A former Miss China, Du Juan has proved her appeal in her native Shanghai. But how well do her charms translate to the streets of New York?

Not too badly, apparently. “I saw her once while out to lunch walking down the street,” said Wayne Sterling, editorial director of the US Web site Models.com, in an email message, “and every head turned as she floated by.”

Since appearing with Australian model Gemma Ward on the cover of Vogue China’s premiere issue last September, Du has been in constant motion. In addition to more coverage in Vogue China, she has graced Paris and Italian Vogue. In Paris and Milan earlier this year, Du walked on the runway of Marc Jacob’s Louis Vuitton show, as well as for Hermes, Yves Saint Laurent, Bottega Veneta and a few others, leading the editors at Style.com – Vogue and W Magazine’s website – to pick her as one of fall’s top ten new faces.

But Du Juan is more than just the next big Asian model. In many ways Du’s success reflects changing sentiments toward Asian beauty in a globalizing world. Buoyed by interest in Asia and movie stars with a growing presence internationally, China’s promise as a land of luxury goods buyers has also made Chinese beauty matter, and the daughters of the East look to have an even more prominent role in the eyes of the fashion industry in the 21^st century, where a convergence in taste is emerging.

For Du Juan, this had meant that she is – as a certain one-note heiress likes to say – hot.

In another sign of her rising status, the 5’10” model made her first appearance on Models.com’s top 50 female models list in April. And she’s not alone. While beauty as told in the fashion world doesn’t usually heed geopolitical currents, it hasn’t totally ignored that in recent years Asians have received more and more exposure in the West. Where in previous seasons one Asian was enough for the blue chip runways of the most prestigious brands, their numbers have quadrupled. The latest wave includes Korean American Hye Park, Japan’s Anne Watanabe, the model Han and China’s Du Juan.

There are several reasons why. Interest in the Asia region has also grown. China’s rise, Japanese economic resurgence, and the spreading popularity of Korean pop culture have all attracted its share of people to read, write or watch Asia. At the same time, in the US the number of Asian women in the news media and commercials and television shows have risen, if only slightly.

One of the most salient influences has been Asian actresses. Lucy Liu is the most famous Asian American actress today, having appeared in several blockbusters. Riding on more mainstream movies such as ‘Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon’ and ‘Memoirs of a Geisha’ as well as the proliferation of Asian film festivals worldwide, Asian-born actresses such as Ziyi Zhang, Li Gong and Maggie Cheung have been propelled into magazines and endorsements worldwide.

Both Ziyi Zhang and Li Gong have appeared on People magazine’s 100 most beautiful people list, with Zhang making her third appearance this year. The rise of these Chinese actresses has helped to fuel a surge of Western interest in Asia, said Hong Kong-born New York-based designer Vivienne Tam in an email message.

And perceptions are changing, according to Kyeyoung Park, associate professor of anthropology and Asian-American studies at UCLA. “In general people [in the US] are more accepting of Asian aesthetics and Asian beauty,” she said, adding that people were quite confused about what exactly being Asian and beautiful meant.

Still, all this has indirectly benefited Asian models. “Because of globalization, in particular of Chinese actresses, we have a trend pulling for more and more Chinese models, to a lesser extent,” said Alain Deroche, Asia-Pacific executive director of publishing for Hachette Filipacchi Media, which licenses several titles in China including the fashion magazine Elle.

But this only partly explains the emerging trend. A more important driver is big business. “Fundamentally, the attraction is the market,” said Angelica Cheung, editorial director of Vogue China. Models.com’s Sterling put it more bluntly. “The wider acceptance of Asian models comes down to one thing, dollar signs. All of [New York], London, Paris and Milan is buzzing right now about the possibilities of the Asian luxury goods market.”

So far China’s main contribution to the luxury fashion industry has been counterfeit bags, clothes, watches and even underwear. But analysts predict a much rosier future. According to a 2005 Ernest and Young report, China is already the third largest consumer of luxury goods, accounting for 14 per cent of global sales. It trails Japan’s 41 per cent and the United States at 17 per cent. The report forecasts that by 2015, Chinese consumers could match the Japanese in influence.

Ernst & Young partner Conway Lee doesn’t believe the numbers are a mirage. “We don’t think its mere optimism,” Lee wrote in an email message via a public relations representative. “First of all, one should take consideration of China’s vast population, which is also a huge consumer base of luxury products. Secondly, one should take consideration of the growth rate of the luxury goods market in China.”

Lee cited estimates that by 2020 China’s middle class can balloon to over 500 million, and that China could equal the size of the entire US middle class if 8 per cent of its population made it to such economic status. Market growth predictions are also tantalizing. China’s luxury goods market will grow by 20 per cent each year till 2008, then slowing to 10 per cent till 2015.

