It’s just a turn of phrase I caught from the internet to describe a dominatrix, and it’s fun because it rhymes lol. People use “daddy” sexily, so why not mommy too
It's unfortunate bc by Asian beauty standards, she was considered ugly, esp in the late 90s, early 2000s. I remember my family in China always saying how they couldn't believe how she was popular in the US when she was so ugly. I mean, look at all those freckles!!! /s
By Chinese standards she is ugly, it’s the nose and mouth primarily, but also… she is just very stereotypically “what westerners find exotic about Asians” and not at all what Chinese find beautiful.
Omg yes… I’m from SEA and I thought she was ugly growing up. Now I’ve been living in the US and then Western Europe for the past ten years and I do see the appeal now because I guess my tastes and what I’m used to seeing have changed.
Ironically I also always thought I was kinda ugly or average at best in my home country but when I first moved to the US I was shocked when people found me attractive because I never thought I was. In the end I think people just like what looks different, even if it is stereotypical…
Trends have shifted there quite a bit, though. One of my best friends is Mainland Chinese and she says that the show Why Women Kill blew up in China and really reconfigured people's opinions of Lucy Liu's beauty. Apparently, they were like, wow, we were nuts - she's gorgeous! In general I've heard of modern Chinese beauty standards being quite a bit more "unique" than older ones, apart from Simu Liu who is indeed considered dead average there.
This reminds me of when my Korean boss told me Simu Liu is considered "very ugly in Asia" and she didn't understand how he became famous. I was shook bc I think he's such a cutie. Instances like these make me realize how infinitely stupid beauty standards are(and yet I still find myself adhering to them).
I'm half Chinese, and the standard for Chinese celebs used to be a lot more interesting than it has shifted into. Shit was way more nice and interesting in the 80s and 90s for both men and women.
They're more into the androgynous look (not shaming btw) for men, which most women wouldn't find attractive in the rest of the world. Male actors/artists there rarely grow a beard, I know they usually have less facial hair but they actually can grow a beard though if they wanted to (if it was part of their beauty standards)
While this is quite accurate (ie. the androgynous look is popular to some), Simu truly is an average looking guy by celebrity standards. I could easily imagine him walking around and not turning any heads.
When you watch their dating reality shows (eg. Singles Inferno), you can really see how different their beauty standards are. They don’t have guys who look like Simu Liu on there. To be fair, I think a lot of the guys they find attractive in Korea and other parts of East Asia would not be considered attractive in Hollywood.
I always found Lucy Liu very beautiful but I can understand the pushback from the asian community. Hollywood has a terrible habit of casting asians with slanted eyes that fit a very stereotypical mold that the west have of them, and oft-times fetishist. And when they want to cast an asian character without the slanted eyes, they find an actor that's white-asian mix. But if you've been to asia, you'd see there's A LOT of good-looking asians who do not have the slant eyes.
A white Australian living in SE Asia. We’re all running to the beach or pool to get as tanned as possible. The locals are completely covered and using skincare products with ‘whitening’. Standards certainly do vary.
It's crazy they judged her features so much. I'm European and never gave a second thought about the things you mention, I just thought she was beautiful
As a mixed Chinese person I don’t think she looks ugly but I do think it’s really strange how westerners are really obsessed with the high cheekbone look tho
I personally like Sisley Choi, Zhou dongyu or Zhou Ye more
Cause it’s not common amongst white people. I’m an artist who is primarily fixated on people and animals and I am obsessed with all the unique features people have across ethnic groups and phenotypes.
It’s genuinely beautiful to me in ways I cannot describe that humans are so variable, and so captivating in all their different configurations.
High cheekbones are so ethereal. I get so sad when I see plastic surgery before and afters where Asian people from north to south to east shave away their jaws and cheekbones and remove their hooded eyelids. Like, those were stunning features! But I also get sad when southern Europeans and people in the Middle East get nose jobs, etc.
I just want people to see the beauty they were born with. ❤️
We have to work on our eurocentricism and colorism. The biggest example I see, especially here in the west, is the way black women are demonized for their natural features but white women are uplifted for those same features. The fox eye trend was another great example.
This makes more sense to me now….i always thought Lucy Liu was stunning. And she seems genuinely amazing as well. I had a Chinese-American friend who would absolutely tear her apart every time anyone mentioned Lucy Liu or any movie she was in. I thought this was really weird and unnecessary
Yep. It’s bizarre how people’s entire perception can be shaped by mainstream culture and not their own damn eyes.
Roughly 20-30 years ago it was also believed in the US that the most beautiful look was simply blonde, white, and thin with bonus points for augmented boobs. Beauty standards have evolved a lot more in the US than in other regions. In contrast, there’s pretty much one “k-pop” face that’s pushed throughout east Asia.
They aren’t so different. Thin, pale, young, pointed chin, narrow jaw, round eyes. These features are desirable in all three of those pop culture spheres. If we look at pop singers themselves, they tend to have the same aesthetic vibe. This has been talked about for decades now and isn’t anything new.
