分类： entertainment

As China’s southern tropical island province gears up to launch its latest major fashion gathering, veteran industry figure Hu Bing has outlined an ambitious vision to cement Hainan’s place as a rising global fashion capital, positioning the destination as a dynamic bridge connecting emerging Chinese designers with the international stage.

Hu, a celebrated Chinese model who holds multiple prestigious fashion ambassador roles ranging from the British Fashion Council to London Fashion Week and China International Fashion Week, shared his outlook in an interview ahead of the 2026 Hainan Funteen Fashion Week, which opens Sunday at Haikou’s historic Qilou Old Street. The event comes just ahead of this year’s China International Consumer Products Expo, where Hu serves as fashion lifestyle officer, kicking off Monday.

Central to Hu’s optimism is the transformative impact of the Hainan Free Trade Port (FTP) development, which has already reshaped the island’s economic and industrial landscape. He emphasized that the fashion sector is inherently intertwined with cross-border economic openness and expanding trade volumes. The FTP policy framework has supercharged Hainan’s duty-free consumer market, unlocked new growth in international trade, and drawn hundreds of global premium brands to establish a local presence, steadily lifting the island’s profile as a fashionable, globally connected destination.

On the critical topic of helping indigenous Chinese design gain traction on the global stage, Hu drew an insightful parallel between two distinct performance art forms: Peking Opera and Western opera. Just as both art forms retain their unique cultural identities while resonating with audiences across borders, Hu argued that local Chinese designers must hold fast to their deep cultural roots, while also mastering the universal visual and narrative language of global fashion that allows international audiences to connect with and embrace their work.

The choice of Qilou Old Street, a protected cultural heritage site, as the main venue for 2026 Funteen Fashion Week is a deliberate decision that Hu praised as a masterstroke. Top-tier international fashion weeks from Paris to Milan have long leveraged historic architecture to add one-of-a-kind character to their events, and Haikou’s Qilou district delivers an unparalleled combination of textured facades, natural lighting, and organic spatial flow that weaves centuries of local history with a contemporary global aesthetic. Hu noted that the opening show’s venue design intentionally echoes Hainan’s signature ocean breezes and the open, welcoming spirit that defines the FTP’s mission.

For emerging design talent, Hu stressed that the Hainan FTP offers a uniquely powerful launchpad: the policy framework cuts through red tape for cross-border industry exchanges, enabling young Chinese creators to showcase their work to global buyers and audiences while making it far easier for international fashion talent to access the huge Chinese market.

Drawing on his decades of industry connections, Hu laid out his personal commitment to advancing Hainan’s fashion ambitions: he will leverage his extensive global networks to help emerging Chinese designers use Hainan as a stepping stone to showcase at London Fashion Week, while also attracting leading international designers to bring their work to Hainan’s growing roster of fashion events.

Hu pushed back against the narrow view that fashion is solely about apparel, arguing that the sector is a reflection of the zeitgeist, the changing spirit of the times. With its fast-growing economy, unique geographic advantages, and growing global attention, Hainan is perfectly positioned to build a world-class international fashion week, he said. He added that deepening partnerships with established events like China International Fashion Week will help the island build an inclusive platform that nurtures young designers from every corner of the globe.

When asked to sum up Hainan’s emerging international fashion identity in just a few words, Hu chose two terms: nurturing and regeneration. He highlighted Hainan’s early embrace of sustainable fashion practices, which aligns fully with the most important global industry trends today. With nearly 40 years of experience working across every segment of the global fashion industry, Hu said he is fully committed to helping build a high-quality Hainan International Fashion Week that can one day stand alongside the “Big Four” global fashion hubs of Paris, New York, London and Milan as a fifth iconic global fashion landmark.

On Saturday, one of China’s most prestigious culinary competitions, the 2026 Bocuse d’Or China Selection, kicked off in Yantai Huang-Bohai New Area, Shandong Province, drawing the country’s most talented professional chefs to celebrate and elevate the global profile of the region’s signature agricultural and seafood produce.

Established as the Chinese qualifying round for the world-renowned Bocuse d’Or — often called the ‘Olympics of cooking’ — this year’s national competition introduced a unique creative mandate: all competing teams were required to craft completely original dishes centered on ingredients sourced directly from Yantai. Contestants had just five hours to complete their culinary creations from prep to plating, pushing chefs to balance technical precision, innovative flavor pairings, and respect for the natural qualities of Yantai’s famous food products.

