Glacier Think Bank Researcher | Off the feather
The "high-end beauty" of squinting eyes and thick lips has caused trouble, and an old poster of the local company "Three Squirrels" has become the target of public criticism, the most sensational accusation is "insulting China".
The matter eventually ended with three squirrels declaring an apology, but the three squirrels specifically stated that the model's "makeup is based on its personal characteristics, without deliberate ugliness."
The crime of "insulting China" is obviously deliberately politicized, what is the motivation of a local e-commerce company that sells leisure snacks to "insult China"? What qualifications does an old poster with little influence have to "insult China"?
Flipping through old accounts and speculating is insulting - digging through boxes and cabinets to touch porcelain and ask for abuse insults to the intellectual and moral standards of normal society.
▲ Three squirrels 2019 sour and spicy powder advertisement (photo / Weibo)
This is another case of populism in China's Internet environment, the glass heart of porcelain "insulting China" from overseas enterprises, fashion circles, flooded to ordinary local enterprises, populism is going out of control, which should be vigilant.
It is ironic that the "high-class beauty" that has repeatedly caused "insulting China" and "vilifying the image of Chinese" is precisely the product of the "aesthetic pluralism" of the Western fashion elite circle - the goodwill full of purposes of "breaking stereotypes" and "eliminating aesthetic discrimination" is the result of intensifying the "aesthetic conflict between the East and the West", which is quite ironic.
01
The deliberately enlarged "East Asian face" has sparked a lot of controversy in recent years.
Earlier this year, 31-year-old Okafina became the first Asian-American Golden Globe Queen in Hollywood film history. However, this "history-making" winning record has not been criticized.
Okafina, formerly known as Lin Jiazhen, is a Mixed-Race Chinese-Korean child born in the United States, with a typical "East Asian face", hanging eyes, thick lips, low mountain roots, high cheekbones, less than 1.60 meters tall, and her figure is not outstanding.
She is not a beauty in China and South Korea, the land of her parents. As a result, critics of the Chinese Internet called her "looks too appealing to the aesthetics of Westerners."
▲ Okafina appeared in Cosmopolitan magazine (Photo/Weibo)
More controversial than Ocapina are the Chinese models used by VOGUE magazine "with wide mountain roots, long-distance eye distances and slender eyes", and the advertising models of the Spanish fashion brand "Zara" with obvious freckles on their faces. Further back, there is also the supermodel Lu Yan, who caused huge controversy.
No matter how it is explained, the conflict between the "East Asian face" in Western aesthetics and the mainstream East Asian aesthetic has indeed intensified in recent years – the criticism of the "East Asian face" is not unique to China, and it also resonates with Japan and South Korea.
In the famous "D&G Insult to China Incident", Japanese netizens also criticized the brand's "abuse of East Asian cultural elements" and "exaggerated style".
▲Comments of Japanese netizens on the D&G insult incident (Photo/Weibo)
So, is this really a long-standing "aesthetic conflict between East and West"? Not.
Since the 1990s, Chinese supermodels and Chinese actresses who have entered the international fashion circle, such as Ma Yanli, Liu Wen, Gong Li, and Li Bingbing, undoubtedly have the image characteristics of East Asian actresses, but there is no deliberate "East Asian face".
Comparing Okafina twenty years later with vogue's "horror face" and Zara's "freckled face" is completely different. Today's fierce "aesthetic conflict between East and West" did not exist twenty years ago.
02
It is undeniable that in the past two decades, the so-called "East Asian elements" have been exaggerated in the Western fashion aesthetic to the extent that they violate the "original factory setting" of East Asia.
Exaggerated squinting is not the "phoenix eye" in East Asian aesthetics, and low mountain roots and high cheekbones are not East Asian aesthetics. How did these become the standard of "East Asian beauty" in Western fashion aesthetics?
Thanks to the so-called "aesthetic pluralism", the original intention is precisely the goodwill of "eliminating discrimination". Small-eyedness, short stature, etc., have long been stereotypes of Discrimination and Curiosity against East Asians in Western society. Until the end of the last century and the beginning of this century, the Western fashion circle adopted the practice of "reconciling aesthetic differences".
Therefore, the East Asian beauties who successfully entered the circle at that time were not deliberately highlighted as "East Asian faces", and their aesthetic taste was more eclectic.
▲Three squirrels advertising model vegetable widow (cabbage) (photo/Weibo)
However, in recent years, the fashion circle, as the vanguard of political ideologies such as "pluralism", has begun to correct the so-called aesthetic discrimination. The introduction of a large number of "original ecology" as they understand it magnifies the so-called "ethnic characteristics", which are not aimed at East Asians, but subvert the original "Western mainstream" in an all-round way.
