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ENG 413
Professor Robert Wilkie
Meiyi Liu
5/8/14
How Cultural Differences Influence Cosmetic Advertising
There are two words that are extremely popular in China recently, which are
(nvshen) and (nvhanzi). means goddess, which is used to describe beautiful
women who are almost perfect in every perspective, attract all mankind with a single smile, and
act in the sexiest way but at the same time are virginal. On the contrast, which can be
translated as Tom Boy, is used to describe women who are masculine, have no knowledge of
cosmetic, can only be brothers with men, and even live a life like most of the men do or in some
cases the normal men wont do. I am absolutely one of them () which is very sad. The
cosmetic industry In China, is not as well developed as western countries. So a lot of
(Tom Boy) who are just like me, exist everywhere. They don't pay much attention to their
appearance; they have no idea how to put makeup on their; and they are comfortable with who
they are. Why does this strange specie exist in china and how do different cultures
and cosmetic advertising schemes play important roles?
First, I have a story to tell that comes from J.S.B. Morses article Coca-Cola,
Communication, and Confusion which can illustrate the importance of knowing the cultural
differences while advertising. When Coca-Cola first entered the Chinese market, they had a
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hard time deciding their brands Chinese name. Fortunately, we had similar pronunciations
(Kou Ke Kou Le) in Chinese that could keep the original name of the brand, but unfortunately,
Kou Ke Kou Le made no sense in Chinese. It was difficult for people to translate it into Chinese
characters and remember it which also brought difficulties to the development of the company.
Finally, they compromised and decided to rearrange the order of the characters and it became
Ke Kou Ke Le (), which means "to allow the mouth to be able to rejoice. This was an
excellent idea so when Pepsi entered Chinese market, it plagiarized half of the idea and
named its product . Its English name Pepsi has nothing to do with , but it
even has a better meaning: everything is joy!
If food business can be set up easily in China, why cosmetic industry cannot? They can
also choose a meaningful name and just go with it. If we take a glance at the womans images in
the modern history, we may get the answer for that. For example, the women representative of
the US in the 50s can be Marilyn Monroe, the most beautiful and the sexist woman in American
history. Now look at Chinese women in 50s: they wore dark green military suits with short hair
without any clue of using makeup. You can definitely sell cosmetics to women like Monroe, but
not like those Chinese women. These Chinese women were early versions of , manlike
woman, who are tough, strong, and independent just like men.
The differences between these images can be concluded from cultural and social points.
Barbara E. Hopkins points out in his article Western Cosmetics in the Gendered Development of
Consumer Culture in China, a historical aspect that formed the early social situation in China.
There was a time we called pre-reform period in modern Chinese history under President
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Maos leadership. We suffered from a series of culture depressions like the Cultural Revolution.
During the Cultural Revolution, communist ideology elevated peasant ways of living and
discouraged consumption of goods identified with a bourgeois lifestyle (289). That was when
we acquainted with propaganda posters had women images who were rolling up sleeves and
trouser legs and wearing a pair of straw sandals like a peasant (Hopkins 289). Physical
appearance was a symbol of political commitment at that time. Militant red guards which was a
radical political youth organization, would stop passersby and cut long hair or skirts and break
semi-high-heeled shoes, all symbols of bourgeois femininity (Hopkins 290). All the feminine
features became huge burdens and women would be punished only for long hairs or floral
dresses, set aside any makeup.
Another function of these women images, was to give a push to the increase of female
labor. Jie Yang explains in his article Nennu and Shunu: Gender, Body Politics, and the Beauty
Economy in China that the gender ideology from the Maoist position, erased gender
differences between men and women to maximize the use of female labor (335). Then it was
slightly changed when we entered post- Mao position, which naturalizes and even
essentializes biological differences between men and women in order to meet the demands of
labor reduction for a market economy (Yang 335). When china began to face the female
power, the women in the US claimed they could also be as strong and independent as men.
When I was talking to my tutor about my project, she gave me an excellent example of Rosie
the riveter as the strong, masculine, and muscular women figure. When she pulled out the
picture for me, we both immediately noticed the differences: she is still very feminine. I can say
she probably has makeup on; her shape, her clothes, even her hairband show her femininity.
