Mirror, Mirror! Who is the Fairest of Them All?

One of the biggest things I was not prepared for when I arrived in China, was all the staring.  I am naturally very shy and do not like being the centre of attention.

I landed in Guangzhou in Gunagdong province on June 25th, 2014, where my contact picked me up.  We then travelled by bus to Foshan's Sanshui district, which, according to him was the older part and did not get a lot of foreign visitors.

Everywhere I went, I was stared at.  I am actually very surprised I never caused a car accident of some sort!

In fact, I found out that the residents started a public thread in a forum talking about me, newspapers wanted to interview me and I had been on TV twice in the 3 months I was there.  I was invited to volunteer at a special function for handicapped children, when the TV crew found out I was there they immediately wanted an interview.  I barely did a thing and felt I hardly deserved an interview compared with what other people were doing.  The second time I was asked to do short skits that help educate people about Chinese law.  I found this entertaining, I spoke to the other actors in English, while they spoke to me in Chinese.

They also believe that the lighter or whiter your skin is, the more beautiful you are, regardless if you are fat or ugly.  There is actually an old quote that one of my coworkers told me about that was along those similar words.

White skin obsession is not an obsession created by western culture.  This started long before Chinese people ever saw a westerner.  It is believed that the darker your skin meant you were poor or a peasant due to the fact you were working in the fields.  The whole white skin being more attractive and beautiful has absolutely nothing to do with race, as many Asians are diverse in their tones.  To Chinese people, it is just considered ugly if your skin is dark.

Almost in any store you walk into you can find numerous products for skin whitening.  I accidentally bought some body wash that ended up being a whitener.  Something I really don't need, my friends back home call me an albino snowman.

During summer months it is not uncommon to see Chinese woman shielding themselves from the ever looming sun with umbrellas and/or lots of clothing.  Even at the beach.  I once saw a lady using her umbrella on the bus shielding from the sun.

While teaching classes, I remember having this one lesson "what is he/she wearing", one student suggested she was wearing an umbrella, and I got thinking after how easily that can be seen as a regular accessory.

I get comments on a regular basis how beautiful I am and how beautiful my skin is, I still struggle with that.  The stares will not get any less, and I am starting to deal with it better.  Sometimes I actually enjoy the attention, something that just never happened in Canada!

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