A Sore Thumb: Ways for a Chinese girl to stand out?

[The Traveler]

I know this sounds a little Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, but - what about a sword?

It's the 1800s. Never bring a sword to a gunfight

 

[Queen_Dopplepopolis]

It's the 1800s. Never bring a sword to a gunfight

Somehow I doubt she'll ever be bringing a gun to gunfights...

... but we'll see how she develops!

 

[John Morrow]

A facial feature such as a mole (beauty mark) similar to Cindy Crawford's. It's common enough to seem natural but uncommon enough to be noticeable. In other words, she can still blend in if need be, but it's a bit harder than it would be.

That's why I suggested freckles. I have a Chinese friend who has them, they are fairly easy to spot with just the face showing, and they are not unattractive but they are unusual on a Chinese person.

Red hair. This one has anthropological evidence. I saw on a Discovery Channel program that there were some human remains in China many thousands of years old that had red hair. Apparently some Europeans made their way there and intermingled with the native population. I wish I could remember the program. Maybe I'll come across it again.

Those remains were likely from an Indo-European group that brought the Tocharian (an early Indo-European) language to far Western China. Their hair color and cloth suggests "Celtic" culture (red and blonde hair, tartan cloth, etc.) but they were probably more accurately a branch of a "proto-Celtic" Indo-European people (the Celts didn't actually exist as a group at that point). It's difficult to tell how far their genetic or cultural influence spread beyond far Western China and the current local population of that region certain looks quite Chinese now. But there are certainly plenty of ways to get distinctly European features into the ancestry of a Chinese girl (not only this angle but various European explorers and sailors who visited China over the preceeding centuries).

Elizabeth Wayland Barber's The Mummies of Urumchi is a good place to start on this topic. As a warning, this is another one of those topics that gets used and abused by racists to support crackpot theories so Google searchers beware.

 

[Gez]

A sword would hamper too much for acrobatics. A dagger, maybe, but a sword? Why not a warhammer?

Unless she does perform with the sword, rather than it just be a deadweight strapped to her back. Could be pretty impressive, too, to have the acrobat perform a sort of flying sword dance.

 

[Darmanicus]

Last,

Forget the glass eye. I'm legally blind in you eye. I know what I'm talking about. No depth perception sucks. An acrobat without depth perception is going to have a reallll short career.

What on earth are you talking about? I actually have a glass eye and have had for many years, (sporting accident at school), and you get used to it over time ie. you can compensate for the lack of depth perception enough to compete with other fully equipped proffesionals. I play semi-proffessional pool.

The best thing about it though is when there are kids around and your acting like a monster and all of a sudden you pop yer eye out! It scares the cr@p out of 'em!

 

[Vraille Darkfang]

What on earth are you talking about? I actually have a glass eye and have had for many years, (sporting accident at school), and you get used to it over time ie. you can compensate for the lack of depth perception enough to compete with other fully equipped proffesionals. I play semi-proffessional pool.

Way to go!

My lack of Depth Perception I've nver been able to compensate for (just ask my wife, there is a reason I'm not allowed to drive when she's in the car).

Maybe it's the fact I'm not complelty blind in that eye. With really powerful lenses I can make out the top letter of an eye chart (though its really blurry).

Maybe I have just enough vision in that eye it throws me off.

But if you ask me how far away sowthing is, and I don't have a scale reference, I'll guess something between dead-on and off by 1,000' or so.

 

[Vargo]

Give her kalidescopic eyes - the colors shimmer and change at a moment's notice.

And call her Liu Xie.

