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Korean beauty standards versus Chinese beauty standards

(1)

For the well-known Korean beauty standards, the first things that come into the public's mind would probably be pale skins, small face, and slim figures. However, these days in China, the beauty trend is also known as having the skin "not only be pale, but as white as possible", "ideally small face which is e dan lain 鵝蛋臉(translated into shaped like an upside down goose egg)", and with slim bodies "hopefully tall with long legs, small feet and a Pippa Middleton style bottom".

(2)

Even though Korean and Chinese beauty standards may sound quite similar, some details of these categories can still help to distinguish the differences between Koreans and Chinese easily. First of all, these days Korean girls have transformed their eye makeups from the traditional sexy cat eye to a more cute and innocent puppy eye. The point makeup is to "purposefully create puffy under eyes, which are called the aegyo-sal(translated into the baby fat under the eye)". Some people even tried to do plastic surgery for it. According to Allure, "People think it makes your eyes look brighter and more youthful". A representative korean idol for the puppy eyes can be Chou Tzu-yu from Twice under the JYP entertainment.

On the other hand, big and cute eyes are also popular among the Chinese beauty trends. However, since "50% of the Chinese girls have single eyelids, which they considered it as unattractive"(3), the Chinese girls tend to do eye surgery or use makeup techniques to make their eyes look as huge as possible. For eye makeups, Chinese girls tend to use darker eyeliners, such as black or dark brown, to exaggerate their eyes, whereas the Korean girls tend to pursue a more natural eye makeup by using lighter color eyeliners to create dedicated eyes. Moreover, Chinese beauty trends also introduce the puppy eyes as the Wo Chan臥蟬(translated into lying silkworm) to the public. (4)It is known as a 4 to 7 millimeter puff that lies under the under eyelashes that look like a silkworm, which make the girls look cute and sweet when they smile. According to the Chinese traditional face reading, the people with Wo Chan臥蟬 are born to have good lives with good fortunes for their relationships and business.

Having a slim figure is probably one of the most important part in both Korean and Chinese beauty standards. However, the ways the idols from these two countries to keep fit are very different. The famous Korean singer IU under Leon entertainment is well-known for her diet plan, which she only has "one apple for breakfast, one sweet potato for lunch, and a cup of protein for dinner"(5). Even Though she is already known to the public as slim and tiny, who's only 162 centimeters tall and weighs around 45 kilograms, before important events, she would drink 3 liters of waters for 5 days straight to make her face look small on the 7th day. (6) "And on the seventh day, you are basically a skeleton," she emphasized, adding that "this way, you can go from thin to skeleton-skinny"(6). To look skinny on TV, the Korean idols would try all kinds of diets to keep their faces small and legs slim, which starts a trend for the girls all around Korean to follow these diet plans in order to be called "skinny and beautiful".

On the other hand, a famous Chinese actress Zheng Shuang 鄭爽 is known for her skinny zombie-like body, who is 168 centimeters tall but only weighs around 37 kilograms.(7) For the Chinese beauty standards, the girls should be as skinny as possible where people can see their bones. However, instead of eating less, most of the Chinese actresses chose to not eat at all or only eat 7 grains of rice one day to lose weight. One of the trends that happened a few years ago was called the A4 waist challenge, or the ant waist challenge, which the women hold up sheets of paper and take selfies - they "win" if the paper entirely obscures their waist, and the standard paper size is only 21 cm (8.3in) across."(8)

Work cited

https://www.englishfirst.com/esl-jobs/chinese-beauty-standards/ (1)

https://www.allure.com/story/korean-beauty-trends (2)

https://martalivesinchina.wordpress.com/2017/08/07/beauty-standards-in-china/ (3)

https://www.backchina.com/blog/250647/article-233494.html (4)

http://thekoreandiet.com/iu-diet-weight-loss/ (5)

https://mnews.joins.com/article/22121703?IgnoreUserAgent=y#home (6)

http://www.ohwonews.com/125182/ (7)

https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-35892789 (8)