Monday night,a group of hosts (Rebecka Belldegrun, Barbara Guggenheim, Rency Pittman, Nadine Rosen, Suzanne Todd, and Rita Wilson) welcomed industry heavy-hitters, local literati, and friends of producers Wendi Deng Murdoch and Florence Sloan for an intimate, special screening of Fox Searchlight Pictures' "Snow Flower and the Secret Fan" -- a film inspired by the bestselling novel.
Following the screening, director Wayne Wang, "Snow Flower and the Secret Fan" author Lisa See, and actress Li Bing Bing joined Huffington Post Senior Editor Willow Bay on stage for a lively and multi-lingual conversation. "My Mandarin is a little rusty," Bay joked after Li Bing Bing answered a question in her native language, Wayne Wang jumped in with a brief translation.
"Snow Flower and the Secret Fan" is a multigenerational story of powerful female friendship. Taking place in both 1829 and contemporary Shanghai, the juxtaposed friendships explore the traditions of foot-binding, Laotong relationships and Nü Shu, the secret language of women. "I believed this relationship," Li Bing Bing told Bay, Laotong is like "the fourth dimension of love."
Arianna Huffington was "deeply moved" by the film's story, Annie Leibovitz photographed the female leads for Vogue, and our readers shared Laotong themed tweets with HuffPost Women. Since the film premiered in Shanghai last month, both #Laotong and #NuShu have become trending topics on China's social media sites, and #snowflower has begun to infuse Twitter. "Snow Flower and the Secret Fan" opens in North American on July 15, 2011.
Please browse our slideshow of attendee highlights:
