The half-Taiwanese, half-Japanese film actor Takeshi Kaneshiro once off ered an anecdote regarding his name, ‘I feel weird sometimes … When people call me Mr. Kam, I’m like, who is Mr. Kam? Or they call me Mr. Kim, and I have to remind them that I’m not Korean’ (Drake 2003). The varying readings of Kaneshiro's name in disparate regions in Asia reflect his pan-Asian appeal: it is pronounced Kam Shing Mo in Cantonese, Jin Chengwu in Mandarin (writt en as金城武in Chinese) and Kim Sung Woo in Korean.While it was the success of Wong Kar-wai's Chungking Express (1994) that first introduced him to Japanese and international audiences, it is the Japanese form of his name, Takeshi Kaneshiro, which has been most widely circulated. Although the name evokes Japaneseness, it could be considered as a ‘misnomer’ in that he does not seem as culturally att ached to Japan as is often assumed. His face may also easily confuse the public about his ethnic origins, with its seeming mixture of both Eastern and Western facial features (Wang 2001: 92). His star image is notable for a screen cosmopolitanism bridging cultures and regions. He presents himself as a fashion icon, characterised by a rich sense of modernity. As a frequent subject of advertisements and magazine covers, he is often depicted as an introvert yet charismatic urbanite. He has been the target of celebrity endorsement of some huge brands in Europe and Asia, such as Emporio Armani, Prada, CITIZEN, Toyota, Pocari Sweat, Sony, JAA, and, BioTherm, traversing diverse categories of products such as fashion, automobiles, food, telecommunications, airlines, and skincare (Figure 5.1). This cosmopolitan appeal entails a reticent and unobtrusive public persona that leaves space for the audience's imagination. As such, it also suggests a certain degree of universality, enabling his cinematic image to become transnational currency. As a bi-ethnic star, Kaneshiro, therefore, evokes cultural and symbolic associations that inform and complicate the meanings att ributed to transnational stars of Chinese or semi-Chinese heredity.