Bi Hou is a challenging place to work. It's hard to get the students to focus so teachers always have their game faces on at school. My co-teacher, Monica, and I often get together to de-stress. Today we took a stroll along a beach by her house. Note the following contrast...
Taiwanese beach
American beach
Taiwan is loaded with beautiful beaches but they're always empty! Taiwanese people, particularly women, have a serious "fear" of the sun and stay off the beaches. Today we passed many under awnings enjoying refreshments and singing karaoke. I asked Monica if Taiwanese people fear "cancer or being ugly?" Her answer was a very clear "Being ugly!" Taiwanese beauty definitely values pale skin.
Here's a photo of Monica before our walk. It was boiling outside and she had on pants, a sweater and a protective hat!
4 comments:
I was listening to the radio the other day and the American radio hosts [a man and a woman] were saying they regretted getting prolonged suntans in their youths. They were referring to an article where most cities would like to ban youths from tanning salons:
http://www.cnn.com/2011/HEALTH/02/28/tanning.skin.cancer/index.html
-UN
You can imagine how my Taiwanese friends respond when I tell them Americans pay money to artificially tan!
cross cultural analysis is my favorite thing in the world! love the pictures you compared here, and im afraid to say you probably couldve used me as an example of weird americans that worship the sun. i blame the native american indian in me.
love this post!
-carolham
Thanks Caroline! I won a skin whitening kit in the local Christmas White Elephant. Haha, I'm serious. I will bring it home for you!
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