Lucy Liu – feline beauty or malformed turtle?

• Source: Global Times
• [21:24 November 15 2009]
• Comments

By Justin Mitchell

Beauty, as we all know, is in the eye of the beholder and – as far as Chinese and Western standards are concerned – Asian-American actress Lucy Liu is a good case in point.

The spunky Kill Bill and Charlie's Angels hellion became a flash point for a Sino-US diplomatic crisis a year or so ago when my Chinese then-girlfriend and I were being gaped at while shopping in Shenzhen.

The stares were nothing new.

As a Taiwanese buddy who is married to a blonde American and prone to exaggerations once observed: "I think in China, 99.99 percent of the people will stare at foreign-Chinese couples. In a big city it's not bad, but if you go to the countryside, they will even follow you.''

Some people, he added, enjoy the attention. "I hate it, but I have a friend from Beijing who also married a blonde. I know he likes to take his wife out to show off.''

Neither my ex, whom I'll call C, nor I particularly enjoyed feeling like a sideshow attraction but we had long since shrugged it off, unless one of us was in a particularly foul mood.

Which, given the heat and crowds that day, we were.

Hey!'' I snapped at two uncomprehending louts who'd been eyeing us as if we had six legs and antennae sprouting from our eyebrows.

"What are you looking at? Yes, I admit I forsook my beloved motherland only to come here to lay waste to your countryside and despoil your virgins! And to get some cheap DVDs, of course.''

Stop it,'' C hissed, "They are just curious. Ignore them.''

"Did you ever stare at foreigners with Chinese women before you met me?''

"Maybe a little. But I didn't think it was unusual before unless the couple looked too different – such as foreign guys who were good-looking but their girlfriends or wives weren't that pretty.

"I mean, they don't look like they match each other. I still don't understand why so many Western guys my friends and I see with a Chinese woman – why is it that so many of the women are ugly? Except me and my friends, of course.''

She giggled, then got serious again.