China promotes 'right aesthetics' after online storm over Chinese model's eye shape

阅读 中文版

After she finished high school, Wandi Cao’s mother had advice about her appearance.

Key points:

• A recent controversy has swirled around some Chinese models because of the shape of their eyes
• Critics say the ads are caricatures or follow Western views
• Chinese government has urged TV companies to promote “right aesthetics”

“My mother tried to persuade me to have double eyelid plastic surgery, so ‘my life would be so much easier’,” Cao told ABC China Tonight.

Growing up in China, the 27-year-old model never thought she could “fit up with mainstream beauty standards”.

“They thought my high cheekbones would curse my husband and my small eyes,” she said.

“But I didn’t think it would change my personality and abilities, and I didn’t necessarily look prettier, so I didn’t.”

Now living in Sydney, Cao moved to Melbourne in 2016 and started modeling.

In Australia, she received a lot of praise for her looks from photographers and designers.

It took him some time to realize that this comment was not only “polite,” but sincere.

Wandi Cao said that her mother thought she would have an easier life if she had eyelid surgery.(provided)

“I realized: ‘Oh! People from different cultures and environments have very different perceptions of me.'”

Yet he never thought his face would become a problem in China one day.

Earlier this month, China’s National Radio and Television Administration required the country’s TV companies to “comply to maintain the correct political, moral and aesthetic direction”.

The directive does not specify a “correct” aesthetic, but urges the company to reject “pathological plastic surgery, ‘sissy man’ aesthetics, excessive make-up, overuse of filters and other negative aesthetics”.

Wandi Cao said his performance was praised outside China.(provided)

It comes after a widespread online boycott of models and even fictional cartoon characters with little eyes.

Nationalistic critics accuse Western brands of caricature and stereotypes – including using makeup to exaggerate slanted eyes – and Chinese companies buying into Western perceptions of Chinese traits.

Angry netizens criticized Chinese snack brand Three Squirrels for using a model they dubbed “slanted eyes” (mi-mi-yan) late last year.

One Weibo user said: “This is an insult to China that ignores Chinese history and culture. We don’t know which country’s aesthetic is served by slanted-eye modeling, but at least it’s a one-sided, biased and insulting phenomenon.”

“All cultural traitors are secretly distorting the national aesthetic,” said another.

Some accused the Chinese animation I Am What I Am, which centers on a traditional lion dance, of making the characters’ eyes appear “squinted” to insult Chinese audiences last year.

An elementary school math textbook that has been in use for almost 10 years has come under attack because the children’s drawings were drawn too wide. China’s Ministry of Education announced that it will replace all textbooks in September.

Wandi Cao said it was absurd that a model’s natural eye shape could be seen as an insult to China.(ABC News)

For Cao, the online firestorm over the shape of the eye is “outrageous”.

“Our existence insults China? This is completely unreasonable.”

Struggling under China’s changing beauty standards

In recent years, many well-known international fashion brands have been criticized in China for using models with small eyes.

Dior, for example, was attacked last November for showing off photos from 2012 of a skinny-eyed model at her art show in Shanghai.

A 2012 photo by Chinese photographer Man Chen sparked a reaction.(Weibo: Dashi Logo)

After receiving the criticism, Dior later issued an apology on its Weibo account and deleted all the images.

Man Chen, who took the photos and was once considered China’s most successful fashion photographer, also apologized, saying the photos were taken in the “early days” when “his artistic outlook was not yet formed”.

Similarly, Italian luxury brand Gucci removed an ad featuring an Asian model holding a bamboo handbag from their social media pages after being criticized by nationalist critics.

Load

The Global Times, China’s state-run jingoistic tabloid, claims that the Gucci models’ makeup reinforces the “‘Asian face’ usually portrayed in Western narratives.”

Pan Wang, senior lecturer in Chinese and Asian Studies at the University of New South Wales, said he was “not surprised to see the controversy” surrounding these images.

