Beauty in Hong Kong

Beauty in Hong Kong Introduction The definition of beauty is not something objective or immanent because people from different place, age or social class may form its own ideal of it. The ideal beauty is analogous with people’s aesthetic feeling at that respecting duration. In our modern society, human body is the one of the most important components used to determine the attractiveness or beauty of a person. But for sure, there is not a definite answer for an ideal body type due to the cultural difference and historical discrepancy among countries and places. In this essay, discussion will focus on the ideal body types for men and women in Hong Kong and how these ideal body types are shaped by mass media, technology and medicine. Besides, based on Sandra Bartky’s findings, impact of body modification on individuals will be analyzed. Ideal body type in Hong Kong As Hong Kong was ruled by Britain in the last century, it is at the cultural border between traditional Chinese and western culture. Possessing this unique perception, Hong Kong interpretation of ideal body type is a mix. Ideal body type for men Muscularity is undoubtedly one of the criteria for ideal body type for men in Hong Kong. It is usually represented by strong muscular arms, a large firm chest, a slim waist and board shoulders which are found to be alluring to female. Waist-to-chest ratio would be one of the indicator for men to train up their body. The smaller the ratio, the more muscle is concentrated on the upper part of the body and abdomen, generally considered as â€Å"V-shape†. In the eyes of most female, it is considered as a perfect body shape. At the same time, a sporty and athletic feeling will be delivered, giving others a message that this person is healthy and self-disciplined. With the masculine body, female believes the person has the ability to protect her and feels safer. Thus, men with a muscular body is so attracting in Hong Kong. Height also plays an important role on the ideal body type in Hong Kong. It is often measured by the volume height index (VHI). According to the research done by Hong Kong Polytechnic University[1], VHI alone can explain ca. 73% of the variance of male body attractiveness ratings. The optimal VHI will be at 17.6 l m^–2 and 18.0 l m^–2 for female raters and male raters, respectively. It shows that for men who are muscular, it would be better to be taller due to their large volume. One of the reasons behind is that most female would like to have a male partner taller than her, feeling that the man should be able to protect her. Ideal body type for women Influenced by the western culture, people believe that women ideal body shape should be slim. So they might regard keeping fit as a mission or a life-long goal. The thinner they are, the more attractive their body shape. The perception of beauty can be measured by waist-to-height ratio, which is an important determinant. Generally, the Ideal waist circumference = height x 0.382. Moreover, they perceive thinness as a sign of independence, strength and accomplishment, which implicated that they are fashionable. The attraction for a proportionate body also affects an appeal for erect posture. Apart from the body mass, women with large, firm and symmetrical breasts are considered as attractive as well. Some studies show that most men enjoy the sight of female breasts.[2] According to the findings from the New Zealand’s University of Wellington, men constantly spent more time looking at the breasts of female posed in front of them and showed more fascination on female’s breasts than their head. This culture has penetrated Hong Kong thoroughly, leading a proliferation of medical treatment center provided with chest implant surgery. Affected by traditional Chinese culture, men in Hong Kong consider wide hips and firm buttocks as sexually attractive body type, which indicates a better ability of fertility. Also, wide buttocks of women are a strong implication to men that she is very much capable of reproduction. On the other hand, women with wide hips are particularly more tempting to man when they are walking due to their shaking buttocks, even if the women do not meant to shake it. It can be seen that large buttocks are really important to determine the attractiveness of women in the perspective of cultural and sexual sense. Perpetuation of the concept for body type People are not born with an innate sense of what is beautiful or not. They learn some cultural and social standards through a process of socialization. These beauty standards are cultural creations. Mass media From a very young age, children start to learn what is most valuable in their culture for sex through mass media. By watching cartoons, they learn that girls should be princesses dressed in pink tiaras with a slim body, while boys should be princes who are muscular, tall and able to protect their partners with their strong arms. Being instilled these values at such an early age, it is not surprising to see that the definition for beauty has changed, focusing on the body shape of people. On top of the early inculcation, the mass media is doing a remarkable job of making people feel badly about themselves. Through advertisement in different channels, such as free-to-air TV broadcasting, radio and so on, the ideal body types for men and women are presented to the public. These advertisement bombard people with these ideal images by repeatedly brain-washing, internalizing people’s cultural values and ideals of appearance. By then, people become more dissatisfied with themselves[3]. The purpose of the mass media is to create body dissatisfaction, leading people to spend enormous amounts of money, time, and energy to fix the flaws. Besides, the print media, such as magazines, reinforces the notion of the â€Å"ideal† male and female bodies through constant barrage of slender, scantily clad women and muscular half-naked men. As people, especially youngsters, in Hong Kong give lots of reliability and credibility to many of the popular magazines. They read them every day, using them as signifiers of what is â€Å"cool† and â€Å"hot†. According to the findings from Benjie Achtenberg Macalester College[4], students mentioned in their journals that â€Å"they read the magazines and enjoy seeing the images because their favorite celebrities were featured.† It shows that print media is influential which acts as a platform to perpetuate the aforementioned ideal body types for men and women. Technology With the advancement of technology, more weight loss methods are introduced. For example, non-invasive surgery, such as CoolSculpting procedure[5] is invented to freeze away patients’ fats and reduce the number of fat cells in the treated areas. Unlike weight loss surgery this procedure is lasting longer and safer because once the fat cells are eliminated, they are gone for good. Apart from that, gastric bypass is a surgery that also helps lose weight by minimizing the stomach and small intestine. Undoubtedly, the innovation and advancement in technology can bring a safer and better experience for people to reduce weight. It will therefore attract more people to pursue a slim body shape under the improvement. These social standards are gradually implanted to people, internalizing their thoughts. Medicine Hong Kong people, as an Asian, usually have an enlarged masseter muscle, one of the chewing muscles, causing a squaring of the facial shape. To maintain an ideal V-shaped face, it is popular for people to undergo Botox injections. It shows that the more medicine is available for maintaining a perfect body shape, the more people would do so due to the easier access to modern beauty. [1] http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/272/1560/219.short [2] http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/2845918/Men-have-an-eye-for-womens-breasts [3] http://www.jeatdisord.com/content/1/1/14 [4] https://www.macalester.edu/educationreform/actionresearch/Achtenberg.pdf [5] http://www.coolsculpting.com/the-coolsculpting-procedure/what-is-the-coolsculpting-procedure/

