[FEATURE] Archetypes of Female Leads in Asian Popular Culture
Note: This is an original feature written by Canto for JayneStars.com.
The female lead in drama serials comes in a variety of types and archetype in dramas from Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea and China. Some female celebrities like to be versatile while others do not mind being typecast because it lends them a strong image.
In this article, we examine four popular and common female archetype portrayals in dramas.
Jade Girl
Above: Crystal Liu and Song Hye Kyo
Exemplified by: Linda Chung, Crystal Liu, Song Hye Kyo (Autumn in my Heart), Yoona (from SNSD, in the drama Love Rain), Yang Mi, and Liu Shi Shi.
The Jade Girl of the female lead portrayed in popular culture is one of the most popular and enduring. Female celebrities have built their entire career around this image.
The Jade Girl is the most beautiful, pure, pristine, cherished and lovable character in a drama. Her goodness affects those around her, winning her the admiration of the male lead, the audience, and usually other male characters in the drama. She may be modest or demure.
In addition, she may come from poor or unfortunate circumstances through no fault of her own, but like Cinderella, she will rise above her circumstances due to her good nature and the help of her prince and those who cherish her. Commonly, she will also encounter bullies. In the end though, she will triumph over them and her circumstances and be rewarded with her love.
Some Jade Girls on screen translate their decent girl roles to their personal image and vice versa e.g. Linda Chung.
To be a Jade Girl, innocent, elegant and angelic looks are a prerequisite.
The Jade Girl has met with some resistance in the recent years, particularly from the competition of the trend of the “Sassy Girl” lead. Some critics of the Jade Girl may accuse her of being boring, old fashioned or a weak damsel in distress.
My Sassy Girl
Above: Mandy Wong and Ella Chen
Exemplified by: Mandy Wong (Divas in Distress), Ella Chen, Rainie Yang (Miss No Good), Lee Ji-Ah (Me Too, Flower!)
My “Sassy Girl” evolves as a contrast to the Jade Girl. Sassy Girl can be tomboyish and loud outwardly in contrast to the modest Jade Girl. Sassy Girl can also be spoilt, unreasonable or a misunderstood rich girl. In some variations of the Sassy Girl, they take on a further element of cuteness, for e.g. acting like a “country girl” for comic effect.
The male lead is initially unimpressed by the Sassy Girl although he acknowledges that she is pretty when she dresses up. The male lead may avoid or deign her at first. After a series of situations which forces them to spend time together and bring them closer, the male lead realizes the inner beauty of the Sassy Girl. The final outcome is usually that the male lead along with the audience eventually falls for her.
Strong, Independent Woman
Above: Charmaine Sheh and Tavia Yeung
Exemplified by: Charmaine Sheh, Flora Chen, Jessica Hsuan, Tavia Yeung
Hong Kong dramas in particular have done well in promoting the Strong, Independent Woman as main female leads. Charmaine Sheh and Tavia Yeung have played the roles of the up and coming lawyer, doctor, police section chief and other professionals frequently in TVB dramas. The female lead of this category has her own career; she is confident, well balanced, mature in her thinking and behavior, and successful. She knows what she is doing and where she is going in life, with or without a male partner. If required, she can also rock the short hair do well, looking confident and feminine.
Her admirers are usually male leads from a similar industry as her, and also a go-getter and successful. Above all, he is a confident man who is not intimidated by her success in the corporate world and respects her talents and capability.
In love, she is assured and lovable, not maudlin or clingy. She is modern society’s epitome of a successful woman female lead.
Female Fatale
Above: Kate Tsui and Lee Hyori
Exemplified by: Shu Qi, Maggie Q, Kate Tsui, Lee Hyori, Son Dambi, HyunA
Some women are blessed with sexy good looks and curvaceous bodies. Female stars such as Shu Qi and Kate Tsui use their sex appeal and image to great effect, igniting the worship of male characters onscreen and viewers. They are loved for their great figures and sexy hair, faces or attitude and womanly charms. In line with their direct sex appeal, they may also be portrayed as free spirited, flirtatious, daring or fun loving.
Although she has her critics, the Female Fatale has a solid and enduring place as an archetype in drama portrayal of women.
In closing, certainly there are more types of female leads in dramas, lending to great diversity and interest. Due to brevity, this article only attempts to look at four popular common archetype portrayals.