Among the staple local ingredients that chefs integrated into their works were Yantai’s crisp, sweet apples and plump, briny scallops, two of the region’s best-known exports. Beyond these, Yantai boasts a long roster of protected national geographical indication products that have earned the region a reputation as a leading food hub in northern China. These premium products include wild-caught sea cucumbers, wild abalone, and fragrant, juicy Yantai pears, all of which grow or thrive thanks to Yantai’s unique coastal climate and fertile soil.

By centering the competition around local ingredients, event organizers have created a powerful platform to connect world-class culinary talent with regional producers, opening new opportunities for Yantai’s food products to gain recognition on the international stage when the winning team represents China at the global Bocuse d’Or final. The event also highlights Yantai’s growing profile as a destination for food tourism and culinary innovation, bridging traditional local agriculture with modern global gastronomy.

The global entertainment community is in mourning this week after news broke that iconic Indian playback singer Asha Bhosle passed away in Mumbai on Sunday. The 90-year-old musical legend was rushed to a Mumbai hospital earlier last weekend after suffering an acute heart attack, where medical teams worked desperately to stabilize her condition. Despite their best efforts, Bhosle succumbed to the cardiac event, leaving behind a decades-long legacy that transformed Indian film music and captivated audiences across generations.

Within hours of the official announcement of her death, tributes began pouring in from across the Indian film industry and beyond. A-list celebrities, fellow musicians, and political figures took to social media to share personal memories of Bhosle, praising her unparalleled vocal range, innovative contributions to South Asian music, and warm, generous personality that endeared her to everyone she worked with. Fans from around the world also flooded social platforms with messages of grief, sharing their favorite Bhosle tracks and recounting how her music shaped their own lives.

Born in 1933, Bhosle began her singing career in the 1940s and went on to record more than 12,000 songs for over a thousand Hindi films over her seven-decade career. She collaborated with some of India’s most famous composers and artists, and her work spanned genres from romantic ballads to upbeat folk and pop tracks, earning her a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records as the most recorded artist in music history. Her influence extended far beyond India, with her samples featured in popular Western music tracks by artists like Boy George and Black Eyed Peas, introducing her work to a whole new global audience.

As the news of her passing spreads, fans are already organizing virtual listening parties and memorial events to celebrate her life and legacy, with many industry leaders calling for permanent tributes to honor her indelible mark on global music.

Beneath the first clear skies after weeks of unbroken spring rain, French-German artist Alexandre Dupeyron wandered through the weathered corridors and crumbling staircases of the long-shuttered Wumuchong coal mine in Ningxiang, Hunan province. With every step, clouds of fine dust, undisturbed for decades, rose from the broken debris scattered across the facility’s concrete floors.

Stopping amid the remnants of the mine’s once-bustling operations, Dupeyron bent to pick up a small, dense lump of coal left behind when the mine closed. Not far from where he stood, the rusted frame of an old coal conveyor jutted toward the sky, its metal beams forming a skeletal, weathered monument to the site’s industrial past. In that quiet moment, that ordinary chunk of coal — its surface glinting faintly in the rare spring sunlight — transformed from a forgotten relic of heavy industry into the core raw material for a new body of art.

Arriving at the Wumuchong site in early March 2026 for a month-long artist residency, the 43-year-old creator has centered his practice here on working with locally sourced crushed coal, blending hand-drawing and photography to create site-specific works. Inside his makeshift studio, set within one of the mine’s repurposed original buildings, Dupeyron grinds collected coal chunks and broken brick fragments from the site into fine powder, running the mixture through multiple rounds of filtering to refine it. Using a custom blending recipe he developed over years of experimental work, he turns this locally sourced material into natural pigments for his drawings, photographic pieces, and mixed-media works that draw directly from the mine’s own physical identity.

Dupeyron explained that the connection between human activity and the natural world is a persistent throughline in all his creative work. As an artist who has spent his career focusing on shifting urban and post-industrial landscapes, he had long sought the opportunity to create work on location at a decommissioned industrial site. “This place is amazing,” he shared of the former mining hub, which has been reinvented as the Wumuchong Art Zone, a creative space that attracts artists from across China and around the world.

