Actresses Personify the Ancient Chinese Beauty Look to Varying Degrees of Visual Success

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• Liu Yi Fei is still the one-top period beauty imo, she's the only one who made me go 'Wow so beautiful...' immediately when I saw them for the first time in period costumes.

• Well, after looking at these ladies twice, I still have no clue as to who does and does not personify ancient Chinese beauty. A little help would be much appreciated as well as "reasons" why this or that person makes the list or not.

  • Haha I feel u

  • Exactly what I was thinking. I think most look beautiful.

  • The chinese standard seems to be as beautiful as a painting. But everything still comes down to personal preferences.

    I find Ariel Lin, Tang Yan, Michelle Chen, Ivy Chen and a few others too modern looking to be classified an ancient beauty. But others may find them perfectly adequate.

    Liu Yi Fei would always be my biggest wow factor, as an ancient drama fan I have always found actress of the 80-90s far superior in ancient garb then their 2000+ counterparts but LYF was one of the few that I was amazed with when she first appeared onscreen back in DGSD.

    Mondernising the ancient costumes did not help and detracts from the beauty of the error.

    • Thank you for your input.

  • As an overseas Chinese who's watched the classic period shows growing up and still watching nowadays, I find these ladies beautiful "in the ancient way":
    1. Gao Yuanyuan
    2. Brigitte Lin (google 林青霞 东方不败 where she played a guy)
    3. Liu Yifei (absolutely Xiao Longnv, but just a bit too baby-faced to be the womanly kind of beautiful, unlike the other two)

    Those who're "too modern": Yang Mi, Fan Bingbing.

    And those equally attractive in both: Zhao Wei, Zhao Li Ying (same type of face and what do you know... same surname)

    Separately, an overrated Chinese face = Zhang Ziyi and severely underrated one = Gong Li.

    But obviously everyone mentioned above and in the post are stunning in their own ways.

    • I disagree on Fan Bing Bing cos I found her gorgeous in Princess and Three Musketeers and some of her other ancient stuff.

      Agree on Gong Li, wished she did more ancient stuff back in her heydays. Her costume in Demi Gods Semi Devils movie was devine.

  • The first standard for an ancient Chinese beauty that comes to mind is the "瓜子脸" or "melon seed-shaped face". The face should be long with a pointed or sharp jaw. Whenever someone mentions "瓜子脸", I always picture Janine Chang (张钧甯), who isn't listed here.

    I actually went on Baidu and looked up a list of the standards for an ancient Chinese beauty.
    (http://www.360doc.com/content/11/0613/14/5950107_126632557.shtml)
    Here's my translation:
    1. Smooth and light skin without any blemishes
    2. Bright and charming eyes that can speak
    3. Shiny and smooth thick black hair
    4. Thin and curved eyebrows, "like the leaves of a willow tree"
    5. Seed-shaped face with (peach) pink cheeks
    6. Small red lips with white teeth
    7. Small and tight waist
    8. Thin and long fingers
    9. Small, round feet
    10. Delicate and fragrant body with light skin overall

    • Love your research... Sounds pretty except the feet. I really dont see the attraction in bound feet thus I never understand why women needs mini feet to be considered a beauty.

• Wouldn't this be the modern idea of classic beauty? These women would be too thin in ancient times and the standards of what is pretty and not has changed in the last few millennia.

  • There is a Chinese proverb call "Huan Fei Yan Shou", which means beauty comes in all shapes and sizes. Tong Li Ya once played Zhao Fei Yan of the Han dynasty, who is the Yan in the proverb, and she was known for being very graceful while dancing on the drums because she was so thin.

• Personally I'm picking Liu Shi Shi. If you look through her period dramas she fits in so well with almost all of those looks. She looks feminine and she looks like ancient goddes in most of them. When she dresses in those "outfits" she gives me that ancient "aura" - flowy and classic beauty. I also remember watching some entertainment videos and they also said that about LSS. I agree with them on that.

• Is that Zheng Shuang before or after her PS?

  • That is after ps

  • LOL, that crossed my mind too...

• Looking at Ma Xiao Tong, I exclaimed Park Min Young O.o, they look similar to me.

• The ones whom I felt looked exceptional back then when I was watching them are Liu Yifei and Tong Liya. I think I didn't like GYY that much since she played an antagonist, but looking back I think she was really beautiful then too.

• I find Zhao Li Ying to be beautiful!

• Zhao Li Ying was fantastic in Legend of Lu Zhen.

  Liu Yi Fei is an unaging goddess.

• Honestly Crystal Liu is still undefeatable even more so now than before in terms of ancient goddess look. She just has that etheral goddess aura that other actresses cannot compare too. Fan Bing Bing is obviously a beauty as well but her looks are really more sultry - not the type that I prefer.