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| Malaysia in the 14th Asian Bridal Summit represented by AWP |
The 14th Asian Bridal Summit : Asian Wedding Cultural Festival took place in the new city of Haiyang in Qingdao, China from 25th August 2011, ending with a grand closing ceremony organized by host country China on the 28th August 2011.
The annual Asian Bridal Summit is an event hosted alternately by member countries of the Federation of Asia Pacific Bridal Association to promote greater working relationships within the region and help each other grow the wedding industry in their respective countries. This year, the summit was hosted by China. Participating members at the 14th Asian Bridal Summit for this year included China-HK, China-Taiwan, Japan, Korea, Myanmar and Malaysia. Malaysia was represented by the Association of Wedding Professionals (AWP) Malaysia’s President, Leticia Hsu and Vice President, Eileen Lui from Elysium Weddings and Nupts & Such Malaysia respectively.
This year’s bridal summit theme focused on the preservation of culture and traditions in weddings in a continuously progressive and modernized society. Besides a presentation and forum on how each country’s wedding industry is working towards preserving culture & heritage, they were also invited to showcase their country’s main cultural wedding fanfare and traditional costumes in a live performance and fashion show session during the 4-day summit.
“We were a little disappointed that Malaysia was under-represented at the summit,” says Hsu. Myanmar’s delegation came in a 26-member strong team which included make-up artists, photographers and dancers. Japan’s delegation was the largest, with a 75-member participation. Each participating country also had a tourism representative to showcase the country’s tourism attractions. “We hope that for future summit, we would get the support of Malaysia’s Tourism Ministry so that we are a bigger representation,” continues Hsu.
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| The Forum Session of the Asian Bridal Summit 2011 |
Despite the “underdog” status, the gutsy duo presented a comprehensive paper about “Preservation of Culture & Tradition in Today’s Modernized Malaysia” during the forum session with the Chinese wedding industry and the local and foreign media who attended the summit. The presentation sparked great interests amongst the Chinese wedding industry as well as members of the other countries’ delegations who participated in the summit. “We hope to foster greater ties with members of the Federation (of Asia Pacific Bridal Association) and help each other preserve our culture & heritage despite everything going fusion,” says Hsu.
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The gutsy duo making their introductory speech of the video
presentation |
In the true spirit of Malaysia Boleh, the duo, armed with only a DVD to present Malaysia’s myriad of multi-cultural weddings instead of a live performance, braved the 600-pax crowd in the second session of the summit and sashayed down the catwalk, showcasing their traditional Kebaya and modernized Cheongsam costumes to the crowd. “In our introduction of the video, we said that it was impossible to showcase only one cultural wedding from Malaysia because Malaysia will not be Malaysia without the melting pot of different cultures such as Malays, Chinese, Indians and others,” says Lui. Wowing the crowd with her Mandarin greetings, Lui was surprised how little people knew about the different cultures in Malaysia. “When our video presentation was shown, you could literally see the 600-pax crowd sitting at the edge of their seats!” she continues. Both Hsu and Lui were pleased with the outcome and were relieved that they did not let their country down. During the press conference session, the Malaysian duo were clearly the ‘darlings of the media’ – both foreign and local alike. “They were all so interested in the different cultures we had in Malaysia! And I was also surprised that they did not realize that most of the Chinese customs and traditions are still being practised by the Malaysian Chinese in Malaysia!” says Lui. They both felt that it would have been great if they could’ve showcased a saree during the mini-fashion show that they did too. Later, the Mayor of Haiyang, Miss Xinzi Chen commended the duo on their “courageous” performance up on stage.
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| With the Mayor of Haiyang, Ms Xinzi Chen |
The duo expresses hope for the wedding industry in Malaysia as well as Tourism Malaysia to continue supporting the Association of Wedding Professionals and help grow the wedding industry together. On the wedding side of things, they believe that Malaysia is a great country for destination weddings. “We hope that with the support of Tourism Malaysia, we will be able to host the summit in 2013 and showcase Malaysia positively to the world,” says Hsu.
The 15th Asian Bridal Summit will be hosted by Myanmar, who went to China with the intention of bidding for the hosting privileges. The President of the Federation of Asia Pacific Bridal Association, Ms Yumi Katsura, the renowed Asian queen of wedding fashion designs handed over the Federation’s flag to the Myanmar delegation during the closing ceremony.
Malaysia last hosted the summit in 2001 (7th Asian Bridal Summit). Last year, it was held in Seoul, Korea and garnered a lot of international media’s attention.
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| Media Interviews with both local and foreign media |
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| With the Japanese delegation's traditional instrument musicians |
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