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8 Sep, 2015

First Annual Chinese Qipao Festival to be launched in New York

NEW YORK, Sept. 4, 2015 /PRNewswire/ — ICN TV Network is to launch the first Chinese Qipao Festival, a series of events, each of which celebrates, in unique fashion, the beauty of the qipao and importance of Chinese culture heritage. The three events take place on September 10, 19 and 26.

The qipao (or cheongsam), the popular traditional one-piece dress worn today by Chinese women attending formal events, has a long history, dating back nearly 500 years to the 1600s of the Qing dynasty, when a loose-fitting version was worn as everyday clothing by men and women alike.  The stylish and often tight-fitting qipao that is best known today was created in the 1920s in Shanghai and made fashionable by socialites and upper class women of that era.

The Chinese Qipao Festival is hosted and sponsored by ICN TV Network, Beauty Media Inc., YouKu Inc. and the China Intercontinental Communication Center. The festival consists of three events:

Qipao Flash Mob in Times Square , Date: Sep. 10.  Location: Times Square

A flash mob of one hundred Chinese women, accompanied by finalists from the Qipao Beauty Pageant and a delegation of foreign students from New York Film Academy, each dressed in a qipao of unique design, will make an appearance at Times Square.  The focus of the event and presentation is to give New Yorkers and visitors to Times Square an opportunity to learn more about Chinese traditional costume and Eastern artistic vision.

The Qipao Beauty Pageant, Date: Sep. 19, Time: 4:00PM – 6:30PM , Location: Broad Street Ballroom

The Qipao Beauty Pageant Contest has been attracting the attention of Chinese fashion models not only in the New York area but also from around the globe. This prominent event has currently gone through the initial and semi-final rounds. Through blind auditions, the contestants will be divided into five teams, each team led by an experienced and talented mentor or coach. The coach will work with each contestant to perfect their performance. At the event, the 50 finalists will enter the last round of the competition for the coveted winning title.

The Qipao Gala, Date: Sep. 26, Time: 6:00PM – 10:00PM, Location: Gotham Hall

One of the highlights of Qipao Festival is the Qipao Gala that will be held on the eve of the traditional Chinese Mid-Autumn holiday. Celebrities and distinguished guests representing a cross-section of disciplines across the fashion industry, among them renowned fashion icon and successful entrepreneur Yue-Sai Kan and topflight Chinese model Ai-Li. The entire event will be videotaped and broadcast throughout China and to Chinese-speaking communities worldwide through Youku.com, the world’s leading Chinese-language video-sharing website.

About the Sponsors 

ICN TV Network – Founded as International Audio-Visual Communication Inc. in 1980 and renamed ICN in 2010, the media firm has extensive television coverage throughout the whole of North America and is the media organization serving ethnic Chinese communities across the region with the largest audience and broadest reach. ICN’s 16 channels with large footprints in Austin, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Seattle in the U.S.A. as well as Toronto and Vancouver in Canada. Its English and Chinese channels broadcast a wide variety of programming including real-time news, entertainment, drama, education and culture as well as talk shows focused on current affairs, business and investment.

Beauty Media – Established in 1994, Beauty Media is a Chinese cultural media enterprise specializing in broadcasting, cinema and television production, audio-visual programming, creative animation and derivative products, as well as other forms of cultural media.

YouKu Inc. – Youku Tudou Inc. is China’s leading Internet TV company. The company’s mission is to become the primary source of video content and to build a media and entertainment ecosystem for global Chinese audiences over a multi-screen platform. The company shares a wide mix of user generated, partner-generated, proprietary and licensed professional content as well as movies with its user base, providing a wide selection of compelling entertainment. In 2010, YouKu, Inc. became the first China-based Internet TV firm to list on the NYSE.

China Intercontinental Communication Center – The China Intercontinental Communication Center (China Intercontinental Press), set up in Beijing in December 1993, is a comprehensive international cultural communication agency complete with four export-oriented communication centers, including the Film and TV Center, the Book Center, the Cultural Exchange Center and the Network Center. The Center/Press has established cooperative relationships with 40-plus TV organizations in more than 20 countries, and with over 30 publishing houses in 19 countries and regions around the world. It has also carried out cultural activities in some 40 countries and regions and succeeded in bringing Chinese movies and TV plays as well as books to more than 200 countries and regions.