US fashion designer Jason Wu (吳季剛) yesterday said he was proud to be Taiwanese, while President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) praised Wu as being someone possessing characteristics of “Chinese culture.”
Wu said he was glad to return to Taiwan to share his success with other Taiwanese.
“I am Taiwanese. No matter where I go, I was born in Taiwan,” he said in English as he met Ma at the Presidential Office.
Wu, who is in Taiwan for his brother’s wedding, said he was “surprised” by the warm welcome he has received since he arrived on Wednesday.
The 28-year-old Wu gained global fame last year after US first lady Michelle Obama wore one of his gowns to her husband’s inaugural ball. The one-shouldered gown is now in the National Museum of American History, where it is part of a collection of 24 gowns worn by US first ladies.
Wu told Ma that he was very proud to be the first Asian designer to have a gown in the museum’s collection.
“I think it’s such an honor and I never thought that it would happen to me,” Wu said. “I work very hard over the last few years. I’m still surprised what was going on. It’s been a very exciting time for me.”
Ma was eager to find out why Wu was more interested in dolls than toy guns when he was little, and asked Wu if his older brother had thought he was “weird” when they were young.
“He still thinks I am,” Wu said in Mandarin, adding that though he and his brother were very different, they were very close.
“I don’t know how to explain. Maybe I was born that way. My mother did not stop me. She encouraged me,” Wu said, adding that she would buy him fashion magazines, which is where he learned English.
Wu went to Canada when he was nine years old and studied sculpture in Japan for a few years before realizing that designing clothes was like “sculpting in real life.”
Ma described Wu as someone who was “simple” and “conservative” in his style of dressing, to which Wu replied he was “more simple” and that he wanted to make his dresses stand out, not him.
“That is quite oriental,” Ma said. “Our Chinese culture has the characteristics of being simple and modest.”
Ma asked Wu if there might be opportunities for the designer to meet young Taiwanese in New York or Taipei to teach them about fashion design. Wu said he was still a student and he wasn’t sure he was qualified to teach others. The only advice he could give them was to work hard.
Seemingly unsatisfied, Ma asked Wu how he could “pay back” young people interested in fashion design.
Wu said he hoped to bring more focus to design in Taiwan and perhaps his visit could bring more attention to it.
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