The ugly and strange others

 

I've been offended from time to time by some picture books, museum displays, or paintings that feature Asian (or non-Caucasin) figures as what I call, "the ugly and strange others." I don't mind if they are portrayed as "exotic," at least that word sounds sexy. But most of times you can only describe them as ugly and strange. I have evidences here.

 This is really not a good-looking woman, probably because in the story, she is a strong mother who battles with the sea to get her son back. But do strong women have to look like this? I wonder.

Ah, the slanted eyes...what do we have to do to let people know that we Asians have different sizes of eyes. Slanted eyes are just one of them.  But, if Jeremy Lin still got teased about his eyes nowadays, I know this stereotype may still stick around for a long long time.

I can only say the illustrator may want to break the stereotype of prince-princess-like beautiful couples.

It looks like the illustrator wants to make a sight with many slanted eyes.

I also found some strange figures who were called Chinese, such as:

These figurines are called "4 Chinese."

 I don't really know which parts of them are Chinese? Their clothes? No. Their hats? I don't think so. Their faces? Come on, they are White!

I recognize the bun on the head and the hair band. But, only ancient women wore those. It didn't look like a woman to me.

I quite like this one, though. It looks really familiar, but still couldn't figure out what he is wearing on his head.

So, to wrap up this post, I did a Chinese thing:

Do I look Chinese enough to you? Sorry, I'm not Chinese. I'm a Taiwanese. Confused? Yes, me, too.