The Postnational Monitor
East Asian and Western Beauty Standards | Dec 04th 2007
This is very interesting. Especially, since it has to do with Western women- East Asian men. That is not a topic very much talked about, atleast in America. I can not speak for the entire West, but in America, black women and Asian males are the least likely to marry outside their racial group. Asian women are the most likely. I’m not sure if white women do not find East Asian men physically attractive or if it is cultural. In Japan, I heard Western women complaining that East Asian men were effeminate, which is strange, because they would also complain about how “sexiest” (from their perspective) East Asian men were toward local women, especially when I lived in Japan. I think the power distance between men and women in Japan is much greater than China, despite Japan being far more developed. At the same time, I met Asian men who found Western (read white) women attractive but complained they were “mannish”. My guess is that Western women, on average, are more verbally aggressive and also just larger in size, and this has something to do with it. The East Asian males I met also tended to not really like light hair or eyes, as much as they thought it was strange or exotic, though they liked pale skin.
I suppose if you come from a society where 90-95% of people have the same color hair and eyes you would think anything different to be odd and maybe repulsive. It is clear that initial European contact with East Asians resulted in East Asians depicting them as hairy, smelly (as most Europeans at the time did not bath often) big nosed barbarians. Even today, there are Chinese who call Western people “big-nose” (da bizi) and I don’t think it is a term of endearment.
I once spent an entire post attempt to explain to ignorant Westerns that the Asian features they find beautiful in Asians are not usually what Asians find beautiful, and it has little to do with Westernization or self-hatred.
Beauty, besides some vague things like symmetry and general hip/waist ratio for women, is not universal. I found out pretty quick in dealing with people from various cultures that beauty standards change by country, and they tend to be radically different from what Westerns think is beautiful, but then again you can see that in America even among populations with much much closer cultural affinity (blacks and whites).
Most East Asian men that I know find famous Asian American actresses to be completely unattractive, Lucy Liu and Sandra Oh, for instance. My wife also comments (often) as to why they are on TV or in movies. In East Asia, the only acting they could likely do is comedy. I find that Western people like Asians that they think look stereotypical, which is not what East Asian like. Then again, Western people do not hold up women who are “stereotypical” as beautiful.
In Asia, I found many Western actors and models on TV and on billboards who would be considered plain or even unattractive in the West. Japan seems to be a sanctuary for such below-par people to break into these industries. I pointed this out to my wife. Her response was that “most Westerns look a like to her and most Japanese people” and she can only tell them apart by hair color or maybe eye color. If two blond women are in a movie she often confuses them, even after living in America, on and off, for 12 years.
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The Chinese man for Western women
<!–enpproperty 2007-12-04 06:55:17.0Cao Li1158960National2@webnews/enpproperty–>
By Cao Li (China Daily)
Updated: 2007-12-04 06:55
SHANGHAI: Want to know what kind of Chinese man Western women want to marry?
Take a close look at Hong Kong actor Andy Lau.
The movie star came out tops in a survey of 108 Western women living in Shanghai, where respondents were asked to rank Chinese male professionals they would want to marry.
Kungfu star Jet Li came in second in the poll.
“Though Li is less famous than Jackie Chan, he looks more attractive to Western women,” said Zhang Jiehai, a professor with the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, who led the survey team with 11 members from China, France, the United States, United Kingdom and Ireland.
The team showed interviewees headshots of 18 Chinese men including Jet Li, Jackie Chan and movie director Wong Kar-wai, and asked them to pick out the ideal husband.
The interviewees were also asked to choose lovers and work partners, and to rank the most and least handsome.
Actor Takeshi Kaneshiro, who is half-Japanese, was ranked first in terms of looks and being the best lover.
Tony Leung, the actor in Ang Lee’s latest movie “Lust, Caution”, was ranked fifth in the looks department.
Popular TV actor Li Yapeng was viewed as the least handsome for his long hair – said to be out of fashion.
Wong Kar-wai, who directed the movie “2046″, was picked as the second least handsome for always sporting sunglasses and having a cigarette in his hand.
“For many Chinese, Wong is considered cool but Western women don’t like that,” Zhang said. “He seems to want to hide himself with the glasses.”
Zhang said that they conducted the survey in order to find out the images Chinese movies are bringing to the world.
“Movies are the most influential way to build up images of people from different countries,” he said.
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I think you’re exaggerating the differences between Western and Asian conceptions of beauty. I don’t think most Westerners find Lucy Liu that attractive, and almost no one thinks Sandra Oh is beautiful. Neither is an A-list actress, but they get some extra publicity because they’re some of a very few Asians in Hollywood.
Like Asians, most Westerners would consider Ziyi Zhang, Gong Li, or Maggie Cheung a lot more attractive than either Liu or Oh, so where’s the difference?
Do you have any examples of women who are considered exceptionally attractive in Asia but not in the West, or vice versa?
Comment by jl — December 4, 2007 @ 4:58 PM
I might agree with you on Sandra Oh, but not on Lucy Liu, I’ve heard too many people comment on her in the States.
