Joy Li: Phase 1
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Zhuoying (Joy) Li Design and Technology Thesis 1 Thesis Title: Re-Realization Thesis Professor: Anezka Sebek Fall 2011
Project Issue
East Asian women have adorned western beauty for a century that almost everyone is
finding ways to look more like their ideal beauty. Big eyes, double eyelids, oval face, narrow
jaw, small cheek and chin, and high nose are all dispensable qualities that an ideal Asian beauty
should have. Excitingly, the advancement of plastic surgery and makeup tools and techniques
have brought the hope for women in East Asian. However, they are going to the extreme that
they have diminished their individuality and degraded their natural beauty. By overdoing
makeup and plastic surgery, girls in East Asia are not been more attractive but look like clones of
each other. Therefore, I want to create an installation that raise the awareness of such issue and
question people the gain after changing themselves so hard to become the same as others.
Issue Context
Asian youth, especially Chinese are obsessed with Caucasian-European’s facial
appearance. Although there are differences between oriental Asian aesthetic values, the common
dissatisfactions are small eyes, wide and flat face and nose, big chin and cheek, and beige skin.1
Below is a photograph displayed at a plastic surgery center that shows the mainstream beauty
standard among different ethnic groups. (From left to right: African, European, Chinese, Korean,
and Japanese)2
1 Marek Dobke, Christopher Chung and Kazuaki Takabe, “Facial Aesthetic Preferences Among Asian Women: Are All Oriental Asians the Same?”, Aesthetic Plastic Surgery 30, no. 3, 342-347. 2 “Attractive Composite Faces”, photo, Blogpost.com, http://javajossi.blogspot.com/2010/11/attractive-composite-faces-of-asian.html.
Since 20th century, having double eyelids have been regarded as a symbol of beauty in
East Asia. However, approximately 75 percent of all Koreans and 50 percent of all other
Asians are born without the double eyelid crease.3 Therefore, women’s strive for beauty all
starts from magical makeup tools and plastic surgeries for bigger and more Caucasian like
eyes. The double eyelid surgery has been the most popular and common plastic surgery in
East Asian, yet, it no longer satisfy the aggressive youth that they want to achieve “giant”
eyes rather than big eyes. They are now risking more to have their eye-‐head opened with
the double eyelid surgery (image 1).
Image 1 Image 2 Image 34
Even though many people yield from plastic surgery, they all have done their own secret
procedure to become similar with the ideal beauty. As I discovered, nowadays, girls wear circle
contacts not for a play of different eye color but for bigger eye pupils (image 2); girls use glues
to create natural looking double eye lids that won’t show any flaw (image 3); girls tape on their
face overnight to slim their face and wider their eyes (image 4, 5); girls even use clips to higher
their nose (image5) and etc. All of these magical methods have gone from mild to extreme that
layers of makeup and props have covered their distinctive Asian identity and natural beauty. 3 Sandy Kobrin, “Asian-Americans Criticize Eyelid Surgery Craze”, Womensenews, August 15, 2004, http://www.womensenews.org/story/health/040815/asian-americans-criticize-eyelid-surgery-craze. 4 “Double Eyelid Glue”, photo, Have8.com, http://zt.have8.com/article/1854864.html.
Image 45 Image 56 Image 67
Moreover, the pursuing of ideal beauty has caused scary experiences. Examples are boy
friends shocked and disappointed after seeing their girl friends’ natural face because of the huge
difference; circle contacts covered people’s eye balls even the white area; layers of faux lashes
with smoky eye shadows that created a monster look more than a western beauty. There will also
be further consequences such as side effects and health issues caused by cosmetic surgeries and
makeup props. More sadly, people can’t hide their true face lifetime because DNA doesn’t lie
that their children won’t look the same as their fake mask.
There is also a trend of posting before and after images of makeup process online that
presents an unbelievable difference and announce their ability to be pretty even though they are
naturally ugly. However, the “ugliness” is usually exaggerated in order to emphasize the ideal
side. Perhaps the images below can exemplify the best that the three are all the same person as
in image 7; yet with makeup, she shows her obsession with European facial appearance (image
8), and her ability to become the standard beauty among Chinese youth (Image 9). Nevertheless,
people made themselves look worse before that they usually wore careless nightgown and have
their hair up with bare face staring at the camera without any smile. They could look much better
if they have done everything except the makeup they did in the “after” photos.
