Yang Zi’s Headwear in “The Golden Hairpin” Called Out for Japanese Influence
Jinxed with controversies, The Golden Hairpin <青簪行> may be facing another obstacle to its broadcast. Despite being filmed almost two years ago, Kris Wu’s (吳亦凡) scenes had to be deleted due to the singer facing trial for sexual assault charges. Controversy over its Japanese-influenced costumes may deal another blow to the drama, adding to its uncertainty in broadcast date.
Adapted from online novel Memoir of a Lady in Waiting <簪中錄>, The Golden Hairpin was originally meant to be a feminist historical idol drama centered around Yang Zi (楊紫). After Kris accepted the male lead role, his team forced the crew to increase his scenes and reduce Yang Zi’s screen time. With Kris’ impending trial, many netizens have requested that the production team revert back to their original plans in focusing on Yang Zi, stating that it did not matter if there were no male lead!
Since investors were unwilling to let their money go to waste, AI technology was used to replace Kris’s scenes with Kenny Lin Gengxin (林更新). The re-filming had finished in June, but a source disclosed that the drama will not be released anytime soon because Kris’ case has not resolved yet. Publicity for the drama has been kept low, with the crew hoping the public will disassociate the drama with Kris.
Recently, netizens reported to authorities that The Golden Hairpin’s lead characters’ headwear resembled Japanese kanmuri worn by Shinto clergy and courtiers. With the new controversy, The Golden Hairpin faces yet another obstacle for clearing censorship and broadcast delay. The Chinese government allegedly mandated that historical dramas would be banned from incorporating foreign costumes and accessories after The Legendary Life of Queen Lau <我叫劉金鳳> was criticized for its Japanese influences and removed from streaming platforms.
Source: Up Media
This article is written by Kiki for JayneStars.com.
“The Legendary Life of Queen Lau” is Removed from Platforms Over Excessive Japanese Elements
Feel bad for yang zi, seems like this drama is doomed for.
Those Chinese are just going to isolate themselves more and more… It is unfortunately, thru many hates how the Gov are controlling their movements, freedom and lifestyle…they cannot speak against the Gov…they can only pick on such silly issue to make a song and dance about. Since, such issues will be dealt with by Gov and they would not get in trouble with the law… I feel sorry for them.
crazy….. since Japanese costumes were influenced by early Chinese dynasties’ clothing
These hats kind of remind of the ones worn in Mark Chao and Deng Lun’s Yin Yang Master. Were those considered Chinese?
Even that movie was removed from screening…
I thought it was removed from screening because of Guo jingming’s plagiarism accusations, and not because of any Japanese reasons. Although maybe because it was already taken down that people didn’t make a fuss about it…
@lilseemonster lol..it was due to plagiarism…but since it is blacklisted, they have no further complaints.
They were also worn by Lin Qingxia’s character in the 1980s Tsui Hark film East is Red. In ancient paintings, Chinese court officials in certain dynasties were depicted wearing similar hats.
w/ so many past dynasties in china, wouldn’t any one actually could have looked like that? after all, didn’t japan and china traded and exchanged quite frequently in the old days. why couldn’t their costumes be similar. this all makes no sense.
Because china is the most superior country, it’s either copy of china or not china’s!
LOL but seriously speaking, I think they learned from the debacle about Korean cultural appropriation. Some Chinese web dramas from recent times used historical Korean clothes that triggered heated online discussions on the Korean internet about China copying them.
By cutting out foreign elements in future/unaired dramas, they’re just preventing such accusations from being made.
Some Koreans are making crazy assertions that c-dramas started copying hanbok when korean historical dramas became popular in China 20 years ago.
History is distorted in different countries… as a young child I was told in folk tales Japanese were Chinese: virgin boy and girls sent to search for longevity medicine, they instead found a island and settled there instead and that is how Japan was formed…
As I grew up I learnt from Japanese friend, that was a rubbish story. Japan was form before Chinese, they were told Japanese were descended from the Sun and they were the original to Chinese..
So every kid had a different prospective… I too know as a young adult, history can be faults… History can be re-written to fit different Emperors..thus I no longer believe what history book really writes..
I am aware based on pictures/paintings… China and Japan did seem to share similar outfits and culture at some point…
To be honest, what is the truth?? I need to die first then ask the dead to know the truth..
that story isn’t entirely rubbish. those people from the qing dynastry, word had it that they might have made it to japan and settle there but they didn’t kick start the japansese population b/c there were already people there. so no, japanese are not decend of the chinese at least there is nothing to proof that. Anyhow, if you think about, there had to have been this one person that kick started the world population. white black, asian, brown. so yeah, if you think about in that aspect.
You’re right Actually we all regardless of race are descendants of just few. I read about this research in National Geographic that managed to prove that we all originate from settlers of the Makgadikgadi–Okavango wetland in Southern Africa, roughly 200,000 years ago. Caucasian and Mongoloid races started gaining noticable differences some 60,000 years ago. Funny how we believe we are so different based on minor adjustments of our DNA to external stimulus. Instead of celebrating our adaptivity we develop segregation. And if separation is not visible such as skin colour, eye colour, hair colour, we segregate based on place of birth or socio economic group our parents belong to. Humans are fascinating isn’t it? And there is so much more we are similar to than dissimilar to each other, but we like our little boxes. In the Nordics we have discovered ice mummy Nordic man assumed to be traveling tradesman wearing cloths made in China some 5.000 years ago, if cloths found way to travel back than to North of Europe why not across the sea btw China and Japan. Sounds like nitpicking by regulators.
If the story is set in an actual dynasty then I would hope for some historical accuracy in it’s setting, props and costumes.
The same goes to casting, whether it’s on actual historical characters or adaptions from folk tales etc. It’s like getting a blond, blue eyed actress acting as Mulan or if it’s done with well intentions of being inclusive through casting a Chinese perhaps as Aladdin. There are other ways to be inclusive, to be creative.
That being said, putting a ban on a drama due to costumes inaccuracy is unnecessary. And if netizens are angry with the production company, with the artists, why not also question the censorship for allowing the production to be aired.