Singer-songwriter Jay Chou’s (周杰倫) wedding early this year has increased interest in a historic English estate and could help with its preservation, a British daily reported yesterday.
Chou married model Hannah Quinlivan (昆凌) on Jan. 17 in Yorkshire, England, creating a media frenzy in Taiwan.
The wedding was held in a small medieval church in the town of Selby and a day-long reception was held at nearby Castle Howard.
The wedding and its media coverage has sparked a flurry of interest from Asia-based tour groups wanting to visit the area in the north of Yorkshire.
The 300-year-old Howard estate has reported a surge in the number of tourists and its Web site has recorded more than 5 million visits since the wedding — a 400 percent increase, the Telegraph newspaper said.
There has also been an influx of Chinese traveling to see the estate’s European and Western antiquities, the Telegraph said on its Web site.
Castle Howard’s management has made several Asia-friendly changes upon noticing the significant increase in tourists from the East, the Telegraph said.
Not only have maps and brochures been made available in Chinese, the estate has begun to accept China’s UnionPay credit cards.
Castle Howard has also been given its own Chinese name (蓬萊瓊宇) meaning “Magnificent Asgard.”
Yesterday, the estate’s owners planned to auction nine family treasures and pieces of art at London-based auction house Sotheby’s.
The aim of the auction is to raise as much as ￡10 million (US$14.88 million) for maintenance and renovation of the estate, the owners said.
Castle Howard, a country estate built in the 17th century, has been the setting for several TV shows and movies over the years, including Granada Television’s 1981 series Brideshead Revisited, based on the Evelyn Waugh novel of the same name.
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