Fashion queen never says die

Film producers hunting great storylines need look no further than the life of Sung-Joo Kim.

One of the most celebrated businesswomen in the world, Kim was born into the richest family in South Korea but was deprived of her inheritance for refusing an arranged marriage. She later created her own independent fashion kingdom, then lost a fortune in the late-1990s Asian financial crisis. This "iron lady" rebuilt her empire, then declared that her only daughter would never be considered as her possible successor.

Kim recently visited Beijing and passed on her ideas about business and feminism to Chinese women.