China: Skin Whitening is All the Rage
Is the Chinese Love of Lighter Skin Racist?
In China, come home after a hard day's work, turn on the TV, and I guarantee you that on any given night, a third of the television commericials and perhaps half of the infommercials will be dedicated to selling women the magic elixir for lighter skin.
The Chinese are obsessed with light skin, and from casting soap stars to choosing a marriage partner, the preference is clear: the lighter the better.
And it's not just China. Fly West from Beijing to New Delhi, to Lagos, women everywhere are looking for that powder, that cream, that peel that will make them a little bit lighter. Many of these unregulated products will not only damage their skin, but seriously endanger their health.
In what may be the biggest toxic cream outbreak ever, 1,262 people flocked to a hotline set up by Hong Kong's health department last week, after warnings that two whitener creams -- Rosedew and La Rose Blanche -- had mercury levels between 9,000 and 65,000 times the recommended dose.
My roommate is from southern China. Any way you slice it, she's gorgeous, save a single flaw: her skin is a light brown. Most of my Beijing Chinese friends think she is Filippino, Indonesian, Thai, anything but Chinese. Chinese have even spoken to her in English on more than one occasion, thinking she was a foreigner. Her mother has told her all her life, "你那么黑！怎么能结婚？" "You are so black (dark)! How will you ever get married?
Meanwhile another friend of mine, a white girl from upper Michigan is stopped on the streets by women marveling at the whiteness of her complexion.
Why the obsession with white skin? Perhaps it's because hundreds of European, and later American, dominance of the world and white has come to be associated with power, wealth, privilege, and by natural extension, beauty. In every system of colonialism or slavery established by Western powers, lighter variants of every race were singled out for special privileges, where thought to be more civilized, more educable than the darker savages.
This may be the case in some parts of the world, but in East Asia, the origins of light is better are much may be much older.
"Skin whitening has a long history in Asia, stemming back to ancient China and Japan, where the saying "one white covers up three ugliness" was passed through the generations.
"A white complexion was seen as noble and aristocratic, especially in Southeast Asia, where the sun was always out. Only those rich enough could afford to stay indoors, while peasants baked in the rice fields."
Still, you gotta wonder when many of the commercials for whitening products feature images of Western supermodels or cast exclusively young caucasian and half caucasian/half Chinese women.
In the China, women risk mercury poisoning to get whiter skin; in the West they brave skin cancer hoping to get just a little bit browner. The world is mad, but I guess every culture has its own unique form of madness.
- By Jennifer Brea, World News Guide
Comments
in the u.s. everyone wants to be tan!
i dun think u hav to right to judge them just b/c everyone in united state wants to get tan…while ppl in china are getting their skin poison, ppl in u.s. are getting skin cancer, how much better is that
i dun think u hav to right to judge them just b/c everyone in united state wants to get tan…while ppl in china are getting their skin poison, ppl in u.s. are getting skin cancer, how much better is that
i dun think u hav to right to judge them just b/c everyone in united state wants to get tan…while ppl in china are getting their skin poison, ppl in u.s. are getting skin cancer, how much better is that
i dun think u hav to right to judge them just b/c everyone in united state wants to get tan…while ppl in china are getting their skin poison, ppl in u.s. are getting skin cancer, how much better is that
i dun think u hav to right to judge them just b/c everyone in united state wants to get tan…while ppl in china are getting their skin poison, ppl in u.s. are getting skin cancer, how much better is that
i dun think u hav to right to judge them just b/c everyone in united state wants to get tan…while ppl in china are getting their skin poison, ppl in u.s. are getting skin cancer, how much better is that
i dun think u hav to right to judge them just b/c everyone in united state wants to get tan…while ppl in china are getting their skin poison, ppl in u.s. are getting skin cancer, how much better is that
i dun think u hav to right to judge them just b/c everyone in united state wants to get tan…while ppl in china are getting their skin poison, ppl in u.s. are getting skin cancer, how much better is that
i dun think u hav to right to judge them just b/c everyone in united state wants to get tan…while ppl in china are getting their skin poison, ppl in u.s. are getting skin cancer, how much better is that
i dun think u hav to right to judge them just b/c everyone in united state wants to get tan…while ppl in china are getting their skin poison, ppl in u.s. are getting skin cancer, how much better is that
i dun think u hav to right to judge them just b/c everyone in united state wants to get tan…while ppl in china are getting their skin poison, ppl in u.s. are getting skin cancer, how much better is that
i dun think u hav to right to judge them just b/c everyone in united state wants to get tan…while ppl in china are getting their skin poison, ppl in u.s. are getting skin cancer, how much better is that
