04 CHINA: Standards of Beauty
For this post two things are really important to know before going any further. First, all the teams of iSquad were shuffled around. If you look on the left side of the page you will see all the members of my new team, Team Alabaster. Take note of the multicultural diversity (descendents from Africa, India, Puerto Rico, and Cuba/Dominican Republic). Second, we traveled more than thirty hours northwest of Hong Kong. It’s possible the Chinese people there have gone their whole lives without seeing foreigners with “brown” faces. Its safe to say that we were a spectacle. Yes, a “striking display” with tons of “visual impact”. As we traveled through the city and visited shops and restaurants, there were a few common reactions:
- People coming to a screeching halt and locking in stares.
- People tripping over their own feet because they couldn’t take their eyes off us.
- gasps for breathes of air
- paparazzi style picture taking without warning
- very forward requests to pose for pictures
- offers of skin whitening cream
The last one was the most startling. Afterwards, I noticed the excessive skin whitening of a large population of Chinese woman. It’s in the face wash, soap, body wash, skin creams, etc. Several times, I mistook real women for mannequins in store windows. (Blinking eyes nearly scared me to death.) I was given a lot of negative attention for my skin color, my height, my weight, and shoe size. A common phrase I heard when immediately walking into a clothing store was “not your size”. For the first time in my life, I was a little uncomfortable with myself. After making my judgments about this element of the Chinese culture, I paused to consider which American standards of beauty the Chinese may consider strange. Then the thought expanded to include several cultures from around the world. The question is, what does God say about his creations?
1 Peter 4 (ESV)
but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God’s sight is very precious
It doesn’t matter what we do to make ourselves more attractive to Man, God sees us differently. No amount of adornment (cosmetic surgery, hair implants/weaves, extreme fitness, whitened teeth or skin, skin tanning, expensive cars, clothes, jewelry or homes, etc) can not influence whether God loves us a little or a lot. Remember the song lyric, “red/brown, yellow, black, and white. All are precious in his sight”? Its true. We should see ourselves as God sees us and live to please Him.
