Halloween Special: Face Swap Horrors 无头东宫 (TVB)
When I was a child this HK show by TVB was on TV. It's called "Love is Beautiful", or 无头东宫.
What was it about? It was about a beautiful village woman who was bestowed the title of an imperial concubine by the Emperor, then had her face swapped away with her ugly best friend's, and she had to spend the whole series taking back the life that her best friend took. The morale of this story, apparently, was that you shouldn't judge someone by their beauty, and also if you are ugly but kind, kindness will prevail one day and you will be rewarded for your goodness.
Today I will reflect upon the horrific real life implications of this story and why this story unintentionally leads children astray.
It was a story set in the early Song Dynasty (960 to 1279 AD).
In a rural village named "The Village of Beauties" (美人村), there lived two so-called "ugly" women Ling Yun and Chu Chu. Ling Yun had pock marks on her face, while Chu Chu had a gigantic birthmark and a mole on the left side of her face. It was obviously a jab of irony, and the two ladies were treated badly and ostracised by the village because of their looks. (Ling Yun was treated slightly better because she was kind, but she still stuck out like a sore thumb from the POV of the village community.) The two found solace in each other's company and became good friends.
Both were made to rotate shifts to stand guard at the village gates every night to scare away evil spirits.
However, there was a stark difference between both their personalities. Ling Yun was a kind, honest woman who loved helping others and was very filial to her father. From this point, I will follow the story from the point of view of the main protagonist Ling Yun.
Ling Yun (left) and Chu Chu (right), before the face switch
Ling Yun had a fatal flaw- she wasn't exactly the most shrewd person, and constantly made the mistake of trusting others more than she should have. For starters, she chose to be best friends with Chu Chu, a terrible, dishonest, swindling woman threw her under the bus multiple times. She was kind to a bloody fault, willingly walking herself into terrible situations so she would not hurt anyone else's feelings.
One day, both women ran into the Emperor who travelling in-cognito. The Emperor was poisoned by an assasin, and Ling Yun saved her life. While the whole village was mocking Ling Yun for her ugly looks and laughing that she would never be married (as if a skilled ironsmith like her needed marriage to survive), the Emperor announced to the whole village that, out of gratitude, he would marry her for saving her life. Unbeknowst to all, Ling Yun was actually beautiful, and only disguised her face with pockmarks so that she could remain unmarried and stay by her father's side to take care of him. The Emperor, seeing her real face for the first time, was even more set on marrying her.
Before he could make their marriage official, something cropped up and he had to return to the palace, but sent an imperial decree to make Ling Yun a concubine once he was back in the palace.
Meanwhile, on Chu Chu's end, she ran into a sorcerer who made a living off of performing magic tricks on the streets. This man could make fake faces for people for a fee, and the fake face would fall off after 15 minutes. He could turn ugly people beautiful temporarily.
Chu Chu got a fake face made for herself and got a 15 minute teaser of how much better she would be treated if she were pretty, so she begged the sorcerer (Xiao Tao) to give her a permanent face change.
Chu Chu was given a beautiful face by the sorcerer, but it was only temporary Unfortunately, the only way for a face change to be permanent was for her to perform a mutual face swap with someone else. Chu Chu later got in trouble with the law for accidentally killing a debt collector, so circumstances aligned and she found the perfect victim to swap faces and lives with- her best friend Ling Yun.
Chu Chu, who now had Ling Yun's face, would take the latter's place as an Imperial Concubine, while the real Ling Yun was now taking the fall for Chu Chu's murder.
Chu Chu became an imperial concubine while Ling Yun took the rap for murderThe story from this point onwards would be kinda torturous (to Ling Yun) and preachy (to the audience). Basically, Ling Yun had to prove her innocence and identity, fight her way out of jail, travel to the capital to meet the Emperor and tell him she was the real imperial concubine. Then after she was finally acknowledged and made Empress, she had to deal with her friend Chu Chu's constant sabotage and the Emperor's secret resentment towards her now ugly face.
Ling Yun eventually got framed for consorting with an enemy of the state, had her baby switched with Chu Chu's, and got beheaded by the Emperor for it. The reason the babies were switched was because Ling Yun and Chu Chu gave birth at the same time, and Chu Chu's baby, by some sort of mutation, had darker skin. Chu Chu was afraid that this might cause her to lose favour with the Emperor. Even at that point, she still chose to be ever-trusting, ever-forgiving and understanding towards her horrible husband and friend.
