Beauty Standards

I've realized that my lack of inspiration yesterday stemmed from my recently lack of interaction with interesting people, that is those whom I think have smart things to say and who can offer different perspectives on meaningful things. Luckily, today, while talking with a friend (from Japan!!) and sending pictures to each other, I discovered a very interesting topic to explore in my posting-- beauty standards of the east and west.

In Asia (China, Korea & Japan), the beauty standard is fair skinned, big eyes, small mouths and straight noses. For example:

However, in western culture, the beauty standards for Asian people is that of high cheekbones, often small slanted eyes, tanned skin. For instance, Asian celebrities in the U.S. includes Lucy Liu & Sandra Oh.

 

Why does Western standard of Eastern Asian beauty differ from Eastern standard of Eastern beauty? When I think of a fantastic answer, I will post it here. In the meantime, what are your thoughts?