Lee Young Ae - South Korea Beautiful Jewel

Lee Young-Ae (born January 31, 1971) is a Korean actresses for their Japanese counterparts.

I admit I know very little about these Koreans until Jewel In The Palace was shown on TV in Malaysia. Before this TV series, there have been a series of Korean TV serials that took Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, Singapore, Indonesia and Philippines by storm.

Thank god for the subtitles, otherwise none of us could relate to the Korean TV shows and movies.

Practically, the only person I can associate right now with Korean shows is Lee Young Ae. She's that very sweet actress who landed the coveted role in Jewel In The Palace and brought more publicity to South Korea than the entire South Korean Tourism Authority and Tourism Ministry combined.

For a while back there, Lee was nicknamed the Asian Sweetheart. It's true, she's really quite pretty. Hong Kong has fallen head over heels in love with her when her TV series overtook all its local productions in the popularity ratings.

I recall seeing her being interviewed on Hong Kong television. She was very careful in how she conducted herself as she knew she represented her entire nation.

In the interview, she projected herself as being intelligent, demure and soft-spoken. Qualities that every Asian mother would want in a daughter and every Asian man would want in a wife.

The direct translation of Jewel In The Palace which stamped her mark permanently in the television hall of ame is Dae Jang Geum.

It was reported that when the concluding episode of this series was shown in Hong Kong, about half of Hong Kong's population stayed home to watch it.

Lee was born on January 31, 1971 in Seoul. She's of normal height for an Asian woman - 1.65m. Before anyone can jump to the conclusion that she's "just an ordinary actress of no great significance", let it be known that she has a Bachelor's degree from the Hanyang University in German language and literature.

So we can safely assume that Lee speaks German quite fluently. If that is not enough, Lee also has a Masters degree from Chung-an University. She majored in theatre and film. She also speaks English quite well.

The Korean actress has two other siblings. Both of them brothers. For the benefit of her hardcore fans, Lee Young Ae loves horse-riding, swimming, and playing the piano.

And when she has a lot of free time, she also dabbles in a bit of singing. Even though, she hasn't won any singing contest, I reckon in the eyes of her admirers, she's already a Korean Idol of sorts.

Source: www.nst.com.my