Elizabeth Tai | 戴秀铃 🇲🇾

Honestly, I long for the days of rugged, manly, battle-hardened generals.

Give me the Zhou Yiwei's and the Zu Yawens! Give me the men with broken noses, tanned skin and imperfect asymmetrical faces.

Enough with the delicate, pale-skinned generals.

Because that's not realistic. But say this out loud in #Cdrama fan circles and you might just be crucified 😆

You may think this shift happened because Chinese tastes shifted, but not really. Not all Chinese think this way as you can see!

I believe the preference for androgynous, delicate looking men rose with the popularity of bishonen in Japanese manga, but that's my theory.

source: http://xhslink.com/o/2oSq7IMp8gh

#Xiaohongshu #Cdramas #Tv #Entertainment #China

Dec 8 at 5:31amWeb
Show threadDavid McMullinDec 8
@liztai
This aesthetic preference has puzzled me since I started watching Chinese and (even more so) Korean shows. This isn’t a complaint —I don’t presume to tell Chinese and Korean audiences what they should find attractive. But the contrast with American standards is striking. To me, the leading women in these shows look like beautiful women, and the leading men… also look like beautiful women. Which I guess must be what the fans want.
Show threadDavid McMullinDec 8
@liztai
To have that delicate androgynous look, the men also have to look very young, which often contradicts the role they’re playing. I keep seeing shows where the glamorous sexy rich guy all the women want is a CEO or a general or something, and he looks like he’s 16. It strains my ability to suspend disbelief.
Show threadElizabeth Tai | 戴秀铃 🇲🇾Dec 8

@mcmullin this video is actually a good explanation about the differences between east Asia's idea of masculinity and the west: https://youtu.be/_JTzR_7jk_Q?si=4_v15H9l77r68gqr

East Asians have always liked the scholarly, slim type (who is also a warrior).

The problem is, in the last decade, this has gotten extreme, pushing out other types of male handsomeness. And male ideals are becoming more and more effeminate. Seeing this, tv producers are casting these type of men as leads, ignoring the more brawny warrior types.

For me, my idea of male masculinity is a both scholarly and manly. I do love my warriors be convincingly brawny. Which is why I prefer actors like Liu Xueyi and Zhao Yiwen as they embody the perfect balance.

I tend to not like, as much, actors that have considerable appeal now - Cheng Yi, for eg. As much as I admire his acting skills, sometimes I think he overdoes the sickly, pale, frail male trope too much 😅

#Cdrama

Show threadElizabeth Tai | 戴秀铃 🇲🇾Dec 8
@mcmullin ps I think one point missing from the video is that in the past there was just more representarion of the different types of masculinity onscreen and while the wen Wu is idealised now, it isn't always the only type of masculinity onscreen.
Show threadDavid McMullinDec 9
@liztai
I didn’t have time to watch the whole video, but the way it starts is clear and compelling. I’m familiar with the wen/wu dichotomy. What’s interesting to me here is that that is about culturally prized virtues. (My culture could certainly gain by learning more respect for wen. Balance is good.)
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Show threadDavid McMullinDec 9
@liztai
But I was only talking about how these actors look, not about moral virtues. Toughness, strength and brawn are clearly advantageous for a warrior, and it makes sense these would affect how he looks. But their opposites are not necessarily advantages for a scholar—intellectual excellence requires no particular body type. So why is it that the delicate, androgynous look is assumed to epitomize wen?
Show threadElizabeth Tai | 戴秀铃 🇲🇾Dec 9
@mcmullin lol no idea, I wish I knew. But this beauty standard has been around forever for us, though not in such an exaggerated form as today.
Show threadFanua 🌐Dec 8
@mcmullin @liztai One of the problems is that most of the male and female characters in the original source material are supposed to be teenagers. Some generals are teen age. #cDrama
Show threadDavid McMullinDec 8
@Fanua @liztai
It works in the ancient or period-setting palace dramas, because the emperor or crown prince really could be very young and very powerful. But in the modern stories it’s harder to accept. I doubt that many billion-dollar businesses in East Asia are really run by 26-year-olds who look 14. But in the Cdramas and Kdramas I’ve seen, that’s the norm.
Show threadFanua 🌐Dec 8
@liztai This will be the reason why I will stop watching newer #cDrama, scrawny idols with limited "acting" skills. Add to that, the overused white powdered face.
Show threadElizabeth Tai | 戴秀铃 🇲🇾Dec 9
@Fanua can't blame you lol. But there are still some good ones like Strange Tales of Tang Dynasty, Legend of the Magnate. I avoid the majority of them now tho lol
Show threadFanua 🌐Dec 9
@liztai Those two are okay, currently watching both, familiar with all the MLs.
Show threadElizabeth Tai | 戴秀铃 🇲🇾Dec 9
@Fanua I think these days I can only manage those. Unless the story is super good. I couldn't do Whispers of Fate because they REALLY made the actors look too delicate. The actor tends to revel/lean in to that cos I believe he knows his fans like it. Unfortunately, I just couldn't do it lol
Show threadKozlikaDec 9
@Fanua @liztai and filters! filters everywhere!
Show threadDavid McMullinDec 9
@Fanua @liztai
Ha, yes the super-white powdered faces. That doesn’t necessarily bother me but it does stand out. What does bother me: if you’re going to make the actor’s face look unnaturally pale, do it to their neck too! Some of these people end up looking like white popsicles on a wooden stick.