There is a popular misconception that chinese yellow skin.

A typical Chinese is not at all yellower than the same French. During the first contacts of Europeans with the Far East, nowhere was there any mention of any "yellow race". "Like us" - such a description was given by the eminent traveler from Italy Andrea Korsali, who visited China in 1515.

A few years later, the secret adviser of the German emperor Transylvanus, taking as a basis the stories of Portuguese sailors, described the Chinese "People with white skin, with a high level of social organization ... like us Germans."

When dividing humanity into races in the 18th century, the first mention of yellow skin color appeared. An intermediate race was needed between blacks in the south and whites in the north. It was then that the Indians first turned up, and later the Chinese were appointed "yellow". At that time, the book of the professor of medicine I.F. Blumenbach. In it, he mentioned the "Caucasian race" with white skin color, Mongolian with yellow, American "red as copper" and black Africans.

These delusions of mankind were so cleverly imposed on him, one might say more precisely from the work of Ilf and Petrov - "And then Ostap suffered ...". At the writing table, taking as a basis only assumptions (for example, it was argued that Asians are more likely to get jaundice - hence they remain yellow until the end of their lives) a purely subjective opinion was imposed on the whole of mankind.
To top it all off, the theorists who invented this classification did not see anyone but Europeans in the eye.
Often, the basis of their assumptions was the representation of the Chinese themselves.

“A yellow veil was thrown over all childhood memories,” the last Chinese emperor Pu Yi writes in his notes. “There were glazed tiles on the roofs of houses, yellow stretchers on which I was carried, the lining of my dress and hats, bedspreads ... and plates, from which I ate and drank were yellow ... There was nothing around me that did not wear a yellow tint. "
This love of the Chinese for the color yellow (the "yellow river" of the Yangtze, the mythological "yellow emperor", in general, everything big and spiritual was yellow) kind of pushed European classifiers to invent such a "yellow race", Despite all these theories, the skin of the Chinese did not turn yellow at all.

Another misconception.

All Chinese are the same.

The wife of the last emperor Pu Yi, the only ruler of China who dared to leave the country and visit Europe, shares her memories of how difficult it was for her to participate in official ceremonies or give receptions for only one reason that it was difficult for her to distinguish faces - in particular, the faces of members royal family or relatives of the German emperor.
For Koreans or Japanese who first arrived in Europe or the New World, this problem also seems intractable at first.
So this is just another prejudice and nothing more.

Yellow-skinned Vietnamese,

They squeal in the bushes like hares ...

Sergey Chigrakov (ChIZ)

Monk at the waterfall in the village of Doi Pui. Chiang Mai.

Asians skin color

It just so happened that people belonging to the Mongoloid race are called yellow-skinned(and also "cross-eyed" and "narrow-eyed"). We will not argue about the ethics and political correctness of such a term, we will only consider its actual component. And it is such that the Chinese, Japanese, Mongols, Vietnamese, Thais and other Asians, when carefully examined in the literal sense of the word, turn out to be no more yellow than the Russians, the British or the French.

Monk boys. Neighborhoods of Mae Hong Son.

It will be appropriate here to remember that the first Europeans who met the Chinese did not report anything about the yellow color of their skin. On the contrary, in the 16th century, the secret adviser of the German emperor, Transylvanus, described the inhabitants of the Celestial Empire as follows: "These are white-skinned people with a very high level of social organization - like us Germans." Another European, the Italian traveler Andrea Korsali, who visited China in 1515, looking at the locals, exclaimed “Di nostra qualita”, which means “Like us!”

Dance with umbrellas. Doy Suthep. Chiang Mai.

The widespread misconception around the world about yellow-skinned Asians was created by armchair science of the 18th century. Then scientists decided to divide humanity into races. The northern peoples were assigned to the white race, the southern peoples to the black, and since an intermediate between these two races was also needed, the population of India was attributed to it, and a little later the Chinese. They called it yellow, because, according to the creators of this theory, yellow is, as it were, in the middle between white and black. At that time, one of the main authorities in the scientific community was the professor of medicine from Göttingen, Johann Friedrich Blumenbach. He compared the skin color of the American race to copper, and the Mongolian to ripe ears of wheat, like boiled quince or dried lemon peels. In addition, he explained that Asians have yellow skin color due to the fact that they often get jaundice. The most interesting thing is that, according to contemporaries, the professor himself has never seen an Indian or a Chinese in his life.

