I’ve watched so many cdramas lately that I need to make a list of my preferences. Since I don’t personally know any of these actresses, my criteria for liking/disliking them are:

Aesthetics. Beauty is subjective. My perception of what’s beautiful or not is shaped by my background and experience.

Voice. A lower voice sounds warmer than a high-pitched voice. It’s more controlled, confident, and dominant.

Persona or image they project. “Vibes”

Roles they choose. I get that lead actresses can be typecast to play strong, independent women, manic pixie dream girls (read up on MPDGs), and suffering martyrs.

My Favorite:

Bai Lu (30 years old)

The plot of her dramas might be a hit or miss for me but she’s always fun to watch. I first saw her in “Lucky’s First Love” and her peppy character more than made up for her co-star’s cold demeanor.

Fast forward six years, and she’s played memorable roles in “One and Only,” “Forever and Ever,” “Till the End of the Moon,” and “Story of Kunning Palace” (yes, this is on my list to watch). Meanwhile, her co-star, Xing Zhao Lin, seems stuck in limbo playing the same boring rich guy/mean guy roles.

I can tell an actor has made the Leading Man status, if he’s starred in a project with Bai Lu.

source: ladynamie’s tumblr

Second placers:

Song Zuer aka Lareina Song (27 years old)

I liked her when I first saw her in “Legally Romance.” So I waited for her “Demon Hunter’s Romance,” and watched her “Prisoner of Beauty.” She doesn’t have the visuals of the sweet and kind girl-next-door. But her sharp eyes and pointed chin go well with the acerbic wit and sharp tongue of the women she portrays. She isn’t going to play a doormat any time soon.

source: peachblossomdream’s tumblr

Zhao LuSi (26 years old)

She was awful when I first saw her in “I Hear You.” Not only did her baby cheeks make her look like a chipmunk, but I couldn’t relate to her young character. But I began liking her in “Dating in the Kitchen” and I loved her in “Hidden Love.”
I thought “Love Like the Galaxy” was a reach for her acting but I praise her efforts.

source: ahsung’s tumblr

The runners-up:

They won me over and I keep an eye out on their future cdramas.

Wang ChuRan (26 years old)

I couldn’t see her appeal in that YangYang drama, “Fireworks of My Heart” but then I realized that it’s more his fault than hers. His wooden standoffish acting simply sucks the romance from his female co-stars. But she and Zhang WanYi hit it off in “Are You the One?” They could look regal and stately but still project loving warmth.

source: seawherethesunsets’ tumblr

Landi Li (25 years old)

In contrast to Song Zuer, I thought she looked like a typical girl-next-door who would be forever playing a sweetheart to a mean, misunderstood tsundere sort of guy. That’s how I saw her in “Go Into Your Heart.”

I’m happy with her success in “Coroner’s Diary.” I hope to see her with her male co-star in a modern drama.

source: dramasauce’ tumblr

Lu YuXiao (25 years old)

I liked her in “Perfect Match.” She played the character with just the right feistiness and cuteness. Unfortunately, with the way the story was set up, her scenes dwindled after the 10th episode, when her perfect match was fulfilled.

I may confuse her with Landy Li but I think her persona appears more delicate. She also reminds me Kim Hye Yoon (“Lovely Runner”) so I must watch her again in another show to make her memorable.

source: xiaolanhua’s tumblr

Ma Sichun (37 years old)

I don’t know how she does it. Her cuteness doesn’t rub the wrong way. Perhaps because I first saw her in that romcom “Oh My General” where she played a fierce general to an effete and overly-refined lord. Maybe because I like her in that mystery/thriller show, “Love Me If You Dare.” Or maybe because I like her as the capable and understated medical doctor in “You Are My Hero.”

It’s easy to have a girl-crush on her, if girl-crushes were a thing.

source: pinardeniz’s tumblr

Actresses I avoid like the plague: 

Dilraba Dilmurat (33 years old)

Sorrynotsorry. I don’t care if she has Uyghur ancestry; her big eyes simply give me the creeps. I don’t think they’re proportional to the rest of her face. And they remind me of deer eyes I sometimes see at night in my back yard.

I tried finishing her modern drama with Yang Yang, “You Are My Glory.” Her eyes didn’t bother me so much in this series partly because there were other things to distract me from staring into them for a long period of time. Like, her clothes and accessories and Yang Yang in her arms.

Shen Yue (28 years old)

Not my type. I’m sure she’s pretty in real life if she’s chosen to be actress. But to me she looks proletarian, common, and inelegant about her.

But there’s a logical explanation for this.

She first appeared in shows that I didn’t care for, namely, “Meteor Garden” and “A Love So Beautiful.” These left me with the impression that she was ugly to look at.

Why? Because in “Meteor Garden,” all the five guys were supposedly handsome bullying a nondescript female lead. And in “A Love So Beautiful,” the male lead is a popular handsome student whom this plain Jane female lead is crushing on.

Do you see what I mean? To me, she appeared in cdrama-land when the “ugly duckling” heroine was a very popular trope. So, it stuck in my head that she’s unattractive. Lol.

That’s why the shows and roles the actresses choose matter.

Zhao Jin Mai (22 years old)

I blame her for ruining “The Princess Royal” for me. There was neither charm nor warmth in her portrayal of the heroine. Loving the prince was like pulling teeth for her. In his emotional confession scene with her – with water dripping down his nose, no less — she looked detached from the moment.

I totally didn’t get the buzz about that cdrama.

And now that the same couple have teamed up in a modern drama “Our Generation,” I hope the viewers will finally see what I’ve spotted previously. She has only an infinitesimal rapport with Zhang LingHe.

I didn’t want to watch “Amid a Snowstorm of Love.”

I think she should avoid romances and do more mystery/investigative shows like “Reset” where it’s not taxing for her to pretend romantic interest in a guy.

Esther Yu (29 years old)

I’ve said this so many times before: I detest actresses with baby voices and baby-like acting style. I can rattle off their names.

Yoo In Na
Yang Zi, and
Esther Yu

Given their ages, (43, 32, and 29 in that order), I don’t get why they persist in sounding breathy like a baby and acting all-cute and defenseless like a child.

I read somewhere that Esther Yu is a voice-over actress so it’s ironic that I dislike her for her voice.

She’s the reason I couldn’t watch Dylan Wang in “Love Between Fairy and Devil.” Her manic-pixie-dream-girl character so turned me off in the first few episodes that I no longer cared to see her “cultivation” in later episodes.

Later, I discovered that she was also in that cdrama “I’ve Fallen for You” which I panned for being cancerous to the brain cells. Maybe I just don’t understand Chinese humor, especially the toilet humor.

So don’t make me watch “Love Game in Eastern Fantasy” if she’s playing another airhead/airy-fairy character here.

Yang Zi (32 years old)

I only tolerated her childish acting in that modern drama “Go Go Squid” where she played a genius teen in love with an older guy.

Maybe she’s all grown up in “Lost You Forever” and her current show, “In the Name of Blossom,” but I still have post traumatic syndrome from that one episode of “Ashes of Love.”

I’ll pause for now.