Hello! Fisrt I'd like to say I love your blog, it's so good for reference material! If you don't mind me ask, but was there such a thing as a male huadian? I've seen some in novels and movies, but I was wondering how accurate is that. Did men really use huadian? How did it worked?
Hi, I’m glad you love my blog!
When it comes to Chinese novels/movies/media in general, there will occasionally be male characters with forehead markings/decorations, some of which resemble huadian/花钿 (traditional Chinese forehead accessories historically worn by women):
As far as I know, historically men did not use huadian or forehead markings in everyday life. Rather, a forehead marking on a male character usually signifies that he is not a regular human - he probably has magical powers, and may even be an immortal/deity/god. The way I see it, male forehead markings are associated with supernatural powers in Chinese culture, because several male-coded Chinese gods and mythological figures are depicted with forehead markings. Here are two well-known examples:
1) Erlang Shen/二郎神 - God with a third truth-seeing eye in the middle of his forehead. In media his third eye is occasionally depicted as a forehead marking (bottom right):
2) Nezha/哪吒 - Protection deity in Chinese folk religion. He is usually depicted with a red dot or marking in the middle of his forehead:
The association of male forehead markings with gods/deities has existed for a very long time, and manifests itself in many Chinese movies/novels/dramas that involve magical powers/mythology.
To put it generally, in Chinese arts/media, a huadian on a woman signifies “this character is a beauty”, while a forehead marking/decoration on a man signifies “this character is supernatural/has supernatural powers”.
Of course, this is my viewpoint, and if anyone has something to add, please do share ^^
Hope this helps!