Dance with a paper umbrella. Doy Suthep. Chiang Mai.

I, unlike Herr Blumenbach, have seen a great many Asians. But in all my long wanderings in South and Southeast Asia, nowhere, neither in Thailand, nor in India, nor in Nepal, nor anywhere else, have I met a yellow-skinned Asian. And I’m unlikely to meet 🙂

The Chinese civilization is one of the oldest civilizations in the world and is about 4 thousand years old. When people roamed the world in small tribes, plundering and destroying everything that came their way for profit, the Chinese were already creating, tirelessly creating their own world, culture and traditions.

Every day, the slaves painstakingly built the houses of their emperors and plowed the land under the scorching sun of the Celestial Empire, which made their skin yellowish, a little dark and wrinkled.

It was from the time when people were divided into classes that the history of the "white man syndrome" among the Chinese began:

If your skin is dark- it means that you belong to the class of slaves, it means that this is karma that you must carry all your life, passing it on from generation to generation.

If your skin is pale- you are privileged, you are one of millions - you are the one who is called to rule and rule.

After all, it is not for nothing that Chinese emperors always wore long clothes, leaving the sunlight the opportunity to admire only their face, and then only when they left their sun umbrellas at home.

Here is the answer to the question "what is he, Chinese skin color" or " why do the chinese have yellow skin«.

Time flew steadily, slavery had long since become a thing of the past, and the customs and foundations that had been established for thousands of years remained unchanged.

At the sight of a foreigner, the Chinese can calmly approach and instead of "Ni hao" say excitedly: "Oh God, what an incredibly beautiful white skin you have!" (although my skin is perfectly normal ordinary men's skin, I don't go to spas or even use scrubs). Some may ask the recipe for your success - to which I always answer: "Eat even more spicy and fried and then you can definitely forget about the white clean skin."

For you to understand, the Chinese eat "la jiao" (hot pepper) with all the dishes and, in addition, fill them with all kinds of sauces. As a result, most of the population suffers from acne problems.

Chinese people walk with umbrellas in sunny weather

Basically, these are girls aged 16 to 40 who are trying to maintain their "privilege" and be whiter than white.

Here I want to tell you that having visited the south of China in the summer, you yourself will begin to understand the whole essence of umbrellas, as a means of protection from the sun. The heat is such that the asphalt melts, and you can fry eggs on the concrete.

To be trendy some white people of china»They buy themselves a foundation that is indecent, in my opinion, of white color. On the street, you can often meet a resident of the Middle Kingdom, carefree strolling, whose face seems to be covered with sunscreen. The face is so white that you might accidentally mistake it for a mime. Not only girls, but also guys are smeared with foundation, so in no case do not be alarmed. In addition, in all Chinese stores you will always find a huge range of skin whitening products: scrubs and creams, masks and lotions, magic washcloths and brushes, and all of them, as one, are designed to make your skin whiter than white.

About the resorts

First of all, the Chinese always buy themselves the most expensive sunblock. They are smeared with them one on top of the other, apparently the result in this way, according to their logic, will be better.

Every third billboard around the city has advertisements for beauty salons that offer to make your skin look like the skin of foreigners (in the picture there is always a photo of a Chinese woman and a foreign woman, for persuasiveness).

Before coming to China, I never thought that the Chinese really have such a complex as skin color. But it reaches such proportions that sometimes you even start to think: “Guys, what are you doing? Rejoice in what God has given you. "

"Why does that girl have normal, beautiful and smooth skin, but I don't?" Many girls ask this question, but they continue to use expired cheap creams and lotions, which they bought earlier for a promotion, and even not suitable for the type of skin, to eat instant tea and not get enough sleep at all. And you can't do that! It is necessary to buy suitable care and decorative cosmetics for your skin type, to be able to rest with benefit and eat right. Then you will immediately see the result.

First you need to find out what type of skin you have, only these types of wagon and trolley. Therefore, we decided to go along ethnic lines. There are differences in the skin, besides its color, and that there are special care requirements for each ethnic skin type. And we'll start this series of articles with Asian skin. In this article, we will explain 6 features of Asian skin and how best to care for it.

