Soon after costume drama Zhu Yu (Pursuit of Jade) premiered on March 6, the term "general of foundation" began trending online. The drama's hero, military general Xie Zheng, is portrayed as an armor-wearing man of steel, yet the actor's makeup is so noticeably delicate and his face so white that he has been mocked as "doing battle like he's on a catwalk" and for having foundation thicker than that of the actresses.

The actor, Zhang Linghe, has been compared online to Peter Ho, a Chinese-language film and television actor, singer, and director born in the United States. Ho is famous for his role as general Xiang Yu in the 2012 costume drama The Legend of Chu and Han, in which he has dark skin, a beard, muscular lines, and murderous eyes that match the image of a real military general on the battlefield in ancient times.

The comparison has given rise to ongoing online discussions of whether its acceptable to have a military general wearing heavy makeup.

Lu Siqi (Dahe.cn): The aesthetic tastes of fans are inherently diverse, so to simply claim that "audiences love to watch this or that" is nothing more than an excuse for drama creators to cover up their laziness. What the controversy truly points to is the increasingly entrenched "template-based" creative inertia in costume dramas.

Nowadays, "heavy filters, exquisite makeup and slow-motion shots" are widely used in the mass-production of historical drama characters. No matter whether they are princes, generals, immortal lords or scholars, they all share the same flawless makeup template.

It's true that costume romance dramas do create fantasies, but that doesn't mean they can only create the same kind of fantasy. A large number of costume dramas today turn a blind eye to moral grounding, truth and logic, and instead rely on characters' good looks to attract audiences. But the real core of a drama has never been about flawless appearances; it's about the character's spirit, the content of the story, and the sincerity of the craft.

Let the general look and feel like a general, let the scholar look and feel like a scholar—giving every character the authentic texture that truly belongs to them—that is the most fundamental type of respect for the audience, for the actors, and for the craft of storytelling.

Dai Yuegui (ThePaper.cn): Should costume idol dramas follow logic? When it comes to the creating of fiction and fantasy, it is necessary to adhere to basic common sense. The battlefield is muddy, bloody and chaotic. A military general ought to be rugged, masculine and even somewhat wild. Yet Zhang's version of Xie Zheng has such delicate features and soft, and even feminine demeanor that he is criticized as "being ready to walk the red carpet rather than to fight on a battlefield."

Some viewers argue that the actor's appearance and styling are highly faithful to the descriptions in the original novel, and that an idol costume drama shouldn't be judged by the standards for historical epics.

The Legend of Chu and Han, as an epic based on historical records, uses history as a mirror to explore themes such as human nature, institutions, power and morality, so its makers needed to prioritize historical accuracy in costume and production design, logical consistency in character behavior, and authenticity in the historical environment. Ho's Xiang Yu needed to look "grimy and disheveled." Costume romance dramas like Zhu Yu, however, are tasked with creating a dreamlike experience, and catering to young audiences' longing for perfect love and aesthetically beautiful imagery. Judging idol costume dramas against the criteria of historical epics is a form of misplaced criticism. BR

Copyedited by G.P. Wilson

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