Lin Shuyuan Seowon, who was born in 11, released a solo single as early as 21, and on January 18 this year, he officially stepped into the K-pop world as a member of the Unis girl group.
Group photo of the unis girl group
Lin Shuyuan
released a single at the age of 10 and joined the girl group at the age of 13, although her debut at a young age is not a new thing in the girl group world, but when her sister squeezed out Zhang Yuan's British smile at the camera, revealing the gap in the tooth replacement period, Chinese and foreign netizens still unanimously felt the shock of age.
Although Lin Shuyuan's style is not overly exposed and challenges the moral bottom line, her overly mature expression management still makes people feel out of touch with their age.
Zhang Yuan British wink
Interestingly, Shuyuan's sister's style, hair seams, braids, and often asymmetrical, and she basically tilted her head when taking pictures. After watching it for a long time, I have the feeling that I am also stiff shoulder.
In Korean entertainment, which is meticulous in the management of idol styling, this situation can only be intentional. So why give her a look that emphasizes asymmetry?
The younger you are, the more flattering the girl group look
Because Lin Shuyuan's age is indeed too young, removing the makeup of the girl group, she is exactly what she should be at this age, with bright hair like a captain, and a straight look like a children's photo studio.
There is a roughness of the transition from childhood to adolescence – the striking proportions of childhood have just faded, and the secondary sexual characteristics of puberty have not yet begun to develop.
And the team designed her crooked head and crooked hair seams, which can appropriately dissipate her righteous and awe-inspiring sense of captain and add the softness of an adult woman.
In particular, long straight hair that is pulled behind the ears and covers the side of the face is also a hairstyle choice that adds a sense of maturity. With such a hairstyle, FBB is the most used in internal entertainment.
After reading books for a long time, I will have doubts, what should a child star of this age look like?
is also a singing and dancing star, 14-year-old Mai Li plays a superstar in the TV series "Hannah Montana", and her demeanor is also natural and kind.
12-year-old Lindsay Lohan is also emphasizing the cleverness and cuteness of little girls in "A Natural Pair", which is likable rather than flattering.
Even playing the killer in the restricted movie "King Haibian", the image of 13-year-old Chloe Moretz emphasizes the vigor and flexibility of his skills and the sharpness of his character.
In South Korean film and television, the 13-year-old girl is well-behaved and sensible on the basis of innocence, such as the 13-year-old Park Shin Hye in "Stairway to Heaven", and the 13-year-old Moon Geun Young in "Blue Life and Death Love".
Before the official arrival of puberty, girls tend to have a more arrogant and confident temperament than adults.
The bleeding, physical shame, and hormonal changes that come with the development of secondary sex characteristics have not completely changed this group, and because of their intellectual precociousness and well-behaved personality, they are more comfortable with family and society than boys of the same age.
Social discipline has not really hurt them, and before puberty, at least some of them are treated as "children" like boys, so they have a higher degree of freedom.
Unlike the film and television world, which has various roles, the girl group only has one image - a 18-year-old "perfect" teenager and girl with complete sexual characteristics - a young and complete sexual character.
Therefore, 13-year-old Lin Shuyuan, as a member of the girl group, can only play maturity with various makeup and expression management.
The aesthetic changes in the appearance of the little female idols
In the era when the idol market was pioneered and the commodification of idols had not yet been fully achieved, the choice of idol faces was more like choosing a goddess style from among the actors. For example, SM's first face Yanagi Ma.
Today's aesthetic templates are evolving towards shorter, more youthful faces. The expression needs to be "milky", it seems to have a lot of personality, but it will not cause harm to anyone.
For example, Ahyeon Zheng Yaxian, a member of BABYMONSTER who is nicknamed Jennie's successor by netizens, has the same fleshy lower half of her face and cat eyebrows.
The difference is that it is difficult to find a second one like Jennie because of the short nose + wide eye distance formed by the extremely small face, and it is difficult to replicate.
Overall, big companies are trying to replicate success stories, but there are a few trends worth noting on top of that.
(1) Young age
The debut of Korean girl group members is not new, and the well-known Boa BoA (debuted at the age of 13), SHINee's Taemin (14 years old), f(x)'s Jung so-jung (15 years old) and so on are all on stage at a young age.
BoA Boa
But as now, the phenomenon of a large number of thirteen or fourteen-year-old children debuting and becoming famous is more common.
Hyein13岁时的vlog
Like Lin Shuyuan we analyzed at the beginning, not only is she young, but the entire group she belongs to is young, with only one adult, Elisa (22 years old), and several other members are minors.
The appearance of a large number of real and childish faces has limited the style of the girl group, and the style of girl crush and teen crush is not only in line with popular preferences, but also a helpless move.
On the other hand, the children's faces have not yet been finalized, and their personalities have not been fully developed, and their recognition and expressiveness will be reduced, which makes it even worse for the girl group that is already trapped in weak recognition.
Children dancing in a girl group will also increase the psychological burden of some audiences.
