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Chinese ideals of female beauty


In Chinese contemporary popular culture, there are various aspects to the female beauty ideal.

The emphasis that both Taoist and Confucian notions of female beauty place on the relationship between inner and outer beauty has influenced the creation of the Chinese female beauty ideal. To further see the history of this culture, as well as how these ideals came into place see Chinese Culture.Outer beauty was thought to represent virtuousness, talent, and other positive characteristics.

In Taoist thought, women with masculine voices make poor sexual partners, because this trait suggests an excess of ch'i that inhibits the attainment of sexual harmony. In her article “Female Bodily Aesthetics, Politics, and Feminine Ideals of Beauty,” Eva Kit Wah Man articulates how Confucianism and Taoism played essential roles in the creation of Chinese beauty ideals: “In the Chinese tradition, as in other cultures, both the external sexual and inner moral dimensions determine the beauty of a woman…The notion of female beauty comes from both (Taoism and Confucianism).” "Femininity" does not refer to an aspect of a dichotomy between mind and body, as there is no such dichotomy in Chinese philosophy. Women in China also expands on these ideals, delving into the impact women have in Chinese society. Thus, historically, the religious influences on Chinese beauty ideals closely tied outer beauty to inner beauty.

Modern Chinese society is highly influenced by Western capitalist and Marxist thoughts. The Chinese would not describe themselves as a completely Capitalist country, nor a purely Marxist country. They fundamentally ignore this type of question about the essence of its political position, and develop their economy, politics, culture and feminism in their own way. They call themselves a socialist market economy with Chinese characteristics. The rise of Chinese feminist development is highly influenced by the claims of the “new “ China (since the early 19th century) and its government that it would save the Chinese woman from the “old society” and set women’s minds free (Chun, 2008). An article published in the widely circulated journal Dushu uses an earlier nativist satire to argue that women themselves voluntarily desired the beauty of small feet (footbinding) into the first decades of the twentieth century, despite the elite, male-dominated discourse of liberation and equality that assailed the practice.


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