Westernization?

bondagegeisha
2007-03-30 01:40 am (local) (送信元: 71.232.31.92) (リンク)

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That’s an interesting question you bring up about resistance. I suppose eyelid surgery could be seen as an act of resistance if it is done to look less like one’s family (if you don’t like them or something) rather than to look more western. On a side note, I am not sure why so many people think double eyelids looks more Western, because Caucasians have entirely different bone structure with recessed eye sockets, not just a superficial fold in their eyelid.

She brings up a very valid point. Why do we always automatically assume that this certain mode of surgery is a form of Westernization? There seems to be some form of ‘accusation’ involved.

A double bind. They can be accused of looking ‘too Chinese’, then doubly accused of ‘wanting to be Western’. Ien Ang touches on this, albeit via the issue of spoken language, but I feel that this can be applied to this problem. There is an exclusion.

“An exclusion effected by imposing the identification with a fetishized and overly idealized Chinese.” (Ang, 1999:557)

When 50% of the Chinese population are already born with double eyelids- why is it that this statistic is ignored? Surely it is an aesthetic judgement that is self contained within the community. Why aren’t we saying ‘they want to look more Chinese’? Why do we keep saying ‘They want to look more Western’, when in fact they just want to look more like their counterparts?

I’m starting to think that maybe people are too quick to jump to conclusions when one says they prefer double eyelids, taking it to mean that they’re ‘disowning’ their ethnic background… it’s just another aesthetic judgement, regardless of race.

But how has this been embodied?