Susan Boyle this week grabbed the Western World by its shirt collars and gave our beauty and image obsessed media a much-needed chance to repent, if not reflect. It’s not like we haven’t had this lesson before. We just interpreted it differently. Last August chubby-cheeked and crooked-toothed nine year-old Yang Peiyi was yanked out of camera view so her solo at the Beijing Olympics could be lip-synched by a prettier version.
We jumped all over the Chinese. Our argument was deceit. Theirs was putting their best face forward.
The Scottish songbird reminded us how important looks are to us, the same people the Chinese were trying to aesthetically please last August. Lucky for Yang Peiyi that she lives in a culture that won’t turn her into a Susan Boyle. Not that they don’t have TVs in China, or guys that value beauty over other attributes. In Chinese culture, it just isn’t the whole ball of wax.