Celebrated by People Magazine as “the most famous woman in China” and hailed by Time as “the Queen of the Middle Kingdom,” Yue-Sai Kan has spent her career building cultural bridges between East and West through media, beauty, fashion, and philanthropy.
In 1972, Kan created and hosted Looking East, the first weekly television series to introduce Asian cultures and traditions to mainstream American audiences. The groundbreaking program received critical acclaim and earned dozens of awards. In 1984, PBS invited her to host the first live television broadcast from China commemorating the 35th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China. Two years later, Kan produced and hosted One World on China Central Television, reaching a weekly audience of 300 million viewers. At the height of her broadcasting career, with programs airing simultaneously in both China and the United States, she was regarded as the most-watched woman in the world. Her distinguished television career also includes the Emmy Award-winning ABC documentary China: Walls and Bridges, the nationally syndicated Journey Through a Changing China, and later productions such as Yue-Sai’s World and Yue-Sai’s World Expo.
In 1992, Kan founded the Yue Sai Cosmetics brand, which grew into one of China’s leading cosmetics companies, with products distributed through more than 800 retail outlets across the country. With brand recognition exceeding 90% among the Chinese population, the company was acquired by L’Oréal in 2004.
Kan has served on the boards of numerous prominent charitable and cultural organisations in both China and the United States, including the China Institute, the Soong Ching Ling Foundation Shanghai, Citymeals on Wheels, the Ellis Island Honors Society, and Prince Albert II of Monaco’s Philanthropy Roundtable. For many years, she chaired the Miss Universe China Final Pageant, transforming it into one of Shanghai’s premier charity galas and raising millions of dollars annually to support orphanages, cleft palate surgeries, and scholarships for students attending China’s leading music, television, and film academies.
As Chairwoman of China Institute, Kan continues to champion cross-cultural education and exchange. She has supported scholarships at the Fashion Institute of Technology and developed sustainable fashion education initiatives for professionals in China’s fashion industry through the Yue-Sai Kan One World Foundation. Rebranded in 2022, the Foundation now focuses on promoting understanding of the histories, traditions, and cultures of Asian countries through film, television, radio, media, and publishing. Kan is also a member of the Committee of 100 and was ordained a Dame of Malta in 2022.