i dun think u hav to right to judge them just b/c everyone in united state wants to get tan…while ppl in china are getting their skin poison, ppl in u.s. are getting skin cancer, how much better is that
i dun think u hav to right to judge them just b/c everyone in united state wants to get tan…while ppl in china are getting their skin poison, ppl in u.s. are getting skin cancer, how much better is that
i dun think u hav to right to judge them just b/c everyone in united state wants to get tan…while ppl in china are getting their skin poison, ppl in u.s. are getting skin cancer, how much better is that
i dun think u hav to right to judge them just b/c everyone in united state wants to get tan…while ppl in china are getting their skin poison, ppl in u.s. are getting skin cancer, how much better is that
i dun think u hav to right to judge them just b/c everyone in united state wants to get tan…while ppl in china are getting their skin poison, ppl in u.s. are getting skin cancer, how much better is that
i dun think u hav to right to judge them just b/c everyone in united state wants to get tan…while ppl in china are getting their skin poison, ppl in u.s. are getting skin cancer, how much better is that
i dun think u hav to right to judge them just b/c everyone in united state wants to get tan…while ppl in china are getting their skin poison, ppl in u.s. are getting skin cancer, how much better is that
i dun think u hav to right to judge them just b/c everyone in united state wants to get tan…while ppl in china are getting their skin poison, ppl in u.s. are getting skin cancer, how much better is that
i dun think u hav to right to judge them just b/c everyone in united state wants to get tan…while ppl in china are getting their skin poison, ppl in u.s. are getting skin cancer, how much better is that
i dun think u hav to right to judge them just b/c everyone in united state wants to get tan…while ppl in china are getting their skin poison, ppl in u.s. are getting skin cancer, how much better is that
i dun think u hav to right to judge them just b/c everyone in united state wants to get tan…while ppl in china are getting their skin poison, ppl in u.s. are getting skin cancer, how much better is that
i dun think u hav to right to judge them just b/c everyone in united state wants to get tan…while ppl in china are getting their skin poison, ppl in u.s. are getting skin cancer, how much better is that
i dun think u hav to right to judge them just b/c everyone in united state wants to get tan…while ppl in china are getting their skin poison, ppl in u.s. are getting skin cancer, how much better is that
i dun think u hav to right to judge them just b/c everyone in united state wants to get tan…while ppl in china are getting their skin poison, ppl in u.s. are getting skin cancer, how much better is that
i dun think u hav to right to judge them just b/c everyone in united state wants to get tan…while ppl in china are getting their skin poison, ppl in u.s. are getting skin cancer, how much better is that
i dun think u hav to right to judge them just b/c everyone in united state wants to get tan…while ppl in china are getting their skin poison, ppl in u.s. are getting skin cancer, how much better is that
i dun think u hav to right to judge them just b/c everyone in united state wants to get tan…while ppl in china are getting their skin poison, ppl in u.s. are getting skin cancer, how much better is that
i dun think u hav to right to judge them just b/c everyone in united state wants to get tan…while ppl in china are getting their skin poison, ppl in u.s. are getting skin cancer, how much better is that
i dun think u hav to right to judge them just b/c everyone in united state wants to get tan…while ppl in china are getting their skin poison, ppl in u.s. are getting skin cancer, how much better is that
i dun think u hav to right to judge them just b/c everyone in united state wants to get tan…while ppl in china are getting their skin poison, ppl in u.s. are getting skin cancer, how much better is that
i dun think u hav to right to judge them just b/c everyone in united state wants to get tan…while ppl in china are getting their skin poison, ppl in u.s. are getting skin cancer, how much better is that
i dun think u hav to right to judge them just b/c everyone in united state wants to get tan…while ppl in china are getting their skin poison, ppl in u.s. are getting skin cancer, how much better is that
i dun think u hav to right to judge them just b/c everyone in united state wants to get tan…while ppl in china are getting their skin poison, ppl in u.s. are getting skin cancer, how much better is that
It doesn’t matter.I am a chinese boy.I like girls with pretty face and good shape.Whatever the skin is,if someone has a kind heart,he or she must be very popular in China.Bethune,you know?He is very famous in China now.There are also a lesson in the textbook for junior school student recording his deed.And perhaps everyone in China know him.Actually there are an medical university named after his name.
As to girls,i perfer beautiful face and good shape.
Trust me Jenny, I don’t judge anyway. But I think tanning and bleaching are equally ridiculous and sad.
I agree with you WorldNews, both are “equally ridiculous and sad”.
However, let us be reminded that some Caucasians are naturally not light-skinned and some Asians are naturally light-skinned.