Yang Zi： The Cost of Adapting to the Aesthetic Standards of the Adult World
In "The Rest of Your Life, Please Teach Me More", Yang Zi and Xiao Zhan can be said to be the top combination of traffic. However, the old routines and the repeated characters until the end of the broadcast, the volume it harvested, compared with the traffic levels of the two leading actors, can almost be said to be an upside-down failure
Min Scarlett
"Agarwood Like Crumbs" is almost a one-to-one replica of "Fragrant Honey Like Frost": starring Yang Zi, an online novel adaptation, an ancient love that spans the past and present, but it failed to replicate the success of 2018. The episode has been broadcast for two-thirds, and has not yet shown a score on Douban; looking at it in another dimension, it has just passed the volume of 42,000 people "watched", and "Fragrant Honey Like Frost" exceeds the mark of 180,000 "seen", which also just shows the quantitative standard between "paste" and "out of the circle".
But whether this "paste" is an external problem of the type of ancient puppet drama, or an internal problem of the stagnation of Yang Zi’s acting skills in similar roles as an actor, it may have to be viewed from a more macroscopic perspective, so this year’s other drama "Rest of Life, Please Teach" has become the reference object. Compared with "Agarwood Fragrance", "Rest of Life, Please Teach" seems to have a more "explosive" sense of vision. Yang Zi and Xiao Zhan’s traffic top match combination, and the urban background is also easier for people to enter. However, perhaps because it was filmed in 2019, the routine was old and the characters were repeated until the end of the broadcast. Compared with the traffic level of the two leading actors, the volume it received can almost be said to be an upside-down failure.
The decline in the reputation of the two major dramas has brought a point of discussion about Yang Zi. From the perspective of the actor’s life cycle, Yang Zi, who is about to turn 30 this year, is indeed entering a new era. She, who has come all the way from a child star, may be the one who knows the most about the anxiety of appearance among the actresses of the same generation. The interview content that has been repeatedly mentioned, Song Dandan’s kind advice to Yang Zi to "grow up like this, or stop acting", although cruel, also shows the truth. "Grow up like this" refers not to the appearance standard of ordinary people in daily life, but to the appearance ecology of the entertainment industry that takes appearance as an important ranking standard. In her childhood, Yang Zi could still walk beyond this standard by relying on the age limit of her character and her own commonality, but when she grew up, she had to face the aesthetic standards of the adult world.
The girl next door and the adult world
When we look back at "Family with Children", Yang Zi’s performance is indeed stunning, but this kind of stunning is limited to the role of Xiaoxue: the child next door, excellent, proud, and strong self-esteem. The affinity of the girl next door, a description with a sense of praise, is actually a bit cruel to Yang Zi as an actor, it points to "not beautiful enough" and "ordinary". But a family melodrama like "Family with Children" complements this kind of ordinary, which is the local atmosphere that the audience needs. The delicate situation of the girl as the eldest sister in a multi-child family, the sensitivity of the adolescent girl, and the ruthlessness and pride of the Beijing girl are part of Yang Zi’s performance, and part of it belongs to herself in that period.
But the hard truth is that girlhood and national daughters are a state of very short shelf life and time expiration, similar to the "child star curse" often mentioned in Hollywood. Many actors who have become famous as child stars have to face the road of rediscovering their acting direction. Shirley Temple is the best example of losing the magic of the screen in adulthood. In the significantly different Eastern context and Chinese entertainment industry, its cultural background and entertainment ecology have created a more brutal environment. A large number of actors choose to extend their girlhood and girlhood as much as possible. This path is not for everyone. The shelf life of the appearance and the appropriate matching of the characters are indispensable. Zhou Xun is an example of the extremely long girlhood of the screen, and there is a head traffic like Zhao Liying in the field of TV dramas.
The appearance conditions determined the path of "prolonging the girl’s sense", which was not suitable for Yang Zi, and the reason was to return to Xiaoxue’s approved affinity. This kind of girl’s sense, which was not equivalent to the "beauty" painting, had almost no acting advantages when she grew up, especially in this era of flattery to beauty.
The burnout period is a good proof. After "Family with Children 2" in 2006, Yang Zi, who entered puberty, has works but does not enter the hot discussion field. From today’s perspective of all young traffic, it can be defined as a low period. For Yang Zi at this stage, acting is not the problem, but appearance is the threshold.
Yang Zi’s problem may be the problem of ordinary girls. She can’t stay in her teenage years forever, nor can she be put into the characters that use beautiful women as templates in the market. But Yang Zi’s choice is to get close to that template and do everything she can, even if the price is to sacrifice her acting skills.
