We all want to be white??

All the glitzy stores at the Taipei Airport beckon to shoppers with huge ads of beautiful models, like this one at the Pianegonda shop selling very expensive accessories. Here's a disconnect: 90 percent of the faces I saw at the Taipei airport were Asian--and yet all the ads featured models who are white. What gives? From Dior to even Shiseido, white faces are peddling makeup and clothes that supposedly would look good on me -- an Asian woman?

Are advertisers clued in on the secret--that we all harbor white envy? Or can't they get a clue? I for one know that a lot of things that look good on a white woman will NOT look good on me, especially makeup and even certain fabric colors.

That's why I applaud Mac, whose enlightened ad in the Taipei Airport features an Asian woman. And she even looks chic (you know, despite her high cheekbones and single-lid eyes!)

Is it a case of advertisers imposing Western asthetics or are they onto something? Across Asia, women are getting cosmetic surgery to make their skins paler, eyes look rounder with coveted double eye-lids and higher noses -- all designed to make the person look like a white Westerner.

There seems to be a shifting undercurrent. Japanese for years have been swayed by Hollywood movie stars and celebrities peddling Japanese goods. (Check out this funny site making fun of celebs in Japanese ads.) But interestingly, as a recent Los Angeles Times story by Bruce Wallace points out--white faces are losing their appeal. Where once stars such as Brad Pitt, George Clooney and Meg Ryan got paid as much as $3 million to push cigarettes, instant noodles and cars,
Japan is undergoing a "cultural watershed, in which Japanese audiences increasingly embrace stars and celebrities from Asia instead of the West.''

Hallelujah! A big reason for the change is a trend I recently wrote about: Korean cool.

Japan's love affair with Korean actors such as Yon-sama (of Winter Sonata fame) and Korean pop idols is creating a demand for Asian models. Wallace, the reporter, gets this quote from a Japanese ad exec, Tomoko Kamiguchi of Dentsu Casting and Entertainment:

"The Japanese market has changed. We have accepted Asian talent. After 'Sonata,' we no longer have an allergy to Asia."

Ew, your single eye-lid is giving me hives.