Xiao Hong
Alexander Des Forges of the University of Massachusetts-Boston argues that Xiao Chen, not Xiao Hong, is "the primary recipient of the heterosexual gaze". Throughout the film, Chen captures the attention of not only his eventual wife Xiao Hong, but also two of his landladies. Unlike the more effeminate Chinese male stars of earlier years, Zhao Dan represents a different kind of masculinity as a male star, with a "jokey and hyperactive sexuality".