1. Asian skin is more sensitive.

This is so, and all because this type of skin has a thinner stratum corneum (the outermost layer of the skin) compared to other ethnic groups. This makes the skin extremely sensitive to environmental factors and chemicals that can upset the pH balance of the skin.

It means: One needs to be careful about which products and treatments are used on the skin because most Asians cannot respond well to harsh treatments such as peels or chemical solutions.

How to use: For daily care, for example, a hypoallergenic Korean cream based on goat milk "Naturalth Goat Milk Aqua Whitening Cream". Due to the airy texture of the cream, it instantly melts on the skin, evens out the complexion, relieves irritation, makes the skin soft and elastic, leaving a feeling of softness and comfort.

2. Frequent skin scars.

Because of the thin stratum corneum, Asian skin is genetically more prone to scarring than others. Hence, great care must be taken in the event that you develop acne or when you are recovering from some skin scarring.

It means: Don't pop the pimples yourself. Use gentle products like emu oil or vitamin E to heal scars.

How to use: You can use the Tony Lab AC Acne Foam for problem skin. It eliminates and prevents conditions that lead to acne, penetrates deep into pores, cleanses of impurities and blackheads, controls sebum secretion, improves blood circulation, tightens pores and minimizes redness. Green tea extract has antibacterial properties. Contains a mild acidic level similar to skin pH, non-irritating.

3. Asian skin has more hyperpigmentation problems.

All skin contains approximately the same number of melanocytes, but the amount of melanin they produce varies. Melanin is a natural skin pigment that protects the skin from UV radiation. This suggests that dark-skinned people produce more melanin, while fair-skinned people produce less. Although studies have shown that Asians have more photoprotective pigment, in fact, Asians have many problems with pigmentation disorders, such as melasma, freckles, hyperpigmentation, lentigo. This is most likely due to increased skin sensitivity.

It means: Use sunscreen regularly from an early age (15-16 years old), but by no means buy products containing hydroquinone (a toxic whitening agent that is found in many creams).

How to use: The Panda "s Dream White Magic Cream" brightening face cream is suitable for you. The cream fills the skin with moisture and ideally evens out skin tone, effectively combats all types of pigmentation on the face: age-related changes, uneven tan, freckles, pimple marks (post-acne). Bamboo juice extract instantly moisturizes the skin, gives it freshness, brightness and vitality. Red ginseng extract enhances skin immunity and enhances metabolic processes in cells. Manuka honey extract has a softening and exfoliating effect, eliminates dullness and improves complexion. Suitable for sensitive skin. , as it does not contain substances that negatively affect the skin.

4. Asian skin loses moisture faster.

Water does not stay in our body for a long time. Much of it passes through the epidermis and evaporates from the skin surface. Asian skin has shown that it evaporates more water than other ethnic groups. And it's all about the climate, because in a humid Asian climate, the skin retains moisture longer, is more hydrated even without makeup, and it seems that you can not smear anything. With the climate of Russia, such a number will not work.

It means: The skin needs more hydration and it will be good to choose a moisturizer with high water-binding ingredients such as hyaluronic acid.

How to use: Intense Moisturizing Aloe Gel "Pure Eco Aloe Gel". The universal gel fills the skin with moisture, soothes, removes irritation and flaking, smoothes and gives extraordinary softness. The gel has a wide range of applications: as a moisturizer or mask, after shave balm, ointment after burns. It can be applied both to the face and to the whole body.

5. High oily skin.

It turned out that Asian skin has a large number of sebaceous glands and because of this, many Asians have an annoying oily sheen on their faces, acne and clogged pores.

It means: Do not use drying cosmetics to remove oily sheen from the face, the manufacturers of which promise a quick effect.

How to use: Tony Lab AC Control Whitening Toner. The toner is intended for problem skin prone to oily and acne. Effectively lightens age spots and acne scars, soothes redness and relieves skin irritation. The extract of Centella Asiatica, which is part of the composition, reduces the secretion of the sebaceous glands, reduces the production of sebum, and tightens the pores. Herbal extracts of medicinal sage and purslane have an antiseptic and anti-inflammatory effect. Tea tree extract helps to resorb scars, relieves irritation. Acne marks become less noticeable, the skin acquires a healthy, well-groomed appearance.

