Modern Asian attitudes towards black and white

The Shanghainese are known for admiring Western civilization. One in four Shanghainese sons-in-law are foreign (including foreign-born Chinese and other Asians). Many Chinese parents boast proudly of daughters married to European/Euro-North American men. This enthusiastic reception for white foreigners contrasts with the prevalent Chinese belief, held even by members of the supposedly non-racist Communist party, that people of African descent are unredeemably savage. But was the white-good-black-bad mentality part of Chinese tradition? Or is it a product of Western imperialism?

Koreans and Japanese have similar attitudes towards blacks and whites. Japanese animation is full of beautiful, sexy and heroic white characters. A European woman who saw Sailor Moon noted with much amusement, "If this is Japanese animation, why do none of the characters look Japanese?" The few black characters in other works of Japanese animation are mostly negative or marginal. The recent LA riots in the US testify to the damaging effects of Korean attitudes towards blacks. Generally, white consumers are treated better than black consumers in Korean establishments. Many Koreans and Japanese dye their hair blonde, brown or red. Blue and green contact lenses are also popular among young East Asians.

Southeast Asians, wherever they're living in the world, also express similar white-is-better-than-black attitudes. A black Amerasian living in Vietnam said he wished he was a white Amerasian instead. A Filipino American woman who ran an Asian social group allowed white friends and partners of members to attend but came up with an excuse ("Asians only") when a group member wanted to bring a black friend. A South Asian woman recalled with horror a stranger knocking on her door, expressly noting it was "an African American man". Race is almost never tagged onto descriptions of white strangers.
Pre-modern Asian ideas on 'race'

Apparently, the white-is-right attitude so prevalent today was not always the norm.
Standards of beauty in South and Southeast Asia:

Marco Polo reports on the Dravidians of South India:

"It is a fact that in this country when a child is born they anoint him once a week with oil of sesame, and this makes him grow much darker than when he was born. For I assure you that the darkest man is here the most highly esteemed and considered better than those who are not so dark. Let me add that in very truth these people portray and depict their gods and idols black and their devils white as snow. For they say that God and all the saints are black and the devils are all white..."

In the Chinese record Nan Tsi Chou, a Chinese traveler to Southeast Asia wrote that the local people "consider black the most beautiful." Although modern Filipinos prize the 'high-nosed', oval-faced European-blooded individual as beautiful, some even going as far as to pinch their children's nose bridges in the hopes of achieving a higher nose, this has not always been the case. Prior to European colonization, the ancient Visayans of the Philippines considered the very opposite of high noses and oval faces handsome. Visayans, as well as some other Austronesian peoples in Malaysia and Indonesia, compressed their babies' skulls to achieve broad faces with receding foreheads and flat noses . The Minahasa of Celebes even restricted binding with a forehead board to the nobility.

Old Chinese views on Caucasians:

By traditional Chinese opera conventions, a black face is considered nobler. Actors wear masks that denote the character's qualities. A pre-dominantly black face indicates courage, righteousness and incorruptibility. A pre-dominantly white face indicates craftiness, deceit and knavery. Ming Dynasty China records even state that Caucasians, especially blondes, are physically unattractive:

Huihui are shaggy with big noses, and Qipchags have light hair and blue eyes. Their appearance is vile and peculiar, so there are those (Chinese) who do not wish to marry them.

This distaste for blondes is a stark contrast to the worship of European standards of beauty so prevalent among modern Asians. Today's Chinese boast about their Caucasian sons-in-law or husbands. Instead of attributing the worship of whites, or the vilification of whites, for that matter, to "natural" perceptions of racial hierarchy, it should be remembered that standards of beauty shift through time.