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Chinese models making history at Victoria's Secret Fashion Show

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Chinese models making history at Victoria's Secret Fashion Show
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Chinese models making history at Victoria's Secret Fashion Show

2017-11-20 17:40 Last Updated At:17:40

The annual Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show captivates the world like no other fashion event. An estimated 800 million people around the world are set to watch. 

This year, more than 55 models are in Shanghai for the lingerie brand’s first show in Asia taking place on November 20. It will be broadcast around the world the following Monday.

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Victoria’s Secret has cast a record eight Chinese models among the most diverse lineup in the show’s history. Some of them are established names and faces like Wen Liu and Ming Xi, but for many, the historical strut down the runway marks their global introduction. CGTN Digital is in Shanghai to take in the fashion phenomenon.

Meet the Chinese models

Estelle Chen

The second time around proved successful for Estelle Chen, who was selected for this year’s Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show. She tried out last year but didn’t make the cut. The 19-year-old has catapulted into high fashion via the Elite Model Look competition. Her credits include the Louis Vuitton cruise shows. 

Her parents both hail from Wenzhou, a city on China’s east coast, south of Shanghai. Chen was born in China but raised in France. She said that even though her dad comes from a fully Chinese background, he taught her more about French culture, while her mom schooled her in Chinese heritage. Chen said she feels like she grew up with both cultures because she returned to China every year for one or two months. 

Most first-timers use the show to boost their global profiles and further their modeling careers, but Chen has different plans. She wants to study economics at the prestigious HEC Paris once she’s walked in Shanghai. Chen has spoken frankly about the inadequate representation of Asian models on the catwalk. In 2016, she took part in Instagram’s #RunwayForAll campaign, which focuses on promoting models from diverse backgrounds.

Sui He

Sui He became the second Chinese model to walk the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show in 2011. She has done every show since. Sui He is the first East Asian model to open a Ralph Lauren runway show. She also appeared on the cover of W Magazine as a relative unknown. In 2012, she became the face of Shiseido makeup, making her the first Chinese model to represent the Japanese beauty giant. 

Sui He’s breakthrough season was Fall/Winter 2011. Due to her success, she was named one of New York Magazine's Fall 2011 Top 10 Faces. At the age of 17, while a junior in high school, Sui He entered a Chinese modeling contest and won. Afterwards, she signed with China's Bentley Culture Development Company in Beijing. She was also part of the cast of the 2015 film “You Are My Sunshine”.

Xiao Wen Ju 

Xiao Wen Ju was the first model of Chinese descent to be the face of Marc Jacobs. 

After gaining attention with her appearance on the cover of Harper's Bazaar China in May 2010, she debuted in New York City at the Fall Honor show. Since then, she has graced runways around the world for designers including Shiatzy Chen, Hermès, Louis Vuitton and Prada. 

In addition, Wen Ju was picked for Lane Crawford's F/W 11 campaign, along with other top Chinese models like Ming Xi and Shu Pei. She has also appeared on the cover of Vogue China and Numero China. 

A native from northwest China's Shaanxi Province, Xiao Wen Ju appeared on the cover of Vogue Italia in 2015. In 2016, she became a face of L’Oreal. She walked in the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show last year, becoming only the fifth Asian model to do so after Liu Wen, He Sui, Shu Pei and Ming Xi.

Wen Liu

Wen Liu is the first model of East Asian descent to walk the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show, the first spokesmodel of East Asian descent for Estée Lauder and the first Asian model to ever make Forbes Magazine's annual highest-paid models list. 

In 2012, The New York Times named Liu "China’s first bona fide supermodel." In 2017, she became the first Chinese model to ever appear on the front cover of American Vogue. In an April 2014 article about social media's rise in the fashion industry, Vogue remarked that she had "by far, the biggest social-media audience of any model." 

Throughout her career, Liu has challenged issues of diversity in the fashion industry. In 2009, she made headlines on her Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show bow. The next year, she became the first Asian model to land an Esteé Lauder cosmetics campaign. An only child, Liu was born into a working-class family in Yongzhou, Hunan.