6. Asian skin is more resistant to aging.

Although Asian skin has a thinner stratum corneum, it also has a thicker dermis that contains more collagen.

It means: Asian women have fewer signs of premature aging. HURRAH!

All these products, which are presented above, you can buy on Yandex Market, in the Korean cosmetics store Tony Moly, or in the Sasha LAB online store.

This information, mainly based on research data, may not apply to all Asians across the board, as it also depends on where they live.

What is your skin type? And what else from the skin care section would you like to know about? Write in the comments.

In the Chinese segment of the Internet, an unexpected discussion has flared up: users argue about what shade their skin is, or rather, whether they can be proud of belonging to the "yellow race". The reason was the statements of several athletes who said that they are proud to be "yellow". However, scientists argue that the yellow color of the skin of the Mongoloids was first discussed in the West, therefore, they say, the use of this terminology is tantamount to adopting alien racist views.

To highlight the greatness of their nation or the ancient roots of Chinese civilization, the educated Chinese will turn to myths and historical chronicles. From there come such self-names as "descendants of the dragon", "heirs of the emperors Yan and Huang" or "heirs of Huang-di". Previously, in the official lexicon, the word "yellow" as applied to China and the Chinese, as a rule, was absent, it could only be found in criticism of unfriendly external actions - the "Chinese threat", or "yellow danger". Why did the Chinese talk about skin color not only at the household level, but also in the media?

Globalization, from which a reforming China, open to the outside world, could not avoid in any way, gave rise to multidirectional processes. Someone cosmetically whitens the skin, changes the shape of the eyes (blepharoplasty is the most popular plastic surgery in the PRC), lightens the hair, striving to come closer to a certain "international standard of beauty." Someone, on the contrary, seeks to emphasize - with clothes or makeup - belonging to the Asian civilization, thereby showing: "We, the Chinese, will not succumb to foreign influence in any way and will draw strength from the national culture." Hence the popularity of TV series about Chinese emperors and the fashion for Hanfu - traditional loose-fitting clothes with long wide sleeves and an open collar wrapped to the right. Hence the sports fever that swept China, especially after the 2008 Olympics. Of all the popular hobbies, sport is perhaps the most solidly built on the opposition between "friend and foe".

Oh sport, you are the color!

It is noteworthy that it was the athletes who started the current discussion. Sport as an arena of rivalry between national ambitions, where the bitterness of defeat or the joy of victory often leads to an explosion of nationalistic feelings, is very suitable for the search for identity. Either the athletes agreed, or the Chinese journalists found the topic of pride in the "yellow nation" worthy of attention, but recently several athletes have focused on their skin color in their interviews.

For example, 22-year-old swimmer Ning Zetao, who won the gold medal in the 100m freestyle in Kazan, at the 2015 FINA World Aquatics Championships: “I am yellow, I am Chinese, and I achieved it today, ”he proudly told reporters after the victorious swim.

Chinese sprinter Su Bingtian, setting the national record for the PRC and the Asian record for 100 meters, admitted: “I used to be nervous competing with leading foreign athletes. Now I will not be afraid of them, I will make black athletes be afraid of yellow ones. " Headlines announcing the accomplishments of the strong spirit of the "yellow people" were flashed in the official press, including on the Xinhua News Agency website.

Not everyone liked it. In an interview with the Global Times, the renowned historian and professor at Peking University Luo Xin said he considered it unacceptable for journalists and athletes to use expressions with a racist tinge. In his microblog, Luo Xin reprinted a link to the article "We are not yellow." In this work, the scientist praises the monograph by Taiwan-based American researcher Michael Keevak, Becoming Yellow: A Short History of Racial Thinking.

Who Invented the Yellow Race?

In his book, Michael Kivak, with numerous examples, proves not only the Western origin of "color classifications", but also their isolation from life. In his opinion, the term "yellow race" was born not in the era of the first contacts between Europeans and Asians, but as a result of later theoretical constructions, which are based on racism. Kivak writes that no one in East Asia called themselves "yellow" until Western theories became known in the region. In his notes, the Italian traveler Marco Polo referred the Chinese and the inhabitants of the Japanese islands to the "white".