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This original feature article is written by Canto, a Contributing Writer at JayneStars.com.
I prefer the Sassy Girl and Strong, Independent Woman archetypes because they have more interesting personality traits.
Actually, I find that Niki Chow has filmed many Sassy Girl roles and I would choose her for the HK representative. As for Strong, Independent Woman, it would be Jessica Hsuan for me.
I’m not really fond of the Jade Girl archetype as the modesty and shyness generally means there are more interesting characters in the series to compensate.
I see Niki as more of the jade girl type, rather than the sassy girl. What shows has she portrayed a sassy girl? I’m having trouble remembering.
I agree with you, when I think of jade girls, I think of Linda and I gotta say, her acting is getting even worst over the years. It was alright for the first 3 years, but she should have another type of role.
shows that there is much diversity. keeps it interesting.
Actually it shows that however diverse personality there may be amongst women and female characters, they can all be typecast into 4 stereotypes, therefore that kills the idea of diverse personality.
And I disagree a little on the strong independent women as shown on TV by TVB universe because all of them deep down are emotional wrecks. The truly strong female portrayal I have seen recently is Friendly Fire’s rape victim who decided she is not a victim and therefore triumph over diversity. That is probably the only truly positive female portrayal in a situation that is not wholly positive.
And is this article talking about characters or the actresses themselves?
Funn,
The article covers the archetypes commonly found in dramas, with examples of actresses who often portray such roles.
I definitely like the Sassy Girl more, especially in Taiwanese dramas. Jade Girl is just so ho-hum boring (although Crystal Liu is very pretty). I also like Strong, Independent Woman because they are the type who fights for what they want, but are not the clingy type. They would rather let go than be put in a position they don’t wanna be by men. My favorite has got to be Jessica’s Ms. Mo from DIF4. Man, I don’t think I can watch the ending without getting teary-eyed.
As for femme fatale, the article is missing Irene Wan. I loved her character in Gods of Honor. I also like femme fatales, because c’mon they are good eye candy (and this is coming from a girl).
I like the strong, independent type. I don’t like the jade girl because I find most of them too unrealistically good.
Although Jade girl is boring , but the audience still love them . If not , How Linda Chung able to make up to first place in the 2013 TV magazine award .
with the help of TVB, no really on her own of course
Great article. Hope to see more articles like this!
strong independent woman are the best but my example for this would be myolie wu. this type still good even when they are a bit tomboyish.strong independent woman are realistic and gives positive image to women!
dislike jade girl. feel fake and makea women look weak. but hk people seem to love artistes with jade girl image such as linda chung.
Jade girls is probably the most unreal types, Idk just seem too perfect for me. Sassy girls are always fun to watch. As for strong independent women, it really depends who the actress is cause some can be boring. Femme Fatale are always entertaining to watch, they can be fun.
i prefer jade girls and femme fatales myself. i can’t identify with the career woman types and sassy girls are usually super annoying, stubborn and rash.
Of all the archetypes, I prefer the jade girl image the least. They are very boring to watch in a series and it’s very unrealistic that they have all or at a minimum, several of the male characters falling for them. Just not realistic in my opinion.
I personally like female fatale, they’re usually fun and smart and I like how the producers create their first time appearane in drama/movie, it’s impressive – i like it. it’s just my opinion
What can I say… I’m a sucker for the Jade type in movies etc.. followed by the independent type.
Nice article:) I would also put Vivian Chow Wai Man as a Jade girl, but I guess she is considered to be a singer rather than actress? I like Sassy girl in dramas, Mandy is too cute with Him him in ‘Mum in Distress’, and this Tavia as Mavis here is so beautiful. great examples:)
Oh, I agree with you… I thought Vivian Chow is the exact epitome of a Jade Girl. She hasn’t acted in a long time though, so maybe that’s also why she wasn’t on the list?
need this type of article for male.
Heh, seconded.
Get to work Canto.
I actually like the Jade girl ~ too lovable to not like. And OFC unrealistic, what part of a movie/drama is realistic anyways? I don’t really like the “sassy girl” type ~ way too stubborn and jumping to conclusions, it’s like they don’t have much common sense :l Independent/Career woman is quite alright, I quite like it actually. Same with femme fatale, very interesting to watch!
