The last model walked to the back of the long catwalk, the music climaxed while the lights turned brighter.

Zhang Zhaoda greets the audience with model Jiang Peilin at the end of his catwalk show. [File photo]

With fresh bouquets in their arms, a dozen viewers stood from their seats and waited for the designer to walk out from behind the stage.

Suddenly, there he was bowing his thanks to the standing ovation from the audience, but he quickly ran back before his admirers tried to present him the flowers.

"It's nothing more than a show. I'm happy if you enjoy it, but do not give me so many bouquets," Mark Cheung (Zhang Zhaoda) explained during an interview with China Daily after the catwalk show on the closing day of the 2003 China Fashion Week late last month.

Cheung considers himself a common Cantonese man, too individual and unsociable to fit into the fashion industry.

He is even thinking about returning to his hometown for an open competition of Chinese kung fu. The fashion master studied Shaolin quan or Shaolin boxing with his grandfather for 17 years and is still fascinated with it.

But others see a different side of Mark Cheung.

Many in and around the industry see him as an incurable romantic, a master craftsman, a designer who treats fashion as art and a peerless purveyor of glamour who keeps expanding his own labels as well as reviving several well-known domestic houses such as Firs.

Arguably one of the most influential Chinese fashion designers today, Cheung draws inspiration from history and fantasy. In his themes fashions from long-gone eras are transformed with modern materials and cuts so that the old comes through in the new.

Entitled "Four Seasons in the Forbidden City," Cheung's latest collection shown during the 2003 China Fashion Week was inspired by the elegant royal city.

Borrowing from the ancient construction style and features, he used symmetrization, bias cutting, pleating, carving, lace-trimming, embroidering, fagoting, sequinsing and beading.

And his use of colour is, perhaps, the most impressive aspect of the collection. The shining vermilion palace wall, the white marble balustrade, the dark green columns, the red gates with the golden brass buttons, the dusk of the evening in the royal city and the soft rosy and purple rays in the dark blue, spacious sky... all are highlighted in the dresses on the models.

"The past and present both would show again in the future. I breathe the ancient air to explore tomorrow's fashion," Cheung summed up.

Distinctive style

Aside from the runway show, Cheung was the only designer to put on a still exhibition at the Academy of Arts and Design of Tsinghua University during Fashion Week.

Cheung is only the second designer to put on such a solo exhibition in Beijing. The first was Yves Saint Laurent, who displayed his collection at the China National Art Museum in 1985.

Cheung's exhibition presented 150 dresses from three collections featured in his catwalk shows in 2000, 2001 and 2002 China Fashion Week.

Focusing on traditional Chinese culture and clothing, the three collections "Ethnic Flavour," "Royal Tune" and "Dunhuang Complex" show Cheung's passionate love for his home as well as his unique judgment and accurate forecasts of the world fashion trend.

"Promoting Chinese culture and spirit through design is the duty of contemporary fashion designers. And Mark Cheung rightly carries the mission in practice," said Wang Mingzhi, president of the Academy of Arts and Design of Tsinghua University.

"Compounding Chinese elements into his designs, Cheung does not simply imitate the ancient styles, but blends traditional senses and details such as the material using, cutting and accessories," said Liu Yuanfeng, professor with Beijing Institute of Clothing Technology.

"Ethnic Flavour" shown in December 2000, is Cheung's interpretation of minority garb.

"I wanted to revive the ethnic costumes with modern concepts, cuts and hi-tech materials naturally without looking awkward," he said.

The inspiration came from his visit to an exhibition of ethnic costume during the Yunnan World Exposition in 1999.

"The colourful home-made clothes impressed me. Although the ethnic youngsters are not willing to wear them except in some special occasions or ceremonies, I saw different cultures and customs of different ethnic groups from the clothes," he said.

"Based on world trends, Chinese designers should work on Chinese features."

For "Royal Tune," Cheung tried traditional luxurious materials such as silk, flax, iridescent satin, jacquard, combed popline, habotai, lutestring, brocade, taffeta and velvet to express the glamour of imperial costumes in China's history.

Rich red, purple, golden and black look like a striking oil painting.

"Dunhuang Complex" is the end result of a tour to Northwest China, especially to Mogao Grottoes. Located in Gansu Province, the historical site is full of Buddhist statues, frescoes and scriptures created throughout 1,500 years starting from 366 AD.

From May to June 2002, Cheung travelled through the country's northwest region, from the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region to Gansu and Shaanxi provinces.

