Meet China's third wave of striking actresses, all poised to take over the world.

After all, with Zhang Ziyi and Vicki Zhao recently sidetracked by personal interests - the former was a judge on reality singing competition The X Factor: China's Strongest Voice, while the latter made her directorial film debut So Young - and the Bingbings focusing their energies on Hollywood (Li Bingbing in Transformers 4, Fan Bingbing in X-Men: Days Of Future Past), there is certainly a void to fill when it comes to satisfying Asian male audiences' innate need for Asian eye candy.

It didn't help that the second wave of Chinese starlets - like Yang Mi, Cecilia Liu Shishi and Ni Ni - were disappointments, failing to hit the big time after their initial hype.

We look at three rising stars, each a standout on her own terms.

Read the full story here.

(Photos: Apple Daily, Lollipop, Internet)

Click on the thumbnails for China's new wave of starlets, and 2013's prettiest Chinese actresses, according to Chinese Whisper.