Shu Pei

Born in Kaifeng, Henan, model and actress Shu Pei signed to Next Management in 2007. Her breakthrough season came in September 2008, when she walked for Christian Dior, Hussein Chalayan, John Galliano and Vivienne Westwood. That September, she appeared in a Vogue China editorial and has since secured three Vogue China covers. 

In 2011, Pei became the face of Vera Wang, and her first Victoria's Secret show was in 2012. She has also embarked on an acting career, and in March 2015 shot her first film, “Oh My God,” directed by Leste Chen and produced by Zhang Ziyi. 

The new mom will make her return to Victoria’s Secret catwalk this year. In January, she and her partner Edison Chen welcomed a baby daughter.

Ming Xi

Ming Xi’s professional modeling career started in 2009 after she attended a TV competition. Her international modeling career took off in 2011 after she walked her first well-known runway show for Givenchy. In the same year, she modeled the Givenchy ready-to-wear collection and appeared as the face of Givenchy’s Fall/Winter publicity advertising campaign. Ming Xi also appeared in Victoria's Secret Fashion Shows in 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016. 

Now regarded as one of the world’s top supermodels, her services are highly sought-after. Two years after she graduated from college, she participated in the Elite Model Look competition, held by the leading Elite Model Management agency. Xi ranked third. Shortly after the contest, she was offered a contract with Givenchy. 

The 2017 Victoria’s Secret show is a homecoming for Xi, who was raised in Shanghai.

Xin Xie

 Xin Xie is from Guangdong Province and now splits her time between New York, London, and Guangdong. The 22-year-old up-and-comer has already walked the Miu Miu Resort 2016 show and appeared in editorials for Vogue China and Vogue Me. 

As it stands, Xie’s Instagram followers number just over 4,000, a figure that pales in comparison to fellow Victoria’s Secret models like Gigi Hadid (36 million) and Taylor Hill (9 million). 

For Xie, the show might just be the boost she needs to make her a global name. This will be her first time walking in the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show.

Mystery Model

One lucky reality show contestant is getting the ultimate prize. As the soon-to-be-revealed winner of "Road to the Runway China" online reality show, she will be strutting down the runway at the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show.  

The mystery model will make her professional debut on the runway for fashion's biggest night. Will she be the modeling industry's next rising star? Time will tell.

NEW YORK (AP) — Elon Musk says he’ll be spending less time in Washington slashing government costs and more time running Tesla after his electric vehicle company reported a big drop in profits.

Musk said on a conference call with analysts Tuesday that “now that the major work of establishing Department of Government Efficiency is done,” that he will be “allocating far more of my time to Tesla” starting in May. Musk said he now expects to spend just “a day or two per week on government matters”

Tesla struggled to sell vehicles as it faced angry protests over Musk’s leadership of DOGE, a jobs-cutting group that has divided the country. The Austin, Texas, company reported a 71% drop in profits and a 9% decline in revenue for the first quarter.

“Investors wanted to see him recommit to Tesla,” said Wedbush Securities' Dan Ives. “This is a big step in the right direction."

Investors sent Tesla shares up more than 5% in after-hours trading, although they are still down more than 40% for the year.

The company reconfirmed that it expects to roll out a cheaper version of its best-selling vehicle, the Model Y sport utility vehicle, in the first half of this year. It also stuck with its predictions that it will be able to launch a paid driverless robotaxi service in Austin in June and have much of its fleet operating by itself next year.

“There will be millions of Teslas operating autonomously in the second half of the year,” Musk said in a conference call after the results were announced. He later added about the personal use of autonomous vehicles, "Can you go to sleep in our cars and wake up at your destination? I’m confident that will be available in many cities in the U.S. by the end of this year.”

Auto analyst Sam Abuelsamid at Telemetry Insight said he doubts Musk's predictions.

“The system is not robust enough to operate unsupervised. It still makes far too many errors,” he said. “It will suddenly make mistakes that will lead to a crash.”

The planned rollout of the robotaxi without a steering wheel or pedals comes as federal regulators still have open investigations into whether the technology that Tesla hopes will allow cars to drive themselves is completely safe.