5 “Face Sliming Tape”, photo, Taobao.com, http://store.taobao.com/shop/view_shop-ffd114287374fbba48e66f4a9a02c175.htm. 6 “Eyes Tape”, photo, 100sp.com, http://www.100sp.com/show_pro.asp?id=14916. 7 “Nose Up Clip”, photo, Blogspot.com, http://all-lovely-pink.blogspot.com/2009/03/nose-up-clip.html.
Image 7, 88 Image 99
Therefore, I want to question why Asian women are minimizing their personal identity
and torturing themselves to become the ideal beauties that actually look fake and soulless. Is
their natural appearance not beautiful? I don’t think so, and I’d like to find a way to make people
to rethink their beauty identity and realize how far they have gone form themselves.
Research
Question1: Why do people strive to be beautiful? What are the benefits?
Although we are all legally equal, people are often treated differently according to their
physical appearance. Since childhood, the cuter kits get more attention and more encouragement,
thus build up their confidence and ability. 10 Some people even think their face is their fate
because first impression is important for relationship and job opportunity.
Question 2: What really is beauty? What defines it?
There are various academic approaches and analysis of the standards and measurements
of beauty. However, from studies of attractive features and scientific measurements I found, they
all reveal people’s misunderstanding that they have been blindly pursuing the ideal standard.
8 “Before and After”, photo, LadyBand.com, http://www.ladyband.com/article/00163836.shtml. 9 Ibid. 10 Karl Grammer and Elisabeth Oberzaucher. “Our Preferences: Why We Like What We Like”, Essential Building Blocks of Human Nature, The Frontiers Collection, 2011, 95-108.
1. Beauty: The attractiveness
• Neonate features: eyes, nose, and chin.
• Maturity features: cheekbones, and cheek.
• Expressive features: eyebrows, pupils, and smile.
Based on Michael Cunningham’s experiments, girls care most about their neonate features,
but viewers are actually attracted by their expressive features.11 To concern too much on the
individual parts does not bring you the most attention; yet, a smile with your soul in your eyes
works more effectively.
2. Determinants of facial attractiveness: Physical Characteristics
• Averageness (prototypicality)
• Sexual dimorphism
• Youthfulness
• Symmetry
According to Dr. Mounir Bashour’s study, extreme outstanding facial appearance such as
very large eyes and high nose bridge does not achieve the best facial harmony; yet, most viewers
adorn faces that maintain some averageness.12
3. The Golden Radio Face (image 10)
Dr. Stephen R. Marquardt quantifies beauty scientifically by developing the Golden
Decagon Mask.13 This two-dimensional visual of the human face is based upon the Golden Ratio
(also known as the Divine or phi ratio): 1:1.618. This special number is believed to symbolize
11 Michael R. Cunningham “Measuring the physical in physical attractiveness: Quasi-experiments on the sociobiology of female facial beauty.”, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 50, no.5, May 1986, 925-935. 12 Mounir Bashour, “History and Current Concepts in the Analysis of Facial Attractiveness” Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery 118, no.3, Sept 1, 2006, 741-756. 13 Stephen R. Marquardt. “Marquardt’s Beauty Analysis”, http://www.beautyanalysis.com/index2_mba.htm.
perfect natural harmony and appears in Renaissance art, ancient Greek architecture, music, and
nature. The closer a face is to this template, the more aesthetically pleasing the face is.
Image 1014: From left to right: European, Asian and African
Nevertheless, when comes to facial appearance, people’s preference does not fall exactly into
the scientific measurement. As seen in the match-up photos done to top model Agyness Deyn (image
11)15 and Hollywood star Marilyn Monroe (image 12)16, Agyness’ face is almost perfectly aligned
with the mask whereas Marilyn’s face seems too wide and her eyebrows are too high compare to the
golden radio. Contradictory, most people consider Marilyn the prettier and more feminine rather
than Agyness who is recognized as the cool and fashionable idol. Thus, where people’s preference
truly lies is undefined that it can be affected by various factors.
