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新浪首页 > 新浪教育 > 老外直言:美国热卖美“黑”霜(图)

美国热卖美“黑”霜
http://www.sina.com.cn 2004/05/31 17:18  北京青年报


美国热卖美“黑”霜--当中国女性想美白时

  I started to notice it as early as three weeks ago, at the first sign of hot weather. As I walked across campus, I saw some of my students with umbrellas. It was a ridiculously sunny day, and there was not a cloud in sight. Why in the world, I asked myself, would they be carrying umbrellas? Parasols are something Americans only encounter in 19th-century novels. I'd never seen anyone use an umbrella in the sun except at the beach, or at a Rangers (the Texas baseball team) game last summer where many of the spectators set up beach umbrellas in the stands to protect themselves from the scorching sun. When I imagine using an umbrella to keep the sun off, I envision umbrellas so huge you can barely carry them, umbrellas with lots of bright colors or "Heineken" advertised on the side, like you would see at a beach. So to me, carrying a small umbrella on the sunniest of days was a little odd.

  But the umbrellas were only the beginning.

  As the weather turned warmer, I could not understand why I still saw so many people wearing long-sleeved black or wool jackets, long pants and even gloves! I had made adjustments in my wardrobe at the first sign of warm weather, packing up my long coat, and wearing short sleeves, skirts and flip-flops whenever possible. But every time I went out, I felt I was in the minority. I was already sweating, so I had to marvel that the people wearing what seemed like winter clothing weren't melting. The umbrellas I could fathom, but I just could not wrap my brain around①the unseasonable clothes. Finally I asked a student to explain. She informed me that many women wore long sleeves and pants so that they would not get "black" -- meaning, in correct English, "dark" or "brown" or "tan": it would take an awful lot of exposure to the sun to turn a pale-skinned person "black".

  But I got the picture. That would explain the enormous hats and sun visors so wide that I can't see the wearer's face at all, and why even though it is certainly hot enough, so far I've only seen one girl in shorts. It also reminded me of what I'd noted in the supermarket a few days earlier as I was looking for lotion for dry skin. Since most everything was Chinese, I had to stick to foreign brands. I picked up a bottle of Nivea and was just about to put it in my basket when I noticed that it said "Skin Whitening Lotion". Glancing back at the shelf, I noticed that several of the foreign brands had similar products. No doubt the Chinese brands were the same. "Skin whitening?" I thought. How could lotion whiten someone's skin? And why would anyone want it to?

  Then I realized that a Chinese woman coming to an American supermarket would experience just the opposite. Where Chinese may be obsessed with pale skin, Americans are obsessed with tanned skin. Come summertime, American supermarkets stock their shelves with tanning lotions and creams either to help the sun bronze your skin or to change the color immediately by chemical means. I admit to having used a product like this once or twice, to get rid of a "farmer's tan". (A farmer's tan occurs when you get tan while wearing a short-sleeved shirt and socks, with the result that your limbs turn brown but your shoulders and feet stay a sickly white -- not chic, believe me.) Just as there are whitening cosmetics in China, makeup companies in America sell "bronzing" makeup to give women the tanned face of someone who's been out in the sun playing tennis. And what about tanning booths? If even I think tanning booths are silly, I can't imagine what a typical Chinese woman would say to the idea of people paying a monthly fee to lie in an oven, uh... bed, and be browned like a piece of toast.

  A friend told me the old Chinese saying that white skin can cover a hundred "ugly" things. Obviously the Chinese desire for pale skin has a long tradition behind it. In English, there's another saying: "The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence," meaning that people always want what someone else has. Many Chinese have a natural sort of tan, yet they want to look pale; Americans of European descent tend to have naturally pale skin, but they want that sun-tanned look.

  Who knows? Perhaps things will change. Maybe in the future, Americans will want to be whiter and Chinese will want to be darker. While I wait for fashions to change, though, I think I'll go sit in the sun and get a nice tan.