Dupeyron’s residency is just one example of a growing trend across China: repurposing abandoned industrial heritage sites — from retired mines and shuttered factories to obsolete steel mills and disused warehouses — into dynamic public cultural spaces. What were once symbols of 20th-century industrial expansion have been reborn as art centers, public museums, community sports facilities, and creative hubs that draw visitors and creators alike, breathing new economic and cultural life into former industrial hubs while preserving the region’s industrial history for future generations.

One of India’s most celebrated and influential musical figures, legendary playback singer Asha Bhosle, has passed away at the age of 92 in Mumbai. She died on Sunday, days after being admitted to a local hospital for treatment following a sudden heart attack. Bhosle’s extraordinary 77-year career included thousands of recordings, two Grammy Award nominations, and a permanent place at the heart of Indian popular culture. Her final funeral rites will be held on Monday evening at Mumbai’s Shivaji Park, and the Indian government has granted full state honours to mark her legacy.

Since news of her death broke on Sunday, an outpouring of grief and tribute has spread across India and the global music community, with public figures, fans, and fellow artists from every sector hailing Bhosle as one of the defining artistic voices of 20th and 21st century Indian cinema. By Sunday evening, crowds of respectful fans had begun gathering outside Bhosle’s Mumbai home to lay tributes and pay their final respects to the singer.

India’s highest political leaders have been among the first to honour Bhosle’s memory. Prime Minister Narendra Modi called her “one of the most iconic and versatile voices India has ever known,” while President Draupadi Murmu described her passing as “an irreparable loss to music lovers” across the world. The widespread reach of her cross-generational influence is reflected in tributes from leading figures beyond the music industry, including global Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan and legendary Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar.

Khan wrote in his tribute that Bhosle was “a talent that will outlive many,” adding that her “voice has been one of the pillars of Indian cinema and will continue to resonate world over for centuries to come.” Tendulkar, who counted Bhosle as a close personal friend and noted that she was a passionate lifelong cricket fan, said, “Asha Tai [Marathi for elder sister] was family, and through her eternal songs, she will remain timeless.” Bhosle’s connection to cricket was honoured publicly during an Indian Premier League match on Sunday, where the home team Mumbai Indians wore black armbands and held a minute’s silence in her memory before kickoff.

Fellow artists from across the global music industry have also shared their condolences. Oscar-winning composer AR Rahman noted that “she lives forever through her voice and aura — what an artist.” Leading contemporary Indian singer Shreya Ghosal recalled growing up “listening to her, learning from her, and being in awe of her effortless versatility,” adding that Bhosle made “every note feel alive, every emotion feel personal.” Singer, actor and director Farhan Akhtar emphasized how foundational Bhosle’s work was to modern playback singing, saying it was “impossible to talk about playback singing without mentioning Asha Bhosle” and calling her voice, joy and energy “irreplaceable.”

Bhosle’s cross-cultural appeal stretched far beyond South Asia. In 1997, her iconic status in global music inspired the British band Cornershop’s hit single Brimful of Asha. On Sunday, Tjinder Singh, the band’s frontperson, said that “few have reached the ability to be loved in so many languages and dialects, and even fewer have reached so many with the astonishment of heart that her songs gave us.” Most recently, in early 2026, Bhosle collaborated with British virtual band Gorillaz on their latest album *The Mountain*, a project exploring themes of grief and mortality. The track she featured on, *The Shadowy Light*, paired her distinct vocals with international musicians to reflect on death and the afterlife.

Born in 1933 into a family of working musicians, Bhosle began performing as a child alongside her elder sister, the equally legendary Lata Mangeshkar, after the death of their father when she was still young. Her early life was marked by significant personal challenges: she entered her first marriage at just 16, a union that ultimately ended in separation. For much of her career, she was frequently compared to her older sister, who was revered as the “nightingale of Bollywood” and passed away in 2022. But Bhosle carved out a uniquely distinct artistic identity for herself: while Mangeshkar became best known for poignant, melodic devotional and romantic tracks, Bhosle rose to fame for her bold, dynamic interpretations of jazzy, cabaret-style and upbeat pop numbers through the early and middle stages of her career.

Bhosle’s professional breakthrough came in the 1950s, during her prolific collaboration with iconic composer OP Nayyar, a partnership that marked a permanent turning point in her career and cemented her status as a leading playback singer. Later in her career, she worked closely with composer RD Burman, who she would go on to marry; the pair collaborated for 14 years until Burman’s death in 1994, and their creative partnership allowed Bhosle to expand her vocal range and experiment with new genres and styles. Even into her 90s, she continued to record and push creative boundaries, collaborating on cross-cultural projects long after most artists retired.

