The pursuit of beauty is a fundamental desire that is located in the nature of human beings. The purpose of this study is to observe how periodic perception of the beauty of women has been changed in Korea and China by finding changes of area and aspe...
The pursuit of beauty is a fundamental desire that is located in the nature of human beings. The purpose of this study is to observe how periodic perception of the beauty of women has been changed in Korea and China by finding changes of area and aspect ratio of a face pattern based on the component ratio drawn by observing changes in the standards of the beauty for face patterns and calculating overall pattern ratio. In addition, the study aims to understanding differences between the faces preferred by modern people and the good faces mentioned in the face-reading theories and propose a method to utilize such differences.
To draw patterns, the study measured the angle A1 that decides a face shape and the angle A2 that decides the sense of dimension, based on two triangle patterns drawn by connecting points on four projection areas of zygoma and mandibula. The 'rectangle pattern' are drawn by 'Samjeong(三停)' which consists of three parts; Sangjeong(上停), Jungjeong(中停) and Hajeong(下停). The rectangle pattern is naturally formed according to a face type or a Baljae(髮際) shape of a person and not fixed. The pattern can appear in different shape. In addition, all ratios come from the overall ratio because the aspect ratio can be distorted by a picture size. The overall ratio remains the same even if the aspect ratio is changed.
According to the findings, Korean preferred to a pleasantly plump face in egg shape with 1:1.3 ratio until 1970's while their preference slowly changes to a western shape face with 1:1.4 since 1970's. For eyebrows, long slender beautiful eyebrows were preferred in the past. Recently, the preference places on eyebrows that are thicker and well represent personality. In the past, long thin eyes were regarded as beautiful eyes. However, such trend has been changed since 1980's and now, people think that big round eyes, which is the typical western eye shape, are beautiful. With regard to a nose, people preferred to a long and small nose with good shape, which can deliver intelligent feeling. In the modern era, people like a western style nose, which is suitable for a smaller face, and a shorter nose, which makes a face look younger. For a mouth, people who have small thin lips whose tail is up was regarded as beautiful people while a normal size thick mouth with good shape is preferred in the present.
On the other hand, the following results are found in China. In the past, Chinese preferred to a face that delivered a sharp feeling (e.g. a oval shape longer than egg), except for the Tang Dynasty when women with rounded face were regarded as beautiful women. However, they like a face with western V line from 1980's. For eyebrows, they liked long slender eyebrows in the past like Korean did. However, eyebrows are thicker than before in the present. In the period when a voluptuous woman was regarded as a beautiful woman, normal size eyes with vertically rounded feeling that are harmonized with such face type were preferred while they like long rounded eyes in the present. For a nose, a long thin nose is preferred in the past and the present. Like the past, a small and thick mouth is preferred in the present.
As seen in the above, it is found that there are preferential differences in face shape and details between Korean and Chinese perspective of the beauty. Therefore, it is taught that the perspective of the beauty does not remain the same but changes according to demand of the period and the environment. In addition, the beauty recognized by the period is not necessarily matched to a face showing wealth, honor, poverty or lowness presented in the theory of face-reading. While people liked a women with short legs and long upper body because keeping what was given was virtue in the past closed environment and social activities of women was not noble, it is taught that longer legs and arms are necessary to deal with the rapid changing modern society in the present.
Like this, if the orientation demanded by the society changes, the criteria to decide wealth, honor, poverty or lowness presented in the theory of face-reading should be also changed. This will be a major topic to be studied by face-reading researchers in the future.