The new drama, “The Lament of Autumn,” starring Cheng Lei and Xu Ruohan, has been blasted by netizens over its latest promotional posters.
On the eve of the drama premiere, the production team released several new posters featuring the two leads. However, it quickly sparked criticism due to the positions of the two characters.
While the male protagonist sits upright with a superior posture, the female protagonist is depicted in a somewhat distorted pose, nestled against his legs or embracing him from the side, which has been criticised as conveying a strong sense of “male gaze” and “male superiority over female.”
In addition to the supposed “sexist” images, netizens also accused the posters of plagiarism, saying that one of the posters, which has the male protagonist sitting with his hand enveloping the female protagonist’s waist, resembles the poster of another drama, “My Queen, My Rules” starring Ao Ruipeng and Shen Yujie.
“The Lament of Autumn” is adapted from a novel by Ling Xi, and tells the story of an iron-willed young marshal and an aloof female student who become intertwined due to a shocking assassination case.
(Photo Source: HK01)