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Tuesday, July 28, 2009

My Little Sister

This is written by steve, not me..


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Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Asia Culture: Beauty Lies in Asian with White Skin

Highly prized as an accent to beauty in ancient times, whiter skin appearance has enjoyed a revival among women around the world. It’s more evident so in Japan where female consumers are known for their pain-taking effort to shun sunlight under parasols in summer. Even in her childhood, a Japanese woman spends a great deal of time tending to her young soft skin with a wide range and scope of basic beauty products found in any drugstore throughout the nation. And the legendary beauty of geishas depends on the whiteness and softness of the skin on the nape of their necks.

To possess ‘bihaku' (beautiful white) skin, the ideal porcelain-pale complexion, has been engrained in the Japanese culture for centuries. In the past, women used to scrub their skin with ‘nuka’ (rice hulls) for skin oxidization or grind pearls into powder for swallowing. Nowadays, consumers rely on scientists to play a major role in formulating increasingly sophisticated and safer products.

Although the myth that Asian women pursue white skin is to emulate the stereotypically Caucasian beauty, the original reason behind the obsession with the lighter skin has more to do with social class differences than ‘want what you don't have' syndrome. It was believed that a lighter complexion is associated with wealth and higher education levels, whereas darker skin alludes to a life of outdoor labor toiling in the sun.

However, over the years throughout Asia, white skin viewed as a symbol of innocence and femininity has transformed to an image of youthfulness and attractiveness to the opposite sex due to aggressively marketing by major cosmetic companies. Moreover, international film industries and advertisements clearly pushed the lighter-skinned celebrities and models as emblems of Asian beauty. However, one must not overlook the consumer’s propensity towards having fairer skin, perhaps arises from the danger of increasing level of ultraviolet rays in our earth’s atmosphere.

Interestingly enough, teams of scientists and dermatologists have studied people of different color skins in the following Asian countries: Japan, South Korea, China, India, and the Philippines. The findings are as follows:

  1. Asians are more inclined to have dark spots (hyperpigmentation) earlier than the onset of wrinkles and laxity (loss of skin firmness).

  1. Among Asians, the Japanese have the lightest skin tone, therefore, Japanese women have low melanin and skin redness. Consequently, Japanese skin shows the least deterioration with age. At the other end of the scale, the Indians have the darkest skin tone, thus, high melanin content and skin redness.

  1. Asian women’s skin has better biomechanical properties such as elasticity and structures (collagen) compared to Caucasians.

  1. Chinese and Korean skins turn yellowish with age.

Realistically, cosmetics work only as a veneer for beautiful looking skin. As cliché as it sounds, beauty really does come from within. To maintain or obtain good skin requires basic regimen: a healthy diet, exercise, plenty of water and eight hours of sleep. Nowadays, a consumer is at a point in time when she has never been so well informed - knows exactly what to eat, how to care for her skin, and how to read the labels on the back of cosmetics packages.

It’s not surprising that Japan has experienced an unprecedented boom in anti-aging cosmetic treatments as an aging population reaches out for products that aim to help them looking younger and healthier. The billion-dollar cosmetics industry has shown skyrocketed sales of anti-aging creams, skin tonics and skin whitening creams, as well as products, such as treatments for blotchy and wrinkled skin, hair care treatments and tonics for graying in the past year. Moreover, the consumer vigor for youthful looks and good health has also boosted business growth for gyms and health spas.

Although most whitening creams are safe, doctors, consumer groups and government officials have reported devastating consequences for some women using blemish creams in large, harmful amounts. It has been proven that a few compounds can whiten skin by retarding the production of melanin: hydroquinone, Alpha Hydoxy Acids (AHAs) and mercury. However, all three compounds if used in high doses are dangerous to one's health. The highly touted hydroquinone in cosmetic products can cause ochronosis - the appearance of very dark patches of skin, or develop leukoderma - the skin loses the ability to produce pigment, resulting in patches of pink. As for mercury, the FDA had warned that it should never be applied to the skin, for it damages the central nervous system, the kidneys, and the development of the fetus’ brain; and it might lead to death.