"When I stood on the desert in the ancient Hexi Corridor of Gansu in the sharp northwest wind, I felt its lasting desolation and grandeur. When I walked along the Silk Road against the blood-red sunset, I was reminded of its prosperous business. When I faced the absolutely marvelous scriptures in Mogao Grottoes, I imagined the flourishing Han and Tang dynasties. All the historical fragmentary, profound culture and mysterious religions filled my mind," Cheung recalled with great excitement.

"The result is that the catwalk show looks more like a splash-ink painting to show the scenes and colours lingering in mind rather than a fashion collection. If you were impressed by the designs, you were impressed by Dunhuang, which had impressed and inspired me."

Quiet genius

Cheung was born in a small town called Shaxi in South China's Guangdong Province in 1963.

Raised by his grandparents, Cheung started learning painting and kung fu when he was only four years old.

Then at the age of 10 he began learning oil painting with Cantonese artist Huang Xiaochuan.

One day he and a classmate were walking home after class, when a lightning bolt struck them. His classmate was killed at once while Cheung was thrown into a pool nearby and survived.

From very young, he had difficulty speaking.

While many others do not agree, Cheung believes language is often useless.

"It forces people to express individuality through a common way," he said.

"I am quite a silent person. Often, I do not say anything for a week when I close myself alone in the studio to work on a collection. If someone interrupts me, I give them a frosty look," he said.

That attitude has given him the reputation of an eccentric.

Not only does he have trouble expressing himself in words; he was once found wearing two different shoes at a party.

Wei Lin, editor-in-chief of magazine "China Textile," calls Cheung "a fool genius."

Turning point

The young genius was first discovered by a five-member fashion industry group in 1981. The group - the boss of a US fashion house, two French designers and two Hong Kong designers - were taking part in the Guangdong Trade Fair to find Chinese clothes manufacturers to partner with.

Cheung was an apprentice in a local crafts factory then. When the five visited the small factory, his embroidery impressed them.

They asked the then-18-year-old Cheung whether he would like to learn tailoring. He nodded and took the first step on the road to the fashion industry.

Cheung who owes his success half to talent and half to the opportunity, admits he was lucky to meet those five teachers.

Among the five, he mostly admires the Hong Kong designer Mal Canh Tarr.

"He told me that I could not make a living without talent and inspiration. And he taught me how to maintain talent and get inspiration," Cheung said.

For the next three years the five carefully trained him either in Guangdong or in the United States, where he took some professional courses.

As young as 22, Cheung was invited to design ready-to-wear clothing for the label Oleg Cassini in New York.

Two years later, he toured around Europe to give 23 runway shows under the name of "New Silk Road," giving a well-needed boost to China's young fashion industry.

Between 1985 and 1993, he designed for US and French labels including Hero, A.J., BARJ and Layce.

The designer, who also paints, tailors and travels widely around the world, launched his own label "Mark Cheung" in 1991. His first show under that label was in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Ever since, Cheung has established his own image in the fashion world and has become a key name in China's young fashion scene.

"It's difficult for a designer to create his image, and then even more difficult to transmit those feelings and ideas through clothes in a way that people will be able to understand," he said.

"But I am a keen observer of the consumers' favour and I am always confident about my sense of fashion," he said.

However, the way is not always smooth. In 1994, the productive designer felt exhausted.

"I had no fresh ideas and could not design to my own satisfaction for a few years," he said.

It was not until 1999, when he saw that exhibition of ethnic costumes of the Yunnan World Exposition, that he felt reborn.

"I was suddenly enlightened that as a Chinese designer I had not found my roots until that moment," he said. "The culture and history in a designer's blood are the soul of his design while modern techniques, materials and fashion concept are means to fulfill those designs."

Since then, Cheung has continued to shock, inspire and enthrall.

In 1997, he became the first to win the highest prize of China's fashion scene, the Golden Crown Award.

The same year he was appointed head designer for the domestic fashion house Firs and became the head of the women's label Hempel.

Meanwhile, he continued to expand his own business, launching a men's label Fair Whale in 2000, followed by a youthful Fair Whale casual range, a women collection Lazenel and a bath and home collection Sunvim & Mark.

The only regret in his life, he said, is that he found less and less private time and space as he became more and more known.

"I am not an ambitious person, although I hope more and more people like my design and clothes. If possible I would like to free myself from the busy contracted designing work to play golf, enjoy a cup of tieguanyin in a traditional styled tea house or read on the sea shore."

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