monoceros blogsOver lunch yesterday, I had a Wong Kar Wai movies conversation with a grad student who was born in Eastern Europe, but has lived for a number of years in the U.S. When I mentioned that I'd grown up watching Liang Chao Wei in Hong Kong TVB serials and that I found him handsome and youthful, she quipped, "Yes, he's attractive in a very non-good-looking way!" I was a little stunned at first and asked her if I'd heard her correctly, that he wasn't good-looking to her but still attractive in some way. She nodded.
Is the beauty of Asian faces so elusive? Like the next person, I'd be the first to acknowledge the highly photographable looks of say, James Caviezel, Ioan Gruffudd, and Natalie Portman, but why am I made to feel that my celluloid tastes are questionable when I mention the name of an Asian actor? Do people outside of East Asia find it difficult to appreciate what we call beauty in our own homes? Mind you, there are people who are quick to point out the fervent idolization of Asian females. But what about the men? Perhaps those who aren't familiar with Asian pop culture recognize only Jackie Chan, Jet Li, Tony Leung, Bruce Lee, and heaven forbid, William Hung. Compared with the faces of legions of Hollywood and international stars, these guys don't get placed very high on the beautiful-people list.
Or maybe it's because our world is still an Occidentally driven one. Numerous women from Japan and Korea, and Singapore too, continue to undergo surgery to get double eyelids because this makes their eyes look wider and more Caucasian-like. Women of mixed heritage where one parent is Caucasian are often considered superior to purely Asian women in terms of beauty, particularly when they have strong Caucasian features with a hint of Asian delicacy. One Miss Thailand, I recall (though I can't recall her name or the year she won), said that she was proud she beat luk kreungs - half-Thai and half-Caucasian persons (very favored in the Thai media) - to the crown, insisting that ethnic Thai beauty is still relevant in this day and age.
I doubt standards of beauty will change very much through the decades. Even as more people gaze upon the faces of non-Westerners, like model Alek Wek and actor Tony Leung, their beauty would still be branded "exotic," not typical, not what you'd expect.
Now, I wonder what my friend would say about Takeshi Kaneshiro.
Posted by Monoceros at September 2, 2004 10:14 AMperhaps beauty 'universals' are more easily established within ethnic groups... although most people appear to like symmetric faces... as some studies highlight.
in fact there are people researching on faces here in europe... e.g. on what is an attractive face etc. and some of their stimuli-faces are so not attractive to me that i find it hard to even do a 2-alternate choice task. hmmm.
Posted by: tiggie at September 2, 2004 12:28 PM
tony leung NOT good-looking? sacrilege! but then you are looking at a girl who looks at brad pitt and - nothing...
Well, Shin, I actually thought my friend would have said something different. She's not your typical girl - she's lived on two continents, worked various jobs and is very bright and open-minded, certainly not the Brad-Pitt-focused type =). Oh well. Maybe she, like many others, aren't familiar with enough Asian guys to appreciate how they look.
Posted by: V Heng at September 3, 2004 9:24 PMoh dear, i understand why you are shocked. well, i think you just have to introduce her to such gems like In The Mood For Love, ChungKing Express and Dr Mack. i should suggest Hero as well, but period-costume Tony never quite did it for me, i'm afraid.
takeshi kaneshiro - he is too beautiful by half!
Posted by: shin at September 4, 2004 12:50 PM