Let’s be real, we’ve all heard at least one friend raving about the new Chinese period drama Pursuit of Jade recently. In particular, many have been completely smitten with its lead, Zhang Linghe, in the 40-episode hit series.
But before everyone gets too carried away, local content creator Royal Pek is here to burst their bubble.
In a recent reel, Royal very earnestly said of the 28-year-old Chinese heartthrob’s character: “Ladies, how many times do I have to tell you, people in the past do not look like this.”
“Period dramas are fairytales. In the past, you guys binge-watched K-dramas and shows about domineering CEOs, now you’re even swooning over period dramas. What are guys today supposed to do?” he asked.
He went on to highlight how impossible it is for guys — like the 1.9m tall Linghe, who plays a fallen marquis-warrior and general — to look this fair in war-era period dramas.
“There was no sunblock in the past one leh!” he exclaimed.
Royal also posited that as a man who’s gone through army, he knows how pivotal it is for a soldier to wear a helmet instead of what Linghe was wearing, which looked like “grass sticking out” of his hat.
“What can that protect him from?” questioned the content creator.
“I’m not saying that you can’t watch period dramas, but you need to know that you’re looking at a fairytale. Go and watch Journey To The West, characters like Zhu Bajie (Pigsy) and Sha Wujing (Sandy) are ugly, that’s correct. People in the past looked like that,” he added.
According to Royal, an even more accurate portrayal of people in the past would actually be characters of 14th-century historical novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms, such as Liu Bei, Zhang Fei and Guan Yu.
“They have a beard, look dirty and are tanned — only those are realistic,” asserted Royal.
“Not to discriminate but if you were tall, skinny and fair in those times, you’d be at the back learning calligraphy, not a general in the war field.”
Royal went on to argue that there were also The Four Great Beauties of Ancient China, namely Xi Shi, Wang Zhaojun, Diaochan and Yang Yuhuan, but men do not compare girls today with them.
“So why do we have to be compared with Zhang Linghe?! I don’t know what these Chinese celebrities eat growing up but if you grew up in Singapore, and eat caifan (economic rice), there’s no way you can be this tall,” he lamented.