I will find some pictures in a couple of hours, but I think for the average American, who is not particuarlly into Asian women (a nonAsiaphile) they do not like women that are commonly seen as beautiful in Mainland China.
Pale, long straight black hair, little to know makeup, and fairly flat chested.
Gong Li is busty…she does not look like the average Chinese “idol”, that is certain. She is “heavy-set” for a Chinese actress.
I think Japanese are probably closer to a Western standard (due to our influences) than Chinese or even Koreans. I do not feel that is an exagerration.
When I lived in Asia, I often compared (with Asian male friends) women who were dating Westerns and women locals considered “hot” who were dating locals.
Western men often had darker women (more yellowish/tannish skin), shorter legs (most East Asians have shorter legs to torso than Western people, but most of the men I know like long legged women), the women had more heavy makeup, and very small eyes…they basically looked like a “stereotype” of what you think an Asian looks like in the West. They would also be heavier or busty.
On of my Taiwanese friends called them “rice field girls” or “countryside girls”.
The description above is not what most East Asian men I had men in 1.5 years of living there thought was “hot”.
Comment by Dragon Horse — December 4, 2007 @ 5:57 PM
jl:
I was thinking about this for a minute.
I gathered this information through my wife (Japanese national), my East Asian friends (mostly Korean, Japan, Mainland Chinese, and Taiwanese), going out to clubs and being on the streets of Shanghai and Tokyo, as well as American military (dad was in the Navy for 22 years so I’ve seen military brides from Asia), and the fashion magazines my sister-in-laws send my wife, such as Non-no ( ノン－ノ).
Now I compare all that, as I said to Westerns married to Asians (mostly Western men/Asian women) and Asian women I see in magazines, TV, and movies.
- Ming Na
-SuChin Pak (MTV VJ)
-Lucy Lu
…and a host of others, they do not look like the standard of women (from an East Asian perspective) of Non No.
My wife always says, “gaijin (meaning Western people) can not tell an ugly Asian woman”. LOL
Comment by Dragon Horse — December 4, 2007 @ 7:27 PM
Whoa, whoa, whoa…
No Chow Yun Fat? I feel like I need a cigarette after watching him in action. The man is gorgeous. This survey is flawed, I tell you!
Comment by K — December 5, 2007 @ 1:16 PM
You know Chow Yun Fat (Zhou Runfa) was a famous Hong Kong TV star?
The survey is not really accurate to what Western women think as they only surveyed women in Shanghai, China. Those women are far from typical Western women.
Comment by Dragon Horse — December 5, 2007 @ 1:47 PM
Hey there !!!
What do you think of South Korean singer Lee Hyori ???
There is tons of vids of her on You Tube .
And how many Koreans do you think do plastic surgery ??
cause i heard they obsessed with plastic surgery there .Don’t know if its really true ,but its what i heard /read on many Korean entertainment blogs and internet. Also Oprah Winfrey mentioned while ago Korean obsession with changing their features via plastic surgery .
Is it true ?????
Comment by . — May 25, 2008 @ 7:08 AM
I’ve always thought the fact that wai guo ren (foreigners) generally find the less attractive girls to be desirable makes for a win/win situation!
The foreign guys get a girl they think is pretty (maybe even out of their league), the girl (who is used to not being particularly desireable) is desired by loads of guys (nice ego boost for her), the local guys aren’t so jealous that a lao wai is taking one of “their” women because she’s “ugly”. Everyone wins!
Comment by Stuart — December 10, 2008 @ 6:19 PM
Being an asian male, I do think that western women tend to be too aggressive/manly. Other than culture factors, I think westerner and asian don’t really differ that much about their idea of beauty. There are asian girls(say Nanami Sakuraba) that are greatly popular among westerner and asian males alike. Not just that I also find a number of western celebrities very attractive, just their looks though. Asian wife is much better.
Comment by Khoi — April 15, 2009 @ 1:17 AM
I’m a Western woman and I PREFER the Asian male look.
…
I’d probably fit into their “aggressive” category though
Comment by haruko-chan — May 17, 2009 @ 6:50 PM
I don’t like being the one that feels she has to disagree with you, but as far as Westerners not holding to a stereotypical beauty ideal, I’m afraid I disagree. If only you knew these pro-family prudes
here in Portland, Oregon, they never yell “exploitation” whenever they see an 18-year-old White girl naked or half-naked, but whether it’s a Japanese woman 19 years old or older, they say that she’s “being exploited”. I am NOT a “White man”! I
am a Black woman who finds Japanese women, nude or non-nude, beautiful. And it’s not just for their facial features, either! I couldn’t even stomach the perverted thoght of seeing my Japanese sisters as “nothing but sex objects”, much less “tits and legs” or “private parts”! How PERVERTED!!!
Comment by Jamesha Walker — May 19, 2009 @ 1:45 AM
But I am sorry I spelled “thought” wrong by accident. The typo was my fault, and for that I apologize, yet what I said before remains justified, regardless of what others may think.
Comment by Jamesha Walker — May 19, 2009 @ 1:49 AM