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Why you have to look like men to possess mens power which was very obvious with the
Chinese poster? You even cannot tell the persons sex on the poster without her hairstyle.
The death of Mao and the rise of Deng Xiaoping changed the situation of our country.
Womens image became softer, gentler, and more feminine. After China joined WTO (World
Trade Organization), Chinese market was finally opened, foreign brands were rushing into
Chinese market. In 1990, US-based Avon entered the Chinese market with a direct sales
strategy that offered cosmetics training (Hopkins 293). Direct marketing strategies are part of
the traditions of US sellers Avon and also for Mary Kay. But in 1998, China banned direct sales
because of fearing direct sales organizations would turn out like the pyramid investment
schemes that let to rioting and 2000 deaths in Albania (Hopkins 296). The new regulations
forced cosmetic companies to change their traditional selling methods and developed new
strategies.
Mary Kay changed its slogan from God rst, family second, and career third to faith
rst, family second, and career third in an effort to satisfy Chinese authorities and respected
non-Christian Chinese people. Avon started building boutiques and by 2004, it already had
700,000 Avon ladies while still meeting the rules (Hopkins 296). But according to market
analyses, direct marketers provide education on how to use cosmetics, which is a key element
in the growth of the cosmetics market, especially for color cosmetics, the use of which is less
intuitive than skin creams (Hopkins 296). Because of Chinese peoples zero knowledge of
cosmetics, it was very necessary to learn from the start point.
When televisions were gradually popularized in Chinese families, TV commercial
became a field that interested cosmetic companies. The classic plot of a TV commercial for
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cosmetic or skincare products is a person telling a real life experience: how she saw her friends
were using this product and they looked so good. So she finally tried and the result was
amazing. That is another trick that companies are playing, Jie Yang says, the advertiser aims to
convince women that they need this product by supplying them with an interior discourse that
will leave them believing that they have made this discovery themselves (351) .
How companies advertise and use strategies to sell products is one thing, but how
cultures are changing inside is another thing. With the strike of foreign products into Chinese
market, peoples consumptions started to alter. The western value deeply influences Chinese
culture that people especially younger generation all tend to follow this western trend. People
believe these foreign products are not simply goods, instead, they represent a different value,
even a new lifestyle. Hopkins says, The value of the modern worldly lifestyle is reected in
Chinese magazines, which advertise the consumption goods, including cosmetics, that dene
the style of the modern, worldly woman (301-302). People believe these advanced lifestyles
represent modernity and wealth, which will grant access to better jobs or to social contacts
that in turn can create access to better jobs, business opportunities, or opportunities to acquire
valuable knowledge(Hopkins 300).
Plastic surgery, that Hopkins also mentions, like the consumption of clothing,
cosmetics, and jewelry, defines ones social status, which shapes ones economic opportunities
(292). Young people today accept Western culture, what western values becomes their values
suddenly. They think breast is the symbol of woman, girls who do not have a barrel chest, will
lack of confidence and be frustrated. Plastic surgery can really change ones looks permanently,
and provide people even a new identity in the society. They enlarge their eyes, higher their
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noses, plump their breasts and lips but basically just westernize their faces. Not only women
will do surgery, some male are also like it. There are men who fake their muscles because
whatever they do they will never have muscles like western people. Although some of them are
just too lazy to work out every day, so they depend on the technology to do the work out for
them. These social issues also reflect the problem when the change of culture cannot follow up
the reality. Western people have very good sport habit to build up muscles naturally
throughout series of exercises, and some Chinese men envy their achievement without
understanding the process.
In Jie Yangs article, he mentions a group of people in their 40-60s is the main consumer
group of plastic surgery. They are rich, and experiencing middle-age crisis. Their appearances
are not attractive anymore, and their husbands are having affairs with younger girls. they try to
bring back their husbands hearts, but one woman said, much to her disappointment, not only
did her husband not appreciate her efforts, but he also ridiculed her as an old, yellow
cucumber wearing green paints, pretending to be young(334). Plastic surgery may be a good
choice to change face, but it is expensive. Most people can only afford cosmetic products to do
temporary revisions of their faces. So the cosmetic techniques become extremely important.
Cosmetic companies are keeping develop all kinds of products to really change the makeup
limits, also adding variety to their product lines.