Moderation and performance singularity
In 2014, "War in Changsha" was Yang Zi’s highest-rated work. In addition to the bonus of the team, Yang Zi could also make a richer, layered and emotional performance in the performance at that time. The character changes that grew up and woke up in the turmoil could not be said to be profound, but there was a kind of popular moving. But she was still not suitable for the role. Age is one thing, and the Beijing accent also makes people play. The heroine of the cast was not her at the beginning, and the temporary role change brought this turnaround. In the later stage of the story, Yang Zi’s performance was even more cramped, unable to understand or support the heaviness of the turmoil of the big era.
"Ode to Joy" and "Dear, Love" should be regarded as the two works with the highest degree of character matching between Yang Zi and her characters. Qiu Yingying’s cramped resume at the job fair, and her flexible position as a mobile person in the relationship between the four girls were all very suitable for Yang Zi at that time, and they were also within the control of her acting performance and performance. But we can already see the price she paid for her beauty from now on, especially when her facial expressions are strong, and the incongruity between her facial features has begun to destroy her acting skills.
Compared to Qiu Yingying, Tong Nian in "Dear, Loved" is not so down-to-earth in terms of setting, soft and cute straight-A student is even a bit of an overhead character, so Yang Zi’s Tong Nian will give people a strong sense of "reading white" when saying any lines involving professional parts. This kind of professional performance makes people feel abruptly awkward, and the traces are as heavy as a mask painted on the character’s face. Similarly, there is 2021’s "Female Psychologist".
From 2016’s "Ode to Joy" to the present, Yang Zi is indeed gradually approaching the adult aesthetic standards of the entertainment industry, and has also taken on many roles of beautiful women. Accompanied by this, the face muscles are stiff, the emotional details of the face are lost, and the scope of micro-expression activities is limited. This disconnection between the actor’s appearance and acting skills is most obvious in Yang Zi’s first role as a beautiful woman, trying to create a fairy and cold texture in "Qingyun Zhi". In the latest "Agarwood Fragrance as Crumbs", even when angry or angry, Yang Zi can only rely on the eyes, brows, and mouth to touch the face, expressing emotions very limited.
But what’s interesting is that on this road that is gradually approaching the aesthetic standards of adults in the entertainment industry and is gradually limited in performance control, "Fragrant Honey Sinking Ashes Like Frost" has instead become a special existence. Jinmi, who ate the Absolute Love Pill, is ruthless and loveless, so in the pre-awakening part, it can be rewarded with numb external stimulation and emotional offensive. This contrast between intensity and indifference is instead an integral part of the Xianxia drama "Su Sense"; in the mid-stage, the part with a veil can cover up the lack of performance to the greatest extent and take advantage of the performance of the eyes. Therefore, the success of "Fragrant Honey Sinking Ashes Like Frost" is due to diverse factors, and the shortcomings in the actor’s career happen to be stuck in the texture and gap of the character’s characteristics. This is the unique singularity in the actor’s career that cannot be repeated or continued.
The irreplaceability of "not beautiful enough"
Returning to "Agarwood as Crumbs", when we are already tired of Yang Zi’s quirky aesthetic, the fairy tales of the past and present cannot provide a deep performance space, and the protagonist’s dull and rigid facial expressions cannot support the sadomasochistic love that spans generations, so the audience will no longer pay the bill.
But a topic worth discussing is that we, as the audience, are very accepting of Yang Zi’s role as the "beauty" in the setting. The daughter of the flower god, the incarnation of the sun, and the white snake are all like this. Objectively speaking, they are all characters that Yang Zi cannot suppress with his appearance at this stage.
If we classify Xianxia dramas and idol dramas from the audience’s mentality, most of the successful ones meet the audience’s two expectations. One is the "sense of imagination" that is far away from life and looking at the legend, and the other is the "sense of substitution" that is close to oneself and immersed in the drama. No one will feel that they are Zhao Yazhi in "The Legend of the New White Lady", and very few people will replace Liu Yifei in "Menghualu". Their "beauty" is a highlight and a barrier, isolating the audience under the stage. When we look at them, we are reading the legend.
But another type of work is completely different, represented by the popular works starred by Yang Zi, which may be used as a reference. Today’s Yang Zi and Ariel Lin in the "Kiss of Mischief" period have certain similarities. They are cute, but not too beautiful, and sometimes they are not even very good-looking. The performances are flawed, stiff and embarrassing, but it is these rough rough edges that make us feel that we can be "them". Their affinity, sense of neighborliness and dullness are not offensive in any way, and they can also be replaced in the viewing imagination. So the audience gets a sense of substitution in the viewing, and their substitutability of "not beautiful enough" just constitutes the irreplaceability of actors in idol drama products. We see them as entering a legend.
The paradox here is that from the perspective of audience psychology, "not beautiful enough" has become the key factor for Yang Zi’s success, but from the perspective of industry standards, "not beautiful enough" has become the appearance anxiety imposed on her. She made a choice for this, and paid a price. As a woman, will "they" who live in other social fields have more choices?