Lili's Art Portfolio

    In China, Thailand and Japan being pale were viewed as being part of the high class. If you had tan skin, it means that you worked in the fields and had a low-income family. Most men and women in Asia don’t want to have tan skin, or they would be less desirable. The paler your skin, the more desirable you are.

    Millennials in China, men and women, are obsessed with unattainable beauty standards. For young women, the definition of beauty includes creamy white skin, big wide eyes and stick thin figures. Young Chinese men also strive for beauty ideals opposite their physical attributes such as tall, slim figure with feminine characteristics. Although young Chinese men strive for unrealistic beauty ideals, the standards set are far more difficult for young Chinese women.

    My artwork, Finding Beauty, does not look at the classic standards of beauty in Asia but a more modern style. My inspiration came from this heartfelt story of Arden Cho, Teen Wolf actress, when she was beaten for being Asian. At the age 11, Arden Cho was often the only Asian in the classroom, in Texas and Minnesota, and was hit frequently enough to be hospitalized twice. It took her six months to recover fully. Cho was crowned Miss Korea Chicago 2004 while she was a student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and met with agencies in Korea to become a model. She remembered how she was not able to meet the standards of beauty in Asia. The agencies wanted her to change her "nose, eyes, hairline, lips, cheeks, jawbone, neck, legs, everything" to meet those standards. Cho declined the offers and decided to take acting as a career.