Chinua Achebe’s “Things Fall Apart” Essay

Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart is a story based on the traditional beliefs and customs of the Ibo tribe. Achebe portrays a realistic view of Africans, particularly the Ibo tribe, which opposes the view that a reader may have formed after reading other works, such as Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad. Although Achebe describes the fact that the tribe does not primarily consist of savages, the reader still needs to keep an open mind about the ideas that are presented. The reader may at first be appalled at some of the beliefs, but it should be brought into consideration that they are lead chiefly by traditions and customs. Many of these traditions and customs derive from their ideas on certain events, being patriarchal, and religion. The Ibo culture involves a number of celebrated events. The Week of Peace comes at the end of the relaxed season and before the harvest and planting season. This is a time where all members of this society shall live in complete peace no matter what the circumstances. If this peace is broken, it is to be called a great evil and consequently will be punished. Achebe provides a case in point, which will be discussed later in the essay. Another Ibo occasion is the Feast of the New Yam, which resembles Thanksgiving in the American culture. This feast is to honor their earth goddess, Ani, as the American holiday is celebrated to give thanks and honor our God. â€Å"Men and Women, young and old, looked forward to the New Yam Festival because it began the season of plenty-the new year†(page 36). This excerpt from the introduction of chapter five shows the significance of the occasion. Following the New Yam Festival is the popular wrestling match. This event is more of a tradition as it occurs annually on the second day of the new year. â€Å"There was no festival in all the seasons of the year which gave [Ekwefi] as much pleasure as the wrestling match†(39). This supports Achbe’s effort to express the excitement for the friendly competition. By these examples, the reader may infer that the Ibo tribe can be described as somewhat mundane, but Achebe also goes into detail about the people of the tribe. The Ibo tribe can be depicted as profoundly patriarchal. This is where the reader may begin to feel repelled as Achebe describes man as being venerated as leader and describes women as gentle, weak and obedient to their men. The  women’s job was in the house cooking, cleaning, and taking care of the children. The men’s job was out hunting, fighting, and raising difficult crops such as yam. The men were also allowed to beat their wives, who in return could not defend themselves. A prime example of this masculine dominance is the main character, Okonkwo. Okonkwo defies any sign of weakness, including the female race. The Ibo society defines a man who is weak or acts feminine as agbala, which means â€Å"woman†. â€Å"But [Okonkwo’s] wives and young children were not as strong, and so they suffered. But they dared not complain openly†(13). This quote reinforces Achebe’s idea of masculinity. Although the Ibo culture may express dominance in the male race, their power does not exceed that which is given to the many gods they worship. Religion in the Ibo culture can be illustrated as polytheistic. Their tradition has a God for every phenomenon. This society does not use kings or police to discipline its people, like many other societies, but instead they use spirits. Their highest spiritual and judicial authority is Egwugwu. There are not any written laws so the decisions on punishments rely on the gods. â€Å"Okonkwo broke the Week of Peace by beating his wife and was punished, as was the custom, by Ezeani, the priest of the earth goddess. Okonkwo was said to â€Å"have committed a great evil†(30). â€Å"The evil you have done can ruin the whole clan. The earth goddess whom you have insulted may refuse to give us her increase, and we shall all perish†(30). This shows how much the tribe respects and depends on their gods. The Ibo religion also comes with many superstitions. The largest of the superstitions is their personal chi, or Supreme Being. The chi is unique for each tribe member and allegedly determines his or her success and character. â€Å"Man could not rise beyond the destiny of his chi†(131). It would be of no value to challenge one’s chi. Other superstitions includes warning the children not to whistle on dark nights for fear of evil spirits. Achebe’s Things Fall Apart is about the specific culture of Africans, in this case the Ibo tribe. It portrays an accurate analysis for those who may have believed Africans as being savages. The Ibo society value an adherence to their cultural traditions, as do other cultures, which makes them greatly  civilized. Although some of the traditions practice may seem quite shocking to the reader, the society cannot be described as mindless or barbaric. The Ibo tribe is a very complex society with unique values and meaning. Achebe fulfills his purpose in disclaiming the stereotype of ferocious Africans.

