Asian Bond Girls

Michelle Yeoh

If you’re an avid fan of James Bond movies, then you know what the qualifications are to be dubbed a “Bond Girl.” If you need a definition, I’ll paraphrase this one given by Robert Caplen, from his book Shaken & Stirred: The Feminism of James Bond:

A Bond girl is a character or actress portraying a love or sex interest, of James Bond in a film or novel. These ladies occasionally have names that are double entendres or puns, such as “Pussy Galore”, “Plenty O’Toole”, “Xenia Onatopp”, or “Holly Goodhead.” Bond girls are considered ubiquitous symbol of glamour and sophistication.

Bearing that in mind, we know that not every lady who has appeared in a Bond film meets the criteria for being a Bond Girl, and there are only three Asian ladies that do. One being veteran Hong Kong action starlet, Michelle Yeoh (pictured above) who played “Wai Lin” in 1997’s Tomorrow Never Dies.Most Bond aficionados would consider Michelle the most prominent Asian Bond Girl of all and Life magazine named Yeoh/Wai Lin the 11th best Bond Girl of all time. Whenever I see her as Wai Lin, the hauntingly erotic voice of Sheryl Crow singing the film’s title song goes through my head. The best Bond film title song ever, in this writer’s opinion.

Akiko Wakabayashi
Akiko Wakabayashi as Aki in You Only Live Twice, in which she co-starred opposite original Bond, Sean Connery. She was one of the first two Asian Bond Girls. Akiko was originally slated for the (smaller) role of Kissy Suzuki while Mie Hama was to play the larger part of Aki, but since Akiko’s English skills were better than Mie’s, their roles were switched. Akiko just made one more film after this one before retiring from acting, reportedly citing an injury she received during the filming of a movie. She now resides in the “Whatever Happened to..?” file.

Akiko Wakabayashi
Akiko in another still from the film

Mie Hama
Mie Hama, the other Asian Bond girl who co-starred in You Only Live Twice, played Kissy (no, not Krissy) Suzuki. Mie retired from acting in the 80s and has since been reported to be an active environmentalist, still occasionally making public appearances.

Mie Hama
Promo shot of Mie for the film

Tsai Chin as Ling
Not a Bond Girl per se, but worthy of an honorable mention, is Tsai Chin. She played Ling, Bond’s bedmate, who appeared only in a pre-credit scene of You Only Live Twice. After their romp, she sets Bond up for what appears to be his assassination. Tsai also appeared in a Bond film 39 years later, in a small role as a poker player in 2006’s Casino Royal.

Michelle YeohMichelle Yeoh
At left, Michelle in a promo shot from Tomorrow Never Dies, wearing the dress she wore in her debut scene, which was her only glamorous scene in the film. At right, as Wai Lin, armed for a shootout with the antagonist’s henchmen.

Michelle Yeoh
Promo still from the film

Hat tip to Wingsfan19.

Northeners vs Southerners Test

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Northerner Chinese women, Southern Chinese women. Is there a difference in the way they look? Many believe so, but is it really true? We decided to find out in the most unscientific of ways possible by putting together an interactive test for our readers.

It’s been a while since we did our last interactive test on Mainland Hotties, the last one got pretty good feedback so a new one is well overdue. It’s not just hot Chinese babes you know. We expect to educate as well… sometimes… at little… well not really at all, but hey.

Northeners vs Southerners Test

Choi Hye Young

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Since it’s been days, possibly even DAYS since I last posted a Korean Race Queen that decided to start posing nude, I thought I’d bring you another one. This is Choi Hye Young. Once again I’m not wild about the photography here. Choi Hye Young has hit 30 and could probably have used a little bit of makeup and more friendlier settings, especially when you compare these photos to her earlier modeling ones, but then again beggers can’t be choosers. That’s two nude Korean race queens if you’re keeping track. Hooray for trends!Stats:

Age: 30
Height: 5’8
Ethnicity: Korean
Located: South Korea

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Links:

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Interview with ‘Daily Leng Lui’

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The Daily Leng Lui site caught my eye a while ago. Also focused on beautiful Asian women, the site stands out from the crowd due to their really well researched posts and habit of featuring lesser known models or smaller celebrities. We were lucky enough to catch the site’s creator Richard for a short interview recently. Check out after the jump for more.

