0 thoughts on “China’s Top Model: Liu Wen”

1. Welcome back thanirz!

2. This girls way hot and the video is little freaky. That music sends chills down my backside. Shiver me timbers.

3. And another great post by thanirz. I was so excited with the one on the top. I almost missed this one! 😉

4. @Robin: again, I don’t promise anything but I will try to post so now and than. I really miss the girls but as you know I’m busy as hell with other stuff.

   Btw, did you check out this photoset? It remembered me to the soccer series that was posted some time ago on Asian Sirens.

5. Great photoset. Let me post it tomorrow. It deserves a post of its own.

6. Perhaps I may be in the minority here, but I actually find her a bit plain. Then again, it doesn’t help that a lot of runway models in Europe are designed to follow what I would call “adrogenous chic”.

   I guess I’d like to see more photos where she is actually smiling. There’s something about an amazing smile that enhances beauty (IMHO anyway). Unfortunately, in the ultra-cold, poseur world of fashion modelling, there’s not too many opportunities to crack I sincere grin.

   Suffice it to say, she’s certainly attractive, but I don’t feel that she’s an unforgettable siren.

7. I’m with sevendeuce on this one: I pretty much always find Asian fashion models to be this way (and most caucasian ones too).

   I don’t really understand the common misconception that fashion models are “beautiful” actually – they are in fact meant to be plain, so that their look can be changed easily with makeup.

8. Thanirz, Mr. Asian Sirens, good to see you back posting! You always manage to step it up a notch. Glad that Liu Wen is finding international success as a top model.

9. What is amazing about fashion models like Liu Wen is a property that 99% of us don’t have: the capacity to look very different under different lights, different hairstyles, different make-up. different clothes, etc. It’s not simple “plain-ness” as Doc suggests. 99% of plain people look plain under any change of context. But look at the various shots of Liu Wen and the changes! (I really love that shot of her in the “Jetson’s clothes” and the thigh-high whatever they are’s. Cool! Chinese women are tai hao!)
   Marco, well done again. And welcome back!

10. urgal is absolutely right of course – although I do think a good fashion model has to be relatively plain to be able to change her look so readily, that doesn’t mean that just any plain person can be a fashion model, which I didn’t mean to imply.

11. urgal: I tend to disagree with that assessment. It’s amazing what professional lighting and an army of hair, makeup and fashion designers can do to *anyone*.

    What I think separates top models from the rest is attitude/charisma. Not any girl can walk down the runway and “own” it. It’s much harder than just that. The same can be said for fashion photography – a photographer and makeup artists can perform wonders (especially in the digital age) – but will that magic work without that unique personality a top model brings to the the table?

    In the end, I truly believe that with the right agent, the right time and place and the right persona you have the recipe for fashion model success.

    Of course, on the flip side, the fashion world is extremely fickle and transient. One wrong word or association and you’re ostracized and the next 10 girls in line will be waiting to take your spot on top.

    To summarize, I’d be willing to bet that your 99% estimate is extraordinarily high. The 1% you’re referring to I would classify as that “special” group of girls who brings something more than a blank canvas to the table. But as far as the phsyical package is concerned, I would bet that is more secondary than you would imagine.

    But then, I’m not a fashionista… so what do I know? 😛

12. Yep, sevendeuce is right too: the key thing that allows a plain girl to be a fashion model when other plain girls can’t be isn’t really looks as such. It is more about attitude, both in terms of what they can do on the catwalk and in a photo shoot, as well as what they are willing to do behind the scenes. 😉

13. 7deuce: Have you ever actually encountered fashion models? I mean: real ones?? I’m not a fashionista either but I once did stumble (that’s the right word) onto a fashion shoot in Paris. Those women are extraordinary! They really aren’t like the rest of us. Their necks were so long, their legs were so sinuous, their hair was, was sooo perfect. It was like seeing aliens! Honestly, I never afterwards thought of “them” like “us” I think Kate Moss must have been hatched on another planet, and Wen Xiaojie too. Doc is right about the remarkable chameleon-like character of these people. Plain-ness is utterly the wrong word.

14. Of course a fashion model has to have the right build (so this is an aspect of looks that they do not share with just any plain girl), but when you see them off stage, they don’t look that alien (their hair isn’t so perfect etc.). It is the combination of styling, make-up and attitude that sets them apart.

15. Pappa Doc (“lao shi”): Have you really ever seen such a creature? Socrates once said that when he met a beautiful person, his instinct was to turn and run as fast as he could in the opposite direction, so powerful & unsettling was the force of beauty. I have never seen Linda Evangelista, or Naomi Cambell or Liu Wen, but I am willing to bet that you & i would not emerge from the encounter unscathed. I know you are are a cosmetic surgeon., but you must have (in your mind) the image of perfect people, whose shape, eyes, skin are precisely correct. It’s not just attitude. It really is physical appearance!

16. As Sachiko‘s manager, I have had some experience with the modelling industry. So yes, I have seen many of these creatures, and I can tell you that when they arrive for a job in their jeans and t-shirts, they really don’t look anything special (apart from being very tall and slender). I’ve also seen what happens behind the scenes in this industry – there are very good reasons Sachiko is an independent web model!

17. urgal, Socrates’s meaning of beautiful was most likely different from what you have in mind.

18. SHE IS STUNNING WITH A GOOD HUMOR.