Tamia Liu Tao (刘涛) and Vic Zhou’s (周渝民) 2018 series, “Palace of Devotion” (大宋宫词), finally aired on March 20. The series already got some buzz on the first day when the show released BTS clips of Vic Zhou and Tamia Liu’s kiss scenes.
Tamia Liu, who turns 43 this year, plays her character starting from 15 to when she becomes the queen. There have been some criticisms about Tamia Liu being too old to portray the character and the lack of CP feels between her and Vic Zhou who is 40 this year.
Aside from that, there is a bathing scene of Tamia Liu in the series, showing her top half. After the scene aired, Tamia Liu was trending on Weibo as netizens started criticizing her figure saying her shoulders are too broad, her arms aren’t thin enough, her physique is too robust, and more. On March 22, Tamia Liu addressed all the criticisms with a simple statement, “I will be in charge of my figure. I also hope all girls achieve body freedom on the basis of health!”
I applaud Tamia Liu for speaking up against such misogynistic and sexist comments. How horrifying and disappointing that body shaming usually comes from fellow women who should know better. It’s actually heartbreaking that so many women all over the world, but in Asia to a greater extreme, buy into the enslaving belief that we need to look anorexic to be beautiful. Not only do we internalize this, but we impose it upon each other. Good for Tamia for speaking up for young women to aspire to a healthy appearance.