Battlepanda: Caught my eye

Battlepanda

Always trying to figure things out with the minimum of bullshit and the maximum of belligerence.

Tuesday, July 03, 2007

Caught my eye




Taiwanese women, like women in many parts of Asia, generally strive to be as pale as possible. Many also favor creased "doubled" eyelids rather than "single" eyelids with an epicanthic fold and a minority utilize surgery to achieve the result if nature did not provide. I tend to scoff when non-Taiwanese try to equate the desire for creased eyelids and pale skin with the desire to be white. It's simplistic thinking. After all, those working on deep tans are not trying to be black. However, billboards like this certainly suggests something deeper at work than a simple aesthetic preference.

The billboard is for a cosmetic surgery clinic called "Ivy League" and the tagline for the billboard runs "A wish even greater than getting in your dream school -- Ivy League will end your days with single eyelids." Not only is the name of the clinic a reference to elite American universities, the billboard is illustrated by a Caucasian woman -- a double-whammy of aspiration to be western.

By the way, the billboard is up near Taipei main station in a sector filled with cram schools where students go after school to go to do test prep, acounting for the dream school reference.