10 replies to this topic

[kelvin]

Well my experience is that it still holds an integral part of Chinese living in HK, Taiwan and Thailand, etc.

I would say Cantonese and CHinese from the South still clings of this old tradition. FOr Chinese in mainland China, esp the north, like Shanghai/Beijing, its practically non-exist, thanks to the CCP's purge of all old chinese traditions during the Cultural Revolution(My shanghaiese wife and her families always go Yi? or Har? when I bring any kind of old chinese tradition up).

TO me I think this particular subject is a kind of a study, a recorded history of population statistic data.
Think about it, you look at 1000ppl's faces, then 10000, then 10s of millions, through the last couple thousand years, and slowly a category of faces emerge, like this kind of nose is rare and that kind of eyes means harsh life. A king/noble's face(characteristics) come out, so does a begger's face. well not always guaranteed but a trend emerge but its not true science.

Some examples are long ear-lobes -- longitivity, closed eye brows--jealousy/fiery temper, wide eye brow -- care free/gullible(Down's sym, notice a trend?), crooked noses--you just can't trust these guys(I have a theory about this one, probably con ppl too much and nose got punched a lot, so crooked noses raises suspiousion)

Face reading is nowadays combine with handprint reading, along with your birthday (Ba Zhi) for divination purposes.

It was used thousands of years ago as can be seen in description of SangGuoZhi's characters -- eagle look & wolf's stare(guess who), till now -- I just paid 500 bucks for my son's Ba Zhi to be read, looking for his face to be read once it takes shape and doesn't look like a mess anymore(2 month old chinese babies don't look much compare to a blone baby, its like everything cramped together, that sucks!!)

Well, all my relatives are already doing their amateur face reading on my baby's month old pictures, slant eyes of dad(hey he could have 1 billion dads), small cherry size mouth and lips, a flat nose with no meat in the center(that's like a no no to everyone who look at the picture) Do you see where its leading? I wasn't worried at first but I think this face-reading thing will get to me eventually...

Well at least mom thinks he is handsome. I don't care as long as the numbers of eyes/eye/nose are correct.

I personaly think that inborn(genetic) traits like faces and hands, combine with Ba Zhi, is less important or as accurate as before simply because the world has changed so much and rearing plays a much larger part in affecting a person's future. But it could still be an important source of info to understand this person's nature/personality in a broad sense.

Ba Zhi though, is a completely different topic and involve some mathematic formulas and is much more interesting to study. I may find the time to share my exp in the future.

[TMPikachu]

I think it's true to some extent

What is the face of the King's wife show? And the son that looks like her? She and her son seem to be kinda disliked by people, who would rather see the daughter (who looks more like her father) take her father's place.

[General_Zhaoyun]

My dad has a book on chinese physiognomy ("mian xian xue 面相学"). However, I haven't read it much.. it's used very often in business, and of course in fortune-telling.. you will be wondering why some people go for plastic surgery, just to change their face and fortuen..

[TMPikachu]

how would you say they become more western, like what changes do they make.

[kelvin]

To Answer your question for Sawa. I think I know what she means. I have been to Thailand multiple times(great place for vacation).

Thai girls looks very beautiful and feminine(In my opionion), however, I notice on posters more and more girls that have obviously gone through plastic surgery on their noses and eyes(plastic surgery is very common here). What I mean is you could tell there is a trend going on when a lot of girls go through surgery to have their nose made slender and taller, like a caucasian nose, also many of them have their eyelids cut so that they would have what we call "double eyelids" Something most caucasians men and women have but only a handful of Asians have. (Does anyone know what I am talking about?)
Is happening quite common in Thailand & to some extend Taiwan, I haven't been to other asian coutnries alot so I can't say for the other places, but its actually not that common in HK and mainland China, YET.


There is difference in defining beauty in East and West cultures, I think as the power or influence of one rises so does the influences of this definition of beauty impact the common public on their perception of what a beautiful feature should contain.

I personally think Thai girls looks fantastic by themselves and no artificial changes are needed. Sadly I am barred from going to Thailand in the next 5 years... Cause I have been there so many times, my wife would like to visit some other places first!!

[somechineseperson]

I think many Chinese people have natural double eyelids.

[TMPikachu]

*Ahem* I'm a 'he' by the way...

What Kelvin says is true.. Thai girls want straight and taller noses, double eyelids, etc..

Its just 'Westernization' trend going on everywhere... annoying is the fact that most of the girls are Chinese descendants, for they are wealthy enough to take surgery. They already look fine, but by trying to implant 'western' feature, it becomes unnatural..

Westerners get nose reduction surgeory, remove their body hair, and tan their pale skin.

it does not mean they are trying to 'Easternize'

double eyelids are a feature of Asians, whites do not have double eyelids at all. Well, some Eastern Europeans/Russians(North Asians ) may have the eyelid fold that is a feature of Asians.

If these girls wanted to be white, they would have hair implants on their arms and legs, and implants to thicken their brow ridge. These are white features that Asians do not have.

[adoo]

...Is happening quite common in Thailand & to some extend Taiwan, I haven't been to other asian coutnries...

more so in So Korea; some teen-agers get the surgery done as birthday presents.