Cultural References
The Singapore town Simei was named in honour of the Four Beauties by the minister of national development Teh Cheang Wan. Scholar Su Dongpo has compared Xi Shi's beauty with Hangzhou's West Lake in the work titled (飲湖上初睛居雨). Li Bai of the Tang dynasty also wrote a poem about Xi Shi. Modern mandopop singer Zhang Zan-fei (張真菲) wrote a song dedicated to the four beauties with its history and meanings. In the ninth season of America's Next Top Model, the final four girls are given a historical lesson of the Four Beauties. Xi Shi is mentioned in Zhuang Zi (the inner writings) chapter 2: discourse about the equality of things. 'A distinction is made between a straw and a pillar, between a mut and the fair Xi Shi.' Imogen Heap released a song in January 2012 titled Xizi She Knows in reference to Xi Shi.
Read more about this topic: Four Beauties
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“They’re semiotic phantoms, bits of deep cultural imagery that have split off and taken on a life of their own, like those Jules Verne airships that those old Kansas farmers were always seeing.... Semiotic ghosts. Fragments of the Mass Dream, whirling past in the wind of my passage.”
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