Tesla’s driver-assistance technology that can steer or stop a car but still requires humans to take over at any time — its so-called Autopilot — is being probed by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for whether it alerts drivers sufficiently when their attention wanders. And the company’s Full Self-Driving, which is only partial self-driving and has drawn criticism for misleading drivers with the name, has come under scrutiny for its tie to accidents in low-visibility conditions like when there is sun glare.

Another challenge to Tesla, which once dominated the EV business: It is facing fierce competition for the first time.

Earlier this year, Chinese EV maker BYD announced it had developed an electric battery that can charge within minutes. And Tesla’s European rivals have begun offering new models with advanced technology that is making them real Tesla alternatives just as popular opinion has turned against Musk. The Tesla CEO has alienated potential buyers in Europe by publicly supporting far-right politicians there.

Tesla said Tuesday that quarterly profits fell from $1.39 billion to $409 million, or 12 cents a share. That’s far below analyst estimates. Tesla’s revenue fell from $21.3 billion to $19.3 billion in the January through March period, also below Wall Street’s forecast. Tesla’s gross margins, a measure of earnings for each dollar of revenue, fell from 17.4% to 16.3% .

Tesla has said it will be hurt less by the Trump administration's tariffs than most U.S. car companies because it makes most of its U.S. cars domestically. But it won’t be completely unscathed. It sources some materials for its vehicles from abroad that will now face import taxes.

Tesla warned in announcing its results that tariffs will hit its energy storage business, too.

Retaliation from China will also hurt Tesla. The company was forced earlier this month to stop taking orders from mainland customers for two models, its Model S and Model X. It makes the Model Y and Model 3 for the Chinese market at its factory in Shanghai.

The company’s side business of selling “regulatory credits” to other automakers that fall short of emission standards boosted results for the quarter.

Tesla generated $595 million from credit sales, up from $442 million a year ago.

The company generated $2.2 billion in cash flow versus $242 million a year earlier.

Morningstar analyst Seth Goldstein said earlier reports of plunging sales that had tanked the stock made the quarterly results almost predictable.

“They’re not particularly surprising given that deliveries were down,” he said. “It was good to see positive cash flow.”

People pass by a Tesla sign at the Manila International Auto Show in Pasay city, Philippines Friday, April 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)

People pass by a Tesla sign at the Manila International Auto Show in Pasay city, Philippines Friday, April 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)

Demonstrators protest against Elon Musk and Department of Government Efficiency cuts outside a Tesla dealership, Saturday, April 12, 2025, in Kansas City, Mo. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

Demonstrators protest against Elon Musk and Department of Government Efficiency cuts outside a Tesla dealership, Saturday, April 12, 2025, in Kansas City, Mo. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

Elon Musk and his son X Æ A-Xii walk on the South Lawn upon their arrival to the White House in Washington, Sunday, April 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Elon Musk and his son X Æ A-Xii walk on the South Lawn upon their arrival to the White House in Washington, Sunday, April 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Elon Musk, left, carries his son, X Æ A-Xii, down the stairs of Air Force One upon President Donald Trump's arrival at Joint Base Andrews, Md., Sunday, April 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Luis M. Alvarez)

Elon Musk, left, carries his son, X Æ A-Xii, down the stairs of Air Force One upon President Donald Trump's arrival at Joint Base Andrews, Md., Sunday, April 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Luis M. Alvarez)

FILE - Elon Musk flashes his T-shirt that reads "DOGE" to the media as he walks on South Lawn of the White House, in Washington, March 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)

FILE - Elon Musk flashes his T-shirt that reads "DOGE" to the media as he walks on South Lawn of the White House, in Washington, March 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)

FILE - Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk walks to the stage to speak at the Butler Farm Show, Oct. 5, 2024, in Butler, Pa. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, file)

FILE - Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk walks to the stage to speak at the Butler Farm Show, Oct. 5, 2024, in Butler, Pa. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, file)

FILE - Tesla vehicles line a parking lot at the company's Fremont, Calif., factory on Sept. 18, 2023. (AP Photo/Noah Berger, file)

FILE - Tesla vehicles line a parking lot at the company's Fremont, Calif., factory on Sept. 18, 2023. (AP Photo/Noah Berger, file)

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