BeautifulMag Cover Story | The Meeting of the Twain

BRITISH AUTHOR AND POET RUDYARD KIPLING, FAMOUS FOR HIS JUNGLE BOOK, ONCE SAID THAT , "EAST IS EAST, AND WEST IS WEST, AND NEVER THE TWAIN SHALL MEET." BORN IN BOMBAY HIMSELF, YOU MIGHT SAY RUDYARD KNEW WHAT HE WAS TALKING ABOUT WHEN HE COMPOSED HIS BALLAD OF EAST AND WEST IN 1889. HOWEVER, HEARING THIS FAMOUS QUOTE BEING USED BY MANY IN OUR TIMES, IT HAS BEEN GIVEN A VERY DIFFERENT MEANING THAN WHAT YOU WOULD FIRST EXPECT.

Jason Wang was born and raised in Taiwan and moved to San Diego, CA, only 7 years ago. If there is really such a thing as the American Dream, Jason is living proof that it can happen. His educational degree is definitely one of his achievements. Jason recently got his PhD in molecular biology. Pretty impressive, no? You can imagine this field of expertise comes with crazy work schedules in research labs on daily base. Still Jason finds time for another passion of his: modeling. And by doing so he has had the opportunity to work with many renowned photographers, Ethan James being one of them.

Having been impressed by Ethan James’ work, Jason Wang tried to work with him about 3 years ago already. A venture that never happened simply because Jason missed his flight to Tennessee where Ethan lives and works. But a few weeks ago it did happen, and the meeting was quite monumental. Because not only was it a meeting between a photographer and a model who wanted to work with him for quite some time, both men also recently got their PhD. Meaning we are talking about a creative interaction between two doctors. Now when does that ever happen?

Unfortunately we are still living in a time where the image of beauty is mostly indicated by a stereotype. The result is that we don’t have much opportunity to see beautiful Asian men. And that is a shame. The good thing is that there are photographers, such as Ethan James, who can look further than the stereotype and work with male beauty in its most complete form. And so it came to happen, that Ethan and Jason not only met as photographer and model and two doctors, but also as a African-American man in Tennessee and an Asian man from Taiwan. "Working with Ethan has been a really great experience. He is absolutely talented and very professional. You may anticipate that models can feel pressures when they are working with a great photographer like Ethan. According to my personal experience, it's totally opposite. Ethan is very easy to work with. Besides knowing how to put models under a right light, he also knows how to make his model feel like themselves in order to pull off great images effortlessly. I am definitely looking forward to working with Ethan again in the near future."

When Rudyard Kipling wrote his first sentence in his Ballad of East and West, he wasn’t talking about the human incapability to overstep differences. He merely stated that it is indisputable that geographic points of a compass will never meet, but that when two strong men meet, the accidents of birth, whether of nationality, race, or family, do not matter at all – all men are equal and just as beautiful. –B-

ETHAN JAMES | BEAUTIFULMAG
JASON WANG | BEAUTIFULMG

Comments

[Steve Chang]

Wow. It's indeed hard to see Asian models to be features in this industry. Congratulation to the beautiful work from Jason and Ethan. It's well worthy of the cover.

[Sean Dibble]

Always a huge fan of Ethan's work and I'm happy to see an beautiful Asian male represented. Great job Beautiful Mag, Ethan and Jason!!

[Jason Wang]

Million thanks to the wonderful work by BeautifulMag and Ethan. Also, thank you to everyone who kindly appreciates our work. It's an honor to be featured here.

Cheers,

Jason
http://www.modelmayhem.com/jasonycwang

[thegayte-keeper]

BEAUTIFUL!

[Barry]

Jason is an incredible looking model.