The Real Ling Yun (Right) confronted the imposter in the palace
(After so many episodes, it is only now that I figured why the Chinese title of the show is 无头东宫, or Headless Empress, rather than 无脸东宫, or "The Faceless Empress".).
A kind Goddess was touched by Ling Yun's unwavering kindness despite the injustice she faced, and decided to reattach her head back to her body (yes I am not kidding you) and give her an additional 18 years to live so that she could raise the poor dark skinned baby who was thrown out of the palace by the Emperor as well. After her repsonsbility was fulfilled, she would disappear from the face of the Earth.
Even after she was given a new lease of life, she continued facing trials and tribulations, had to reform an unfilial and unethical son, and save the Emperor from the evil uncle and Chu Chu/Xiao Tao who were plotting to steal his empire. At the end of the 18 year lease, the Goddess, once again touched by her kindness, removed the birthmark from her face and allowed her to live until the rightful end of her life span. Ling Yun finally, after everything, had a face that truly reflected her beauty on the inside.
Ling Yun had her red birthmark removed by the Goddess, and in the last scene, preached to the audience that "kind people will have good endings"
The Real Horrors beyond the face change
Obviously, there is nothing more horrifying than having your entire identity and life swapped away with that of a crimminal, and realising that it was none other than a best friend you trusted so much who betrayed you.
After the goddess revealed herself to Ling Yun, Ling Yun cried in injustice to her, asking what she had done to deserve so much injustice in her life.
However, I feel that to understand why Ling Yun (and people like her) had the life that she had, one needs to take a scapel and cut her life open. Going back to her upbringing, I might be able to give her answers as to why.
1. You cannot wait around your whole life for others to see your value.
Ling Yun was the prime example of an extreme people-pleaser, and she paid for it heftily with her life. While she seemed to have grown up in a loving family with a kind and supportive father (he was not really supportive-more on this below), she grew up with pockmarks and overwhelmed with criticism and ostracism from the rest of the village. I couldn't help but feel like this experience must have scarred her somewhat, and contributed to her people-pleasing and lack of boundaries.
When someone grows up hearing for their entire life that they are defective in some way, being defined by their ugliness/poor economic background/bad grades, they make that their entire identity and spend their entire lives feeling unworthy. They might have low self-esteem, or they might over-compensate in ways in hurt themselves- one of these ways being becoming extreme people-pleasers.
It was like "ugly" was the metaphorical jail Ling Yun was born in but had to work her way out of no fault of hers, like "oh she ugly but overtime she has proven herself to actually be a useful person because she does all these acts of service for me".
And she seemed to believe she deserved being in this jail, because she didn't even defend herself when a bunch of strange men barged into her house to taunt her about being unmarriagable.
A bunch of misogynistic men barge into Ling Yun's house to poke fun at the fact that she was so ugly yet someone (the Emperor in cognito) wanted to marry her. Funny, I don't exactly see Gong Yoo or Chris Evans in that crowd
Excuse me, just take a broomstick and chase them all out. This one your house right sis? The heck you letting them come in and spit their foul words and bad breath all over for?
How come some nerds get bullied in school but not others? It is because bullies are cowards and they pick who they think are easy victims. They know which nerds will sit there and keep quiet when the bullies lock them inside a school locker, and which ones will hack the bullies' social media and bank accounts and make it so humiliating and painful for the bully that the bully doesn't think the satisfaction is worth it. Obviously, I'm not saying it is the victims' fault if they get picked on, and there is no way to 100% prevent it, but you are absolutely in control of your own response to bullying- sit there and take it, or push back, take a stand, and potentially protect other vulnerable people from becoming victims.
Of course, it looks incredibly stupid to the viewer that average calefares are calling both these actresses, Anne Heung and Marianne Chan, who are both former Miss Hong Kongs, ugly (albeit with deliberate disguises). However, it is not really that unrealistic if you think about it, because misogynistic men rag on famous beautiful women in real life as well, in fact all the time. How many times have you heard them call Zendaya/Margot Robbie "mid", for no reason other than the power trip after making these comments, comments that make them feel like they have the right to judge? How many women swing from "gorgeous" to "you are fat and ugly anyway" in a split second just because they rejected a guy? If all women are ugly, then no woman is. That word "ugly" is cheap and worthless now, thanks to misogynistic men. They don't scare us.
I had no doubt that her father loved her because he indeed supported her and stuck by her all the way. But I find the language he used on her also very problematic. "Ling Yun finally has someone who WANTS HER" - as if she is a defective product on the clearance sale aisle for any random man to please just buy. Well, does she WANT HIM? She had said multiple times she did not want to be married because she wanted to take care of her father. Why did what she want not factor in at all in this equation?