14 “Golden Ratio Mask”, photo, Blogpost.com, http://beautyanalysisblog.blogspot.com/. 15 Maggie Bullock, “Agyness Deyn”, photo, Elle.com, http://www.elle.com/Beauty/Beauty-Spotlight/Golden-Ratio-Perfect-Face. 16 “Marilyn Monroe”, photo, Renee’s AntiAge Blog, http://reneeantiage.wordpress.com/.
Question 3: What has influenced Asian youth the most on their beauty standards? And who
defined the ideal beauty?
Media has been playing a leading role that girls are striving to catch its standard.
The majority of East Asian youth have always kept an eye on celebrities, advertisings, and
fashion trends. Whatever the TV, the press and the ads present have been deeply believed
as the true ideal. How could we not? It’s all around us. As a result, the higher the standard
goes, the harder people trying to pursue with any costs. Even celebrities have to
manipulate themselves to match the standards. Below are before and after photos of Asian
celebrities who have worked hard to achieved the ideal facial appearance.
Image 1317: Japanese singer Ayumi Hamasaki
Image 1418: Korean actress Lee Da Hae Image 1519: Chinese actress Li Bing Bing
17 “Before and After”, photo, Gaibianziji.org, http://gaibianziji.org/anli/stars/mxzs/200805/11718.html. 18 “Before and After”, photo, 31591111.com, http://www.31591111.com/view-7582.html. 19 “Before and After”, photo, Allmei.com, http://www.allmei.com/news/42005.htm.
Question 4: How have the standards changed over time? How far have people gone to, to fit
these unattainable standards?
Similar with fashion trends, beauty standards have been varied continuously. Use
China as an example, within the last 50 years, its celebrities have portrayed the
contradictory beauty standards. Deng Lijun, a Taiwanese singer in the 70s, has rounded
face, medium eyes and small nose that remain an authentic Chinese appearance. In
contrast, in the 90s, the preference of a more Caucasian-‐European look has shown from
Chinese actress Ling Qingxia’s face, which acquires a higher nose, larger eyes and more
obvious cheekbones and jawbones. Nevertheless, the present dream girl has gone further
than a mimic of western beauty. As seen in Chinese actress Fan Bingbing’s portrait, the
mainstream ideal beauty now requires giant eyes, very high nose bridge and extraordinary
thin cheek and chin. Therefore, even if people change themselves to the “perfect” now, they
might regret when the next trend arrives.
Image 1620 Image 1721 Image 1822
According to Chin Evans P. and McConnell A.R.’s research, Asian women are more
likely to experience negative self-‐evaluations after exposure to a mainstream beauty
20 Hongjuan Sun, “Deng Lijun”, photo, Cri.cn, http://gb.cri.cn/27504/2009/03/03/3905s2445427.htm. 21 Ke Chen, “Lin Qingxia”, photo, Sohu.com, http://feizhutian.blog.sohu.com/72602257.html. 22 Ying Li, “Fan Bingbing”, photo, Sdnews.com, http://ent.sdnews.com.cn/2008/9/11/660424.html.
standard than members of other stigmatized groups, such as Black women. 23 They found
that Asian women would see imageries of mainstream beauty as relevant for their
comparisons and have greater dissatisfactions with themselves. It is not hard to imagine
why Asian women are striving to catch the standard; however, some TV shows have made
people feel even worse about themselves.
Image 19 Image20
For intense, a TV show in Taiwan invited girls to compete with each other for a
bigger difference before and after makeup (image 19,20)24. People in the show were
laughing at the girls’ natural appearance and surprised by the considerable contrast they
made. What has been emphasized is that these girls are naturally “ugly” but look
astonishing after makeup. It also communicates to their audience that this is the way to
become pretty.
As a result, people are learning hard to mimic the so-‐called beauty transformation.
Unfortunately, girls didn’t recognize that they have become clones of each other. When
looking at photos of different Chinese youth, they aren’t making themselves more
outstanding but undistinguishable among their peers (image 20,21,22). As Jason Biller and
23 Chin Evans P. and McConnell A.R, “Self and Identity”, Psychology Press 2, no. 2, April-‐June 2003, 153-‐167. 24 “Taiwanese Television”, photo, Pclady,com.cn, http://bbs.pclady.com.cn/topic-746382.html.