老外直言:美国热卖美“黑”霜(图)

  (本文作者现于北京一所高校任教)

  我注意到这一奇怪现象是在三周前,那是在热天刚刚开始的时候。我走过校园,看到我的学生打着伞,可那天太阳高照,天上没有一丝云,在这样的天气里她们究竟为什么要打雨伞?我暗自问道。遮阳伞是美国人在19世纪小说中才能看到的东西,在今日美国,我从没有看到有谁在阳光下打伞,除非是在海滩,或者是在去年夏天得州棒球“游骑兵队”的比赛场地,很多观赛者在看台上支起了海滩遮阳伞,以躲避灼人的阳光。当我想象用伞遮阳时,脑中浮现的伞非常大,大得你一个人扛不动,那伞面上有耀眼的色彩或是喜力啤酒的广告,就像你在海滩常看到的那样。因此,在阳光最强的日子里撑一把小雨伞在我看来有点怪异。

  但是伞仅仅是开始。

  当天气更热的时候,我不明白为什么还有那么多人穿着长袖黑色上衣或毛衣、长裤子甚至还戴手套!天气刚一转暖,我就整理了衣柜,把长衣服收了起来,穿上了短袖衬衫、裙子和凉鞋。可每次出门,我都感到自己很个别。在我热得已经出汗的时候,我不能不惊叹那些穿着好似冬服的人们没有熔化掉!对于伞,我可以理解,但是我无法理解那不合时令的衣服。最后我请一个同学解释原因,她告诉我,很多女性穿长袖上衣和长裤是怕晒“黑”,用英语来说就是肤色变深、变棕或者是变成褐色———在阳光下暴晒很长时间白皮肤的人才能变“黑”。

  但是我明白了这能够解释为什么大帽子和遮阳帽檐那么宽,以至于我根本看不到戴帽子人的脸,还有为什么虽然天气已经很热,我只看到一个女孩穿短裤。这又让我想起几天前在超市里看到的事:我去超市是想买适用于干性皮肤的护肤霜。由于大多数产品说明都是我不认识的中国字,我不得不专挑外国牌子。我拿了一瓶“妮维雅”,正想把它放到我的购物篮,我注意到上面写着“美白霜”,瞥一眼货架,我看到好几种外国品牌都有类似产品。毫无疑问,中国牌子的也一样。把皮肤变白?我寻思:护肤霜是怎么把皮肤变白的呢?为什么人人都想变白?

  之后我意识到一位中国女性到了美国超市将会有相反的体验。当中国女性一心想变白时,美国女性想变黑。夏天到来的时候,美国超市的货架上放满了美“黑”霜、美“黑”油,这些产品要么是有助于阳光将你的皮肤变成古铜色,要么是借助化学反应使你的皮肤立刻改变颜色。我承认自己用过一两次这类商品,为的是去掉“农夫黑”(所谓“农夫黑”就是在你穿短衬衫和袜子时四肢被晒黑,可是肩膀和脚还是苍白的———这可不雅致,真的),正如中国有美白化妆品一样,美国的化妆品公司卖美“黑”霜,把女性面部肤色变成在阳光下打网球的那种棕褐色。那么晒黑廊又如何呢?人们每月付费躺在炉子上,喔,是床上照射紫外线,就像一块烤面包一样变成褐色,如果连我都觉得这样做很愚蠢,我就更想象不出典型的中国女性会对此说什么了。

  一位朋友告诉我中国有一句俗话“一白遮百丑”。显然,中国女性渴求白皮肤是由来已久的。英语中有另一个说法:“篱笆那边的草更绿”,意思是人们总是想得到别人拥有的东西。很多中国人天生不白,可她们想变白;祖籍欧洲的美国人往往有着天生的白皮肤,但她们想拥有被阳光晒黑的那种肤色。

  谁知道呢?说不定事情会有变化。将来,美国人也许想变得更白,而中国人想变得更黑。然而,当我等待着时尚改变时,我将坐到太阳底下,让阳光把我晒得黑黝黝的。




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