Chinese Modern Beauty Standard: Origin, Anxiousness, and Movement

The Origin of Current Chinese Beauty Standard

China’s beauty standards for women have always long been “pale”, “young”, and “thin”. For example, “willow waist” is a metaphor for the ideal and slender body shape in ancient China, which later became a symbol of a beautiful woman. As time passed, despite the increasing accessibility of better quality food, most women have remained slim. When you walk down a street in the center of the city, most women you see are white and thin, and they dress very much the same due to the influence of Chinese history, the Internet and an App called Little Red Book. Currently, the most influential social media in the country is Little Red Book. With over 300 million registered users and 100 million active users, Little Red Book has become the go-to app for females aged 20-35 living in top-tier cities in China to discover the latest trends and products. Engaging posts on Little Red Book share daily life, focus on makeup, shopping, and beauty with the targeted audience being young and women.

Because Chinese women are using Little Red so frequently, the latest style can spread very soon. The popularity of the BM style is, in fact, attributed to the spread of Little Red Book. BM stands for Brandy Melville, which is a popular Italian clothing brand that was popularized in China. The brand targets teenage girls and young women, and it produces only one uniform size – small. The look from the brand is consistent in design across various types of clothing: crop tops, tank tops, and skirts, all of which were “popularized in Western media during the early 2000s, for example, by Lindsey Lohan and was featured in the Mean Girls movie.” Because of the uniform size of the clothes, many girls have sought to become underweight to wear a BM outfit, and this ideal body “poses a challenge for average women to pursue.” Many remark that a typical “BM dress is too tight for [their] butt,” or that a “crop top is too short”, and so on.

Four Asian girls wearing BM style clothes

Anxiousness, Makeup and Plastic Surgery

In continuously building upon the anxiety associated with beauty, more and more women put emphasis on their bodies and faces. “According to a 2015 report, China’s youngsters own on average 30 beauty apps on their phones and spend roughly 3,276 minutes on selfies per year, excluding post-editing time.” The desire to become prettier is ranked in varying degrees of anxiety. The most frequently used in everyday life to construct a beautiful countenance are makeup; the most extreme pursuit of facial change is cosmetic surgery.

Makeup is the most common solution. “Snow-white skin” implies powdering, and “cherry-red lips” hints at the use of rouge, both of which are common examples of makeup.

Makeup, originally, was used to convey a sense of ceremonial belonging to the community; in a departure from its surroundings and the practices of ordinary life, it aims to strongly assert, “various specific meanings such as confidence, ostentation, superiority, contempt, repulsion and challenges”. But now, makeup has become part of society’s aesthetics. Whenever there is a trend, hundreds of thousands of girls seek to imitate the exact same makeup. For example, because of the “Qianjin” makeup of Ouyang Nana 欧阳娜娜, a Chinese e-celebrity who was popularized on Little Red Book, many of the posts on social media have increasingly involved makeup tutorials with the hashtag #You and Ouyang Nana are just one video away and #ninety-nine percent of the makeup reproduction.

An even more radical step reflecting beauty anxiety is plastic surgery. According to Chinese Statista data in 2018, “22 million people received cosmetic surgery in China,” which has increased almost seven times since the past decade. Traditionally, the surgery was used to help those of older ages “[uplift] skin, [change] facial features or [restore] youthful physical features.” However, according to CNN, “more than 50% of the plastic surgery cases in China are performed on those under the age of 26.” Plastic surgery has become so popular in China, especially in the younger generation, because they believe a better appearance will bring more benefits to them, such as a higher salary. Several studies have shown that the increasing usage of social media and photo editing directly correlates with increasing stress about beauty, thereby boosting the consideration of plastic surgery.

Movement of Breaking the Stereotype and Love Oneself

Under significant pressure of the uniform standards and increasing use of plastic surgery pervasive today, a movement was started by Chinese women to break the single standard of beauty . Fortunately, ideas such as respect your body, understand where your values lie, love yourself, identify yourself, reconcile with yourself, and take your time are all also emphasized. “No one can define beauty, and no one can define you. True sexiness is always a powerful personal charm from the inside out,” is the promotional slogan from the clothing brand NEIWAI. The brand posted a documentary on International Women’s Day, in which an older woman, a mother, a plus-sized woman, a big-breasted woman, and a small-breasted woman all shared their personal experiences and comments they heard toward their bodies.

Six women who was photographed, shared their personal stories and weaning NEIWAI

“If someone holds the preconceived idea that girls with big breasts are air-headed, people will hardly become aware of your talents and your ideas. Just let it go,” a woman shared. Toward this stereotype, an individual can do nothing, except for ignoring it and remaining true to self. An older woman shared that “As for wrinkles, in 2014, my skin became slack and began to have wrinkles. I spent a lot of money on thread lifts and other plastic surgeries. And I was black and blue after that. Two or three months later, it began to slack again. Not enjoyable. Wrinkles–let them go.” As time goes by, wrinkles are a normal phenomenon, and people should appreciate them, this hum left by the years. Although society's beauty standards revolve around being young, white, and plain, the truth is that we need to stay true to ourselves while loving and recognizing our own beauty. Plus-sized girls can be beautiful, mothers can be fit, old ladies can be elegant, and so on.

Indeed, beauty can not be defined and should not be affected entirely either by the Internet or trends in plastic surgery. Many people lose themselves in both Chinese society and on the internet only because they blindly follow the ideas of others instead of finding their own beauty. As Artist Rodin once said “there is not a lack of beauty in life, but a lack of eyes to find it,” only if women show their best and most confident version of themselves, the positive attitude and diversity of beauty can be spread in the society.

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