Shanghai

Shanghai, by iconic erotic photographer Bettina Rheims and writer Serge Bramly, is a lavish, oversized tome documenting the many--and often times unexpected--roles women play in this famous Far Eastern City. Shanghai is hip, trendy, and young, the city with the highest developing business rate in the world, a place of history and tomorrow and, as is amply evident in Shanghai, a very sexy place. Engaged in an ardent search for the spirit of Shanghai's women, Rheims and Bramly instead found a place so fast-paced, so quickly evolving, that their quest was rendered moot. Shanghai features photographs of legendary women including Hou Bo and Xu Xiaobing, official photographers of Mao Tse Dong; Lu Yi, former model and star newsreader on MTV China, Zhou Ling, Miss China 2002; Yang Lan, newscaster and president of the cable channel Sun TV, 38th richest person in China according to "Forbes magazine; Nora Sun, granddaughter of Sun Ya Zhen, founder of the Chinese Republic; among other cultural notables. Western eyes could not define or encapsulate the ineffable essence of Shanghai's women.