Beauty standards have always been a hotly debated topic in almost every country. Some people choose to conform to the "mainstream beauty standards", and others choose to define their own beauty. Chinese beauty standards are famous for their paleness, big eyes, being skinny, and a high and small nose. On this page, you will discover different opinions about the Chinese beauty standards and its influences on the people.
The host asked how the girls rank their appearances out of 10. I think all of them are beautiful while most of them ranked 6 out of 10, one girl even said she is a 2. Then they asked about their height and weight, and their take on 2018 beauty challenges like A4腰 (compare your waist to a A4 paper), 锁骨养鱼 (if your collar bone can hold water and fish). A lot of them did not participate on social media but did try. The girls thought it is probably those who are thin/skinny came up with the challenges, and a lot of them acknowledged that there is a difference between the beauty standards in China and the western countries and they think it is important to just adhere to own standards and be confident.
This video doesn't just talk about Simu Liu, I promise. The speaker utilizes Simu Liu as a starting point of conversation about what is exactly handsome/pretty/attractive in China. He concludes that a normal or average looking person is considered to be “ugly” in China. “It’s just an ordinary look, not ugly or unsightly.” Before this video, I wasn’t aware what exact beauty standards were in this country. According to Li Can, men with big, bright eyes and more soft, feminine looks are what are approved in the mainstream. For women, pale skin, thin and “boobies, no buttocks”(his word, not mine). Li Can also speaks upon the overlapping between Western and Eastern beauty standards like the feminine, thin, “mellow” man like Timotheé Chalamet vs. the strong American man like Chris Evans.
This video continues my discussion from last week where it summarizes recent "skinny challenges" that emerged on the internet -- A4腰 反手摸肚脐 锁骨放硬币 A great amount of Chinese teenage girls are exposed to and pressured to be "thin" because it is the "main standard" that prevailed in the Chinese society. In the video, vice Asia shares several stories. All of which are about why and how the girls were trying to lose weight and their experiences of being "fat" or "too thin". One girl, Cindy, is a member of a pop girl group in China which is called "the ugliest group" by some Chinese people on the internet. She and her group are bullied for their "face and body appearances" aberrant from the "beauty standards".
This video talks about a controversy that follows an international brand, Zara, and one of its models who is known to be one of the top models in China. It, also, talks about how other international fashion brands can perpetuate certain stereotypes of Chinese features. This particular video follows one of many great "unusual" or "uglified" appearances of Chinese women and men. An advertisement appearance of this top model, Jing Wen, with freckles startled and offended Chinese netizens as they believed that it was a form of defamation on the image of Chinese people. Within this video, the interviewer asks people in Shanghai what they think of the particular situation. Majority of the people mention the expectations of such beauty standards in China and that the model would not particularly be popular within the country. There was even a comment about expecting "clean looking" faces.
Following the controversy Monica discussed last week, this video talks about another controversy about big international brand -- Vogue -- posting a "unique" Chinese face on its social media. This model's eyes are further apart, and has very minimal nose bridge and thin eyebrows. The Chinese netizens commented: "Vogue is racist", "if you want diversity, you should use different type of models instead of a very stereotypical Asian looking Asian", "God, please us some normal Chinses girls to represent Asian beauty". The comment area is chaotic and full of criticism towards Vogue using Qizhen as their model.
Rarely do we see the elderly associated with the topic of youth & beauty, yet here we are with this video which follows Sheng Ruiling is an 88 year old model(now 92). She started her career at the age of 70 where she stated she cared the least about her appearance. She mentions her kids convincing her to start weight control(in context, I assumed in the nature of helping her get out of her rut). She had no idea her son would later want her to become a part of a magazine which showcased elderly specifically celebrating their successes and characters. This was particularly enticing in that, despite the age and the neglecting attitude of aged beauty, people and herself included were able to find beauty in her youthful energy and character.
This video talks about male beauty standards in China. This video was shoot in Shanghai three years ago. The interviewer asked what do the interviewees think are the ideal body type, height, weight, skin tone, etc. Almost all of the interviewees prefer a 180+ height because they look more dependable, and handsome. In terms of skin tone, some of them saying they prefer a paler skin because they look "energetic and photogenic", while other people prefer a darker skin for the reasons like they Asian girls already not pale, if girls have partners that have paler skin it would make the girls kind of "insecure"; the rest of them think whatever skin tone is pretty as long as they are healthy. This video overall gives well-rounded perspectives of Chinese beauty standards towards male. Although this was from three years ago, most of them still apply to the current Chinese society.
This documentary “Is China Facing Plastic Surgery Addiction” by CNA Insider: Undercover Asia touches upon many concerns relating to the spike in plastic surgery demands in youth during the last decade. It immediately dives into what things may have sparked the higher need of changing one’s appearances in Chinese youth. They do this by addressing apps that have been trending; they measure facial features essentially scaling people’s beauty just by the use of golden ratios/proportions. These apps would even go ahead and even suggest user’s what surgeries one might need to obtain their beauty. Beauty challenges like the A4 waist and the collarbone challenge are mentioned where people would compare their waist to the width of a piece of copy paper or test how many coins/small objects can fit in the divots of their collarbones, respectively. Fitting into clothes that are made for very specific body types in this country is common. Themes of bullying and the question of having a better job opportunity when being beautiful as a factor of harmful body images are also mentioned.
As this is the last video of the beauty standards, this is a summarizing video. This video summarizes 100 years of Chinese mainstream beauty in terms of makeup, outfits, hairstyles and facial features of Chinese women from the general public.
In this video, they dive into the lives of those who livestream for a living. It opens a large conversation about plastic surgery, what kind of toxic beauty image cycles can stir via these livestreams on the internet, and what mindset it sets for young girls in the nation. Multiple streamers were interviewed in this video and revealed their perspectives on the industry. It is made clear that beauty is the number one focus of this career as cameras are involved. This is due to the direct correlation they face which is beauty and the amount of money they would receive.
Monica's video