, experimental, and persistent thinkers on the planet. There is no telling what she will be accomplishing, publishing, or composing tomorrow or the next day. All that's for sure is that it will be a part of her heart, and it will be like nothing you have ever heard or experienced. She is the daughter of one of what was one of China's most influential families. Her uncle, Liu Zhidan, was a general in the Red Army. He died under very strange and speculative circumstances. Her father was also a high-ranking official in the army, but was jailed for over 8 years during the Cultural Revolution by his own comrades. Her mother, a popular writer, was banned nationwide by Mao Zedong because her material was deemed controversial and off track with party beliefs. Her book is still banned to this day.
With that said, Liu Sola's childhood was surrounded by suffering and the possibility of never being able to truly express herself. Contrary to the party, behind closed doors, her parents encouraged her to grow as a musician, writer, and individual. In private, she was taught to play instruments and express her individuality as an artist. In her own words, "We as Chinese have all suffered. There was no hope or opportunity to choose your own path in life. I was gifted to have a mother that gave me the piano and the ability to have no boundaries in a place that was highly rigid." The result of this secretive parenting was the creation of one of China's brightest stars to be.
After the conclusion of the Cultural Revolution, Liu Sola attended China's Central Conservatory of music where she honed her skills as a vocalist and composer. After graduating she composed music for symphony orchestras, ensembles, solo instruments, film, television, modern theater, and dance productions, including the first Chinese rock opera entitled Blue Sky Green Sea. The rock opera had included a libretto from her first novella You Have No Choice, which became a best selling book in China, winning the 1988 novella prize. The books international fame transpired into her being invited to America by the International Press Headquarters in Washington D.C., of which she accepted.
Liu Sola came to America on a tour of sorts, traveling between all of the United States big cities. The cities, streets, music, and the mix of cultures and people became a truly exhilarating experience as Liu Sola discovered her "blackness." The instance came as she sat in a Chicago Club where she was the only non-black. Her bodyguards and escorts at the time had brought her there and explained to the lone musician her history and reason for attendance. The singer, Junior Wells, played a private concert for her, inspiring her to find her own voice as a blues singer. After the performance, she went on to Memphis to study the blues and record the first Chinese Blues song Reborn with a group of other Memphis musicians. Liu Sola states, "Blues to me is not something that you can find in the big concert halls and stadiums of the world. It is hard to find figuratively and metaphorically. Therefore when you do find it, you really appreciate it and feel it within."
From 1988 to 2002 Liu Sola lived abroad from her native China, traveling from New York to London, collaborating and working with some of the finest blues and rock musicians, symphonies, and producers. At the same time she completed two more successful novels entitled Chaos and All That, all the while continuing her career in literature in tandem with her music. Her first US album, entitled Blues in the East was in the top 10 of the Billboard charts for months. She went on to release many more albums including China Collage and Haunts. She has written and composed several film soundtracks and for dance theater including Michael Apted's Moving the Mountain, and for the New Juliard Ensemble.
In 1999 Liu Sola returned to China with a bang as she performed with her band Liu Sola and Friends at the Beijing Jazz Festival. The group, composed of American rock musicians combined with traditional Chinese musicians is a fusion of sorts that can only be described as Liu Sola's blood and veins. The band has continued to collaborate and grow as an entity, and recently accompanied a dance entitled Aware.
Since 2000 Liu Sola has written several other novels including Small Tales of the Great Ji Family, and Liu Sola on the Move, her most successful book on music to date, only to preclude her 2003 novel Language, Music, and Art, her latest book on contemporary art and design.
In 2004 Liu made a conscious effort to give back to her country producing several television programs on Chinese history, music, and culture, accompanied by the Liu Sola Art Factory Book Series. The series is the first publication involved with the promotion of modern Chinese artists. Liu says that "I feel that it is time to show all of China the different possibilities there are available for the mind. I want as many people across China to see what one can do when they let there mind float and take them there." Her new book Drunk on Images was released as a part of the series in July.
Liu currently also writes columns for Beijing Time Out, Ilook, and Wenhui Pen Union. She resides in the suburbs of Beijing in an old factory turned artist loft. While she is one of the most accomplished, inspirational, and talented virtuosos of her time she gives no statements, "for if life ends tomorrow, it was meant to be. I believe in a God, a higher being and power that has a specific journey and lessons set forth for me. I am floating through this life, and I still don't know where it will carry me." Liu Sola has surely floated through vast accomplishments, but it is fair to say that it looks like she is not nearly finished in her journey, as this winter she will be combining with the Ensemble Moderne in Berlin to perform her new opera entitled The Fantasy of the Right Cune based on her first novel You Have No Choice, followed by the release of her newest novel La Potion Chastet this spring.