Understanding Acculturation and Why It Happens

Acculturation is a process through which a person or group from one culture comes to adopt the practices and values of another culture, while still retaining their own distinct culture. This process is most commonly discussed regarding a minority culture adopting elements of the majority culture, as is typically the case with  immigrant groups that are culturally or ethnically distinct from the majority in the place to which they have immigrated. However, acculturation is a two-way process, so those within the majority culture often adopt elements of minority cultures with  which they come into contact. The process plays out between groups where neither is necessarily a majority or a minority. It can happen at both group and individual levels and can occur as a result of in-person contact or contact through art, literature, or media. Acculturation is not the same as the process of assimilation, though some people use the words interchangeably. Assimilation can be an eventual outcome of the acculturation process, but the process  can have other outcomes as well, including rejection, integration, marginalization, and transmutation. Acculturation Defined Acculturation is a process of cultural contact and exchange through which a person or group comes to adopt certain values and practices of a culture that is not originally their own, to a greater or lesser extent. The result is that the original culture of the  person or group remains, but it is changed by this process. When the process is at its most extreme, assimilation occurs wherein the original culture is wholly abandoned and the new culture adopted in its place. However, other outcomes can also occur that fall along a spectrum from minor  change to total change, and these include separation, integration, marginalization, and transmutation. The first known use of the term acculturation within the social sciences was by John Wesley Powell in a report for the U.S. Bureau of Ethnology in 1880. Powell later defined the term as the psychological changes that occur within a person due to cultural exchange that occurs as a result of extended contact between different cultures. Powell observed that, while they exchange cultural elements, each retains its own unique culture. Later, in the early 20th century, acculturation became a focus of American sociologists who used ethnography to study  the lives of immigrants and the extent to which they integrated into U.S. society. W.I Thomas and Florian Znaniecki examined this process with Polish immigrants in Chicago in their 1918 study The Polish Peasant in Europe and America. Others, including Robert E. Park and Ernest W. Burgess, focused their research and theories on the outcome of this process known as assimilation. While these early sociologists focused on the process of acculturation experienced by immigrants, and also by Black Americans within predominantly white society, sociologists today are more attuned to the two-way nature of cultural exchange and adoption that happens through the process of acculturation. Acculturation at Group and Individual Levels At the group level, acculturation  entails the widespread adoption of the values, practices, forms of art, and technologies of another culture. These can range from the adoption of ideas, beliefs, and ideology to  the large-scale inclusion of foods and styles of cuisines from other cultures. For example, the embrace of Mexican, Chinese, and Indian cuisines within the U.S. This includes the simultaneous adoption of mainstream American foods and meals by immigrant populations. Acculturation at the group level can also entail the cultural exchange of clothing and fashions, and of language. This happens when immigrant groups learn and adopt the language of their new home, or when certain phrases and words from a foreign language make their way into common usage. Sometimes, leaders within a culture make a conscious decision to adopt the technologies or practices of another for reasons associated with efficiency and progress. At the individual level, acculturation may involve all the same things that occur at the group level, but the motives and circumstances may differ. For example,  people who travel to foreign lands where the culture differs from their own, and who spend extended periods of time there, are likely to engage in the process of acculturation, whether intentionally or not, in order to learn and experience new things, enjoy their stay, and reduce the social friction that can arise from cultural differences. Similarly, first-generation immigrants often consciously engage in the process of acculturation as they settle into their new community in order to succeed socially and economically. In fact, immigrants are often compelled by law to acculturate in many places, with requirements to learn the language and the laws of society, and in some cases, with new laws that govern dress and covering of the body. People who move between social classes and the separate and different spaces they inhabit also often experience acculturation on both voluntary and required basis. This is the case for many first-generation college students who suddenly find themselves among peers who have been socialized already to understand the norms and culture of higher education, or for students from poor and working-class families who find