New York party of the year kowtows to China

New York

CHINA'S march towards global ascendancy has taken another leap forward - at least when it comes to New York high society and its most glittering fashion extravaganza, the MET Ball.

The city's party of the year, attended by A-list film stars, singers and models, the richest moguls and most feted fashion designers, has chosen China as the theme for its 2015 bash at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on Monday. For Chinese actress Li Bingbing - "so excited" to be going for the first time - it shows that Western attitudes towards her country, for so long a communist bogeyman to the United States, are beginning to change. "Nowadays China is the hot topic," she told AFP in an interview at her luxury hotel before embarking on three hours of preparation with an army of assistants she acknowledges is needed to grace the red carpet.