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A/S: How do you choose which models to feature at Daily Leng Lui?

Richard: I try not to choose the mainstream celebrities who don’t need the extra publicity. I usually pick the less popular but highly talented models who have potential to be successful in the future. Or others that might have an interesting story behind them.

A/S: If you had to choose your top 3 models which you’ve featured over the last almost 2 years, which would they be and why?

Richard: To be honest, this is a difficult choice, if only I could choose more than 3….One of them definitely has to be Yoyo Xu Xiangting from Taiwan, she been our most popular girl with our male readers throughout the years! The other two personal picks of mine would be Zhao Yihuan from China because I simply love girls with sweet smiley-eyes, and she’s pretty hot too! Finally Ava Liu Yukiu a singer from Hong Kong, she’s naturally pretty as well as being a very talented singer!

A/S: What inspired you start blogging about Asian women and what keeps you inspired?

Richard: “Daily Lenglui” started off in early 2010 as my personal collection of the type of girls that I like. I didn’t really expect it to grow to where it is today, from 0 to 1.29 million visitors. So, I continue doing what I do best in searching for the never-ending pretty girls and challenging myself to get even more readers.

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A/S: Which other resources out there on the web do you rate for those into wanting their fix of Asian beauty (apart from AS of course :-)?

Richard: MOKO is definitely one of my favorites! It’s a social network site from China primary for models and photographers to share their portfolios. The rest would be FaceWall’s blog from Taiwan, and forums like netme.cc and soompi.com

A/S: One of the things that makes Daily Leng Lui stand out is the sheer amount of research that goes into many of the posts. How much effort goes into the average post?

Richard: It’s frustrating at times, trying to search in English to research Asian girls. With bits and pieces of photos and information here and there, it doesn’t feel complete. If you’re lucky, you might find a full collection of photos but readers don’t want to see every single picture of a model. Hence, I search every possible sources from Google to Baidu for their information and filter every single picture til I get only the best. For some, I even had to go through their blogs from Day 1 until their latest post just to make sure I don’t miss out anything. Usually hours of hard-work searching and compiling, but it does feel complete and satisfying once all the hard work is complete. It doesn’t end there either, at times, I do update their on-going latest photos and news!

A/S: What’s the future for Daily Leng Lui?

Richard: Seriously, I have no idea but I’ll keep doing what I do best now. Maybe it’ll somehow turn into MOKO or a talent/modeling agency one day. I definitely need some help in that, can’t be doing it alone.

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A/S: Where does the name Daily Leng Lui come from; was the idea to do daily posts at some point?

Richard: Exactly, I originally wanted to post up one pretty girl every single day but it was too much work and I couldn’t cope up with it. I’d rather have quality posts over quantity. Also the word “lenglui” means pretty girl in Chinese Cantonese.

A/S: What do you do when not blogging about stunning Asian models?

Richard: Most of my time is dedicated to my own start-up company specializing in the IT and telecom. industry. Life of a start-up is like an emotional roller coaster, things seem great one moment and hopeless the next. I do believe persistent is the key to success and I apply it to all my blogs. My other blogs are: a food blog and an online boutique blog shop.

A/S: “Controversial question alert”. Which Asian countries do you think have the best looking women overall and why?

Richard: Overall, I like the fair skin women from Thailand, Vietnam and vicinity. There is something about their features, maybe it’s the mixture of half Chinese, ethnic Thai and Westerner.

A/S: You’ve recently passed your 200th post on DLL, how are you going to celebrate?

Richard: I’ll be looking for sponsorship to reward myself with a pretty Asian bunny girl that jumps out from the box!

Xia

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I don’t have a clue what this model’s name is but it Google Translated as Xia Minjie. I doubt it though. Still, she’s another Chinese fashion model and since I don’t have anything else about her, I’m going to pretend she really likes cookies. WOW, Xia likes her cookies!Stats:

Age: ?
Height: 5’10
Ethnicity: Chinese
Located: Beijing

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