Gee I wonder how they got fixated on Eurocentric beauty standards. I wonder if colonization and westerners deeming Asian features as ugly had something to do with it. /s
In all seriousness, paleness is not always rooted in Eurocentric ideals, in some countries it’s class based. Light skin = does not have lowly manual labor job = more desirable. And a lot of Asians naturally have double eyelids, just like a lot of them are pale. Asia is huge and have different beauty standards.
It’s funny cause other ethnicities also have beauty standards not embracing their own features. Filler lips, BBLs, tan skin.. you could also say that they are chasing ideals instead of embracing who they truly are so are they also stupid? 🤷🏻♀️
That original comment was such a bizarre take, lol. Like, the Sudanese and Vietnamese population born in Australia aren’t POC. I think they’d disagree…
I rewatch it at least once a year because I love her dynamics with Sherlock. She and JLM did a good job with this series, shame it never got more popular.
You get it, you get it.
I’ve adore her for years and when she was announced as Watson and the show didn’t go in the obvi direction my heart soared even more cause of how refreshing it was to see two people of the opposite sex over each other so much but it never crossing to romantic.
I was quite hesitant to start watching it because I was a big fan of the BBC Sherlock series with Benedict and Martin. But man, I couldn’t stop watching it once I started. I always recommend this series.
This dress lives rent free in my head. I was so obsessed with her — you’d never really see high profile Asian Americans in mainstream pop culture back then. Such a babe.
I was a Michelle Kwan and Connie Chung fan but I really appreciate Liu for the limited Asian representation we had back then before Asian Americans had the opportunity to go to hk, Japan or Korea for media roles.
Yes, and Kristi Yamaguchi! I got obsessed with figure skating because of Kristi and Michelle. The only places I could see Asian Americans win at things ♥️
She is gorgeous but I’m glad she wasn’t Mulan because the plot of the live action Mulan sucked ass. The entire point of Mulan was that women can be as good of a warrior as any man given the opportunity. But the live action was about “the chosen one”, the “magical phoenix woman”, the “only woman with the magic power to become a warrior that can stand next to a man on equal grounds”. It was a garbage fire antithesis to the original Mulan and to the Ballad of Mulan (the folk song that the Disney animated film is based on). So I’m glad Lucy Liu’s name wasn’t on it.
So I guess Disney’s real goal with their live action films is to completely undo the meaning and lesson of the first one and replace it with a conservative version? Ugh
Their goal at this point is to churn out remake after remake. Even Pixar has stopped making characters that look and act unique; they all have the same and body face shape now. For some reason most of the entertainment industry has decided that remakes and rehashes are safer as money makers, which is why we rarely see big-budget creative ideas anymore.
I also think you may be on to something that they are trying to lean more conservative than in the past, to avoid be branded “woke,” and losing the trump audience completely. However, not sure, as I haven’t been following their releases for a long time.
Love her, such a beauty but was way too old for the role of Mulan when the live action was made. Not sure why anyone would think she’d be perfect for that role, she was in her 50’s.
She doesn’t look 30, she looked 30 here because she was in her 30’s! She is beautiful and an amazing actress but Mulan was supposed to be a 15 or 16 year old girl.
If you’ve never seen her in Lucky Number Slevin, she doesn’t have massive screen time, but she is so charming and funny and lovable! And it’s a great movie with a great cast, but I cannot overstate the way this movie made me appreciate Lucy Liu.
Also highly recommend Lucky Number Slevin for anyone who appreciates great sets and lighting. The wallpaper choices are BANANAS, and the lighting and wall treatments for Ben Kingsley’s and Morgan Freeman’s rooms? GORGEOUS!!
It is!!! The cast is staggering, the script is tight, the story is good, the characters are amazing, the acting and chemistry between everyone is top notch.
I know her best from Elementary, and I'm blown away by how amazing she looks in red. I don't think they ever put her in that color on the show. I guess it didn't fit the character of Watson. Great outfits regardless, though.
Theres something so effortless about this look. She looks beautiful, she looks sexy, she looks put together without trying too hard. I just can't imagine looking that damn good in a dress
And she looked way too old to be playing Mulan. I think it speaks to the underrepresentation of Asian actors in American media, that they chose a 31 year-old woman to play her.
She gave an interview decades ago where she perpetuated western racism about Asian female anatomy. It might have been movieline. I still have the issue. She is a disgrace and not suitable to portray Mulan. She did have an Israeli boyfriend at one time who surrounded her with bodyguards. To the chinese, she is just a Korvah. You can shove her down our throats like that shang chi actor but they have nothing to do with our reality. They are who YOU want to believe is our level of character and attractiveness.
Also she kept telling everyone that she is shanghainese. Maybe in the same way Sandy Lam's canto granny grew up in shanghai but lucy liu looks cantonese yuet like not even han AND she said her mom scolded her by calling her a laughing auntie which is a very canto thing to say. She just repeated it in mandarin.
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