Manchu style photography

Many people think that concubines in the Qing dynasty are not good-looking, mainly because they saw photos of concubines in the harem in the late Qing dynasty, but the photos are still different from the real ones because of technology and character modeling. The specific analysis is as follows:

1. Due to the backward shooting technology and equipment, it is difficult to take good-looking black and white photos. With the continuous infiltration of western culture, all kinds of novelty were introduced into China, including cameras. Just emerging camera, because of the backward shooting equipment and immature photography technology, the photos taken are easy to be distorted. In addition, only black and white, basically can only see the outline of a person's face, it is not easy to really see a person's appearance. If the distortion is excessive, it is easy to produce mystery or strangeness, not to mention aesthetic feeling.

For example, Yu Rongling, around Empress Dowager Cixi, was called into the palace to be a court dancer, and was even more welcomed by Empress Dowager Cixi, making her a princess with a good life. In the early photo with Cixi, Yu Rongling stood beside Cixi in the clothes of a A Qing maid-in-waiting. Her appearance was not outstanding, and she was similar to other ladies in the photo.

Later photography technology gradually improved and improved. Looking at the artistic photos of Yu Rongling wearing a dance costume and some photos of her later years, many people are impressed by her temperament. Her big eyes, high nose and small face are a very standard beauty face. It can be seen that photography technology has a great influence on the appearance of concubines or other women in Qing Dynasty.

2. The clothes and hairstyles of concubines in the Qing Dynasty have higher requirements on face value, so being chosen as concubines is not just based on face. Secondly, since ancient times, not only in the Qing Dynasty, but also in ancient palaces, when choosing concubines, it is not only the appearance, but also the family background. For example, Hua Fei in the biography of Zhen Huan was elected to the palace because her brother Nian Gengyao had a high position in the DPRK and she also had a high position among concubines. Therefore, not all the concubines in the palace are beautiful, and sometimes the value of ladies-in-waiting is higher than that of concubines. After all, beautiful women always account for a relatively small proportion at any time.

In addition, the concubines in Qing dynasty wore large and fat cheongsam, which could not show their figure curves, which was completely different from the cheongsam beauty in the Republic of China. On the other hand, their hair styles with their foreheads exposed, or square bangs, have higher requirements on face shape and face value, so their face value is slightly lower and they will be worse.