[Hanfu · 漢服]China Tang Dynasty Chinese Traditional Clothing Hanfu in TV Show《爱奇艺登场了洛阳》with Actor @娄艺潇
【Summary】
Actor Lou Yixiao (娄艺潇) plays Wu Zetian, and holds a prayer ceremony under the “Loshena Buddha Statue” in the Longmen Grottoes in Luoyang.
The statue of Lusena Buddha was excavated in the third year of Xianheng, Emperor Gaozong of Tang Dynasty (AD 672). Wu Zetian, who was the empress of Li Zhi at the time, she donated 20,000 money to the project, which is equivalent to more than 6 million Yuan (CNY) today in terms of the price of food at that time.
【Hanfu and Hairstyle Culture Relics Reference】：
・"Stone Carvings of the Emperor and Empress of the Tang Dynasty“
・The Image of the Empress of the Tang Dynasty in Dunhuang Murals
Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao was a delight and I’m so happy that I got to read the ARC! For the rest of y’all, fear not! It’s on Netgalley rn as a “read now” for a limited time so you can experience the glorious Wu Zetian and her husbands for yourselves
Hello it’s time for Wu Zetian with fox ear hair because I thought it would be fun to lean into that hulijing persona. We love a girlboss and her supportive husband ❤️
Wu Zetian and Li Shimin from Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao ❤️
Btw I absolutely need to do one with Yizhi because he’s bae and you know what they say, the triangle is the strongest shape
Hello it’s time for Wu Zetian with fox ear hair because I thought it would be fun to lean into that hulijing persona. We love a girlboss and her supportive husband ❤️
Wu Zetian and Li Shimin from Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao ❤️
Btw I absolutely need to do one with Yizhi because he’s bae and you know what they say, the triangle is the strongest shape
It is so fuckin chef’s kiss when a character quite obviously Fucks Up and makes a Bad Choice but specifically in a way where you’re like. Man idk what I would’ve done in this situation either.
So I was thinking about Iron Widow and the Hunger Games because superficially, they follow similar arcs; a teenaged girl from an oppressive system fights the government
They’ve both got commodified violence as entertainment, a powerful emphasis on glamorous photoshoots, and lots of sinister machinations for our leading ladies
But when you put them side to side, they’re extremely different, and not just in the themes they explore. I think it comes down to one thing: agency
Katniss is living a pretty rough life before her story starts, and her situation sucks, but she is almost entirely independent. She has people she loves and won’t lose, and can consider just vibing off into the woods, even if she never would
The community is on her side and show it periodically, but things go from bad to worse extremely fast for her
Her first enemies aren’t alien hordes or callous killers who’ve led a hundred girls to certain death; they’re just other kids, in the same shitty situation, and as much as she tries to hate them, she can’t
Katniss is reasonably and understandably traumatized by what she’s been through, and loses her agency at every step as she’s pulled around by other peoples’ plans. She doesn’t want the rebellion and she doesn’t want an army; she wants to go home and be safe
Oh, and her love triangle is missing a side
Zetian though? Zetian’s former life fucking sucks, and we meet her on page one ready and willing to die for what she wants because she has nothing left that is hers
Shehas tried to run away, enough times to have “yet another escape attempt”, and is completely dependent on the people around her. She’s told her life’s worthless until she believes it, but no one considered “what if she wants to go out with a bang”
Zetian does see the political picture immediately, even if her understanding is as vague as “stop killing girls”
And while the army does spend a time trying to torture her with starvation and neglect before she meets Shimin, it’s really not much worse than how she’s used to being treated
Getting on camera and into battle, into physical violence that she can strike back with rather than just receiving, is a liberation for Zetian, and gives her her first ever taste of agency and power
She’s the first Iron Widow to survive and bear the name in public because she’s the first who went live on camera after a battle and couldn’t just be swept under the rug
The army can’t afford to kill her, but she’s perfectly happy to die for what she wants and she pushes back immediately and constantly against anyone trying to control her. She capitulates only on her terms, only when she gains from it
She’s a happy bisexual with two proud bi boyfriends because fuck what anyone else in the universe says, she wants it and it’s hers. She’ll worry for a moment if she’s got to choose (and if she’ll accept the choice made for her) and promptly decides the whole thing can go fuck itself because only her (and the boys’) wants matter
Nobody wants Zetian to lead a movement and change their world; if she won’t die quietly in a chrysalis, they want her to stand quietly at Shimin’s side as an accessory to make him more powerful
Her life is immediately, materially better from the minute she survives a second battle, and arguably from the moment she enlists because it’s finally under her control
Tl;dr? Katniss’s story is about losing control of her life and everyone has something they want from her. Zetian’s story is about seizing control and doing the shit that absolutely nobody wants her to do because she can
Katniss doesn’t want to lead a revolution
Zetian’s not giving the world a choice because she’s a one woman army and is the revolution