I always find the strong independent woman archetype the most enjoying to watch.
… in real life the men that are attracted to these types of women are often not asian as well.i thought that was quite interesting to see!
(I find so in this demographic in where I work/live)
Left out the dumb annoying girl with a good heart archetype. Represented by Myolie Wu, the expert in the good girl characters who annoyingly try to help everyone but end up making things worse.
nyny,
I would classify Myolie as the Sassy Girl with the good heart, such as her role in “War of In-Laws”.
It appears that women may find the Sassy Girl to be more interesting, as we can identify with some unreasonable aspects of ourselves, especially demands on bfs/husbands, reflected in the characters.
Uhm, the only sassy girl I like is from the movie my sassy girl. All other sassy girls are just unreasonable spoiled annoying brat to me -.- they always annoyed the hell out of me. You could be rough, but not insensitive, or selfish to the point of over common sense. And almost all sassy girl turned into a jade girl (as in nice in everything to anything), anyway.
I don’t think I’ve seen anyone classified housewives as sassy girls :p and just because you have certain demands on your bf doesn’t mean you are sassy type >_>
I love Sheh and Mandy Wong!
What happened to Myolie Wu? Is she so flexible that she isn’t mentioned as an archetype?
are you joking?!!!
More like inflexible. Most of her characters are those dumb girls with the heart of gold. Always trying to help out and care for everyone but makes things worse.
I find that men seem to prefer Jade girls or Femme Fatales while women like Sassy Girl or Independent Woman.
I have always enjoyed the Independent Women archetype because that usually means a more interesting plot or story or character reveal/reaction. I would classify Charmaine Sheh’s Hazel in WHB to be the Sassy Girl turned Independent Woman.
Sassy girls can be interesting but TVB usually insists on making them unreasonable or rash while piling on the cliches. The cliche I find most boring is the makeup and dress routine where the sassy girl is feminine and likeable all of a sudden. Second would be getting somehow “dominated” by the male lead to become docile. Barf.
Femme Fatales are usually quite one note without much dialogue. But they have most interesting back stories often.
Jade Girls – in my opinion was canonized by Jin Yong when he created Dragon Girl. They are loved by everyone and everyone wants to save them.
I love the femme fatale types.
Ladies, don’t be shy now. We all know every girl loves to look at sexy women. Don’t lie to yourself.
Sassy Girls are almost always the leads in romantic comedies e.g ‘Coffee Prince’. They are always entertaining because they are full of flaws but have their lovable sides which the male leads will eventually fall in love with. What I don’t like is sometimes when the Sassy Girls are written as too dense, idiotic etc. like some of Ella Chen’s characters. Vicki Zhao’s Little Swallow in HZGG is a perfect example of a Sassy Girl.
Jade Girls are Boring with a capital B, and often I feel like smacking them, again for being sooo naive and helpless. Vivian Chow, Kathy Chow, Nnadia Chan and most TVB fadans often start off playing Jade Girls to win audiences hearts. I consider Tavia Yeung more a Jade Girl than a Strong Woman type as her characters are often too weepy and melancholic to be considered Strong Women. Actually there’s another category which this article doesn’t mention – The Selfless Martyrs (closely related to The Jade Girl) which suits Tavia better. These Selfless Martyrs are often too good to be true, always sacrificing their own happiness for those around them, e.g Maggie Cheung Hor Yee in The Last Steep Ascent.
The Strong, Independent types are definitely my favorite. Sharon Teng, Carina Lau, Maggie Shiu (in her prime years at TVB from, 1990-92), Dodo Cheng, Liza Wang, Flora Chan, Jessica Hsuan etc usually play these types of characters.
Femme Fatales can go either way – sometimes they are hated by audiences (especially the female audience) for their overt sexiness which can be perceived as ‘slutty’ or threatening. Irene Wan wasn’t much loved by the female audience but the male audiences found her good eye candy. Fala Chen started off her career at TVB with a femme fatale image, then switched to Jade Girl in Moonlight Resonance as the mute girl. Cherie Chung and Shu Qi are the most memorable Femme Fatales in the HK movie industry.
I didn’t watch the whole ‘Diva in Distress’. But, from the parts I watch, I didn’t find Mandy’s character sassy. I just find her insecure and weak.
