Chunyu

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Chunyu
Decade of origin	Early 2020
Related aesthetics	Asian Baby Girl Coquette

Chunyu (纯欲 or 純欲) is a term used to describe an aesthetic that is "chun" - innocent and cute - but also "yu" - sexy and alluring. "Chunyu" as a term can be used to describe both sexes, but is almost exclusively partaken by females as an aesthetic.

Chunyu is paradoxical in nature as it requires the woman to look both innocent and sexy. It combines girlish youthfulness with womanly sensuality. It is feminine and classy, but can also have a tomboyish girl-next-door vibe to it. Chunyu is often attached to the old Chinese saying, "Angel face and devil body", which refers to the purity of the face and seductiveness of the figure. Some have also described the Chunyu aesthetic as "sweet and salty". To achieve a flawless Chunyu look, a woman must style herself to look beautiful, but without it seeming as if she is trying to be beautiful. Her Chunyu aesthetic should appear effortless and elegant.

History

During the early 2020s, Chunyu first spread in popularity in the form of makeup among Chinese beauty gurus on the social media platform Xiaohongshu, which is also known as China's alternative to Instagram. With the increasing popularity, Chunyu started to expand into an aesthetic with an own distinct style in regards to hair and fashion. Following the overall trend of an increasing popularity of Chinese style in the recent years, Chunyu has also become a hot topic among young women on TikTok, reaching a global audience in 2022.

Various Chinese makeup styles also managed to archive widespread popularity within Japan fueled by the increasing mainstream use of Tiktok, including Chaiborg and Chunyu makeup.

Fashion

Chunyu fashion has to strike a balance between being cute and sexy. The style follows major brands and is broad due to this fact. Typical clothing includes oversized sweaters, knitted dresses, faux fur coats, high waisted jeans, cropped T-shirts, hair accessories, cardigans, short skirts, and spaghetti strap singlets. It has also become trendy to wear Chunyu makeup with qipao, hanfu (traditional Han Chinese clothing), and hanyuansu (modernised hanfu).

Chunyu makeup prioritizes warm colors and clear skin. Blush, lip gloss, glitter, arched eyebrows, spiky fake lashes, and warm lipstick are used to create a doll-like face. A common characteristic of Chinese makeup is the use of red blush that continues around the eyes, and is sometimes applied to the tip of the nose to seem more youthful. This is an influence from Chinese opera makeup.

Chunyu conforms to a number of Chinese beauty standards. Defined collarbones, double eyelids, broad shoulders, aegyo sal (pocket of fat found directly under the eye, known as "wocan" in Chinese), thin nose, hourglass figure, small face, V-shaped chin, perfect teeth, long legs, good posture, and thin physique are desirable.

Exposing the arms, legs, shoulders, and midriff is acceptable to look "sexy" but too much cleavage is often avoided as it is thought to ruin the "pure" feeling. Highlighter can be applied on the collarbones to accentuate them. Fingernails may be adorned with elegant nail art.

The hairstyle and hair color should look natural. Hair is usually kept in its original black or dyed brown. The hair should be soft, voluminous, and lush but can also be a bit unkempt to maintain a feeling of realism.

Media

Celebrities associated with and sporting Chunyu style include:

• Jang Won-young
• Jennie Kim
• Nana Ou-Yang
• Yi Mengling
• Yu Shuxin
• Zhao Lusi

Subgenres

Chunye

Chunye (纯野) is an aesthetic that derived from Chunyu in late 2022. It combines some "purity" aspects of the earlier Chunyu aesthetic but with the "wildness" of Western aesthetics. Chunye has a more mature look than Chunyu, and oftentimes more glamorous and ethereal as well. Some have described it as the "jiejie" (older sister) to Chunyu. Though Chunye itself could be considered a type of "Chunyu". Chunye makeup uses extensive contouring to create more facial depth. This style of makeup usually accentuates the eyes and lips. Chunye has more jewellery and bold colors associated with it than Chunyu.

Criticism

Many Chinese makeup styles, including Chunyu ones, became popular internationally through Tiktok in the early 2020s where they have been erroneously dubbed "Douyin makeup" by Southeast Asian, and later international observers. Within China itself, "Douyin makeup" is simply known as "Chinese makeup" (中国妆). Some have criticized the term "Douyin makeup" as racist (more specifically anti-Chinese racism or Sinophobia) as it attempts to obscure its Chinese origins or misattribute it to other East Asian countries such as South Korea, inaccurate as most styles do not even originate from Douyin, and the erasure of Chinese voices by Western chauvinists hence the spread of misinformation regarding it.^{[citation needed]}

According to Chinese news outlets on the other hand, ByteDance started to push viral makeup styles as "Douyin makeup" on purpose in order to maintain an association as free form of advertisment for its social media platforms, debunking the "racism" claims by overseas netizens.

Resources

External links to help get a better understanding of this aesthetic.

Pinterest Boards

• TBA

Gallery

Chunyu nail art

Necklace