I really wonder if the producers understand that this was the underlying message they were sending to the little girls growing up watching this in the 2000s, even if Ling Yun had her happy ending in the end. All of that endless torture that wasn't her fault, that "all she had to do was overcome..." Please 丑女人活该受罪是吗？ She had to accept that receiving outright hate and discrimination, many of it life threatening, was part and parcel of her life, for the crime of being born/made ugly?
She had such low self-esteem that she was sooooooo touched the Emperor (while incognito) wanted to marry her, it was because she thought he was so kind that he didn't mind her looks. Was being respectful to you regardless how you look not bare minimum human decency? A man, especially one with status, could have multiple wives in ancient days. It was a cheap gift which was chump change to a man who could afford it. Who was to say he couldn't use you for your utility (your servititude and labour) and another few for their beauty? And might I remind you- you were the one who saved his life, so you didn't need to care this much for his cheap charity.
I really don't understand why women believe, and accept, that they should be subjected to the demands of misogynistic men if they want love and if they are not pretty they should just suffer whatever injustice gets thrown at them as a result of their looks. "Men only want pretty women" "men only want skinny women" "men only want rich women" "men this, men that" Sis, do YOU want a man who only judges you based on your youth or beauty or your race or family background or money or whatever else you cannot control? You all seem to keep believing romantic relationships are a one way street without acknowledging you can and absolutely should have your own say in the matter.
I can't help but feel her (and Chu Chu's) lives might have been different had the people around them (or even they themselves) seen the actual content of their character and their strengths. By strengths, I don't mean kindness (I will talk about why this is meaningless later), I mean what the two of them actually stood for and believed in, or even just their talents.
When Ling Yun was made Empress, one of her greatest acts of service for her country was personally leading the troops at the frontlines, and negotiating a peace treaty with the Liao empire. She had demonstrated innate negotiation and public relational skills despite having never having served in the military.
Ling Yun joined the Emperor on the frontlines shortly after being crowned EmpressChu Chu was a cunning scammer. She was able to convince Xiao Tao, convincing him to help her with the face swap and to consolidate power in the palace, through promises of wealth and status that she hadn't even acquired yet. If we put her under restraint/harsh laws, with the right boss with a strong moral compass to keep her under control, the "cunning" and "scamming tactics" can become "business acumen". She was such a terrible person I have my doubts she could be reformed, but at least she could be utilised in a productive way in society.
Pre-face swap Chu Chu convincing the socerer Xiao Tao to swap her face with her best friend in exchange for riches
From start to end, nobody noticed these talents in either of these women, it was always just "ugly woman ugly woman". It went on to decide the destiny of both these women. One went down the deep end, the other just spent her whole life begging others to love her and give her some crumbs of respect just please sir.
What is important, in real life, is that one does not end up believing these things about themselves, whether it is bad grades, "stupidty", poor family background or looks. I know a lot of woke people like to argue that we should not be expected to love ourselves before others can love us, but loving oneself is not a matter of romance, it is a matter of survival whether you like it or not.
In real life, there is no Goddess who will reattach your head back to your body, return you the money you were scammed, or undo your years of trauma after being endlessly kind and giving to the wrong people.
2. The Price of Love
"Struggle love" is a concept held by people who believe that love is something they don't deserve, something unattainable, unless they prove themselves worthy through endless trials and tribulations.
Ling Yun was so hard up about this Emperor, folding completely just because he said he wanted to marry her, so she spent half her life chasing after him, even losing her own head (literally) in the process. In real life, so many of us are brainwashed since young to believe in soulmates and believe there is this one person who will magically complete your life. The problem with that is you neglect the various forms of love that are around you, and even act in ways at their expense just for that one "love of your life".
Ling Yun had one guy (Le'ren) who stuck by her in her journey to the capital to find the Emperor. He loved her but understoof it wasn't reciprocated, but still offered her brotherly love and stuck by her all the way. She had her father who suffered so much with her in her life journey.
Le'ren, who treated Ling Yun like a sisterShe had a loyal subordinate, General Wan, who offered to die in her place when the Emperor maligned her for treason and consorting with the enemies from Liao.
He is good-looking too. I mean, why not marry him instead? He was courageous and had strong moral compass, unlike someone else...
What about the servants in the palace who respected her (whom she in turn treated like sisters), what about the people who loved her and rioted for her pardon when she was paraded around the streets to be beheaded publicly?
