Character Blog #3: The design process of Beiyang

(full pic here) 

Nǐ hǎo! Today's character blog is again chosen by the paid Patreon members, and in their infinite wisdom they've chosen the most venerable empress of China of three months, the alluring dragon lady and Waifu Britannica original character Beiyang.

Now a NSFW warning to those reading this in public; if you don't want to be judged by your colleagues or the public for seeing a scantily clad busty dragon lady, avert your eyes now oh ye unfortunate soul.

Now of course the elephant in the room is that Beiyang is one of the more sexualised designs even by the standards of Waifu Britannica. I figured I wouldn't be given another chance at a character representing Imperial China, so I picked a design that shows both the 'vastness' of China's size and the outfit to flaunt it.

So I picked a design that's absolutely trashy, a design who's creator deserves nothing but shame and mockery, a design that's 'gooner bait' as the kids calls it nowadays.

But even 'gooner bait' like her has a design process behind it, and to understand it we need to traverse the world of history, warlords and xianxia.

Beiyang is based off the Beiyang Army, an army formed by the Qing dynasty as part of the modernisation of its military. Named after the 'Beiyang' (Northern Ocean) region of Imperial China (modern day Hebei), this army played a pivotal role in the fall of the Qing dynasty and the fracturing of China into multiple warlord states. To keep a long story short, Yuan Shikai, one of the army's commanders, betrayed the Qing dynasty to be allowed the position of President in the new Republic of China, then betrayed the Republic to crown himself Emperor of China (that failed), and then left a power vacuum after his death that resulted in the Warlord Era of China.

Beiyang the character is specifically based off one period in the Beiyang Army's history, and more specifically specifically off their most colourful member.

He asked Heaven that his dynasty may last for ten thousand years, but unfortunately the celestial bureaucracy put him on hold that lasted for just as long


Beiyang is based off Yuan Shikai and his short-lived Empire of China. General, Prime Minister, President and Emperor, this rapscallion's lust for power left broken dreams and legacies in his wake.

His uniform formed the basis of her outfit, a blue uniform with gold trimmings. The hat she's holding on her right arm is specifically his hat, and around her waist is a saber used by the Beiyang Army. To cement her connection to the Army, the Beiyang Army's five pointed star dangles off her hairpin. Of course, you dear keen eyed reader can see that there's a lot of... creative liberties applied to this adaptation of Yuan Shikai's uniform. But before we can discuss that, we would need to talk about xianxia.

 Image taken from KapanLagi.com

Xianxia, in a very simplified definition, is Chinese high fantasy inspired by Chinese mythology, traditions, beliefs, and martial arts. If you think of Chinese fantasy featuring dragons, immortals, and stunningly beautiful martial artists, you are thinking of the xianxia genre. It is often mistaken for wuxia, which is specifically martial arts fantasy, but xianxia can incorporate the wuxia genre.

Beiyang's design was inspired by xianxia media, or media that has character designs inspired by the aesthetics of xianxia.

Designing Beiyang's hair (left set of images from this Facebook post)

If you pick any xianxia Chinese drama, very often you'll encounter a character having white hair among a sea of natural hair colours (this Reddit post is a nice example). White hair in many of these CDrama and xianxia media often represent a character that is old and long lived (though there are other meanings to white hair too). Plenty of celestials and immortals are seen with this hair colour. It is this reason that Beiyang is also given white hair in her design, despite the natural hair colours that Waifu Britannica favours for characters (which was inherited from Waifu Universalis). Her white hair is a visual shorthand that she is (supposed to be) a long-lived and wise dragon, ready to lead a restored Han-led Imperial China after centuries on the Manchu yoke.

 Left artwork is by JiuJiangzi

The overall design inspiration for Beiyang comes from two sources, the character Rose Duter from Banner of the Maid (designed by JiuJiangzi), and the character Ningguang from Genshin Impact. Coming back to my favourite military ladies artist, I for the longest time wanted to try that design from miss JiuJiangzi's artwork. The coat cape, boots, cleavage window, sword, and 'moving forward' pose were design elements I incorporated from this design. The other inspiration, Ningguang, was used because she strongly resembled the kind of baseline white-haired lady when I think of anime-inspired xianxia. Perhaps Ningguang's inspiration was a bit too strong in Beiyang's design, because the resemblance was not lost to members in the WB Discord (but I'm more of a Noelle person, sorry Ningguang fans).

From left to right, top to bottom: Belfast (Azur Lane), Peter Strasser (Azur Lane), DP-28 (Girls' Frontline), Shenhe (Genshin Impact)

Now for the uhhh... creative liberties that went into her adaptation of Yuan Shikai's uniform. So I wanted a busty dragon lady, just because and also because China is big, and figured I might as well try my hand at the trashiest design I could. So I decided to create some kind of Frankensteined military qipao inspired by the qipaos you would see in gacha games and some donghuas (Chinese animation). A qipao that shows a bit too much leg; the very generous slit on her dress was made to show off her figure more (though maybe it is showing a bit too much, but what do I know...). The fabric across her chest that makes the imagination run wild. And a coat that doubles as a cape to give her that cool, authoritative look.
But what in-universe explanation does she have for wearing such a scandalous outfit?

...

¯\(ツ)/¯

It makes her very mobile I guess.

Overall her design is not necessarily the best I could make, but it was still very fun experiment on my end to push a design I wouldn't normally create. Her face and hair is still one of my favourite things to come out of her; a stern, dignified and draconic look that is still cute to look at. And the allure of her design, as trashy as it is, made her one of the more popular girls in the WB Discord server.

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And that's a wrap for Beiyang! I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it! The character for the next character blog has not been decided yet. Sometimes I would ask the paid members for suggestions, but sometimes I would choose on my own.
Whoever is next is a bridge when we get there, so until then!


Edit 24 Nov 2024: I don't have anything to release this week due to other commitments, but since many are looking forward for Beiyang's blog to be public access I'll make an exception this time on locking the blog to paid members until the release of the next blog.