Asian actresses with a cause

NALAKA GUNAWARDENE and VINDANA ARIYAWANSA

Long gone are the days when actresses were expected to be simply a pretty face and a good voice. Today’s world of entertainment demands actors and actresses to be versatile, smart and aspire to high standards both on screen and off screen.

A growing number of actors champion public interest and social causes ranging from refugee rights and HIV to environmental conservation and healthy lifestyles.

Today, we start off with questions on three outstanding Asian actresses who have blazed new trails on screen and off screen, and then move on to other questions. See how well you know the social and charitable causes promoted by them!

1. She is a Hong Kong-based Malaysian actress and dancer, and is well known for performing her own stunts in the action films that brought her to fame in the early 1990s.

She is best known in the western world for starring in the 1997 James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies, and for appearing in the Chinese action film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, for which she was nominated for a BAFTA (UK) award as Best Actress. She has also appeared in Memoirs of a Geisha, Sunshine, Mummy 3 and Babylon AD.

In 2009, she became Global Ambassador for the Make Roads Safe campaign, where she advocates for road injury to be recognised as a global public health and development priority. Who is she?

2. She is an accomplished Indian actress of film, television and theatre who made her film debut in 1974 and soon became one of the leading actresses of parallel cinema, an Indian New Wave movement known for its serious content and neo-realism.

Regarded as one of the finest actresses in India, her performances in films in a variety of genres have generally earned her praise and awards, which include a record of five wins of the National Film Award for Best Actress and several international honours.

She has been vocal and active on a number of social causes, particularly on communal harmony, HIV/AIDS and child survival issues. In 1998, the United Nations Population Fund appointed her as its Goodwill Ambassador for India. Who is she?

3. She is one of China’s most popular actresses, well known for her achievements both on and off the screen. A graduate of the Shanghai Drama Institute, Li Bingbing made her film debut in 1999 with the movie, Seventeen Years. In 2005, she starred in the romantic comedy film Waiting Alone, which received three Chinese Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture and Best Actress.

She worked with Timberland Corporation to unveil the “Green Great Wall” which aims to plant at least two million trees in Northern China over a ten year period. She is also a Goodwill Ambassador of the Climate Group’s Million Forest Campaign in the Asia-Pacific region. Who is she?

4. Name the German botanist and physician who is believed to have carried out the first scientific study of Sri Lanka’s plants, in the 17th Century. He was based in Ceylon from 1672 to 1679, working for a Dutch company. The plant collection made by him was later studied by the Swedish botanist Carl von Linne (or Carolus Linneaus as he became known) and reported in Flora Zeylanica in 1747.

5. Neil Armstrong became the first human being to set foot on the Moon on 20 July 1969, having traveled on Apollo 11 with Edwin ‘Buzz’ Aldrin, who became the second man to land on the Moon. Who was the third astronaut member of Apollo 11 mission, who never actually landed on the Moon but remained in the lunar orbiting module and made sure everything worked according to plan?

6. SALT is a technique, originally developed in the Philippines, for preventing soil erosion and increasing soil fertility in hill country farming. It involves the terracing of land, use of leaf mulch, and planting perennial trees into rain-fed farming. In Sri Lanka, the late Dr Ray Wijewardene introduced the concept successfully in tobacco and tea cultivations in the late 1980s. What do the letters SALT expand as in this context?

7. Born in former East Germany, she was trained as a physicist: she obtained a doctorate in quantum chemistry and worked as a researcher before getting into politics. After being elected to the German Parliament Bundestag in 1990, she rose steadily holding cabinet posts and became chairwoman of the Christian Democratic Union in 2000, and the first female Chancellor of Germany in 2005. From 2006 to 2009, Forbes Magazine has named her the most powerful woman in the world. What is her name?

8. Greenland covers an area of 2,166,086 square kilometres, which makes it the world’s largest island that is not a continent. With a population of 56,452 in January 2010, it is also one of the least densely populated land masses in the world. In which European country is Greenland an autonomous part?

9. The Red List of Threatened Species is today recognized as the most comprehensive, objective global approach for evaluating the conservation status of plant and animal species. From its small beginning in 1963, the Red List has grown in size and complexity and now plays a prominent role in guiding conservation activities of governments, NGOs and scientific institutions. Which international conservation alliance is responsible for maintaining and updating the Red List, also known as Red Data List?

10. The largest land mammal, the elephant, is some 357,000 times larger than the smallest land mammal. What is the world’s smallest known mammal by body mass, weighing only about 1.8 grams on average?

11. Family as a microcosm of the world has been a recurrent theme in the work of Lester James Pieris. The World of Pieris is a documentary film (29 mins) made in 2001 that explores Lester’s work with reference to this central theme, and about his involvement with India and his life-long friendship with Satyajit Ray. Name the Indian film maker who was producer, director and script writer of this documentary.

12. A little over 400 million people speak Spanish, which makes it the second most natively spoken language in the world, after Mandarin Chinese. Spanish is one of the six official languages of the United Nations, and used as an official language of the European Union. Which country in the world has the largest Spanish speaking population?

13. It was located at the junction of Freidrichstrasse and Zimmerstrasse, and was the best-known Berlin Wall crossing point between East Berlin and West Berlin during the Cold War. After the Cold War ended Germany reunified, the building at this famous junction became a tourist attraction and is now located in the Allied Museum in the Dahlem neighborhood of Berlin. What was this junction called by the Western allies during the Cold War?

14. This Chinese tennis player became the first Asian in the history to win a Grand Slam singles title when she beat defending champion Francesca Schiavone in straight sets in French Open this month. She was also a finalist at the 2011 Australian Open, becoming the first Chinese and Asian player to make a major singles final. Who is she?

15. Five countries — Greece, Britain, France, Switzerland and Australia (twice combined with New Zealand as Australasia) — have been represented at all Summer Olympic Games since 1896. But there is only country among them to have won at least one gold medal at every Summer Olympic Games. Which country?

Answers will be published next week