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Sonia Kolesnikov-Jessop

Sonia Kolesnikov-Jessop

Articles by Sonia Kolesnikov-Jessop

World

A Visit With the Komodo Dragons

In 1910, Lt. van Steyn van Hensbroek of the Dutch colonial administration in Indonesia set out in search of the mysterious “land crocodiles” he had heard about.

3 min read

Entertainment

Singapore: Portraits of the Prime Minister

The vibrant watercolor shows a gaming table with three playing cards, each depicting a different portrait of the same man. Small figures kneel at the corners pleading, “Papa, can you help me not be frightened?” and “Papa, don’t you know I have no choice?”

5 min read

Business

Made for China

With Western markets sagging, luxury firms are tailoring products to the Middle Kingdom.

6 min read

Entertainment

Asia’s Rising Pop Star Does a Guest Turn on ‘Glee’

As any would-be American Idol knows, taking on a song by Whitney Houston or Celine Dion can be the kiss of death. The songs are so demanding that contestants often find themselves in the judges’ firing line for attempting one.

4 min read

Entertainment

Chinese Artists to Reimagine Top Luxury Brands

Painstakingly sewing shards of broken pottery recovered from ancient archeological digs, Li Xiaofeng creates “porcelain clothing” few would ever wear. Until now. Some of these works caught the attention of John Storey, the worldwide director of public relations for Lacoste, when he saw them displayed last November at the hip Beijing hotel The Opposite House. Storey recognized a great marketing opportunity, and commissioned the up-and-coming Chinese artist to create two iconic artworks.

3 min read

Entertainment

East Transforms West in Chinese Opera

“The Legend of the White Snake” is one of the most famous Chinese tales. The story of a young scholar bewitched by a beautiful woman who is really a powerful white-snake demon has given rise to countless Chinese opera productions, films, and TV series. It is now also a Western-style opera performed in English that is set to tour China.

4 min read

Entertainment

Remaking Hollywood Hits for Asian Audiences

Five years ago, Hong Kong film director and producer Peter Chan got an intriguing call from Warner Brothers: would he be interested in remaking The Bridges of Madison County with Chow Yun-Fat reprising Clint Eastwood’s role and Chinese actress Gong Li stepping in for Meryl Streep? Chan thought transposing the action to China would work, but he couldn’t spend the time on development, so nothing happened.

4 min read

Entertainment

A Conversation With the Director of Carnegie Hall

Since becoming executive and artistic director of Carnegie Hall five years ago, Sir Clive Gillinson has transformed one of the world’s top performance venues into a center for cross-cultural and interdisciplinary exchange.

3 min read

World

Chinese Art Collectors Revive the Classical Market

During the mid-2000s, Chinese contemporary art rose to world attention, with political pop and cynical realist works by artists like Yue Minjun and Zhang Xiaogang regularly breaking records at auction.

3 min read

World

Asia’s Top Hotels Take Europe

Asia’s top hotel brands set their sights on the City of Light.

3 min read

Entertainment

Graffiti Art—In Singapore?

Like Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat before him, graffiti artist Daze made the move from spray-painting walls in New York to exhibiting canvases in art galleries around the world: Tokyo, Zurich, Miami, even Iowa City, Iowa.

3 min read

World

Shopping: Where No Women Dare to Tread

Some luxury brands have always catered exclusively to either men or women—think Dunhill, Ermenegildo Zegna, and Brioni for men or Jimmy Choo and Christian Lacroix for the ladies.

5 min read

World

Bespoke Tailors for a One-of-a-Kind Wardrobe

For the ultimate in exclusive shopping, men are increasingly turning to bespoke couturiers for custom-fit suits, shirts, ties, and shoes. A sampling of our favorites: Rubinacci, Naples Renowned for light tailoring with minimum padding at the shoulders, suits from this Neapolitan tailor are characterized by their soft silhouettes.

2 min read

Entertainment

Publishers Look to China for the Next Bestseller

When penguin paid $100,000 for the worldwide rights to the English translation of Jiang Rong’s bestseller Wolf Totem in 2005, it set a record as China’s most expensive overseas book deal.

4 min read

Entertainment

Hollywood Discovers Korea’s Talented Actors

In the late 1990s a Korean wave washed over Asia. From TV soap operas and movies to pop music, the region couldn’t get enough of Korean culture and its good-looking stars.

4 min read

Business

Auction Houses Look to Asian Collectors

The contemporary-art market is not much more robust in Asia than it is anywhere else. But in other genres, Asian buyers are showing some surprising muscle, snatching up pieces that Western buyers have shunned and creating a lone bright spot in an otherwise bleak market.

3 min read

World

Yachting Goes Green

As a sport, yachting may be all about harnessing the power of the wind, but for most superyachts, that’s where ecofriendliness ends. Typically, these 45-meter-plus boats guzzle huge amounts of fuel while their owners host lavish parties that require high-powered amenities like air conditioning and fancy sound systems.

4 min read

Entertainment

Making Chinese Films for the Chinese

A revolutionary runs through the busy streets of Hong Kong, pulling a rickshaw carrying Sun Yat-sen. He keeps glancing anxiously over his shoulder, on the lookout for assassins who plan to kill the future leader of the 1911 revolution.

6 min read

Entertainment

Creating Chick Lit for Asian Audiences

Asians embrace chick lit

5 min read

Entertainment

China’s Me-Generation Artists Turn Inward

Until recently, the way Chinese artists got famous was to talk politics. The generation that grew up during the Cultural Revolution and the difficult years that followed was highly politicized and gained global recognition for its tongue-in-cheek images of Mao Zedong and Tiananmen Square, often rendered in eye-popping color.

4 min read

Business

For Hotels, Breakfast is the Most Important Meal

Even guests who never eat breakfast when they’re home have trouble resisting a well-appointed breakfast buffet on the road. A recent survey of business and leisure travelers in Asia by Le Méridien hotel group showed that 60 percent of leisure travelers and 40 percent of business ones eat more than usual when traveling, and more than 80 percent favor the buffet breakfast.

2 min read