Whose Debt?: Globalisation and White-facing in Asia

Abstract

This paper examines the popularisation of skin-whitening practices amongst 'non-white' cultures that has occurred in recent years, with relation to historical and colonial contexts. In the paper, we refer to the practice of skin whitening as a discourse of recognition and of 'repayment' of an historically-imposed value of 'whiteness'—both 'by' the subaltern, and in debt to, the subaltern. With regard to this, we also explore the growing popularity of the 'Eurasian' model and representative as one symptom of a postcolonial structure of commoditisation and consumerism which is still influenced by a colonial past. In making our arguments, we incorporate readings of the skin-whitening phenomenon through references to advertising and product literature, to debates about skin-whitening practices, and to constructions of 'Eurasians' in some cultural discourses.

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