themselves surrounded by wealthy peers at well-funded private colleges and universities. How Acculturation Differs from Assimilation Though they are often used interchangeably, acculturation and assimilation are two different things. Assimilation can be an eventual outcome of acculturation, but it doesnt have to be. Also, assimilation is often a largely one-way process, rather than the two-way process of cultural exchange that is acculturation. Assimilation is the process by which a person or group adopts a new culture that virtually replaces their original culture, leaving only trace elements behind, at most. The word means to make similar, and at the end of the process, the person or group will be culturally indistinguishable from those culturally native to the  society into which it has assimilated. Assimilation, as a process and an outcome, is common among immigrant populations that seek to blend in with the existing fabric of society. The process can be quick or gradual, unfolding over the years, depending on the context and circumstances. Consider, for example, how a third-generation Vietnamese American who grew up in Chicago differs culturally from a Vietnamese person living in rural Vietnam. Five Different Strategies and Outcomes of Acculturation Acculturation can take different forms and have different outcomes, depending on the strategy adopted by the people or groups involved in the exchange of culture. The strategy used will be determined by whether the person or group believes it is important to maintain their original culture, and how important it is to them to establish and maintain relationships with the greater community and society whose culture differs from their own. The four different combinations of answers to these questions lead to five different strategies and outcomes of acculturation. Assimilation. This strategy is used when little to no importance is placed on maintaining the original culture, and great importance is put on fitting in and developing relationships with the new culture. The outcome is that the person or group is, eventually, culturally indistinguishable from the culture into which they have assimilated. This type of acculturation is likely to occur in societies that are considered melting pots into which new members are absorbed.Separation. This strategy is used when little to no importance is placed on embracing the new culture, and high importance is placed on maintaining the original culture. The outcome is that the original culture is maintained while the new culture is rejected. This type of acculturation is likely to occur in culturally or racially segregated societies.Integration. This strategy is used when both maintaining the original culture and adapting to the new one are considered important. This is a common strategy of acculturation a nd can be observed among many immigrant communities and those with a high proportion of ethnic or racial minorities. Those who use this strategy might be thought of as bicultural and may be known to code-switch when moving between different cultural groups. This is the norm in what are considered multicultural societies.Marginalization. This strategy is used by those who place no importance on either maintaining their original culture or adopting the new one. The result is that the person or group is marginalized — pushed aside, overlooked, and forgotten by the rest of society. This can occur in societies where cultural exclusion is practiced, thus making it difficult or unappealing for a culturally different person to integrate.Transmutation. This strategy is used by those who place importance on both maintaining their original culture and on adopting the new culture — but rather than integrating two different cultures into their daily lives, those who do this create a third culture (a blend of the old and the new).

Absolute Realism Vs. Hylemorphism - 1309 Words

Absolute Realism vs. Hylemorphism Even though both Plato and his student Aristotle’s works are considered theoretically less valuable in modern times, as two of the most eminent ancient thinkers in the history of philosophy, their works continue to have great historical value. In the realm of metaphysics, Plato and Aristotle are both regarded as realists, and their philosophical ideas hold some similarities, but Aristotle is more considered as â€Å"moderate realist,† compared to Plato as an â€Å"absolute realist.† Generally speaking, Plato’s interpretation of â€Å"what is real,† reflected in his absolute realism, differs from that of Aristotle’s, reflected in his hylemorphism, to a large extent; besides, Aristotle’s theory of matter and form, is the more convincing one because of the soundness of his arguments and in-depth analysis of the nature of being. Given that Plato and Aristotle are both realists, they are explicitly distinguished from the nominalists or the conceptualists. The idea of realism was first set forth by Plato in his doctrine of the ideas and developed by Aristotle in his hylemorphism. In regard to the problem of universals, Plato and Aristotle both affirm the existence of universals. The nominalists claim that there is no such thing called universal, which can be possessed by many concrete particulars at the same time; only the concrete, or group of concrete particulars we perceive through our senses, are â€Å"real.† Unlike these nominalists, Plato and Aristotle