I like Sassy Girl that most because this type is usually the funniest 🙂 Jade Girl, I think is quite popular because lots or people (like Asian most guys) like and prefer this type of women, at least in their dreams lol—she is well juxtaposed with the femme fatal.
It would be cool to see a well rounded female onscreen that has character traits of all of these women. But alas, these are archetypes for a reason.
From reading the comments here, I notice that many female viewers dislike the Jade Girl archetype.
I wonder if it’s because Jade Girl is viewed as weak and damsel in distress, while the Sassy Girl is viewed as strong, and the girls like to see wrong female characters, so, they like Sassy Girl.
Actually i think it is because no one can believe such a jade girl can exist. Most will believe that a pretty girl will sleep around, and whatever and will not be goody two shoes. If goody two shoes, they must be faking it. No one can believe there can be someone who is pretty and remain largely innocent and pure. Nothing to do with damsel in distress. Some of the actresses named as sassy girl in the characters they play are damsel in distress. Most Taiwanese portrayals of such girls are contradictory. They are independent until what comes of love and they become jelly, dependent, whiny. Look at Mandy’s Divas In Distress. And yet some jade girl portrayals are rather strong in conviction and in their beliefs. People just like to think worst of others who doesn’t fit into their line of thinking.
“People just like to think worst of others who doesn’t fit into their line of thinking.”
So, Jade Girl is disliked because they are too good to be true?
Sassy Girls are almost always the leads in romantic comedies e.g ‘Coffee Prince’. They are always entertaining because they are full of flaws but have their lovable sides which the male leads will eventually fall in love with. What I don’t like is sometimes when the Sassy Girls are written as too dense, idiotic etc. like some of Ella Chen’s characters. Vicki Zhao’s Little Swallow in HZGG is a perfect example of a Sassy Girl.
Jade Girls are Boring with a capital B, and often I feel like smacking them, again for being sooo naive and helpless. Vivian Chow, Kathy Chow, Nnadia Chan and most TVB fadans often start off playing Jade Girls to win audiences hearts. I consider Tavia Yeung more a Jade Girl than a Strong Woman type as her characters are often too weepy and melancholic to be considered Strong Women. Actually there’s another category which this article doesn’t mention – The Selfless Martyrs (closely related to The Jade Girl) which suits Tavia better. These Selfless Martyrs are often too good to be true, always sacrificing their own happiness for those around them, e.g Maggie Cheung Hor Yee in The Last Steep Ascent.
The Strong, Independent types are definitely my favorite. Sharon Teng, Carina Lau, Maggie Shiu (in her prime years at TVB from, 1990-92), Dodo Cheng, Liza Wang, Flora Chan, Jessica Hsuan etc usually play these types of characters.
Femme Fatales can go either way – sometimes they are hated by audiences (especially the female audience) for their overt sexiness which can be perceived as ‘slutty’ or threatening. Irene Wan wasn’t much loved by the female audience but the male audiences found her good eye candy. Fala Chen started off her career at TVB with a femme fatale image, then switched to Jade Girl in Moonlight Resonance as the mute girl. Cherie Chung and Shu Qi are the most memorable Femme Fatales in the HK film industry.
While watching HZGG, I prefer Zi Wei over Little Swallow. Little Swallow irritated me because she never learn from her mistakes and keep on creating unnecessary problem for others.
Why is my comment still awaiting moderation since yesterday?! This is irritating!
jade girl attracts me the most and i pay full attention and focus on them when i watch dramas… But strong, independent woman roles are somewhat charming in a way the actresses protray that made me like them too!!
I admire Lee Hyori she is amazing, seems incredilbly nice she Loves Animals, Nature, Gives her time and Openness to those who are less fortunate, the world we live in. and is very out going. I Thank You Miss Lee Hyori for all you do for the World, Animals and being the Caring person you are
Definitely favor the Strong, Independent Woman archetype, as they are the most realistic and least irritating of the bunch. While the Sassy Girl isn’t as boring as the Jade Girl, I find her coarse behavior/mannerisms, brattiness and tendency to be “misunderstood” equally annoying. My second preference would be the Femme Fatale because she exhibits a lot of similar qualities to the Independent Woman, although unfortunately, often lacking rationale.