She decided to go for a light tan, no doubt a concession to American culture.
Posted on 06/30/2014 8:47:20 AM PDT by csvset
“Hey, girls, college won’t just make you smarter… it will also make you prettier, richer and even whiter!” Chinese Internet users have been saying, making fun of a university in Beijing that published "before" and "after" photos of one of its students.
In what appears to be a bid to attract prospective students, Tsinghua University reposted photos of a student taken before and after her university years on its Weibo (a site similar to Twitter) page.
In the “after” photos, the student is dressed more fashionably and seems to have lighter skin. After her years of study, her appearance fits more closely with the beauty ideals esteemed in modern Chinese society, with many believing that the perfect woman is “white (bai), rich (fu) and beautiful (mei)” or “baifumei.”
The university kicked off a social media trend, as other female students began posting "before" and "after" photos to show how their undergraduate years had changed them for the better. One even captioned her “after” photo: “A better me”.
While the university may merely be expressing pride in its blossoming students, some young women say that a university shouldn’t be adverstising the physical attributes of its student body in order to attract enrollment.
“It’s wrong for a university to publicize itself in this way” Yaxue Wang is a student in Beijing.
Universities are about education, teaching and research. It’s wrong to for a university to publicize itself in this way. It isn’t serious enough... it gives the impression that female students put their best efforts into studying make-up instead of more intellectual subjects! This ad could easily be for a clinic specialising in cosmetic surgery. “These photos are just for fun.” But not all students are offended. One student who isn’t worried about the photos is Ocean Weng.
Tsinghua University is a reputed establishment… it doesn’t need to worry about whether students want to study there or not. The photos of “white, rich and beautiful” girls are just for fun. We don’t have to take them seriously.
Exactly. Suggests she spent the summer working outside, perhaps.
Pretty likely. There were some Pacific Island cultures that would send the female members of their nobility to “bleaching caves” to keep them from sunlight and, thereby, lighten their skin.
True, but in Indias case most of the Southern people are “native” Dravidian and very dark, where more of the northern people are of Persian or other ME origin.
So there would be a degree of actual race-ism.
Han Chinese are the most racist people on the face of the earth, bar none. They truly believe they are superior. What little concession they make toward western multiculturalist notions of equality is window dressing. Every race finds lighter skin more desirable. It likely has nothing to do with Caucasians, and much more to do with status due to not having to work outside in the fields. Very light skin was once desired even among Caucasians for the same reason. This was inverted in the 20th century, again for reasons of status. Much as obesity came to be associated not with plenty but with poverty, being pale came to be associated with having to work. The leisure class had free time to be outdoors and acquire a tan. This assumption is slowly cycling back to the historic norm, though.
You would think so, but they dont see it that way. There are 29 “states” each with its own language etc, yet they all feel “Indian”....
I guess you could compare it to North/South or West/East...
People in the west all think “back easterners” should stay there :)
I've occasionally been on forums where Indians and Pakistanis post, and how to make the skin "fair" is discussed often and with no apologies.
all the time!! its just part of life there.
Lighting conditions have a lot to do with it I bet
In Korea a more pale person is considered to be prettier or even richer (as in they don’t need to go out and work) or that they are pampered or whatever.
It’s one of the weird things that pops up in K-drama’s from time to time.
American leftists already consider orientals not to be minorities.
Watch any Mexican novela on Univision. Almost all of the actors are lily white.
I did actually notice that once. I just decided that the show must have come from Spain. lol.
It’s cultural. Peasants work outside, dark skin color is considered lower class. Light skin makes you look more cultured and affluent.
The Chinese pay very close attention to skin tone.
A high school English teacher of mine offered a variation of that to the class one day: "A wise person is one who knows what he knows, and knows what he doesn't know."
Someone who really learns to apply that can just about always avoid making of fool of him or herself, or damaging their credibility in all sorts of situations.
She decided to go for a light tan, no doubt a concession to American culture.
“some young women say that a university shouldn’t be adverstising the physical attributes of its student body in order to attract enrollment.”
Have they ever noticed the place of sports at many universities in America?
“those eyes, those lips, those nose...”
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