You have some looks that are really focusing internally
within China, and then you have some looks
that are more influenced by Western countries.
And so I wanted to tell that narrative.
I thought that was probably the most interesting,
especially considering the position
of China currently today as a global superpower.
In the 1910s, you have young women
who have really high collars
and these split bangs that go across their head.
I would say that that look is representative
of women who are probably middle class.
If you're thinking poor women, they don't have time
and they don't have the financial resources
to be specific about their hair, their clothes
or their dress or even afford photographs at that time.
When we're looking at the 1920s, it's really interesting
to see the shift move towards Western influence,
which is really indicative of a global move.
During the 1930s, you had what was the emergence
of the Shanghai girl.
Shanghai is a port city, so you have a lot
of foreign influence coming into that city, historically.
The girl that you see is going
to have, kind of, baby bangs.
That was really particular for young women
who are maybe looking for more urban lifestyle.
World War II was ending.
At that point, you actually kind of see China allying
with the US to push the Japanese out.
That's where you see, like
a full-blown Western look coming in.
During the 1950s, Mao Zedong is in power.
He basically overturns all the previous beauty standards.
He makes the peasant, the proletariat, what's beautiful.
And what's beautiful is if you're healthy and tan
and if you're contributing to the collective society.
In the 1960s, this was when Mao Zedong
full-blown cultural revolution is enacted.
So women are allotted more rights.
She's in uniform because she's a comrade.
They're seen as equal to men, theoretically.
In 1970s, China starts to move away from communism.
You start to see, kind of, distancing from the ideology.
In the 1980s, Mao Zedong's political opponent
came into power and started
to introduce all these new market economy policies.
Now you have China completely turning towards free market,
which also means more foreign influence,
when you're trading and interacting with other countries
and opening your doors more.
The woman that you see has the big perm,
has the big glasses, looks like she came out of a magazine.
The 1990s, you see a lot of influence coming in from Hong Kong.
So that short bob with the bangs and the headband,
that's kind of cute and school girlish.
Hong Kong obviously had a great deal of foreign influence.
If you're a young person in Mainland China
and you're watching Hong Kong movies,
then you're probably going to start to mimic the fashion,
the dress, the makeup, the hair.
To counter what Hong Kong had developed
as a film and entertainment industry,
China had the Four Dan Actresses.
One of them, which is internationally famous, is Zhang Ziyi.
At that time, I think everything was focused
on Hong Kong and Taiwan.
And then all of a sudden, you know, Zhang Ziyi came out
of mainland and she just blew it out of the water.
She has that really, kind of, classic Chinese beauty.
Dark black hair, really, really minimal makeup, pale face.
By the 2010s, Korea and the K-pop industry
is enormously influential.
There's a look called the ulzzang look,
and it's huge doe eyes,
really, really pale pearlescent dewy face.
I think that a lot of the media kind of feeds
into this really xenophobic,
basically anti-Chinese sentiment.
And a lot of it has to do with the fact
that China is growing economically
and is challenging the US economically.
Coming from here in the US,
it's a very different way we look at China.
If you were to go to another country
in East Asia or anywhere else,
they would have a completely different outlook at China.
This country is so enormous
and that people should take this video as an introduction
and they should learn beyond what the looks present
that there's a huge, huge history behind it all,
and that this should be the door to learning all of that.