Originally Posted by Grace
Probably in the concentrated cities.
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『http://www.mkforum.net/forum/picture...&pictureid=203
Figure Skating Queen Michelle Kwan
The legendary figure skater, Michelle Kwan, is our figure queen, Kim YuNa’s role model. Having returned to Korea for the second time since her first visit here last year, she allowed Woman Joins Magazine to have an exclusive photo op interview with her. The day she stood in front of camera with her skates off and dresses on…
Writing the history of figure skating…
Michelle Kwan’s first visit to Korea was in last August. The purpose of her first visit was to showcase an ice show with Kim YuNa. The woman who put on her skates and stood in front of an audience for the first time in 3 years when she was invited to an ice show called ‘2009 Ice All-Stars,’ has returned to Korea this time serving her duty as public diplomacy envoy for the U.S. government. While staying in Korea for a full week, she managed to successfully handle her busy schedule that consisted of her giving a skating lesson to Korea’s Special Olympics figure skaters, giving speeches at EHwah Foreign Language H.S. and HanChae College among fulfilling many of her other duties while trying to take in the full experience of the Korean culture as much as she could all at the same time. Chinese-American born figure skater, Michelle Kwan owns the most decorative record of wins that grace the most important page of the world’s figure skating history books. After having set an unprecedented record of 5 World Championship titles and 9 National victories, she retired (albeit not officially) from eligible skating at a rather late age to stop competing for a figure skater at 29. Since then, she has been the most often mentioned subject of admiration by skaters like Kim YuNa, Asada Mao, and such as they referred to her as their role model. She continues to enrich her life by working part-time as a TV commentator/reporter while studying International Relations full-time.
http://www.mkforum.net/forum/picture...&pictureid=200
Michelle Kwan the Woman, a thirty year old (She’s actually 31 in Lunar years) who loves pretty clothing…
There were tens of outfits ready to be worn in studio for her the day of the photo shoot. Michelle Kwan was all joyful like a kid in a candy store as she was picking out the gorgeous dresses that best expressed the concept of “Queen,” which was the main theme for her photo spread. Expecting the legendary figure skating queen to be reserved and hard to approach, the staff members smiled widely looking at each other when they surprisingly found Michelle to be extremely personable. She let them realize that she is not much different from an ordinary woman who just turned thirty (Remember the Lunar calculation, MKFers.) even though she is a world-class athlete people can’t often encounter.
“A figure skater performing on ice may look glamorous, but life off ice is not glamorous at all. My life now appears more easygoing compared to the very strict life I used to live as an active athlete. I enjoy chatting with friends, going to the movies, and buying pretty clothes, but I tend to still strictly control what I eat and stay fit out of habit. I go on a diet even though there’s no one who tells me to do that. I always sleep eight hours every day and because I hate falling into the trap of being satisfied with what I already have, I often challenge myself to take on new tasks and these days, I find studying most [challengingly] enjoyable (She laughs).
Michelle Kwan’s journey to success, How she rose to the occasion…
It was the year she turned five. She took on skating after watching her brother play hockey. She instantly fell in love with the sport because she enjoyed the feeling of flight and speed skating gave her. Skating had evolved from Michelle Kwan’s hobby to her ultimate goal after she watched the 1988 Calgary Winter Olympic Games. She had then witnessed how figure skaters could move so beautifully on ice. Watching the epic rivalry between Brian Boitano and now Kim YuNa’s coach, Brian Orser, of which is famously known as ‘The battle of the Brians,’ had ignited in the seven year old Michelle Kwan, the passion to skate. After that, skating had turned into not only her daily routine, but also everything in her life. From then on, she worked hard to reach her dreams.
“I was an extremely hard worker. No matter what, I tried my hardest to have my 6-hour training regimen every day. I even set aside a naptime during each day in an effort to be in the best condition possible. Because of these small steps I took, I believe that I was able to achieve bigger things later on, but the fact that I loved skating so much was the most important reason behind my successful career. If I had just chased after my goal without enjoying what I was doing, I’m sure my story would’ve turned out very different.”
What she means is that had she competed fiercely only for the sake of winning the first place finish, she would not have been able to stay eligible as long as she did into her mid 20s when the average age figure skaters retire is 20. She said the pressure to stay on top was much bigger than the pressure to reach the top. She also mentioned that she sometimes feared the camera lens that magnified each mistake she made on ice, but every time she felt enormous pressure, she tried her hardest to control her mind to shake off her nervousness as best as she could to not implode.
“You must not let people’s high expectations to rule your psyche. The battle with yourself is greater than the battle with your rival. You must free yourself from the pressure of people expecting you to be perfect in order for you to be able to perform your best. You don’t need to be afraid of making mistakes. When I would end up in 2nd and 3rd placements after making mistakes, I thought to myself, I will reduce them from this moment on and keep getting better to get back on top.”
http://www.mkforum.net/forum/picture...&pictureid=201
Figure skater, Kim YuNa’s Role Model…
Although, Michelle Kwan is a skater who had gained worldwide recognition [especially] starting 1998, she is more familiar to Koreans as ‘Michelle Kwan the Idol of Kim YuNa’ because up until a few years before, they had relatively no knowledge on figure skating ‘cause short track speed skating was more popular to them. Not long ago, Kim YuNa professed that she started idolizing Michelle Kwan ever since the first time she watched her on TV when she was in her second grade.