Beyond her decades-long musical career, Bhosle was known for her love of cooking, and turned that passion into a successful business venture. She was the founder of the popular restaurant chain “Asha’s”, which operates locations across Dubai and the United Kingdom. Veteran Indian lyricist Javed Akhtar recalled on Sunday that Bhosle often cooked homemade kebabs for him when he visited, and took great joy in receiving praise for her culinary work.

As the Indian nation and the global music community mourn her passing, tributes continue to flow in highlighting the lasting impact of Bhosle’s trailblazing career. Her ability to adapt across decades, move seamlessly between every musical genre from romantic ballads to high-energy dance tracks, and connect with audiences across generations and geographies has left an irreplaceable mark on global popular culture.

Against a backdrop of growing global demand for cross-cultural people-to-people exchange, the 2026 Heze Peony International Communication Forum kicked off on April 11 in Heze, a city in East China’s Shandong Province long renowned as China’s “Peony Capital”. The event drew diplomatic representatives, cultural scholars and industry practitioners from across China and around the world, all gathering to explore how the iconic flower can act as a soft medium to strengthen cross-border connection and mutual understanding.

Among the participating international guests was Rodrigo Mendes Araujo, Counsellor for Energy, Mines and Intellectual Property at the Embassy of Brazil in Beijing. In his remarks at the forum, Araujo centered his discussion on the evolving global role of Heze’s peony culture, focusing particular attention on China’s innovative approach to revitalizing traditional cultural heritage.

Araujo emphasized that China has achieved a remarkable balance between cultural preservation and economic development, successfully transforming centuries-old peony heritage into a dynamic, thriving creative and commercial industry. Beyond domestic economic benefits, he noted, this development has also positioned peony culture as a powerful, approachable bridge for international cultural exchange. He added that forums focused on Heze peonies create a valuable, accessible entry point for Brazilian audiences and the broader Latin American public to dive into the deep historical roots of Chinese traditional culture, breaking down cultural barriers through shared appreciation for natural beauty and cultural tradition.

As one of China’s most iconic traditional flowers, the peony has been embedded in Chinese art, literature and cultural identity for more than 1,500 years. Heze, which is home to over 1200 varieties of peony cultivated across more than 40,000 hectares of farmland, has built peony culture into a core part of its regional identity and international branding, hosting annual international exchange events to share the flower’s cultural significance with global audiences.

MUMBAI, India — Asha Bhosle, the genre-bending Bollywood legend whose voice anchored decades of Indian cinematic history and shaped the nation’s collective cultural identity, has passed away at the age of 92.

Pratit Samdani, a physician at Mumbai’s Breach Candy Hospital, confirmed Bhosle died Sunday from complications of multiple organ failure. The singer had been admitted to the facility just one day prior, in late Saturday, after developing a chest infection and extreme fatigue, her granddaughter Zanai Bhosle shared in a public social media statement. Her son, Anand Bhosle, confirmed to reporters that funeral services will be held for the artist on Monday.

Over a nearly 80-year career, Bhosle built an unparalleled legacy, lending her instantly recognizable voice to roughly 12,000 recorded tracks that reached every corner of film-obsessed India. Long overshadowed early in her career by the reputation of her older sister, Lata Mangeshkar — known to generations as India’s “Melody Queen” — Bhosle carved out a one-of-a-kind artistic niche by fearlessly experimenting with cabaret rhythms and Western-infused melodic styles, creating a sound that was entirely her own.

News of Bhosle’s passing has sparked an outpouring of tributes from across India’s political and cultural spheres. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi shared his condolences in a public social media post following the announcement, saying he was deeply grieved by the singer’s death.

“Her unique musical journey spanning decades has enriched our cultural heritage and touched the hearts of countless people around the world,” Modi wrote. “From soulful melodies to spirited compositions, her voice carried a timeless brilliance.”

Born into a family of musicians on September 8, 1933, Bhosle was introduced to music from early childhood by her father Dinanath Mangeshkar, a professionally trained classical singer. All four of her siblings went on to become respected singers and musicians in their own right. In her personal life, Bhosle’s first marriage in 1949 ended in separation after 11 years, and she later married iconic Bollywood music composer R.D. Burman in 1980. She is survived by her son and multiple grandchildren.