Sadly, in the poorer parts of Southeast Asia, illegal potent bleaching agents have made their way into the black-market sold as inexpensive cosmetic products. Recently, Thailand's Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has given warning to 70 whitening creams and Indonesian officials have listed more than 50 banned cosmetics. In addition, FDA has complained that these cosmetic bottles labeled as ‘whitening’ are, in fact, misleading - they are nothing more than sunscreens blocking out ultraviolet rays.

Despite numerous skin-whitening horror stories reported in recent years, the trend of skin whitening won’t abate soon as it has already spread from Asia to South America, even to Africa. More recently, scientists have moved to the cellular level in tackling anti-ageing – the discovery of sirtuin, an enzyme that can dramatically extend life, has energized biotechnology companies to develop “anti-aging” drug.

Until the “anti-aging” drug becomes available for mass distribution, skin-whitening cosmetics will continue to be sold on shelves as long as consumers believe that beauty is somehow associated with white skin and youthful appearance.

Asia Cuture: I want a Porcelain White Skin

Skin whitening big business in Asia

From PRI's The World 30 March, 2009 12:21:00

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image(Image: BBC, theworld.org)

Customers from Mumbai to Beijing say they want lighter skin, but health professionals are concerned.

Barack Obama's inauguration as the nation's first African-American president got a lot in this country thinking and talking about race. Obama's triumph proved that any child can dream of becoming president, regardless of skin color. We in America may have reaffirmed the notion that the color of a person's skin shouldn't matter. But for many people across Asia, the color of skin matters a lot. In recent years, "skin whitening" has become a huge industry in countries like China, Korea, Japan, and India.

"The World's" Phillip Martin has been exploring the phenomenon of skin whitening in Asia and has this report.

Walking beside a rushing stream in Hsingchu, Taiwan, 18-year-old Hilda Chu balances an umbrella in one hand and textbooks in the other. Her skin is ghostly white. Hilda says she carries an umbrella mainly to avoid skin cancer, but also to preserve her light complexion: "I try hard to make my skin white, yes. If my skin is lighter, I think I will be more happier. "

Hilda Chu is among a growing number of Asians who are paying lots of money to dermatologists like Dr. Hseih Ya Ju who says bluntly Asians like white skin. Dr. Hsieh works at MacKay Memorial Hospital in Hsingchu, where she sees about 25 patients a day. She says her professional motto is simple: "To make your skin white, make your skin tight, and your skin bright."

Dr. Hsieh says her treatments can cost anywhere from $300 to $500 US dollars per session: "Sometimes we suggest patients take some pills – Transamine. Transamine is a kind of pills that will help patient become white."

Whitening regimes like transamine are offered in creams, pills, and injections and with laser treatments. But not everyone can afford them -- so a growing number of poor Asian women are using illegal products containing toxic chemicals that have left some of them disfigured. Even some government-sanctioned skin whitening products contain high levels of toxic mercury.

So it's no surprise that Dr. Ernesto Gonzalez, a senior dermatologist at Boston's Mass General Hospital, says skin whitening can be dangerous: "The best protection that you have for your skin against sun damage is pigment, melanin. If you lose the pigment of your skin, you suddenly become white. The whiter they become the more chances they will be subjected to skin damage and skin cancer."

But this has not stemmed the practice in places like Taiwan, where more than 50 percent of women and a smaller but growing proportion of men pay big money to lighten their beige, tan, and golden complexions. One survey by Synovate found that 4 out of 10 women in Hong Kong, Malaysia, the Philippines and South Korea used a skin-whitening cream. More than 60 global companies are competing for a share of Asia's estimated $18 billion dollar market.

Nydia Lin is a senior executive in Taiwan for the Japanese cosmetics giant, Shisedo: "We promote the idea of whitening. Especially in Taiwan, we see many beautiful idols on TV and they are all very focused on their whitening skin. As Chinese say, 'Whitening is everything. You can just cover all your defective parts if you are white.'"

