Freak Show or Belle of the Ball?

If you are a foreigner living in China you will get stared at, especially if you live in an area that has a low amount of foreigners living there. I don't really mind the stares but I do mind when people take pictures of me without my permission. I also don't like it when a child yells "WEI GUO REN" or "FOREIGNER" two inches away from my face. 

However, when I moved to China and got stared at I felt perplexed. Was I being stared at because I was considered really beautiful or was I considered some sort of freak show in female Asian beauty standards. I did some investigating into the matter.

Image from https://cdn.drawception.com/images/panels/2014/9-8/A8tZtqAXas-6.png

In Asia, having light and pale skin is the goal. There are companies that sell whitening creams to get this effect. The creams can have anything from pearl powder to straight up bleaching properties. This is theorized to have started during ancient history where if you were rich, you could stay indoors but if you were poor, you had to work outside. Working outside caused the skin to become brown but staying inside meant your skin could be pale. This beauty standard can be seen in older Western culture as well (ie. Snow White). You can read more about the white skin standard here. 

Having large eyes and a double eyelid is another beauty standard in Asia. The reasons are debated and I think this NPR article does an excellent job asking those questions. To boil it down, people aren't sure if the double eyelid surgery is to look more Caucasian or if a bigger eye is just the standard in Asia now. The surgery is widely popular and the average price is around $3,000.

Being skinny is sought after for Chinese women and not just thin, I'm talking skinny. Having an exaggerated hour glass shape is not the beauty standard in China like it is in the USA. There is a skinny social media challenge in China called the A4 Challenge and this is where women try to be slimmer than a piece of A4 sized paper. I questioned if there was a rise of eating disorders from this truly unattainable challenge but according to this article from the Eating Disorder Hope website, cases are going unreported due to mental health stigma. In my own gym I have seen women ask their trainers to be thinner and they refuse to take boxing classes or lift weights for fear that their muscles will make them look bulky. 

So am I a freak show or a belle of the ball? Due to my race, I do have pale skin and large eyes but also because of my race I am taller than most Asian women. I have also done MMA boxing for about four years which makes me "bulky" compared to other women here. 

Really, I will probably never know if I am beautiful or ugly in Asia, for sure I do look very different than the average person in China and maybe the stares are more from shock of seeing someone that looks so different than anything else. 

*These standards are mostly for Asian females. The Asian male standard may differ when it comes to body size.*