China's Perception of Beauty

Before each class, the same thing usually happens. Excited children peer at me from behind a wall or door and then run down the corridors shouting; ‘beautiful! Beautiful! So beautiful!’ The Chinese teachers who help me to control the class also comment on my appearance and youth.

If I had a pound for every time someone told be that I was beautiful here, I would be rich!

I’m not saying this to sound full of my self. The fact is, every foreigner in Asia will say that they have been told the same thing.

 The Chinese love fair skin, big eyes and being thin.

In China, when someone compliments you about anything, you must decline the compliment and produce a compliment of your own in return. So, for example, if a person says, ‘your Chinese is very good,’ you would reply saying, ‘no. My Chinese is not good. Your English is very good.’ If you say, ‘thank you’ to a compliment, you are seen as being arrogant and impolite. I didn’t know this when I first arrived. Oops!

At home, a lot of men will find big bums and big boobs attractive. Here, it’s all about having a pretty face. Girls here are thin and petite. Not once have I seen fake boobs and big bums. The girls here seem to concentrate on facial beauty more than showing off their bodies (unless they work in a club).

I find the Chinese girls so pretty with their naturally straight dark hair, near perfect skin complexions and their petite sizes. But naturally, some will find flaws in their appearances. I’ve had some Chinese girls tell me that they think that their faces are too ‘fat.’ Sounds pretty ridiculous right?

The Chinese girls also want fair skin. I was aware of this before I came here and although there is a variation of Asian skin colour here, pale is seen as being cooler and more beautiful than darker skin. Here is a picture of a Chinese actress, Liu Yan, to give you an idea of how pale some girls want to be.

Some Chinese girls focus a lot on what they look like and what they look like to others as any other girls would in any other country. One Westerner told me that he was at work and some Chinese recruiters were busy sorting out possible applicants for future job positions. When he asked how they were deciding who got hired and who didn’t, whether it was on the Universities they had been to or past experience, they replied saying that it was down to what they looked like from their application photographs!!

Beauty pageants in mainland China were banned for more than 50 years to try and limit the discrimination of women. But now, it is apparently quite popular among young women and it is something many dream of winning.

 However, when I ask my students what they want to do as a career, instead of saying; a singer, an actor, a model, a celebrity, they will say that they want to be a business man or woman. I find this refreshing.

When I talk with my older classes about differences between China and the West, I mention the different ideas of beauty. When I tell my students about British girls wearing fake hair, fake nails, fake eye lashes, fake eyebrows and fake tan, they always look at me with raised eyebrows and laugh.

I like to people watch and the girls here are usually very natural looking. Of course, some will wear make up, but I’ve never once seen an orange face or 8 layers of make-up on any girl.

I also find it very difficult here to guess a girl or a woman's age. I'm not the only one to have this difficulty either! Chinese women seem to have the super power of looking young for a long time! They will always look younger than they actually are! For example, the actress, Zhang Ziyi (from 'Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon' and 'Memoires of a Geisha') looks about eighteen but in actual fact she is thirty four!!

I’ve spent so long getting used to my ‘ginger’ hair. I spent my younger years being bullied for it and when I was older I was teased for it.

Now, I love my hair, it’s what gets me noticed. Less than 4% of the world’s population has my hair colour and less than 4% has my eye colour (green). Everyone tries so hard to be different and now I realise that I was different all along. So just when I am fully embracing my individuality and 100% happy with my appearance (well, 85%), the Chinese think that my hair is blonde!!...

Typical!! So I keep getting told how much they like my ‘blonde’ hair. It was the same when I lived in Italy. They described my hair also as ‘blonde.’ Typical!

I find different countries and cultures' ideas of beauty interesting. Everyone wants what they don’t have!

I have to say, I prefer the more natural look here rather than the faker look at home in the UK. I’m already wearing far less make up here than I would in the UK and I am going to try my best to keep it that way.