Mirror, Mirror on the Wall: Complexion Obsessions

Ginnifer Goodwin as Snow White

Hello again, today’s topic is about skin whiteners! Many Asians think that having pale skin is beautiful; many speculate that this is because they want to appear “whiter” as snow white was extremely pale and was an American tale. But, it is also a cultural fact that those who were tanned or had dark skin were the ones who worked outside in the fields. The field workers were the ones of lower class status because they had to do manual labor, so having dark skin was a sign of poor wealth. To have pale skin, it meant you came from money and that you were of higher class. To achieve this pale look today, many Asians avoid the sun as well as use products such as skin whiteners and lighteners to avoid the tanned look.

SNSD (Girls’ Gneration) members Yuri, Sooyoung and Tiffany have advertisements with Biotherm Whitening cream. Many youths in America are obsessed with figuring out how these celebrities lose their tans so quickly. Many whitening creams have nicer names such as “skin lighteners” or “pearl skin”. This is to detach the negative stigma that the creams are actually bleaching products for the skin.

It’s funny because many American girls I know spend their off days outside poolside hoping to get a tan because it looks more healthy in our culture. In Korean culture, having pale skin is a sign of health, once again, because of their economic status. There is a lot of pressure to have flawless skin in Korea and this is reflected back onto the cultures of Asian American youth where some girls are hiding from the sun, wearing long gloves while driving or using hats to shield their faces. Granted, this is probably the healthier choice with the increasingly rampant skin cancer rates.

Sources:

http://hubmania.hubpages.com/hub/Korean-Whitening-Products

http://www.allkpop.com/2010/04/tiffany-sooyoung-and-yuri-have-flawless-skin

http://fashionsastranger.wordpress.com/category/beauty-in-korea/

Eyes Are the Windows to the Soul: The Double Eyelid

America has always been fascinated with Asia, deeming it “the Orient” and found it mystical, exotic and foreign. There was trade of teas and silks—and of beauty ideals. While America fantasized about Asian life and beauty, Asians tried to emulate American beauty.

From straightening hair and bleaching it to more extensive and painful surgeries such as eyelid and nose reconstruction, there has been an obsession that has grown into the modern culture of Korean youth. These beauty ideals are reflected in the Korean pop stars of today’s generation and it reinforces the thoughts of young people both in Korea and in America. Many Korean pop stars have altered their appearances to look more Western. Some argue that this isn’t true, but where else would they have gotten these ideas to change how they look?

Because of the strong cultural practices that come from Korea, it is common for young girls to get eyelid surgery because it has become more affordable and thus has become more common. The eyelid surgery is purely a cosmetic surgery where after the surgery one has a double eyelid, or a crease/fold above the eye. This surgery creates a wider, rounder eye, something that Koreans hold to a very high beauty standard. Many teenagers get this particular surgery on their 16th birthday as a present from their parents.

A popular substitute for this surgery is the double eyelid tape or glue where it creates the look of a double eyelid for the day and is much more affordable to those who still can’t

afford the surgery. 

There are many steps to create this double eyelid:

1)Wash face to remove oils.

2) Apply the eyelid tape or glue above the lash line.

3) Push the upper eyelid towards the adhesive tape or glue using the end of a bobby pin.

4) Apply makeup as desired to enhance the eyes.

5) Can be washed off with warm water and soap at the end of the day.

 While it still is an individual’s choice of whether or not to get the surgery, many youths do because of cultural values and the fact that many of the celebrities they idolize have it done as well. There are still celebrities such as Gain who haven’t had the double eyelid surgery and is still seen as beautiful in the eyes of her fans. Though all the girls from group Girls Generation have been speculated as having a variety of plastic surgeries.

Gain of the Korean group Brown Eyed Girls

Hyoyeon of the Korean group Girls Generation

Sources:

http://www.gossiprocks.com/forum/plastic-surgery/korean-stars-ps-before-after-page11-23650.html

http://www.ohkpop.com/f/double-eyelid-surgery-in-korean-k-pop-stars.html

http://www.ohkpop.com/35914/list-of-stars-sparking-plastic-surgery-speculation-draws-attention

http://journal.transformativeworks.org/index.php/twc/article/view/289/219

http://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Double-Eyelid

Korean Music Wave concert and Youtube

Korean Music Wave was an event held not too long ago thanks to Korea’s MBC Broadcasting, Google and YouTube to celebrate the video sharing website’s 7^th anniversary. Thanks to YouTube, the largest video sharing site that can be accessed around the globe Korean pop has spread to several different countries worldwide. Even the head of YouTube entertainment, Alex Carlos was amazed by this phenomenon and the company’s unintended contributions to the Korean music wave currently going on. Alex Carlos stated, “This event became an important opportunity to confirm the possibility of globalization of media as to see one small East Asia country cultural contents to spread out through the world” conveying that media is becoming globalized as it spreads from country of origin to other regions instantly (Kpopstarz.com). Some of the most popular groups were present at the concert; these groups included Girls Generation, Sistar, Big Bang, Wonder Girls, 2NE1 and much more.