“When different advertisers, especially Western brands, they all use one particular type of image, it is likely to create the impression of racial and cultural stereotypes.

“For some people, they’re certainly offended by that.”

Dr Pan Wang said brands should avoid stereotypes, but some reactions have been overreactions or contradictory ones.(Provided: Dr Pan Wang)

However, Dr Wang said some critics may have overreacted, as “some of the advertisers and models recruited did not intend to distort the image of the Chinese. [people] and China”.

“It is not good to see them spreading their views and imposing their views on others with the aim of creating a cultural or ideological war between China and Western culture,” he said.

Dr Wang added that some of the comments bordered on body shaming.

“A lot of people are born with ‘slanted eyes’ and there’s nothing wrong with that.”

How has beauty standards become a battleground in China?

In ancient China, long and thin eyes were considered beautiful.

In Moon Goddess and Maid, the artist Zhang Tinyan depicts the ideal of beauty during the Qing dynasty.(Weibo: @Zhongguo Yoshupin Shoucang)

It wasn’t long before this body feature began to be used as an insult to Asians and was associated with the “Yellow Danger” racist ideology.

In popular culture, this is embodied in the fictional supervillain Fu Manchu, created by British novelist Sax Rohmer before World War I and featured in films in the 1920s.

But because most Western films were banned in China before the Cultural Revolution ended in 1976, few in China are familiar with the characters and their associated insults.

After the country’s economic transformation took place in the late 1970s, Chinese society began to adapt to Western culture and its beauty standards.

Eyes like this, in the Ming Dynasty painting Young Lady Reading Poetry by Sheng Shiyan, are considered the pinnacle of beauty.(Weibo: @Zhongguo Yoshupin Shoucang)

Today, celebrities with double eyelids and high noses, such as Uyghur actresses Dilraba Dilmurat and Fan Bingbing, are held up as prime examples of Chinese beauty.

Meanwhile, more and more people are resorting to cosmetic surgery or make-up to change their appearance to match the standard.

According to Deloitte estimates, China’s cosmetic surgery market has been growing since 2012 and will reach 311.5 billion Chinese yuan (about $68.5 billion) by 2023.

Fan Bingbing is seen as the embodiment of the ideal beauty standard in China.(Reuters: Stephane Mahe)

Dr Wang said the Chinese government now wants to “strengthen its national identity through building a positive image”.

“[The] The ‘slanted eye’ image doesn’t match this,” he said.

“People don’t want other people to use the image of ‘slanted eyes’ to label China and demonize Chinese people.”

Brands caught in the middle of a beauty clash

Directives from the Radio and Television Administration also require TV productions “not to use, follow, or arbitrarily copy foreign styles”.

However, from a nationalistic point of view, the perspective of most Chinese people has been interpreted as a bad representation of China.

The contradiction raises questions for brands and businesses alike: How should they find a balance when trying to market their products in China?

Ashley Galina Dudarenok, a China marketing expert based in Hong Kong, sees the controversy in the eyes of models as “a clash between what brands want to display and Chinese beauty standards”.

“That balance can be found if brands look at their own artistic value and what the Chinese value,” he said.

“Chinese consumers know they have power because they control most of the market driven by foreign brands.

“This is why it’s so important for brands to have a test marketplace or review system for products, campaigns or even social media posts. Launching anything without proper testing and evaluation is a surefire way to backfire.”

But Ms Dudarenok also said most Chinese customers were still “focused on quality and wanted the best product”.

“If they are a foreign brand or a brand that has come under fire, often Chinese consumers are still voting with their dollar for quality,” he said.

“It’s inevitable when working across cultures because brands sometimes fail even within their own culture.”

Additional reporting by Bang Xiao

Watch the story on China Tonight tonight at 8 PM AEST on ABC News Channel, 9:35 PM AEST on ABC TV, or stream on ABC iview.

Read stories in Chinese

#China #promotes #aesthetics #online #storm #Chinese #models #eye #shape