You hear variations of that slogan – you can cover up three shortcomings if you are white – all over Asia. But Chao-Yuan Tsen sees whitening as a form of self-hatred and racial inferiority. She's Secretary General of the Awakening Foundation, a women's rights organization: "The beauty industries in Taiwan emphasize different skin tones. They say if you can be as white as Japanese and Western women, you can be as beautiful as a cherry blossom. I think this promoting this kind of image that they create doesn't make women any happier. It actually creates more anxiety."

Anxiety that's deeply ingrained in the fabric of Asian society. Beijing-based author Lijia Zang knows this firsthand, and writes about it in her recent memoir 'Socialism is Great': "I have often been called a "peasant girl". Even my sister sometimes calls me a peasant girl. I don't think my father liked me very much because I was not a pretty child. I was dark, and I remember he said to me repeatedly that I was not their natural daughter. They picked me up from a coal dump, which was why my skin was so dark."

Across much of Asia, long held views about class superiority help explain the appeal of skin whitening. So says Anne Rose Kitagawa, assistant curator of Japanese Art at Harvard's Sackler Museum. She cites the 11th century Japanese epic "The Tale of Genji" that she says tells the story of a raunchy prince and his descendents: "They had many late night trysts with women who they almost never saw in direct light. And the feminine ideal during the Han period for women of the court was almost unearthly light white skin. Sort of large, moon-like, roundish faces, long, long black hair. And so you can see how a culture that maintained that as an early ideal might continue on with an ideal that light skin equals beauty."

That ancient ideal has been reinforced by modern Western culture. And it can be seen in the faces of Western models gazing from the giant billboards along the route of the commuter train that snakes through downtown Tokyo. The billboards also include white-skinned Asians with porcelain colored faces. Across Asia, the pressure to be white is pushed by relentless advertising, from Japan to Korea to India. This ad for skin whitening products features one of India’s biggest movie stars: Shah Rukh Khan – who says that you, too, can be successful in life and love if your skin color is a lighter shade of pale.

Tarun Khanna of the Harvard Business School and author of the book "Billions of Entrepreneurs" says many Indians believe a fair complexion is the key to finding a successful partner: "In the marriage market, fairness is a big, big deal. You can go to the websites that are marriage brokers and the very fact that most of the matrimonial ads will present people as being fair skinned or not indicate that it is an attribute that the market values."

Indeed. Of the more than 200 personal ads I surveyed online, 192 Indian men and women either described themselves as fair skinned or said they were looking for a partner who was. It's a common desire across Asia. On the streets of Beijing, with translation assistance from a young writer, Mia Lee, a reddish-hued migrant worker from Central China was asked what he thought was the secret to happiness.

He wants a girlfriend with pale skin.

Which is why you see advertisements for skin whitening products just about everywhere here. Author Lijia Zang says it’s another sign of China's emerging middle class and the social pressures faced by women trying to enter the professional work force: "So for some women, even those who don’t think white is particularly beautiful, but in order to go far in a career, in order to attract a good boyfriend, they try to put on whitening cream."

PRI's "The World" is a one-hour, weekday radio news magazine offering a mix of news, features, interviews, and music from around the globe. "The World" is a co-production of the BBC World Service, PRI and WGBH Boston.

More "The World."

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Happy Familys!

Got my little sister a dell inspiron mini laptop today!
Abbie chose a purple one, very nice I must admit! Haha
Everyone counting down for Michelles arrival!
Come on baby baby! X

Wrote by super silly Steve! X


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Wednesday, July 8, 2009

First time from my Blackberry!

Hoping this works!
For both of us!
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Super excited if this works!

Fingers crossed!
X
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I am on TV Commercial!

Me and my Sister, Fon are are TV commercial!!! OMG!!!! I look so Chubby!!! zzzzz.. Can You See us????

zzz




Less than 1 day to Charlton's Holiday!!xxx

Wow, finally!!! The Charltons are flying tomorrow!!! Start of the Holiday 2009!!~~ xxx

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

My birthday Present: A Baby Leopard!!

Finally got it right after asking 20 questions for the past few days! Xx

 

So cute!! xx

 

Thanks BBB!! xx