Summer films are upon us, and leading ladies are not only arriving in theaters but hitting the magazine stands in China, so let’s take a look them, and the mags themselves because these shoots were much nicer than the last set I posted. Wang Luodan, in her film debut does a small shoot for Elle, while Zhang Ziyi gets the cover. Other leading ladies are the usual crowd, Fan Bingbing in Harpaar’s Bazaar and Sun Li in L’Officiel, in futuristic looking shoots. Jacqueline Li Xiaolu does Hotspot, my fav weekly magazine. Also looking gorgeous are the contestants for Dragon TV’s show Dragon Angels, which promises future leading ladies.
I used to like Elle China, but I feel like boycotting after their lackluster Supergirls photoshoot and the way editor-in-chief Xiao Xue adores Zeng Yike. Not only that, but they had the cast of Sophie’s Revenge at their disposal (I’ll post a cute picture later) and instead simply did a boring shoot with Zhang Ziyi that I don’t have clear pics for.
Wang Luodan‘s mini-shoot was gorgeous though! Only Two pics, but she looks great in them. Her film debut, Rules Before Dating with Wilson Chen-Bo Lin is coming soon.
Next is Sun Li in L’Officiel, my second favorite Chinese magazine after Harpaar’s Bazaar. The photoshoot has a metallic theme to it, as a reference to her upcoming movie, Kungfu Cyborg. Why Sun Li chose to do that movie I don’t know, but even if her cred goes down with it, at least she has Deng Chao as a boyfriend. Not bad for some who used to be Vicki Zhaowei’s backup dancer.
She also graces LOHAS, the Lifestyle of Health and Sustanability magazine, promoting healthy women with healthy lifestyles.
Last month I think Fan Bingbing was on the cover of Elle. This time she gets the cover of Harpaar’s Bazaar, which is one of the first established fashion magazines in China and the one that does the best photoshoots. I’m not sure which movie she’s promoting here because she has so many coming out. Earlier this year Fan Bingbing said she was just not comfortable not working, and indeed it seems like she’s always working. She’ll be in Wheat, Sophie’ s Revenge, and East. Wind. Rain . She was also supposed to be in Stretch, the movie David Carradine was in Thailand to film for, before he passed away. I love how, despite how people always keep bring up old rumors of her sleeping around, she does this shoot as if to say “idgaf”.
Next up is Li Xiaolu, who gets the cover of HOTSPOT, which does fairly nice shoots and stories for a weekly magazine (much, much cheaper in China), especially considering that Hostspot’s new, not even a year old. Although right now…they’ve been getting darker and more gothic. They need to stop that trend and go back to making the cute photoshoots like the Valentine’s one they did with Rojam Wang and Emma Peibei. Li Xiaolu’s film One Night in Supermarket opens this week, and though it’s lower budgeted, it has been getting great reviews. Can’t wait for it!
Finally, this how we know the Supergirls got screwed over: This gorgeous photoshoot of the Dragon Angel competitors which makes the Elle photoshoot look like a joke. It’s not even for the top ten but for the top 5 from two different districts, with a northern vs southern beauty theme. Maybe I should pay attention to this show. Oh Hunan TV, your overall execution is so much better than Dragon TV, but why do you fail in the visual department?
While posting this, I realized, that I never see fashion photoshoots from Taiwan, HK on Sina, Sohu,and the rest of the big news portals. What magazines are there? The only one that I know of is Vogue Taiwan, which is kind of eh all around, as exemplified by when Goo Hyesun recently went on the cover. Vogue seems to be just crappy in general in the Asian market. There’s a China version, but it’s not well-established at all and seems to just recycles European covers. I also realized that China seriously needs to branch out and stop using the same lead actresses. There’s been quite a few new ones rising in the drama department this year, but with movies I guess it’s too much of a risk.
Li Xiao Lu and Zhou Xun can seriously pass as a twin.
all so beautiful!
@ o
I have a friend that managed to get Taiwanese magazibes sent to her…but imo, hotspot is so much better than Elle. They have better photos and probably a cooler editor-in-chief
@shuge
I doubt they had plastic surgeries… it’s more like taste in looks. Sort of like Zhang Yimou always goes for the ZZY/GL looks, and they look like clones on first sight. Huayi goes for the Zhou Xun looks… He Zhuoyan, Deng Jiajia and Li Xiaolu all look like Zhou Xun to some degree.
I remember when I first saw the promo shots for One Night in Supermarket. At first I was like, wow, Qiao Renliang gets to act with Zhou Xun in his first acting gig? And then I was like…oh. It’s just Li Xiaolu. Still good…just not as wow.
I bet she gets that sort of reaction a lot. Too bad…she always seems two-steps away from being an A-list actress.
LOL, actually an easy way to differentiate them that only really works if you’re watching stuff with them in it is their voice. Zhou Xun has a raspier-ish voice. LOL. But appearance wise it’s different and more subtle, though it varies from time to time – sometimes they’ll look completely different and other times the same.
@A.
Looking forward to it. :D I really wonder why Pan Chen is still in the competition.
@yelei
Are you talking about the Chinese net idols? That’s disappointing to hear. I don’t really like plastic surgery because of the whole superficiality of it, not to mention the risks involved.
@shuge
China only opened its doors in the 1970s, and most the Chinese actresses that are Fan Bingbing and Li Xiaolu’s age weren’t living in an age where plastic surgery is common, nor were there that many hospitals that did it. If you look at their baby pics, they look exactly the same…Li Xiaolu even as a baby had those heavy double eyelids.
Now, with the economic boom, and outside influences like Korean dramas, I guess plastic surgery is starting to be more common among the younger crowd which is disappointing me. The most famous actresses in China today still aren’t the most beautiful in China, but rather the most talented or most hard-working. I hope that remains as the biggest propeller towards stardom, not looks.
