About face

It has always fascinated me why certain foreign entertainers have a sizable following in China while others, equally accomplished and renowned, simply fly by without registering significantly with the Chinese public. It has come to my attention that one widely exposed piece of work could account more for fame in China than a whole body of work; and a winning persona is more relevant than acting ability.

Four-time Oscar winner Katharine Hepburn is known to few Chinese, but Audrey Hepburn made a lasting impression with Roman Holiday, which was screened in China as late as the 1980s. She came across as the perfect princess - almost like one out of a fairy tale. That explains the occasional appearance of her image licensed for advertising Chinese products - two decades after her death.

I don't think an ordinary Chinese can readily recall a movie - or a television moment for that matter - associated with Marilyn Monroe. But the image plus the Chinese name Menglu, which means "dream exposure" somehow clicks with the public, though what's received on this side of the Pacific could well diverge from the persona in her home country.

After years of unscientific sampling and parsing, I have detected some vaguely meaningful trends in the West-to-East influence of gigantic big-screen luminaries. Western stars who receive a disproportionate share of Chinese love tend to have facial or physical features that seem to be a mix of Caucasians and Asians. French actress Sophie Marceau is a case in point. Her face is not strikingly European, but much softer. At least that's how many Chinese see her.

Most Chinese have very different - sometimes opposite - aesthetics when it comes to feminine beauty. They prefer women to have medium height, lily-white skin and smooth facial features. The supermodel type works only in - well, in the modeling business, where otherness overrules easy relatability. And this applies to Chinese as well. I have seen advertisements of Fortune 500 companies using Asian women with high cheekbones and healthy skin to hawk skin-care products. I could instantly figure out that the ads were designed in New York, not in Beijing or Shanghai, and were definitely not market-tested.