Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio, Vol. 2 (of 2)

Ma Chün, a strikingly handsome youth from a merchant family, spends his days singing, playing, and dressing in flamboyant costume, earning the nickname “the Beauty.” When his aging father urges him to abandon studies for the family trade, Ma sets out on a sea voyage that is violently interrupted by a typhoon. He washes ashore in a remote land where the inhabitants are so grotesquely deformed that they flee at his sight.

Instead of fearing them, Ma turns the strangers’ terror into a chance to survive, sharing food they abandon and eventually earning their curiosity. The villagers explain that in their kingdom, Lo‑cha, social standing is determined solely by physical attractiveness—the most beautiful become ministers, the merely decent serve as judges, and the hideously plain are left to starve. As Ma is led through a capital of black stone and surreal officials with three nostrils and bamboo‑like lashes, he witnesses a society built on vanity, prompting subtle questions about the true value of beauty and merit.