I think Li Xiaolu is a great actress, and if anything, her resemblance to Zhou Xun has only hurt her. People get them mixed up and since Zhou Xun is more famous, Li Xiaolu looses her individuality. Even I get them mixed up.
@ o – No idea…I don’t think you can subscribe to Chinese mags in America.
@luOHH – I think they started dating during Tian Mi Mi. They were so cute together in that show.
Okay, completely off-track but I was watching Super Girl videos and they talked about their songs for the 2nd round which is airing today in China… and Pan Chen clearly has not learned her lesson because she’s choosing a punk-rock-ish song AGAIN. Though I look forward to Pan Hongyue’s version of Pink’s So What.
@shuge: Well, circle lenses are quite popular in Asian countries, and then there are those that cake their face with really white makeup. Some actually undergone surgery to get their jaw shaved and needless to say, some try to improve their nose. I have nothing against surgeries, but some people look quite creepy.
whoa! so gorgeous. i recently just got the american elle magazine and this totally beats it (miley cyrus on the cover and photospreads nowhere near as beautiful as these…just some neon fiasco)
so does anyone know how to purchase chinese elle from america?
thankyou
Wow…the dragon angel photo shoot, was so gorgeous, it put hunan to shame (even though super girls is 1000000000 times better)
Li Xiaolu is the spitting image of Zhou Xun. And I’ve noticed a few Fan Bingbing clones recently. Did these lookalikes go under the knife?
woww sun li dateing deng chao?? was this b4 甜蜜蜜？
@A.
can you post up a link to any one of the dragon angel photo shoot.
@A.
Dragon Angels are still picking out the top people from each region…and imo, they’re not that much prettier than the Super Girls (at least from the other photoshoots). And Dragon Angels is still, to some extent, a beauty contest…hence the greater emphasis on physical beauty.
They won’t go on air until later (its finale is in October)
I’m so jealous of the photoshoot, though. It is so gorgeous.
@marie
only in one scene of “Romance in the Rain,” before she was famous
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randomness:
my favorite magazine for photoshoots would have to be the Digital World one with really colorful and fun shots. I also really like L’Officiel and Hotspot because they do a better job of making the subjects look better. Nv You is pretty, too. And you know what? Xiaoxue left Hotspot for Elle because it wasn’t fashionable enough for her…someone has bad taste…
Sun Li used to be Vicki Zhao’s backup dancer? 0_0
Li Xiaolu looks so much like Zhou Xun sometimes.
Vogue doesn’t even try in the Asian market. They barely put Asians on their cover, and when they do a shoddy job. I remember when Zhang Ziyi was on Vogue Korea and she looked horrid too. I think almost every magazine in China beats it.
I believe Rojam and Emma are their early twenties, maybe even younger.
I don’t know if Wang Luodan is ethnically mongolian, or is simply from Inner Mongolia province. I think the latter though, bc it doesn’t say in her Baike.
Sorry, competition shows are kind of hard to keep up with, and I don’t really know where you can watch it. I guess tudou search? Overall I still feel like Hunan TV does a better job with making their show more fun…they let you know the contestants, cheer for heroes (Wang Zhixin), get mad at the villains (Zeng Yike) and it’s definitely one of the best planned competitions shows out there. But they totally suck with any graphic promos.
If there was only some way to combine the superficial beauty that Dragon TV brings with Hunan’s fun innovation. *sigh*
Yeah, Vogue in the US is a big deal, but in Asia it’s like…. what? Yeah that Elle photoshoot for Super Girls was very dumb, boring, generic, etc. Whereas these for Dragon Angel are actually appealing and exotic-looking. And not, let’s stand in front of a beige background and pose, yay.
By the way, I too can not find anything on Dragon Angel online. Is it airing? I wanna watch it just to see how it turns out and such.
LOL, my mother loves Wang Luodan ever since her performance as Mi Lan in Struggle.
Oh, and that Vogue with GHS on its cover… that was a horrible photoshoot with GHS on it. Like, the stylist was clearly blind because he or she didn’t even bother trying to put stuff together that actually accentuated GHS’s features. Like, horrible hair… clothes that she’s not exactly suited for – high fashion clothing does NOT suit her at all.
ive just recently became a big fan of wang luodan. some one told me she is ethnic mongolian? or mongolian/han? is that true? anyways shes a great actor that played two very different roles with very different personalities in 我的青春谁做主. she seems to always be cheerful, etc. it was interesting to see the type of person she really was in interviews.
Yeah, Vogue isnt that great especially in the asian market. When I saw Goo HyeSun on Vogue, I was “ehhhh….”. Marie Claire is really popular in Korea.
Anyways, Fan Bing Bing’s is really gorgeous and it’s funny that many net idols these days try to look like her, or at least it seems like it to me. Her facial features are very creature-like (Jing Ling).
Sun Li is gorgeous and wow, she was a dancer for Zhao Wei? When was this?
I’m looking forward to Wang Luodan’s new film because it’s a different role from her usual ones and plus the fact that Wilson Cheng is in it :) I didn’t really liked the movie with Gigi Leung. So for Wang Luodan’s new film, she has to walk in high-heels which he dislikes very much.
Li Xiao Lu looks very different in that photoshoot. I could not recognize her until you mentioned her name.
Rojam Wang and Emma Peibei makes such a cute couple. By the way, how old are they..? around 23-25ish?
Many of the girls in Dragon Angel are really beautiful and those photoshoots are 10000000000000x times more prettier than Super Girls’s. When do they reveal the Top 10? Is the competition already airing right now? I cant seem to find it anywhere online.