David Kim also pointed out from their research, the ideal facial aesthetics do not fit for everyone
because facial harmony must be pursued on an individual basis.25
Image 2026,21,2227
Precedents:
Image 23 Image 24
The “Doll Face” animation is one of my precedents (image 23)28. The Doll Face at first
comes out of her box and sees the TV, which shows an image of what she is supposed to
look like. Thus, she pulls out her makeup and changes herself to match the image.
Whenever the image changes to a new, higher standard along with the TV screen raises
25 Jason Biller and David Kim, “Contemporary Assessment of Facial Aesthetic Preferences”. Arch Facial Plast Surg 11, no.2, 2009, 91-97. 26 “Post 90s”, photo, QQZyz.net, http://www.qqzyz.net/viewNews/43763.html. 27 “Post 90s”, photo, Im808.com, http://www.lm808.com/html/feizhuliumeinv/20091113/11274.html. 28 Andrew Huang, “Doll Face”, 2007, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zl6hNj1uOkY.
higher, the Doll Face stretches herself to reach that point, and changes her face again and
again. At last, she falls, shatters, and breaks. The doll face lost her life just because the
obsession and adoration of the ideal beauty that the media told her. It reflects the reality that
humans are like dolls controlled by mass media that we have lost ourselves sometimes.
Another precedent is “The Beauty Kit” animation by Angalo Papeteri (image 24) 29. It has
four different beauty kits for little girls to reconstruct their face or body in order to look like a
sexy mature woman. It looks like a fun and dramatic representation of a plastic surgery that you
can do to yourself. The way the animation presents is simple but impressive and effective. It
reflects that the present young generation has viewed plastic surgery as commonly accepted way
to improve themselves. The desire to become the ideal has surpassed the consideration of risk.
Audience:
My audience will be the East Asian youth, especially Chinese, Taiwanese, and Korean.
They are aged from 16 to 28, and most likely my peers as so called the “post 90s”, who were
born in and after 1990. They are the ones that obsessed with the overdoing for prettiness and are
also influenced the most by the mass media.
Prototype:
1. A Beauty Kit:
I plan to make a beauty kit that creates further exaggerated facial appearance than existing
makeup and tools. I will be using daily materials to mimic the functions of makeup
products such as double eyelid tape, nose up clip, circle contacts and etc. My beauty kit
29 Angalo Papeteri, “Beauty Kit for Girls”. Youtube, 2005, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXPzZUtAnW4.
actually makes users look horrible, which is intentionally used to raise the awareness and
criticize the current issue among East Asian youth. I will show my audience the product
and a documentary of the makeup process so that their reaction tells the effectiveness of
my prototype.
Mind Map:
Bibliography
Bashour, Mounir. “History and Current Concepts in the Analysis of Facial Attractiveness” Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery 118, no.3, Sept 1, 2006, 741-756.
Biller, Jason and Kim, David. “Contemporary Assessment of Facial Aesthetic Preferences”. Arch
Facial Plast Surg 11, no.2, 2009, 91-97. Chin, Evans P, and McConnell, A.R, “Self and Identity”, Psychology Press 2, no. 2, April-June
2003, 153-167. Cunningham, Michael R. “Measuring the physical in physical attractiveness: Quasi-experiments
on the sociobiology of female facial beauty”, Personality and Social Psychology 50, no.5, May 1986, 925-935.
Dobke, Marek, Chung, Christopher and Takabe, Kazuaki. “Facial Aesthetic Preferences Among
Asian Women: Are All Oriental Asians the Same?”, Aesthetic Plastic Surgery 30, no. 3, 342-347.
Grammer, Karl, and Oberzaucher, Elisabeth. “Our Preferences: Why We Like What We Like”,
Essential Building Blocks of Human Nature, The Frontiers Collection, 2011, 95-108. Huang, Andrew. “Doll Face”, 2007. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zl6hNj1uOkY. Kobrin, Sandy. “Asian-Americans Criticize Eyelid Surgery Craze”, Womensenews, August 15,
2004. http://www.womensenews.org/story/health/040815/asian-americans-criticize-eyelid-surgery-craze.
Marquardt, Stephen R. “Marquardt’s Beauty Analysis”.
http://www.beautyanalysis.com/index2_mba.htm. Papeteri, Angalo. “Beauty Kit”. Youtube, 2005.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXPzZUtAnW4.