Proceedings of the 2022 6th International Seminar on Education, Management and Social Sciences (ISEMSS 2022)

Examining Chinese Beauty Behind the Controversy of the Chinese Brand “The Three Squirrels”: Racism, Slanted Eyes, and Beauty

Authors
Weining Wang1, *
1Tsinghua International School, Beijing, 100084, China
*Corresponding author. Email: weining_wang23@this.edu.cn
Corresponding Author
Weining Wang
Available Online 29 December 2022.
DOI
10.2991/978-2-494069-31-2_5How to use a DOI?
Keywords
Chinese social media; beauty standards; culture; public opinion; stereotypes
Abstract

As a matter of subjective perception, the concept of beauty has been continuously defined and redefined by the times and its people. Along with globalization, beauty standards all over the world are shared under the intense information diffusion through communicative media platforms. While this exchange of beauty cultures and ideas has diversified people's understanding of beauty and led to unique social trends, certain beauty elements and traits hold solemn meanings and interpretations beyond their superficial appearance—The association of cultural sensitivity and beauty still stand today. This study focuses on the racism-related controversy behind the Chinese snacks brand Three Squirrel's advertisement poster due to its incorporation of the element of slanted eyes and analyzes the sensitivity of Chinese beauty regarding slanted eyes today through the lens of social media. The study focuses on Chinese social media users and their role and reaction to the controversy and pays particular attention to users active on “Sina Weibo,” one of China's biggest social media platforms. The study will also account for the gender stereotypes’ attribution to the controversy, collecting its information on public opinions and critical analysis directly from the Chinese social media platforms “Weibo,” “Zhihu,” and related published articles. Ultimately, the study concludes the incorporation of sensitive elements by the Three Squirrels is intended to offend the public while admitting it caters to a stereotypical western image of Chinese beauty.

Copyright
© 2022 The Author(s)
Open Access
Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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Volume Title
Proceedings of the 2022 6th International Seminar on Education, Management and Social Sciences (ISEMSS 2022)
Series
Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research
Publication Date
29 December 2022
ISBN
10.2991/978-2-494069-31-2_5
ISSN
2352-5398
DOI
10.2991/978-2-494069-31-2_5How to use a DOI?
Copyright
© 2022 The Author(s)
Open Access
Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

Cite this article

TY  - CONF
AU  - Weining Wang
PY  - 2022
DA  - 2022/12/29
TI  - Examining Chinese Beauty Behind the Controversy of the Chinese Brand “The Three Squirrels”: Racism, Slanted Eyes, and Beauty
BT  - Proceedings of the 2022 6th International Seminar on Education, Management and Social Sciences (ISEMSS 2022)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 27
EP  - 33
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-494069-31-2_5
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-494069-31-2_5
ID  - Wang2022
ER  -