Asian Road

Rain (Real name: Jung Ji-Hoon, born on 25 June 1982 in Seoul) is a male Korean pop singer, dancer and actor. He has become well-known throughout East and Southeast Asia — including Japan, Hong Kong, Korea, Taiwan, Mainland China, Vietnam and Thailand.

In April 2006, he was mentioned in the Time magazine website article that named the "100 Most Influential People Who Shape Our World."In 2007, Rain topped Time Magazine's online user poll, although he was not in the magazine's actual list.He also made it into People's 2007 list of the "Most Beautiful People" in the world.

The hairstyles of Geisha have varied considerably over history. Before the time of T'ang China, it was most common for women to wear their hair down but during the time of T'ang China, it became popular to tie one's hair up. Women then returned to wearing their hair parted in the center and hanging straight down. Again during the seventeenth century, women began pulling all their hair up again and it is during this time that the traditional hairstyle, shimada, developed. This is the hairstyle worn by Geisha and means generally thatall the hair is pulled back in one section. There are four major types of the shimada: Taka Shimada,a high chignon (a kind of knot of hair), usually worn by young, single women; Tsubushi shimada, a more flattened chignon generally worn by older women; Uiwata, a chignon that is usually bound up with a piece of color cotton crepe; and a style that ends up looking like a divided peach, typically worn by maiko. These hairstyles were decorated with elaborate hair-combs and hairpins, which often symbolized status. In the seventeenth century and after the Meiji Restoration period, hair-combs were large and conspicuous, generally more ornate for higher-class women. During the Meiji restoration and in this modern era, smaller less conspicuous hair-combs are more popular. The traditional makeup of the Geisha is probably the most common feature associated with the culture because of its striking contrast to contemporary makeup. Under the influence of T'ang China, early geisha and other women of the period would dye their brows a golden yellow. Beginning in the Sixteenth century, the Geisha began using a white foundation made from rice powder that has since been replaced by a white cream. Geisha wear bright red lipstick, made from safflower extract and often worn only in the center of the lips to emphasize delicacy, femininity and the desired miniature effect. Light red rouge made from crimson flower petals was also worn. Until the Meiji period, Geisha and other performers were known to permanently stain their teeth black, the significance of which is not certain. The world of Geisha is a culture that allows Japanese women to be independent and economically self-sufficient, as they do not marry (as they would cease to be a Geisha if she did).

http://marian.creighton.edu

Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent. It covers 8.6% of the Earth's total surface area (or 29.4% of its land area) and, with almost 4 billion people, it contains more than 60% of the world's current human population.

Chiefly in the eastern and northern hemispheres, Asia is traditionally defined as part of the landmass of Africa-Eurasia – with the western portion of the latter occupied by Europe – lying east of the Suez Canal, east of the Ural Mountains, and south of the Caucasus Mountains and the Caspian and Black Seas. It is bounded to the east by the Pacific Ocean, to the south by the Indian Ocean, and to the north by the Arctic Ocean.

Given its size and diversity, Asia – a toponym dating back to classical antiquity – is more a cultural concept incorporating a number of regions and peoples than a homogeneous physical entity . From the standpoint of physical geography, Europe and Asia are considered parts of the single continent or supercontinent of Eurasia.

East Asia

* Chinese
* Hong Kong
* Japanese
* Korean
* Taiwanese

Central Asia

* Afghan
* Kazakh
* Mongolian
* Uzbek
* Iranian

South Asia

* Bangladeshi
* Bengali (India and Bangladesh)
* Indian
* Nepal
* Pakistani
* Punjabi (India and Pakistan)
* Sri Lankan
* Tamil (India and Sri Lanka)

Southeast Asia

* Burmese
* Indonesian
* Khmer/Cambodian
* Laotian
* Malaysian
* Peranakan
* Filipino
* Singaporean
* Thai
* Vietnamese

Source : www.wikipedia.org

Two strangers. One connection.A pianist finds inspiration from an unlikely source.Recipient of the 2007 Kingston Canadian Film Festival Local Shorts Award.