Several parts combine into one character.

Phonetic-semantic compound: 頁 (head — the right-side radical, 9 strokes) + 彦 (an "elegant person", phonetic). The encoded meaning: "the most expressive part of a head" → face / countenance. Three forms: 繁體 顏 / 新字体 顔 / 简体 颜 (Mainland China simplified the head radical 頁 to 页).

Critical CJK divergence on this character's primary modern meaning: — Korean / Japanese: 顔 / 顏 means "face" — the everyday word for one's face. — Mandarin: 颜 in modern usage shifted toward "color" — appearing in 颜色 (yánsè, "color"), the standard Mandarin word for color (already discussed in 色 entry). For "face", modern Chinese uses 脸 (liǎn) — a different character. So the same character that means "face" in Japan/Korea means "color" in China for everyday speech.

Mandarin: yán, rising 2nd tone (simplified 颜). 颜色 (yánsè, color), 颜面 (yánmiàn, face / dignity — formal), 容颜 (róngyán, appearance / countenance — literary), 颜值 (yánzhí, "face-value" → physical attractiveness — modern slang term, very popular in social media).

The modern Chinese slang 颜值 (yánzhí, "face value" — beauty rating) emerged in the 2010s and has become ubiquitous on Chinese social media: 颜值高 = "high face value" (good looking), 颜值党 = "the beauty party" (fans of attractive celebrities).

Japanese: on-reading ガン (gan) for compounds — 顔面 (ganmen, face / facial). Kun-reading かお (kao) is the everyday word — 顔 (kao, face), 笑顔 (egao, smiling face), 顔色 (kaoiro, complexion — note same compound as Mandarin 颜色 but pronounced kun-reading and meaning "complexion"), 寝顔 (negao, sleeping face), 似顔絵 (nigaoe, portrait drawing).

笑顔 (egao, "smiling face") is one of the warmest words in everyday Japanese — used constantly in advertisements, songs, and personal messages to express emotional warmth.

Memory aid: head + elegance = the face we present to the world.