Asia Watch: "White or Wrong?"

NY times, Sunday:

"An ad for a skin-whitening product in Hong Kong says: "White or wrong? The right choice. Beauty White makes your whole body white."

Ah yes. I remember seriously freaking out when I watched a 5 minute commercial in Tokyo advertising L'Oreal White Perfect cream before the screening for War of the Worlds. My friends and I were stunned. I thought only my backward community had this obsession. My mother and her family instilled this nasty little bit of wisdom in me, and their paranoid relationship with skin color is, at times, down right racist. At least now it's good to know that it's not just my family; it's most of Asia too.

Skin bleaching is a booming industry in most of East and South East Asia, and while the message is disturbing or strange to non-Asians, apparently people are very open about admitting their own use of such products. Skin bleaching even extend to bleaching nipples to achieve a pinker hue. Given the prevalance of these creams, it's no wonder that at some point somebody will get hurt using cheap brands. I guess not everyone can afford L'Oreal 'White Perfect'. The name says it all.

White skin is desirable, not unlike tanning in the West. However, my own observation (and this article) seems to confirm more dangerous dimensions to this obsession. While the West prides tanning, it doesn't actively denigrate those who don't tan or insinuate that those who don't tan are of a lower socioeconomic class or belong to an inferior race. Asians actively denigrate those who have darker skin colors. The association is harsh, and it starts with language. Case and point: phrases calling people 'black as a duck's liver' or 'black like savages' are commonly used as insults in Thai and Vietnamese. The Vietnamese one is most telling, isn't it?

I frankly do not buy the argument that white domination in the form of colonialism or cultural global influences plays a large role in creating this trend. Rather, Asians have always had an intrinsic notion of class and race that is tied to physical attributes, and skin color is the most obvious. What is truly sad is the inability of these cultures to shake these beliefs from within, co-opting the message of beauty from the West to bolster existing prejudices and intrinsic racism. Quite pathetic, really.