#daomadan

Yunjin is based on the daomadan (刀马旦) character archetype in Beijing Opera.  Dan (旦) means female role, and daoma (刀马) means “saber and horse”, referring to the type of action that’s characteristic of this role.  Altogether daomadan is a female role that fights on horseback in the course of the story.  This type of female character is often a heroic warrior, and sometimes even a general leading troops in battle.  If the female role does not fight on horseback, then it’s generally referred to as wudan (武旦), or “martial female role”.  Daomadan can be understood as a subtype of wudan.  

This is supported by both what Yunjin did in her character demo and one of her idle animations, where she twirls and kicks a baton-like object.  In Beijing Opera, this “baton” is understood to represent a spear or a spear-like polearm weapon, and the acrobatics represent the moves when fighting.  Here is a video excerpt example from an old opera named Oulianguan (《藕连关》).  The daomadan character enters the stage at 0:42 and is seen fighting multiple male warrior characters in a battle, then rejoicing in victory.

On Yunjin’s visual design, although it’s overall more lolita than traditional, it does still contain a few design elements from Beijing Opera：

The shawl-like clothing around her shoulders is a reference to yunjian (云肩; lit. “shoulder cloud”) worn by certain dan characters in Beijing Opera, usually noble, royal, wealthy, or significant female characters.

The pom-pom-like things in her hat refers to parts of the daomadan headwear qixingezi (七星额子; lit. “seven stars headwear”), meant to represent decorations on a helmet.  

The flags seen on her back during her elemental skill is a direct reference to the kaoqi (靠旗, or “armor flags”) worn by major characters who are generals or warriors fighting on the battlefield.  This applies to both male and female roles.  Characters who are generals but do not appear in battle (ex:  Guanyu) may not have kaoqi in their costumes.

Here’s a diagram illustrating the parts of a typical daomadan costume, with the relevant parts translated:

And here’s a typical daomadan costume in real life, specifically the costume for Mu Guiying in the opera “Mu Guiying Takes Command” (《穆桂英挂帅》).

刀馬旦