Also Luo yunxi looks like he has gained weight since til the end of the moon and I'm so happy for him. He looked like he was not well during that drama.
Also just in general the beauty standards in the cdrama industry is nauseating. I think a lot about the foundation general drama, and it's quite infuriating. Like on one hand, there's this criticism that the male stars are so skinny and effeminate and weak looking, how they don't have the musculature to be generals or whatever. And at the same time, zlh (and other 6'3" trees like lyn) have stated that they need to be 70kg (154lb) or less when shooting. It is insanely difficult, if not impossible to have musculature while carrying that little wright because muscles are just dense. (This is a little big of humble bragging, but my husband is also at 154lb, at a low body fat percentage, and definitely have that musculature that people expect in "generals". He's also about half a foot shorter than these stars. So, for the male stars to have that physique, I'm guessing they'd need to be at least 174lbs, or ~79kg, probably more because historically people just don't have that insanely low body fat percentages).
It sucks that the male idols end up basically between a rock and a hard place - either too "fat" to be on screen, or too effeminate for their roles and getting censored by the government for it (rip zlh foundation general).
And this doesn't get into the health aspects of it either. Different stars talk about various injuries they've dealt with over time. Zlh has a back injury. Lyx reported hurting his knees at some point (although that was reported to he cause by skiing?) I think yy might have needed surgery for his hip injury? Sure, there's probably inciting trauma that leads to these injuries, like lifting co-stars, stunts. However, considering that big and small muscles help stabilize joints, their decreased musculature from lower weights probably increases their risks of those injuries. I'm not saying that the beauty standards are physically hurting actors, well actually I am.
And I'm not even getting into the mental health aspects such as eating disorders, body dysmorphia, etc. (And I won't go into it because outside of zhao lusi's confirmed conversion disorder, I haven't seen any discussion confirming mental health diagnoses).
On the ladies side, I don't think there is this concern with having to look muscular, but the weight requirements are still insane. I remember tian xiwei menti9ning that she's under 40kg (88lb). So like the same injury risks for men als9 applies to women, especially foe the ladies who play warrior/fighter roles. I recall a bai lu saying in an interview that she's not going to be in a fighter roles after the tang dynasty drama because of the physical requirements, and how her working conditions probably contributed to her rheumatoid arthritis episodes.
Yeah so this is why I just don't enjoy a lot of those shirtless scenes anymore. And when i see actors looking maybe a bit bigger than before, im usually happy for them. Like how lyx in whispers of fate.
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