 

[Ashanderai]

Please don't go with the gap tooth thing. Many folks seem to assume that many non-verbal habits are the same across cultures. They are not always so. Case in point is my opposition to using the gap-tooth feature to stand out as a feature for a female Chinese character. There are some habits that are just so ingrained into a culture that they are done without thinking. Asian women are discouraged from showing their teeth in public; it is considered rude. As a result, when they smile or laugh, they cover their mouths behind a hand (or fan in older times). They try to hide their teeth in public. To western eyes, it appears as if the woman is being shy, but that is not the case. I am sure many of you might have seen this habit done in Asian cinema, but may not have paid particular notice to it. So you see, if you make her an authentic (that is to say, born and raised by her native culture) then she would most likely have this habit, no matter how adventurous a young lady she might be.

You see, I am married to a high-spirited, oriental woman (Korean specifically) and she has a few non-traditional, even culturally rebellious, habits (like marrying me). It took her a few years to get over doing this in public whenever she smiled after she came to the US. She still does it in public whenever amongst other Koreans.

Oh yeah, my wife has, in the past, occasionally dyed her hair slightly red... Grrrrowwwl and yummie!

Go with the nice-smelling, almost aphrodesiac-like (sp?), unique perfume scent. May I recommend a jasmine scent or sandalwood lotion (good for the skin and something an acrobat might use to soften the calluses likely to show up on her hands, but most likely to be originally from Egypt, but was imported from the middle-east to China). She might use other home-remedy lotions to soothe sore muscles as well.

Also, unlike many other Asian performers, your character might use no or little make-up in preference of showing her natural beauty. (This is something my wife took to doing when I told her I preferred her without make-up and how make-up can actually kill your skin cells. She has since been complemented on how young she looks for her age by other Asian women - after child birth.) Or maybe she refuses to use make-up in the hopes that it will make her seem less attractive to her masters.

Other ideas could be:
- A missing or extra finger - not immediately noticeable, but very distinctive when noticed.
- A shock of white hair for one of her bangs from an old head injury during a performance (or assassination attempt).
- A tendency to stare someone in the eyes very intently to determine whether she likes them or not, something that is very bold for a Chinese woman to do (often considered rude).
- She smiles and doesn't cover her mouth like other Asian women.
- The bosom feature has already been addressed, but I would not go with this one. At least not make that feature large, just tastefully larger considering her ancestry.
- Unlike most other Asian women, she has a more... full... bottom. I don't mean to offend or be crude, but most Asian women just aren't as fleshed out in that department as western women and as a Western man who has lived in Asia for a few years and married an Asian woman I can tell you that men notice an attractive Asian woman with a more... well, more attractive bottom.
- A mole or freckles are a good idea too. These will make her look more exotic. (think Lucy Liu... yummie!)
- Perhaps she bears a resemblance to some celebrity, though I couldn't say what celebrity would be appropriate for that time period for a Chinese woman. (One of my sister-in-laws looks just like Michelle Yeoh! You can bet I fought tempatation on the day I met her!)

 

[Savage Wombat]

You know, all the comments about her "figure" fail to take into account that generous endowments are often a drawback for performers.

I agree with the red hair and freckles idea. I may steal it.

 

[Teflon Billy]

Just be like a super-model type.

You want to stand out. As a Young, Chinese, Gymnist. A voluptious beauty is not usually associated with someone of Chinese Ancestry.

Perhaps the Triad orginally 'acquired' you to be a Geisha/Prostitute. After rendering several men incapable of fathering children, the Triad sold you because you weren't 'personable'.

Thus, you could have a head-strong personailty with a deep seated resentment towards men.

If you have a high Charisma score (and don't want to play the sterotypical trollip), this would be a way on playing upon a sterotype in an interesting way (think Jackie Chan's sister in Shanghai Knights).

Plus, you could claim all those Stunning Fist attacks on other party members is because of how they're staring at your character, not because they tried to nab the last slice of pizza.

I know bad-ass hot chick has been done before. But you could do it RIGHT.

Anyone who wants to take me to task in the next "Do you Allow Cross-Gender Rp'ing in your Game" thread will be referred to the above.

I mean seriously: Ultra-hot bodied, Ninja sex machine with hate-on for men.

This is the kind of thing I'm talking about in those threads.