In summer, it's common on the street to see many Chinese women holding parasols1 to protect themselves from the sun. But when Amy, an exchange student in Beijing from the US, first saw this, she found it strange, even impossible to understand. She wrote on her blog, "Unlike Chinese women, American women like to put on their tank tops and sunglasses during summer. If you walk around an American college campus2, you will probably see girls out on the grassy fields reading, but they really hope to get a head start on their summer tan3."
This may be caused by the different standards of beauty between the US and China. Many Americans don't want white skin. They would rather be tanned3. Amy also wrote, "Having darker skin is so popular that many women and men will pay for fake4 tans so that they can keep their sun-kissed appearance during the winter months, too."
Why do they like tanned skin? Michelle Louis reported in her research, "The process of tanning can help make people's skin smooth and hide marks." She further explained, "Tans make people's skin appear healthier and make them appear thinner than when they have pale skin."
Perhaps there is no real ideal standard of beauty. In different cultures and at different times of history, the standards change. On Amy's blog, she also gave two examples: Some women carried parasols around trying to keep their white skin in the US 150 years ago; During the Tang Dynasty in China, heavy women were thought attractive. But now, Chinese women prefer to be slim.
In a word, different standards of beauty should be respected. People may grow up with only one idea of what beauty is, but it doesn't mean that it's necessarily the correct or the best idea.
New words:
①parasol n. umbrella used to protect people from the sun 阳伞
②campus n. grounds of school, college or university校园
③tan n. the brown colour of sun-kissed skin 晒成的棕褐
④become brown by the sun 晒成棕褐色，晒黑
⑤fake adj. not real 假的