“I had already heard about how passionate Korean fans are, but once I witnessed their passionate cheers with my very own eyes, they exceeded my expectation. Last August in ice show, I thought the audiences’ outpouring cheers were so powerful that I was afraid the stadium might collapse (Laughs). When I went into a pharmacy located in NahmDaeMoon on this visit, the pharmacist there recognized and asked me whether I was YuNa’s idol or not. I think that Kim YuNa’s strengths lie on her technical ability and beautiful balance of having both technical skills and artistry. She’s not only technically perfect, but she also has an elegant charisma that enables her to take command of the ice/stage (I can just hear the disagreement erupting against this comment of Michelle’s, LoL). I want to tell her to overcome the pressure of competing in her first Olympic Games in Vancouver and I also want to tell her to enjoy the nervousness she gets on stage. When she does all these things, I’m sure the result will come out in her favor.
http://www.mkforum.net/forum/picture...&pictureid=202
Hard working bookworm dreams of becoming a Diplomat…
Even though, she works as a TV commentator/reporter from time to time, her main occupation for now is being a full time student. She studied Public Relations as her major before she graduated from her undergraduate school. Leading up to her (unofficial) retirement, she was on a crossroad of having to decide whether to get back on the competitive skating trail or to continue her education in a graduate school. However, as she became more aware that her body condition is dramatically different after a day of practice from the heyday of her skating career, she had decided that it was time to pursue other areas in her life. She’s currently enrolled at Boston’s Tufts Graduate School to get her Master’s degree on Public Relations. She studies foreign policy, domestic policy, and East Asian policies and she also makes time to visit different countries as the U.S. Public Diplomacy Envoy to exchange ideas with next generation of future leaders at a relatively youthful age of thirty (IMO, particularly Koreans and the Japanese tend to be more obsessed with people’s age than the Americans do, which is why her age is mentioned at least FIVE times in one article, lol).
“I had the privilege of representing the United States of America even as an athlete, but the major difference between now and then is that I now work to share positive energy and influence with other people whereas before the main focus was all about me as a skater. I would like to succeed both as a public diplomacy envoy and as a TV commentator, but continuing with my education is more important to me because I hope to work either in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs or in other field of politics in the future. I couldn’t possibly ask for something better if I inspire people to do positive things in the way that is different from when I was skating.”
A woman who can communicate her thoughts in an articulate manner with lively facial expressions and hand gestures was acting as the life of the party in studio volunteering to serve the staff members who were hired to serve her instead by putting big smiles on their faces with her outgoing personality. Prior to this photo engagement, the make-up artists and stylists were worried whether Michelle Kwan would speak out against the styles they had designed for her fashion layout because they had heard that she does not like letting other people put make-up on her, which therefore, she managed to do by herself like a professional all throughout the years she was competing on ice. But once Michelle had set foot in the studio, without any hesitation, she put her trust upon the fashion stylists to carry out their expertise on her and she looked like she was enjoying every minute of the experience ‘cause she would exclaim, “I love it” all throughout her photo shoot while being dressed in those lovely attires. Unlike some widely popular public figures whose egos tend to make them self-obsessed with every nerve and fiber of their beings, being the true ‘professional’ Michelle Kwan is, she showed us that she understood the importance of teamwork to people’s goal of getting great results by never failing to display her sense of humor and by not missing an opportunity to reach out to people surrounding her.
Director/ Gahng Min-Kyung
Photography/ Oh Jin-Min (studio II)
Stylist/ Seon Hee-Jung
Make-Up Artist/ Hahn Su-Hwa』
Contact info/ Kim Min-Ho (the leader of magazine staff)
Phone Number: 02-2000-6192
E-mail Address: ahmino@joongang.co.kr
https://mnb.joins.com/register_mnb/contactUs.asp
*Pardon my imperfect translations, as I am more fluent in Korean than I am in English. English is such a difficult language to master that sometimes even an English teacher has trouble explaining certain grammatical structures. Go figure.*
A Korean Bookstore site that might just help those of you who are interested in owning the MK issue:
Link to magazines
Link to contact information
Some Korean Bookstore addresses and phone numbers located in the east coast area:
Koryo Book Store
35 W 32nd St
(between 5th Ave & Broadway)
New York, NY 10001
(212) 564-1844
Koryo Book Store
2025 Lemoine Ave,
Fort Lee, NJ 07024
(201) 944-8740
Korean fashion magazines are 2 to 3 times thicker than a U.S. fashion magazine and their prices range from $12 to $25 IIRC. They are very expensive, so be aware!
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