Luo Xin believes that Kivak's work is no less important for China than Edward Said's sensational work Orientalism, which critically examines Western views of the East. According to the Chinese historian, rethinking the concept of "yellow" is important not only from the point of view of maintaining political correctness, but also for the sake of intellectual and cultural correctness.

The most unpleasant thing, according to Luo Xin, is that some Chinese made the delusions of other peoples a part of their own perception of the world and do not notice that they already live in someone else's coordinate system. As an example, Law cites a line from the popular song "There is a river in the Far East." It seems to be talking about the beauty of native Chinese landscapes, but the starting point is taken from the west, because the distant East can only be seen from a great distance. True, not everyone shares this pedantry - the main thing, they say, is to understand what is behind this or that concept. Maybe there is nothing wrong with being proud of the country, and the epithet “distant” is just a beautiful word. In the same way, the word "yellow" can be attributed to the manifestation of national superiority, and can be understood as the equality of Asian peoples in the world palette. Therefore, talking about the "yellow race" is not necessarily an endorsement of racist views. In an interview with The Global Times, East China Normal University professor Huang Jiangbo said that when they talk about "yellow people," the Chinese are simply expressing their national pride.

Russian empire, yellow threat and party controversy

In the current Internet discussion about skin color, Russia is not mentioned, mainly Western-centrism is criticized. Meanwhile, in the Russian Empire, following the Europeans, the Chinese were also included in the “yellow race”. So, in the explanatory dictionary of V.I. Dahl gives the following classification of "human tribes": "white (Caucasus and Europe), yellow (China), red (America), brown (Polynesia) and black (Africa)."

In fairness, it should be noted that in addition to the abundance of literature about the cunning and cunning of the Chinese, the yellow threat, and so on, the pre-revolutionary period was also famous for concepts that would now be called the "turn to Asia." For example, Prince Esper Esperovich Ukhtomsky, who was close to the last monarch, was known as an "Easternophile". The unique geographical position and historical heritage, Ukhtomsky believed, gave the Russian Empire a reason to play a special mission in Asia and protect Asian countries from "destruction in a European mercantile manner." “To agree with a trivial point of view on foreign worlds is to sign a miserable sentence for oneself as a state and as a tribe,” he warned.

The famous song "Moscow - Beijing", which became the anthem of Sino-Soviet friendship in the mid-1950s, contained words about the growing unity of "peoples and races." True, when relations between the USSR and the PRC cracked, the racial issue was used in China to criticize the Soviet leadership. The theme of racism in the West, traditional for communist propaganda, turned out to be in demand in the struggle against "Soviet social-imperialism."

Typical, for example, is the following passage from an article in the central Chinese press published in October 1963: "The leadership of the CPSU, having exhausted all the" miraculous "means of fighting the national liberation movement, turned to the most reactionary theory of imperialism - the racial theory." Further in the article, the Soviet leadership is accused of "raising a fuss about the so-called" yellow danger "at every opportunity ... shouting that, they say," Genghis Khan is threatening again. " Attempts to split the national liberation movement, they assured in Beijing, are futile, since "the enlightened persons of all races - white, black, yellow, brown, form a broad united front of the struggle against imperialism led by the United States and its lackeys."

The current formulation of the question of a "multi-colored world" in which yellow is not the worst color is no longer dictated by the dogmas of class struggle, but rather an appeal to Huntington's idea of ​​a clash of civilizations.

The explosion of interest in the self-name "huangzhongren" (a man of the yellow race) can be explained by complex processes in the Chinese mass consciousness: the obvious successes of China in all fields are pushing people to not only find a simple description of the "Chinese miracle" in the spirit of the coming century of China, but also draw a line separating the "sons and daughters of the Celestial Empire" from other peoples. Skin color in our age, when the visual prevails over the meaningful, turns out to be a close and understandable sign. In addition, not trusting the official ideological constructs, the people are insistently looking for a basis for unification, and nationalism is becoming the desired path in the search for identity. Criticizing the fascination with the ideas of the “yellow race” and its special qualities, intellectuals pay attention not only to Western centrism, to the surrender of positions under the onslaught of globalization, but also to the danger of falling into the other extreme - the illusion of national exclusiveness.