(2) The number of foreign faces has increased
In the early years, the most foreign faces of the girl group were Chinese and Japanese, and now pure foreign girl groups are not uncommon.
For example, BLACKSWAN launched by DR Company is a pure foreign girl group with 0 Asian faces.
Pato (Belgium), Sriya (India), Gabi (Germany, Brazil) and Nvee (USA)
ONLY ONE PERSON OF KATSEYE LAUNCHED BY HYBE IS A KOREAN NATIONAL, WHILE THE OTHERS ARE FROM THE UNITED STATES, THE PHILIPPINES AND SWITZERLAND.
But they neither stepped on the local aesthetic nor attracted the target market, and these girl groups were all confused without exception.
(3) Increased height
In the fifth-generation girl group (domestic algorithm), the average height of many groups has exceeded 165cm, such as IVE with an average height of 170cm and Newjeans with 167cm.
IVE currently has the highest average height in the girl group
There are more and more idols with a height of more than 170cm, and in IVE, Zhang Yuanying is 174cm tall, An Youzhen is 173cm, and Liz is 171cm.
Zhang Yuanying
As a result, the marketing of the height and beautiful legs of the girl group has increased, and it seems that everyone is rolling in the direction of health, but aesthetically, has there been any help for the girl group to loosen the ties from the white and thin?
Yang thinks no, although Zhang Yuanying's muscles are very out of the circle, but the aesthetics of the women's group are still based on white and thin, and have added human signs. Zhang Yuanying's sister 174's height and weight are only 47kg, and the aesthetics of the girl group are still losing weight.
(4) The number of face collisions increases
The similarity of the faces of the members of Aespa can also be explained by the AI wind.
The similar personal styles of the members of JYP's new girl group NMIXX make it difficult to leave any impression on the audience. Among the new girl group members of other small companies, the face bump is even more serious.
If you can't remember your face, how can you talk about getting out of the circle?
The girl group industry that crashed into a big ship and turned around
So why does the girl group have such a lower debut age and an increase in foreign members? Yang believes that this is a helpless choice for the serious shortage of idol talents under the vigorous development of the girl group industry in South Korea.
Although the willingness of Korean children to become trainees has increased, the rate of decline of South Korea's new student population is too fast to provide so many "one in a hundred" talents.
Generally, trainees need children around 13 years old, that is, children born about 10 years old, but the birth rate in South Korea in 10 years is only 9.4 per thousand, which is one-third of that in 95 years.
At the same time, the number of new girl groups is increasing, no wonder Korean bloggers broke the news that even the three major clubs can't find talented children.
Therefore, the Korean entertainment company can only fish out the children who should still be training from the trainee pool and form a group early.
The lack of human resources has also prompted them to accelerate the introduction of foreign members, but for xenophobic Koreans, the more important reason is to increase the market of the corresponding country through foreigners.
For example, the Philippines is one of the new markets they value in Asia, and Lin's Unis has two Filipino members.
JYP also cooperated with Universal Music Group to launch a foreign girl group VCHA, focusing on internationalization.
In order to facilitate foreign trainees, at the beginning of 2023, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism of South Korea said that it plans to establish a new two-year "Korean Cultural Training Visa".
From the perspective of foreign trainees, although there are many problems with the training system of Korean women's groups, it is indeed complete, and those who are willing are willing to realize their dreams.
Although there are foreign personnel to supplement, the decline in the quality of the girl group is still inevitable, and there is no similar girl group after BP.
BabyMonster能接过BP的重担吗?
There is also no new blood in the fan group of the girl group, such as the Newjeans signing, which reflects the surprisingly small number of teenage fans. The majority (53.1%) were in their 20s, and only 22.1% were teenagers.
The decrease in the number of teenagers in South Korea is indeed the main reason, but it is also true that the idol industry rarely comes out of the circle to attract new fans.
Zhang Yuanying, who is more popular among the new generation, is most popular with passers-by for his ability not to sing and dance, nor to have superior leg length, but to work hard.
Zhang Yuanying's schedule and rest
Even because of hard enough, it even gave birth to "Yuanyingism", and many people were inspired by this to get up earlier to exercise or take care of themselves more delicately.
The women's group is singing and dancing, and it depends on "hard work" to get out of the circle, but everyone tacitly understands this, which is inevitably a little humorous.
This situation of being in the middle of it, knowing all the shortcomings, but continuing to let it develop, is reminiscent of the film "France", which also satirizes the illusion of the media, in which Léa Seydoux, who plays the presenter, goes to the home of a boy who was hit and broken by her car to apologize.
When they arrived, they found that the boy's family was not as embarrassed as they appeared, and the conditions were actually very good.
But as a host whose reputation was tarnished because she hit someone with her car, she didn't dare to debunk them, and avoided talking about everything in front of her for the sake of her public image.
Under the perfect, ultra-clear and beautiful picture of the film, Léa Seydoux is silent in the midst of all these absurd events, but it makes us realize hypocrisy.
Just like the girl group industry that is constantly selecting young trainees to appear on stage, although everyone knows that children should not be treated like this, they can only perform hypocritically and glamorously.