[Korean Culture & Language] How to Get Pale Skin

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Korea is known as the plastic surgery capital of the world. Among all procedures, skin lightening has become one of the most popular procedures. Lighter skin has always been praised as beautiful across Asia, including China, Korea, and Japan. Having lighter skin has always been a symbol of royalty because royal girls and women were never required to work in the old days. Their only goal in life was to look attractive and have beautiful children. Since working in the fields would naturally tan their skin as a result of exposure to the sun and royal women never had to work, royal women usually had pale skin.

There are so many videos on YouTube on ‘How to get pale skin’. The first video is titled “피부 하얘지는 법 ★ 화이트닝 ★ 하얀 피부 만들기 5가지 방법! (How to get pale skin ★ Skin Whitening ★ 5 ways to have paler skin!)

The second video is titled “얼굴 피부 하얘지는 가성비 방법 (하얀 피부 화이트닝) – How to cost-effectively have lighter skin (Brighter skin, Whitening).

Recently, the popular tv show, Single’s Inferno, has outraged overseas’ viewers by praising ‘white skin’.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIQwN7zkxwk

In the video, Sae-Hoon says “어유, 너무 하얗다. 처음에 걸어오시는데 처음에 완전 하얗고 되게 순백의 약간 그런 느낌이었다면... (Wow, so pale. She seemed so white and pure when I first saw her walking in)”

Shi-Hoon adds, “진짜 하야니까. 저는 원래 그런 피부가 햐안 톤인 사람을 좋아하거든요. She was so pale. I’ve always had a thing for pale girls).

As controversial as the comments appear, the majority of Koreans did not seem to find them offensive. Many young Asians are getting tanned as a result of recent influences from American society.