Image is Everything China Close Up

City slickers. Young people on the move.

This is Shanghai on fast-forward

in the 21st century.

Yesterday's fashions, today's museum pieces.

Shanghai sets the trend for the rest of China.

Image guru Wang Lei will make sure it stays ahead.

The son of actors,

Wang Lei was exposed to the theatre from an early age.

His interest in the backstage world of hair and make-up

led him to study hairstyling in the US.

While he was there, he took care to observe the people around him.

Shanghai was an ideal base.

When China opened up to the West in the late '70s,

it was deluged by Western goods.

The Chinese were avid consumers.

Wang Lei set up different salons for different groups of clients.

Hollywood, with its steel and stark colours,

is for the young and trendy.

Housed in one of the city's shopping malls is a children's salon,

where the new generation of fashion consumers can be indulged.

For the more mature or foreign clients

after an authentic flavour

there's "China Nostalgia",

with its Oriental decor.

I always liked the mixture, culture,

you know, food and mixture for the music

and mixture of everything.

It's one of the best things about the city. That's why I stay here.

Even I decorate my shops with...

you know...Chinese and Western all mixed in together. Always.

It just feels so much better when you have both cultures mixed together.

The cultural mix is exploited to the full.

The American idea that first impressions are all-important

is adopted in Wang Lei's company motto -

"Image Is Everything".

Learning about the importance of image starts in-house.

To his managerial staff,

Wang Lei stresses that the three keys to success

are being observant,

focused and pragmatic.

Wang Lei now also offers image consultancy

to professionals in middle management,

like Wang Yunchen.

First, the hair colour,

then off to search for a complete new look.

In China, being concerned about personal appearance

was once frowned on.

Wang Lei's fought hard

to prove that his profession isn't about vanity.

A transformed Yunchen turns up at work.

So, how does she feel with her new look?

High-profile clients like Yunchen give image consultancy

a much-needed boost.

Wang Lei's aim is spurred on

by China's rapidly developing economy.

Maoism has given way to a new ideology,

consumerism.

And, with it, a whole new generation

of impressionable youngsters

eager for anything new.

In China's race to modernise,

following fashion gives young people a sense of identity

in a society where it's hard to know where you belong.

Not belonging is a feeling Wang Lei knows only too well.

In America, he had to work at his image.

This is an idea Wang Lei wants to bring to his hairstyling.

His is the only Chinese salon

to exhibit in this year's Shanghai Hair Show,

alongside some of the world's best-known names.

He's asked an advertising agency

to work up some of his proposals.

But Shanghai's love affair with the West

is not about to end.

Wang Lei has to admit, it's a relationship that's here to stay.

Shanghai's cosmopolitan feel

gives Wang Lei inspiration for the forthcoming hair show.

He's taking the essence of East and West

to create a fusion of the two,

a unique look that's very Wang Lei.

The Shanghai Grand Theatre, the city's premier venue,

a perfect place for showing off talent and winning recognition.

TRADITIONAL MUSIC PLAYS

DISCO MUSIC

TRADITIONAL MUSIC

Exposure at this kind of event has propelled Wang Lei

to the forefront of the hairstyling scene.

Today, Shanghai. Tomorrow...the world?

HE LAUGHS

UPBEAT ELECTRONIC MUSIC

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

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