So far, many luxury goods firms share this sense that the good times are coming. LVMH is expected to add 2 to 4 stores a year to the 100 that it currently operates in China. Giorgio Armani intends to have set up 20 to 30 stores by 2008, when Saks Fifth Avenue will also open a store in Shanghai. Seibu, which is controlled by Dickson Concepts (International) Limited, is officially opening a five floor 140,000 square feet department store in Chengdu later this year. High profile tenants will include Louis Vuitton, Dior, Tod’s and Michael Kors, whose presence in the second tier city evinces their confidence in the growing Chinese market.

For Asian models, this has meant more work. “Before [there] might not do a show in China, but now they come every year,” said Wing Wong, model movement executive at Elite HK China Model Management in Hong Kong.

More important, Chinese model now have a certain cache, as companies strive to appeal to the Chinese market by incorporating more Asian looks to their brand. “Many luxury goods brands rapidly open stores in Asia and it is a natural move for these companies to add Asian faces in their advertising campaign to fit in the market need,” the designer Tam said. “It is part of their business strategy.”

And Hachette Filipacchi’s Deroche said “Brands want Chinese women to represent their brand values.”

This is already evident in this year’s Fashion Week in Europe. Fall 2006 Louis Vuitton runway featured three Asian models: Hye Park, Du Juan, and Han. In 2005, Park was part of ad campaigns for Cavalli and D&G, and Du “has already booked some pretty massive campaigns for Fall 2006”, according to Models.com’s Sterling.

This courtship of Asian and especially Chinese buyers may mean this is only the beginning for models from Asia with international ambitions. Unlike in Japan, Chinese fashion magazine readers respond to both international and local models and celebrities. “Asian models are becoming more popular and more popular because they are interesting to Chinese readers, who are also consumers,” Deroche said.

This is not the case in Japan, which partly explains why there haven’t been more top Japanese models internationally even though the Japanese account for such a large percentage of the worldwide luxury goods market. “Japan is very different from China, though they are both Asian. Because the Japanese market is very westernized,” Vogue China’s Cheung said, though she added she was not an expert on the subject. “My impression from my Japanese colleagues is that the Japanese Vogue readers prefer to see Western faces in the magazine.”

The impact could dramatically affect not only the number of Asian models likely to find work internationally, but also on the look of the Asian models that will succeed there. Tellingly, Vogue China has set its eye on finding and developing models with qualities considered good locally and internationally. “We are producing a magazine for the Chinese market, but at the same time, fashion is an international language, so we need to consider models who are appealing to our Chinese readers but at the same time have the kind of looks that can carry international fashion trends,” Cheung explained.

She cited Du Juan as an example of this mix. Unlike previous Chinese models, such as Lu Yan, which the Mainland Chinese found unattractive, Du has a cross-border beauty. “She is considered pretty by the Chinese, but also appeals to the international fashion community.”

The search for Asian models with transcendent looks will likely continue as companies become more familiar with the region and as China and the rest of Asia build new wealth. “Not many designers know exactly how to court and cultivate this audience but this awareness has translated into a need for more models representative of that market. And we think its only going to increase in the coming years,” Models.com’s Sterling predicted.

Yet while UCLA’s professor Park believes the trend of greater acceptance of Asian aesthetics to be “irreversible”, the demand for Asian models could still be dampened. China must still fulfill predictions, which could be derailed by an economic downturn. And how much China welcomes the rest of the world inside its borders is still an important issue. Ominously coincidental, it became known this month that China’s publishing regulator will not approve any new foreign magazines to be licensed to China, except those on science and technology.

International fashion magazines have held an important role in facilitating interaction between the world’s fashion industry and China. This has come through access to information – such as a China and US or Europe edition exchanging materials or cooperating for a photo shoot – and also raising the bar of work done in China.

By using the top-level fashion photographers, stylists and supermodels to create original and exclusive shoots and covers, Vogue China has developed a good reputation among the international fashion community, said Vogue China’s Cheung, with many top fashion talents wanting only to work for the magazine. “This is why Vogue China has such a great influence in terms of promoting Chinese models internationally – because of the quality standard we have set, when we use any model in a big way, the international fashion community takes notice.”

Another challenge will be finding the next Du Juan. Chinese models face a language barrier and, far away from home, must learn independence quickly. And even with about half a billion women in China, finding the right look isn’t easy. “We have a lot of beautiful girls in China and it is a big country. The difficulty is in finding those who also appeal to the international fashion community,” Cheung said.

It would also be premature to assume too much from Du’s growing popularity means Asian models will reach critical mass anytime soon. Though its markets can be anywhere, fashion’s capitals are in New York, Paris and Milan. Ultimately, Asian models’ fortunes are tied to Asian brands.

“I think it’s too early to say Asian models will dominate,” Cheung reflected. “I don’t think that will happen until Asia has developed its own fashion brands and really going global really big, then when that happens Asian models will be bigger.”

One designer leading this wave is Tam, whose clothes are sold in the US – where it is carried by such high-end retailers as Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus – Europe, China, Japan, Korea and Southeast Asian. Asian models have always been a part of her advertising campaigns and runway shows. In fact, Du Juan walked in her Spring 2006 runway show.

And Tam’s reason for including Asian faces is obvious. “It is my root and culture, it is who I am.”