Four Dan Actresses (四旦 or 四大名旦 or 四小名旦 or 四大花旦 or 四小花旦) is a Chinese term referring to the four most bankable young actresses from Mainland China in the early 2000s: Zhang Ziyi, Zhao Wei, Zhou Xun and Xu Jinglei, then all in their 20s. The designation was first made by a Guangzhou Daily editorial in July 2000. It gained widespread use in China following a series of interviews on Southern Metropolis Daily from December 2001 to January 2002. As expected, the four actresses dominated Chinese cinema in the following decade with varying degrees of success.
Contents
- The Four Dan Actresses
- New Four Dan Actresses
- Four Dan actresses of the post 90s Generation
- Similar titles
- References
Originally, a Dan is a male actor who portrayed a leading female character in Peking opera. The term "Four Dan" was first coined in the 1920s to refer to four extremely popular Dan actors: Mei Lanfang, Cheng Yanqiu, Shang Xiaoyun, and Xun Huisheng.
The Four Dan Actresses
Sometimes Li Bingbing and Fan Bingbing, two Mainland actresses who had similar levels of success in the first decade of 2000s, were mentioned along with the group as "Four Dan and Two Bing" (四旦双冰).
New Four Dan Actresses
From 2005, there have been various reports by the media as well as articles by publication companies, to pick four new young actresses as the "New Four Dan Actresses" (四小花旦).
2009 version by Tencent QQ:
2013 version by Southern Metropolis Daily:
Other actresses who are successful, but not named as one of the Four Huadan actresses, are Zhao Liying and Tiffany Tang.
Four Dan actresses of the "post-90s" Generation
In August 2016, Southern Metropolis Daily conducted a survey among 173 million netizens and 110 professional media and industry insiders. After a series of voting, four actresses who were born after the 90s (90后四小花旦) were picked.
Similar titles
In the early 1990s, Hong Kong's most popular male stars were collectively referred to as "Four Heavenly Kings" (Andy Lau, Jacky Cheung, Aaron Kwok and Leon Lai). Later Taiwan also introduced four male idols labelled "Four Younger Heavenly Kings" (Alec Su, Nicky Wu, Jimmy Lin and Takeshi Kaneshiro).