This is the No. 7 hottest keyword search on Yahoo China today, 1,246,859 searches in one day.
The Fragrant Concubine (香妃)was more of a legendary figure than a real person in the Chinese history. She was believed to be an Uyghur girl named Iparhan and was the grand-daughter of a local Muslim leader (the Uyghur are a Turkic people in Central Asia). She was presented as a gift to the Emperor Qianlong in the 18th century. Qianlong was not only captivated by her exotic beauty, but he was even more interested in the mysterious fragrance emitted from her body.
Recently one forensic professor at the China Criminal Police University did a reconstruction of the Fragrant Concubine's face based on a photo of her remains (maybe he didn't have anything else better to do), and it instantly became a hot topic.
Many people are saying that the picture of the Fragrant Concubine looks a lot like Li Bingbing, one popular TV star; some say another TV star, Fan Bingbing looks more like her (it's a pure coincidence that they have the same given name).
Personally I think the professor's work was more like a joke and shouldn't be taken seriously. He probably just did this for fun and it's of no academic value. However, it seems to have provided a lot of entertainment value for many people. I think both Li Bingbing and Fan Bingbing look a lot like the Fragrant Concubine based on the reconstruction picture, but the FC definitely wore less make-up back then.
Sources:
http://cq.xinhuanet.com/2007-09/05/content_11055554.htm
http://news.xinhuanet.com/local/2007-08/28/content_6614175.htm
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