In recent years, the supermodels, film and television stars who have become popular in the Western fashion circle, whether black, white, yellow or brown, have a tendency to "deviate from the past".
This political correctness of "aesthetic pluralism" has become the new mainstream in Western society, but it has not completed the discipline of East Asian society.
▲Three squirrels sour and spicy powder advertisement (photo/Weibo)
Moreover, the Western fashion elites have not noticed that the standards of mainstream East Asian aesthetics are not the product of the influence of "Westernized aesthetics" and "white mainstream aesthetics" that they are trying to overthrow, but the "original" in the traditional aesthetics of East Asia - with white as beauty, exquisite facial features and three-dimensional sense, which has been the mainstream aesthetic of East Asia since ancient times. The "aesthetic conflict between the East and the West", which has intensified and caused controversy in recent years, is derived from this.
The original intention of aesthetic pluralism is anti-discrimination and anti-stereotyping, but this subversive operation of "ugly beauty" has eventually become the "East Asian beauty" that the mainstream society in East Asia dislikes. Is this a departure from the original intention, towards reverse discipline and indoctrination? At least in Chinese society, there is such a tendency.
03
Even if the Westernized elite of East Asian society accepts the discipline of "pluralism" and actively adjusts the aesthetic standards of cultural products to meet the standards of "pluralism", the East Asian public does not buy the "pluralism" of the sword.
This conflict is not only between "East and West", but also class differences within East Asian societies. This was exposed in the huge controversy caused by the works of the famous photographer Chen Man in the previous "Dior and Art" art exhibition.
There is a clear boundary between "elite-public" and "inside-outside" between "Tingchen" and "Inverted Chen", and the deep tearing has exceeded the scope of communication, and there are only accusations of mutual hostility and contempt in a clamor. It can even be said that the idea of communication did not exist on both sides in the whole argument.
Ms. Hong Huang, known as the "godmother of fashion", defended Chen Man in her defense. She bluntly said that "I don't feel beautiful", but fully affirmed that "there is enough impact", "because of this group of films, Chen Man, and even Chinese fashion photography has a foothold in the world." ”
▲Dior advertisement designed by Chen Man (Photo/Weibo)
In Ms. Hong Huang's speech, you can feel the "positioning floating" of China's fashion elite circle.
Chen Man can rely on his superb technology to create works that conform to the aesthetics of the "international" fashion circle – although they do not really identify with this "beauty". Even the aesthetic standards that they cannot truly identify with cannot really lead the mainstream aesthetics of Chinese society.
In their creations, aesthetic pursuits are not the first, the first is to strongly seek the recognition of their Western counterparts.
This value orientation will obviously not be recognized by the Chinese public, and this lack of Local Support in East Asia is called "High Sense" and "High Beauty".
This kind of high and low has become the superiority of China's fashion elite, and has also become a symbol of the identity of "insiders".
Whether it is the advertisement of the three squirrels, or the artistic photography of Dior, it is ultimately the brand's commercial activity. Have merchants considered the communication effect of these advertising works?
For Dior as a top luxury brand, this is not a problem.
In a society like China, where the elite and the masses are highly torn apart, it is impossible to achieve two-sided courtship, and the former is Dior's client.
Therefore, the political correctness that originally "avoids offending" and even "currying favor with minorities" in Western society is the opposite in Chinese society – not offending is not high-level enough. However, doing this to the three squirrels in the civilian snack business has become a serious marketing accident.
04
Does the mainstream of Western society really think that "VOGUE" and the "East Asian face" promoted by Dior are beautiful? This is difficult to confirm.
Under the long-standing discipline of political correctness such as "pluralism", it is undoubtedly dangerous to openly express the opposite opinion – Western public figures openly say on social media that "squinting is ugly", from overturning to heavy social death. Opposing opinions are not present, and voices of approval are meaningless.
For the East Asian public, it is difficult to understand the "well-intentioned" motives of the Western fashion industry. The exaggerated "East Asian face" is even more pervasive than the "yellow peril" era of the last century, creating more "stereotypes".
"High beauty" has repeatedly aroused the antipathy of mainstream East Asian society, and it cannot be said to be innocent.
▲ Netizens' comments on the three squirrel model incident (photo/Weibo)
The so-called "pluralism" behind the "East Asian face" and "high beauty" has moved towards the unity of political discipline, which has triggered the same highly politicized accusations of "insulting China" and formed a pair of mirror images, just as the "Westernization" of China's elite circle and the "anti-Westernization" of the bottom populism look highly antagonistic, but in fact have the same logical starting point of pan-politicization. Many of the seemingly extreme tears in Chinese society are actually mostly the same.
As for the three squirrels, they were just vaguely caught up in the whirlpool and inexplicably made a target.