Most lonely people aren't in fact lonely, they just don't have a partner, and/or fail to recognise the value of the communities that they already have.
If Ling Yun felt she was paying a price for her love, then I'd say what she was really paying a price for was loving the wrong man when her affections could have been placed elsewhere. Her mistake was that she loved a man, rather than the shared values, shared life goals and brighter future this man should have with her, to the extent that she failed to get rid of him when he started becoming a threat to her life, her family and her vulnerable children. She felt like her love could fix him, but this was contingent on the fact that the Emperor must want to change to start with. Everything was totally wrong from the beginning.
So many women who love abusive men think they would be different, that they would be soft and gentle enough with this man, that she would not be nasty/stress him out/overbearing like his ex-wife. "I would cuddle him, breastfeed him standing up and take a few punches, I UNDERSTAND HIM...not like his horrible ex-wife who took the kids away from him. I mean, I mean-yes he hits them but he is sooooo misunderstood..." These women need support and therapy, not validate of their self-harm. Is it possible to reform a bad man? Yes, but you need to bear in mind that they are often not reformed by soft feminine ever-giving women; rather, they are reformed by jail time/the justice system, consequences, public ostracism or people who are more evil than him.
Have so much love in heart? Save it for your family, old people, animals and children.
3. Pretty privilege is real but it only gets you so far.
The Emperor in this series often derided as shallow and lustful, caring only about Chu Chu's beautiful face. When the face switch first came to light and the Emperor finally realised that the Chu Chu in the palace was an imposter, the Emperor demanded that Xiao Tao switched their faces back. He was flipping mad when it could not happen, which broke Ling Yun's heart and caused her to walk out of the palace. I think none of the people watching and commenting in the Youtube noticed this minor detail, but Ling Yun said this to the Emperor:
"皇上既要人品又要美貌，天大地大，皇上定会找到您想要的女子。" (Your Majesty wants a lady both beauty and a kind heart. The world is vast. I am sure Your Majesty will find what you are looking for)
I remembered watching this and thinking, "ya lor, if all he wanted was beauty, he could have anyone. So why was he so hard up about Chu Chu from start till end?"
The Emperor only had two Empress and Concubine in his palace (Ling Yun and Chu Chu) his whole life. Even after Chu Chu first came into the palace and was uncultured, rude, terrible towards the servants, it did not bother the Emperor one bit and he even wanted to make her Empress. Even after the truth came to light and he ordered Chu Chu's execution, and then Chu Chu came back as another woman with the same face, he did not suspect a single thing and brought her into the palace, bestowing titles upon titles on her. An Emperor who simply loved beauty would have concubines after concubines. He would fall in love with new face after new face, not be deadly loyal to one woman at the expense of his empire and his own wife.
Greedy Chu Chu and incompetent Emperor- a match made in Heaven
The logical conclusion I hence gained from this was that, Chu Chu was in fact the Emperor's actual soulmate. She was his true love, and Ling Yun was just a third party.
Chu Chu and the Emperor, if we think about it, had a lot more in common in the way of personal values. Chu Chu loved money and power. The Emperor loved fun and merry-making- which explained why he chose to travel incognito to a small-time village renowned for its beautiful people, rather than somewhere scenic like Jiangnan or some economic hub where he could actually have a good sense of the ground. Neither can be arsed about caring for Song empire or the greater good. Even on the frontlines, he demanded to eat delicacies delivered from the palace while his troops were eating rations. What a POS!
Ling Yun, her looks aside, was actually a major stumbling block to what he wanted out of life, which was all the fun and none of the responsbilities of being an Emperor. Sure, he had one moment of gratitude when she saved his life and she still had her original face and decided to make her a concubine, but I suspect he would have wounded up hating her all the same even if she still had the original face.
He actually actively hated Ling Yun's preaching about the people and the country, to the point that in a blind fit of hatred he had her maligned for treason and publicly executed even after she established a peace agreement with the Khitans, causing riots among the citizens who loved her, at the expense of his country's stability and his popularity.
For the record, I don't know any Empress in history of any standing Chinese empire (fallen and invaded ones don't count) who got publicly beheaded. If they did something wrong, they usually just "died from myserious illnesses" to save the imperial family's face. ChatGPT confirms this.
Think about this in today's terms. What kind of women do rich billionaires choose? The ones who are looking for equal, loving marriages based on mutual respect will pick educated wives who share common topics and values with them. The ones who get into transactional relationships look for younger women who buy into that exact same transaction. It's not so much about looks than it is about an alignment in values. Emma Watson and Charlize Theron are very beautiful women, but somehow I don't they are the kind that rich billionaires would choose for transactional reasons.