It is unclear why YouTube choose to celebrate its 7^th anniversary with a Kpop concert, perhaps it is because both are so vital to one another, maybe it is because particularly in the U.S., where YouTube is physically located has a large growing fan base or perhaps because both are undergoing media globalization is some form. I am not totally sure, but regardless it opened up chances for America fans to interact with their Korean idols who homes are on the opposing side of the world. Even if you weren’t there in attendance, thanks to YouTube Presents, it was also stream live so viewers like me, carless and broke freshmen can watch their favorite groups perform live in some shape or form too! Sadly, I did not attend the actual event, but I was able to view it online in the privacy of my room and it was awesome. I’m pretty sure I wasn’t the only one embracing the awesomeness (and laptop) that night during the Korean Music Wave.

Link to Kpopstarz's article on the Google concert: http://www.kpopstarz.com/articles/8442/20120523/kpop-goes-worldwide-with-google-facebook-and-youtube.htm

Wonder Girls does wonderful in the U.S!

It's the Wonder Girls!

The Wonder Girls are a popular Korean Pop female group from South Korea that consist of five members, they are affiliated with several labels all over the word, these labels include JYP Entertainment in Seoul, Korea, Sony Music and DefStar Records in Japan and even Jonas records in the United States. These girls have been active in the Korean pop industry since their debut in 2007. Two years after their debut, 2009, Wonder Girls successfully broke into the American music industry and became the first Korean group to enter the Billboard Chart 100 hits with an English version of their song Nobody. Their success in the U.S began during a tour with the American boy band The Jonas Brothers for over 30 concerts in the U.S. Explaining why they are affiliated with the U.S label called Jonas records. Since then the Wonder Girls and other Korean pop groups and artist have tour in countless cities in the states. With this success, JYP, mentor of the girl group and the Wonder Girls plan to make an all English album using already released songs but in English along with new tracks as well for a U.S Debut.  

Earlier in the year, in January a trailer for “The Wonder Girls” was aired on the popular network Teen Nick in America. Teen Nick is a network associated with nickelodeon, the famous children network on cable television. However, Teen Nick is mostly targeted for teenagers and pre-teens.  A month after the trailer was aired the movie premiered on Teen Nick at 8PM EST (allkpop.com). The film displays the Wonder Girls making a debut in America and achieving success as Korean Artist in the states, but all is not well as the American group School Gyrls appear and a musical rivalry develops with the Wonder Girls creating amusing scenes of drama between the two groups and within the groups as well.

I viewed the movie for the purpose of this blog entry recently, like many Teen Nick movies it was amateur in the aspects of editing and acting. The Wonder Girls were quite good with their acting, much better than the American co-stars. Overall, I will say this film was okay as a television aired only movie on a teenage targeted network. I rate this movIe a six out of ten, but I am in way shape and form a professional movie critic of any kind. There were several ideas brought up in the film that I find to be controversial. The rival group and even the Wonder Girls American allies always brought up ideas that reminded viewers of their foreignness or perhaps that the Wonder Girls can’t assimilate into America and emphasized their otherness. There was also an idea of the Yellow Peril and Asian competition, this can be seen with the alas for the group as the Asian Invasion when competing in a talent show in America. I feel like it was a “cute” way to disguise the Yellow peril. Despite these ideas, it was a pretty decent movie with a simple plot. This movie will play a significant role in not only making the Wonder Girls popular in American mainstream media but also Korean pop in general. Although the movie was cheesy, it is at the same time ground breaking for Korean Pop and U.S. pop culture.

Here is a link to the Wonder Girls song Nobody with english subtitles: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnVycboTpI0

Here is a link to the Wonder Girls Movie Trailer:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMLzWRYZLhs

Korean American artist achieves success in Korea

Korean American artist & Korea success: Lets talk Ailee!

With the help of Youtube, the popular video sharing website Asian America is successfully displaying  talents that has been repeatedly overlooked and frequently ignored in our mainstream media for decades. Despite of the recent successes of Asian American artist on the internet, it is still hard to be of Asian ancestry in the United States and pursue a career in the Entertainment industry.  In an industry were an Asian American have a low chance in infiltrating, some Asian Americans seek acceptance in the industry in their place of nationality that puts the "Asian" in Asian American.  

Singer, Ailee, a young Korean American female who was born in New Jersey has achieve recent success in South Korea after appearing on an MBC's special for the holiday autum harvest, Chuseok called "Singer and Trainee" with her mentor Wheesung in September 2011. This special provided a chance for mentees to display skills their mentor helped develop. Aliee, mentee of Wheesung, the South Korean R&B artist who's been in the industry for over a decade, gave both a winning and touching performance. Since then she has been featured in alot of songs for big Kpop artist, recently in Feburary she released her first video debut a song called Heaven for her first album in South Korea.  Although, she was associated with a label in the U.S, she did not recieve much attention or sucess which lead to her partnering up with Wheesung.

I came across the talented singer on Youtube while watching a series of Kpop music videos and viewed the debut video and song Heaven. Amazed and wanting to know more about this new artist I discovered that she had a youtube channel in which she covered popular R&B songs from artist that ranged from Alicia Keys to Mariah Carey getting around 20,000 views. Now her Heaven video has 3,106,809 views! This once amatuer Korean American youtube cover artist is now an award winning Korean pop star!
    

Here is a link to Ailee's first debut single called Heaven: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9ro1KjkJMg

Here is a link to Ailee's performance of Beyonce's Halo for the MBC Special: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfeQXZRhvRc&feature=endscreen&NR=1