One thing that a normal Chinese woman will definitely want is bright skin. And that is
the focus of cosmetic industry when they are advertising. They sell products with effects like
brighten the skin color, remove dark spots, and sun cream with a high SPF is very popular.
Although the skin color is determined by nature, but the cultural assumption behind it is
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actually fascinating. A lot of white people are busy getting tanned, and you can easily tell there
are some Asian people are brighter than white people. The desire for bright skin is not a
specialty in China, Indian people feel the same needs for a very long time. What influences their
values?
In India, a brand named Fair & Lovely focus on the products with brighten effects and its
advertising is far more direct even extreme compare to other countries. Oliver Picton did a
research on Indian market focused on this cosmetic brand in his work The complexities of
complexion: a cultural geography of skin colour and beauty products. He found out that Fair &
Lovelys are based on social exclusion, because they mock and denigrate those with dark skin.
On the one hand such adverts reduce the value in whiteness because they state that anyone
can be fairer if they use the product and, on the other, they reinforce the dichotomy and
hierarchy between fair and dark (86). In this way, the cultural value of appreciating fair skin
over dark skin is planted into consumers minds and emphasized by advertisements even their
positive brand name. What is more excessive is their TV commercials, giving audience
impressions that dark skin women wont have a great career, a nice boyfriend, to be continued,
a good life(Picton 86).
On the contrary, In the US, it is argued that the return of soldiers from the Pacific after
the second World War with tans created a link between tanned skin, victory and democracy. In
the 20th century tans represented exoticism, wealth and holidays abroad, as well as an active,
leisurely lifestyle (Picton 87). But for Asian, especially Chinese, dark skin symbolizes that the
bearer works under the sun in low status, back- breaking work (Hopkins 302), it is the color of
poor and powerless people. Rich people are always bright. I really want to ask those people
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who tanned their skin, are they willing to born with a skin color like that or they still want to be
white even they know they will get tanned anyway?
Maybe there is a racial problem of the skin color issue, but to peoples surprise, we have
a lot of old sayings in China that appreciate white skin. We use to describe
beautiful womens skin as white as snow; we also have a saying which means
white skin can cover a hundred flaws. These sayings appeared in a time that we didn't know
there were other races exist on the earth. They couldn't do any kind of comparison among
different skin color within races. They simply thought white skin was more beautiful. So do not
be surprised if you go to China and see women holding umbrellas which usually have cosmetic
brand names over it in sunny days, they are protecting themselves from the sun not the rain
because they are too scared to be burned.
To sum up, history played an invisible hand as a block of Chinese market for a time, and
foreign cultural strikes need time to be digested. We are know that cultural differences exist as
a fact, but always after we fall into advertisers traps because of not knowing their abundant
knowledge of our culture, like why coke is so welcoming in China, we will start to notice the
importance of these knowledge. Or when we try to figure out why our own cosmetic brands act
badly when facing Estee Lauder and Lancme these luxurious foreign brands, we will regret not
knowing this field earlier. How to use cultural differences as weapons to benefit ourselves and
how to expose the masks of selling strategies, questions like these should be put into our deep
thinking. In order to develop, knowing the enemies is as important as knowing ourselves. China
has very good opportunity to develop in a dramatic speed, but we have to develop strategies to
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follow consumers interests. There is a long way forward, but we are confident about the
future.

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Works Cited
Hopkins, Barbara E. Western Cosmetics In The Gendered Development Of Consumer Culture In
China. Feminist Economics13.3/4 (2007): 289-302. Academic Search Complete. Web. 9
May 2014.
Jie, Yang. Nennu And Shunu: Gender, Body Politics, And The Beauty Economy In China. Signs:
Journal Of Women In Culture & Society 36.2 (2011): 334. Academic Search Complete.
Web. 9 May 2014.
MORSE, J.S.B. Coca-Cola, Communication, And Confusion. ETC: A Review Of General
Semantics 66.2 (2009): 162. Academic Search Complete. Web. 9 May 2014.
Picton, Oliver. The Complexities Of Complexion: A Cultural Geography Of Skin Colour And
Beauty Products. Geography 98.2 (2013): 86-87. Academic Search Complete. Web. 9
May 2014.