Original Article:https://www.weibo.com/ttarticle/p/show?id=2309404476336126165027#_0
Original Author: 织世靳靳子
(TN: This is a fluff piece, written entirely by a fan to praise his good looks. There is also quite a fair bit of Chinese beauty standards in this. Enjoy the pictures!)
(TN: Also, beauty should be beyond gender boundaries.)
What properties should a god-tiered beauty have?
When you think of a god-tiered beauty, who pops into your mind immediately? Is this adulation, or is Xiao Zhan worthy of this praise?
When a person is considered a god-tiered beauty, it usually means that this person is flawless, but is this absolutely politically correct?
I think not.
Beauty comes from imperfection, and they do not need to be hidden, because vividness comes from such imperfections. Audiences can be very sharp – no matter how much “beautiful” labels you attach on a person, these labels will not stay if the person cannot uphold these labels. The entertainment business is full of attractive people, but when you remove the make up and filters, you can really gauge the true physical attractiveness of a person.
I got a lot of surprise studying Xiao Zhan.
When deciding if someone looks good, we do not linger on how big his/her eyes are, or how tall his/her nose is, but instead we look at the proportion and general aesthetic.
If you were to choose the magical touch on Xiao Zhan’s face, which feature will you choose?
I would choose his eyes.
The truth is that in terms of absolute size, Xiao Zhan’s eyes are not very big, but it stands out because of their aesthetically pleasing shape.
The shape of his eyes appears to be almond-shape (but more stunning), with a full lower eyelid and rounded upper eyelid. This gives off a sense of innocence when he looks up. In addition, the the shape of his eyes slant downwards but the outer ends hook up, and with the shadows of his thick lashes, which brings his shape closer to what the Chinese call “Phoenix Eyes”. All in all, the shape of his eyes is one of the rarest eye shape – “Favored Phoenix Eyes”.
The lines of his eyes have always been aesthetically pleasing, but this is further enhanced once he had learned to control his gaze (see X-Fire competition period). The focus of his face is on his beautiful and lively eyes, which elevates the entire aesthetics.
Inner eye corners are more rounded among the Chinese, but because his eyes are pointed and long, giving off a very oriental appeal.
If you study carefully, you will notice that his eyes follow an “S” line. His inner eye corners are rounded, the outer edges slant gently downwards but quickly end with an upward tilt. This is a very rare type of demure oriental beauty. His usual make up is very light and natural, but if there are additional touches on his outer edges, bringing emphasis onto the lines of his eyes, his aura will switch from harmless and innocent to sharp and aggressive.
When he is not smiling, you can feel that sharp and aggressiveness off him. He gives off a nobility aura and he can keep up his appearances at any event.
In videos, his eyes are large and energetic, and so alluring, it is almost as though these eyes belong to an anime character or a CGI character. Given that we know that the camera would magnify flaws and moderate the overall aesthetic level, we can only imagine how he looks like behind that camera, and it is probably not that “normal good looking person” like he says he is.
Xiao Zhan does not depend on strong features – his brow bone and nose ridge are not tall.
If I were a famous director, I would be very satisfied with Xiao Zhan as an actor. In my Weibo pinned post, I spoke about how he does not depend on shading make up to sharpen his features, but instead, he depends on simply on lighting. This is evidence of his good bone structure. He does not have the standard issues of sunken temples or broad zygomatic bow (TN: the bone area to the side of the eyes) that are common among Asian faces; his zygomatic bow does not broaden sideways, but instead expands outwards proportionately. This advantageous bone structure shows itself most evidently in period dramas, where an aura of heroism is required. This balances out his soft features.
This face of his looks good in any lighting. Under paramount lighting, his cheekbones stand out and makes his face even smaller. (TN: Smaller faces are considered more aesthetically pleasing in Chinese culture.) Under rembrandt lighting, his gaze becomes more vivid, and the shadows from his nose and cheeks makes the picture more dramatic.
The Chinese have 4 ways to describe dimensions on facial structure – tall, low, flat and sunken. Most Chinese faces have low nose bridges and sunken structure, and for those who have this, when seen on HDTV, their facial muscle movements can be very obvious. In the case of Xiao Zhan, his facial muscle movements are clean and his facial expressions are especially pleasing, even when expressing extreme emotions. In addition, he does not require special lighting and can even withstand odd lighting.
This is the true meaning of “no bad angles”.
Generally, if anyone of us takes a picture from this angle, we probably end up looking like crap, but Xiao Zhan looks as thought he had been touched by Aphrodite. His cheekbones is the olive branch from Cyprus; his lips are the roses from Damascus; his Adam’s apple is the shackles of Prometheus, Mount Kaukasos. From head to toe, he is the real life representation of the sonnets of Shakespeare.
His beauty is breathtaking.
At the same time, Xiao Zhan’s features are tight knitted and his eyes sit lower in his face. This gives him a general youthfulness, hence he seems a lot younger than his actual age. I have often felt that his face looks almost anime-like, and in some instances, his expressions make him seem almost unreal.
If we try to convert some of our favorite anime characters to actual humans, how would they look like? From the side profile, the eyes should be position lower, almost towards the middle of the nose bridge. However, it is very difficult for this to occur while maintaining proper facial proportions.
We can immediately see from this picture that the middle section of his face is not too long. A long middle section usually ages a person.
Under further study, you will realize that the mouth-lip area of his face is not too short either. However, his philtrum (the midline groove in the upper lip) is deep and slightly pointed upwards, which moderates the length visually.
The shape of his lips are rounded, but given his sharp eyes and tall nose, the “roundness” and “sharpness” matches in equilibrium, resulting in him looking incredible whenever he smiles.
I am an art student and I am studying his features simply from the angle of an art model, instead of the angle of his fan. The conclusion I have drawn is that his facial features are simply outstanding. Plastic surgery may be able to change the facial features, but will not be able to change proportion; moreover, we know that Xiao Zhan did not go through any of that.
In general, people with good facial proportions will standout in a crowd, more so with Xiao Zhan, who has great features, and these will be especially brilliant after he has good control of his facial expressions.
Xiao Zhan is an expert in facial expressions control. His smiles can be viewed over and over again, and they are not easy to recreate – I have slowed down GIFs to capture his expression sequence.
When bringing forth a smile, he will move the muscles around this eyes to bring up the outer edges, and this brings the joy onto his face even if you cover the lower half of his face.
He pays attention to the movement of the muscles on this brow and the area around his eyes, such that he is able to pinpoint the emotions in this gaze. This is actually not easy to do such that it looks continuous and natural.
The essence of facial expression control comes from knowing your weaknesses during the training done in front of the mirror, and correcting them. I’m guessing here that he spent a lot of effort in his training, not because he has a lot of weaknesses, but because he has always been very strict with himself.
This is his signature smile. He has a multitude of combinations in his expressions, none of them fixed in any categories but serialized, and recreated in sequence when needed. If not for that fact that he sweats so much, I would have thought that he is an AI, but then again, could AI create this magnificence? I think not.
Xiao Zhan’s signature smile is smooth and stunning – it captivates people because of his confidence and ease.
The entertainment business has always been filled with beautiful people, but what makes Xiao Zhan stand out is the purity in him. He stuns people around him his clear eyes and his innocent smiles – and we pray that he will never lose this.
I know this – with his good bone structure, he will remain handsome for at least another 30 years.
Xiao Zhan is not just a “top celebrity” of this area, but he will also become “that god of period dramas” some decades later, and he will continue to shine bright as an icon of this generation.
