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The
Notion
of Female,Beauty in Communist China
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However, Naomi Wolf's deconstruction of The Beauty
Myth could also be applied to the general notion offemale beauty
in Communist China in the 1990s. The development of the feminine
ideal in China after the Qing dynasty was as confusing as the
modern history of the country. It is difficult to trace the notion
of beauty during the first half of the twentieth century when the
country was undergoing endless civil wars and the disastrous
Sino-Japanese War. Discussion of beauty during this period was
restrictedly led by a few elite groups of women of distinct
political and social classes. After the Communists took over China
in 1949, female beauty was displaced from external appearance to
the love oflabor, the party, and the nation. In the first thirty
years of Communist China, women nationwide had their hair either
tied up or cut, and the plain party uniforms suppressed every
individual character or taste. Women at that time devoted their
energy to economic and political practices and reforms. The plain
look was to ensure that women were ready for action, and it was
brought to its climax during the cultural revolution in the 1960s
when nearly all the women in the country wore only blue and gray
with no makeup or accessories. The only "fashion" was
the shapeless socialist look, and the only exception were the
brides who wore red and had their hair done for their wedding. At
that time, external beauty was not important; what was important
was the inner beauty ofwomen who sacrificed themselves according
to Communist ideals for the nation, the people, and the party.
Women with flamboyant looks would get themselves into trouble;
they would be accused of succumbing to bourgeois ideologies. |
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Only when China opened its door in the late 1970s did
its women brighten up their appearance again. The influx offoreign economic
investments brought famous brands of European fashion and cosmetics into
the country. The flourishing commercial market brought new trends and
colors to big cities like Beijing, Shanghai, and southern Canton areas
near Hong Kong. Consumer products for women filled the country's markets
in the 1980s. (It seems to be a common phenomenon that women's fashion
is always the fastest sector to develop when a developing country takes
off economically.) Furthermore, when the country's power structure
became fluid and economic classes appeared again, fashion and looks
became the necessary symbols ofidentity and classification. Mainland
women urgently wanted a new look. Advertisements for female products were everywhere,
and foreign |
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magazines were imported and translated to promote new
female images from Western culture. Because of the urge to
modernize, to correct the backward past, and topfoc~get the
"wrong" history of the cultural revolution in the 1960s,
contemporary discussions of female beauty in China closely
followed those in the West. Women fashion models who wear European
brands are the new models of female beauty.
The traditional standards of external beauty are less
emphasized, and the "inner" dimensions of beauty such as
moral efforts and intellectual qualities are only mentioned in the
party's propaganda or in some "politically correct"
publications. These publications continue some of the traditional
principles of beauty: for instance, that external beauty
originates from an inner beauty that aims at benevolence,
commitment to one's community, self-improvement, the goal of
developing a unique personality, and the idea that aesthetics is
the natural principle that prevents exaggeration and the
distortion of reality. However, the traditional discussion has
become merely empty talk and is taken for granted. Instead, city
women in China put up photos and posters of top fashion models at
home and wish they could be like them. Their appearance attracts
them. The following are some physical standards ofbeauty promoted
in Shanghai women's magazines that exemplify fashion models in the
contemporary Western world:
( a) Physical appearance:
(i) Height: ideally 1.74 to 1.8 meters, a little
shorter than Western models.
(ii) Proportion: the lower part of the body from the
belly button should be longer than the upper part. The lower thigh
should be a little longer than the upper thigh with the shape of
the leg slim and slender. The difference between the size of the
breast and the waist should be 22 to 24 cm while that between the
breast and the hip should be equal or 2 to 4 cm. The shoulder
should be broad enough to form a V shape at the back. The ideal
shape of the head is oval; it should join the neck to form the
shape ofa question mark. The distance between two eyes should be
one eye in length; the length of the ear and the nose should be
close; upper and lower lips should be equal in thickness and red
in color .
(iii) Others: Hair should be smooth, healthy, and
dark. Limbs should be slender. The eyebrows should be longer than
the eye and tidily trimmed. Skin should be bright and soft.
(b) Temperament:
This is the only aspect which considers inner beauty.
It is said that the temperament ofa woman is the sum ofher
psychological traits and her behavior. A woman's cultivation
influences her gestures, posture, and verbal expressions. The
difference from the past discussion is that now these standards
have nothing to do with Confucian morality; the rationale for them
rests solely in lay psychology.
(c) Perfonning ability:
It is said that bodily movement should be rhythmic
and form a special style ofone's own. It should be noted that the
traditional Chinese feminine way of movement has been replaced
completely by Western forms - nothing traditional remains in the
movement style of the models though their physical bodies are
still Chinese.
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Fashion is said to symbolically provide individuals
with a mechanism for detaching themselves from the past, to allow
people to cope with the present in an orderly way by helping to
define what is appropriate, and to prepare for the immediate
future by providing a sense of anticipation or a clue to emerging
issues and tastes.Fashion also provides consolation to individuals
because it promotes self-esteem and the language of identity. It
explodes out of enthusiasm; the fashion codes of identity always
represent leisure, fun, youth, health, open-mindedness,
playfulness, energy, independence, courage, and subjectivity, no
matter how controversial it could be. Women project their
self-images and fantasies onto fashion models |
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who from time to time appear fast, carefree, naughty,
sharp, discriminating, balanced, sophisticated, coquettish, and
ingenuous. With the above explanatory notes and the historical and
political contexts of China in mind, it should not be difficult to
understand why contemporary city women in China regard fashion
models as a new frame of reference for beauty. Mter the long
turmoil of economic poverty, backward living environment, and the
turbulence of the Cultural Revolution in China, fashion works as a
form of hope for a country hungry for various forms of reform and
modernization. Women turn to fashion for new identities and power.
As Roland Barthes has said, the multiplication of persons in a
single being is always considered by fashion as an index of
power.36 On the surface, the new social role Chinese women
attained in the Communist regime seems to be more equal than ever
to men becausefJf the value of their labor contribution to the
country. In fact, state policies are always unfavorable to them.
Fashion may further enhance women's voice in society, which will
threaten the feudal Chinese constraints on women (by liberating
women's body via fashionable looks and new notions of beauty); the
idea of returning to a backward Communist China (by portraying
modern Western designs ); and the submissive attitudes toward the
"People's" Republic ofChina with the mandated collective
behaviors (by choosing new and foreign ways of dressing and
gestures ). One can even interpret the new look as a silent
revolution and a struggle for new identities. This is not passive
but an active construction that is being initiated today by
Chinese women themselves. A fashionable appearance projects the
image that they are fully aware of their femininity, that they are
free and sovereign, and that they make their own decisions. All
these explain why women fashion models have become new feminine
icons in contemporary China.
The construction is also made
possible by external business investments and related promotions.
Consumer culture, advertisements, popular press, television, and
films all provide many stylized images of the body. It is easy
then to detect the contradiction and confusion involved: the
illusion ofwomen's image built by the cosmetics, garment, and diet
industries - or the so-called beauty myth essential for economic
markets- is mixing with and contradicting the real working
ability, growing intelligence, and fluid individualistic
characteristics of contemporary Chinese women. Whereas the ability
and appearance of a beautiful woman could have been in great
harmony with broader social values in the past, as illustrated in
the courtesan tradition, now commercial interests compete to
create and define these two dimensions of women, as feminists
opine.Although Chinese women today are developing new
self-confidence, they do not seem to be aware of the fact that one
can become a slave of the fashion industry, which merely repeats
the bodily constraints of past times in a new form.
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