Speaking of differing values...
4. What you think is an act of kindness may not be objectively better for your reality.
This Emperor had very few redeeming qualities to him and was barely passable as a decent human being, let alone an Emperor.
This is exactly why I didn't understand why Ling Yun was so adamant on helping him keep the throne. In the years he was on the throne he raised taxes, drove many people into poverty, and installed corrupt and greedy officials into positions of power. Worse, when his deposed son (the dark skinned prince) met him incognito and criticised the Emperor not knowing it was him, he made excuse after excuse that he was not a useless Emperor, just being manipulated and lied to. He tio gong tao therefore made all of these bad decisions, he claimed.
He couldn't even raise his own son! He left the Crown Prince (Ling Yun's biological son) to be corrupted by Chu Chu for her own shits and giggles, to the extent the dude goes into the city to pay people to fight each other to the death for his own entertianment, without even bothering to hide his identity. Where were the imperial teachers? What kind of people did this Emperor appoint to educate his son?
What did he mean he was cheated? The only way all of this would have been possible, was if he as Emperor had actively empowered corrupt officials and installed system upon system of institutional rot. It wasn't even a case of the Song empire had been this failed from the beginning and he inherited this mess; his people felt this change during his reign and specifically attributed it to him.
Like that I also cannot discharge my duties everyday because my house is too small and it is giving me depression. Because I don't have 10 million dollars and it is giving me anxiety. Because my clothes are grey and yellow and it wasn't motivating me to go to work. I cannot drive to work because my finger pain (this was an actual excuse someone gave me at work by the way).
This guy was so stupid, that when Chu Chu swapped her dark-skinned child with Ling Yun's more East Asian-looking one and Ling Yun tried to clear the air, he wanted to execute the dark-skinned child to make a point, and determined that just because Ling Yun stopped him from killing the child, the child must have been biologically hers. I tell you, citizens of Song, you don't quickly petition for negative taxes (i.e. he pays you to live in his country), you are really wasting this Emperor's out-of-this-world IQ.
The Emperor wanted a carefree life, which was fundamentally not compatible with the requirements of being an Emperor. Why was Ling Yun trying to interfere with his free will? Who is to say having a next better player take his place and do a much better job wouldn't have been a better outcome?
His evil uncle wanted to overthrow him. Was the uncle wrong?
Xiao Tao wanted to swap faces with him and assume his identity to take the throne. I mean, Xiao Tao wasn't exactly taking the throne for noble reasons, but I felt like anyone else literally could have done a better job than this current idiot.
Ya please just faster swap this Emperor's face away I see already I also tired4. Kindness, without a real purpose or cause, is pointless, even destructive.
We cannot always be nothing but textbook definition of kindness all the time, especially at times when we have nothing left to give, and especially at the expense of our own rights and the people we care about. That sort of kindness, ironically, would be destructive.
For example, why do you want to be nice to your co-workers? It is because you fundamentally believe in treating others how you want to be treated and creating a condusive environment for work. Why do you volunteer at animal shelters? Because you are passionate about animal rights. Why do you help a friend out when they are in need? Because that person is a friend whom you appreciate, you understand that people sometimes fall into bad times and you feel that you should support them as much as it is within your means.
It cannot be just because "my father taught me to be kind". Your kindness might be misplaced, might end up harming someone more.
In primary school, we were taught to help a kid up when they fall, pick up litter, help old auntie cross the road. Unfortunately the world beyond a primary school is far more complicated than that. Every decision one makes, every person one decides to help, is often at the expense of something else.
You think you are donating to charity, but half the proceeds go to the pockets of the CEO rather than those in need. You report the CEO for fraud, but it also means hundreds of people who have families to feed potentially get implicated. You let them off, but how do you ensure there are proper mechanisms in place to ensure corruption does not happen again? Do you even have the right to demand this information? Is it better for those in need to get at least some money from this corrupt charity, or none at all if the charity collapses?
It is not all black and white and one can only decide the best course of action based on one's own fundamental principles and what limited knowledge they have. Sometimes you need to listen to someone else's seemingly less kind course of action because it would be for the greater good.
In the course of her life, Ling Yun made excuses for so many bad people, let them off when she had the chance to teach them a painful lesson they would never forget, and let so much shit slide that I wonder if it wouldn't have been better if nature had taken its course and someone with a normal conscience just took them to task earlier.
Comments
Post a Comment