"Fashion Made in China" reflects the country's fledgling fashion industry.

The 2006 box office hit "The Devil Wears Prada" and the American TV series "Ugly Betty" were two Western productions that shone the spotlight on the fashion industry. Now, a Chinese theater production "Fashion Made in China," which will run at the Poly Theater from March 12 to 15, is set to sharpen the focus.

In "The Devil Wears Prada," Meryl Streep is the feisty editor-in-chief who dominates the fashion world from her perch atop Runway magazine, while in "Ugly Betty," the main protagonist works as an assistant at Mode, a fashion magazine headquartered in Manhattan. The setting of "Fashion Made in China" is also a leading fashion magazine.

Its editor-in-chief Zhang announces his retirement, appointing his deputy Ren Yan as his successor. However, junior assistant Yang Xiaode is accidentally catapulted to the post. Meanwhile, Linda, returning from Paris, becomes the deputy editor-in-chief.

Yang wants to promote Chinese designers and is keen to do a runway show to showcase local designers. But the snobbish Linda is a slave to Western trends and labels. This clash leads to a series of funny incidents, with a hefty dose of office politics adding much spice to the proceedings.

Directed by Chen Wei, whose credit includes the popular drama "The Fried Dough Twist" (2006) and "The Cuckoo's Nest Flied" (2007), this first play on China's fashion industry has a cast of young actors and actresses and real models.

The 23-year-old Zhang Junning, a graduate of the Shanghai Academy of Drama, plays Yang and shows his talent for singing and dancing.

After graduating from the Academy, Zhang Junning mainly acted in television and movies, rather than in plays. "So I felt somewhat out of place the first few days in the rehearsal room. But director Chen helped put me at ease. Gradually, I began to grow into the role of an ambitious young man who loves fashion and tries to promote local designers to the world," says Zhang.

Yan Qin plays Ren Yan who is no "devil" but a good-hearted fashion editor who supports local designers. Linda, a model in real-life, plays the editor Linda from Paris while model Li Siyu plays a supermodel who has enjoyed fame abroad but she too supports the local designers.

Like the lavish costumes in the film "The Devil Wears Prada," the play also features clothes designed by established Chinese designer Guo Pei and rising young designers Zhou Xiangyu, Zhang Chi and Fan Ran.

The last runway scene showcases the collections of designer Guo who designed the dress Zhang Ziyi wore when she accepted the Olympic flame in Athens last March and the dress Song Zuying wore when she sang with Placido Domingo at the Closing Ceremony of the Beijing Olympics last August.

"The play has given me the opportunity to show some of my recent designs," says the designer.

"I love the title Fashion Made in China. 'Made in China' was once a term used to denote shabby Chinese products. You can find clothes with the label 'Made in China' in every corner in the world. But when can China become a real power in the world fashion industry?

"I hope everyone can do his part to make 'Made in China' a label of high quality and fashion," she says and adds that the young designers working for the play showed much promise.

However, some find the play's portrayal of the fashion world unrealistic, the same view that many fashion journalists held after watching "The Devil Wears Prada."

"It creates a fine fashion fantasy with little to do with reality," says Wen Yuan, an editor with the Chinese edition of "Cosmopolitan." "The play tells stories that reflect what outsiders think the fashion world is like rather than what the industry actually is like."

But one editor at the fashion magazine "Men's Uno," which co-produced the play, says: "We gave the playwright some real stories from our office but not everything shown in the play is real. We just want to tell audiences that the fashion world is not just all about glamour. Like in any industry, there is no gain without pain."

(China Daily February 27, 2009)