Suzie Wong/Many Splendours: Chinese culture in 1950s Hollywood

[moongirlk]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at y..., "Tabouli" <tabouli at u...> wrote:
> Also, I allowed myself some Genuine Eurasian sniffing at Jennifer 
Jones' attempts to look Eurasian by dyeing her wavy hair an unlikely 
blue-black, wearing a cheongsam and squinting.  Hers are European 
features if ever I've seen 'em.  Though of course, it must be said 
that when I went to China I found it very hard to convince anyone of 
my Chinese blood, and I'm the real thing.  Hmm.  Well, (she says 
huffily), at least I have straight, genuinely dark hair (very few 
Eurasians have blue-black hair - their hair is typically straight and 
very dark brown with a slight reddish tinge, like mine) and a light 
olive complexion, and there *are* some angles where you can see the 
Chinese in my eyes.
> 

I've been wanting to ask somebody about this very issue, and look how 
the opportunity presented itself.  
I recently read a junky novel in which a girl with a Japanese mother 
and a red-headed Irish-American father had no discernable Asian 
physical characteristics - she had rosey cheeks and curly copper-red 
hair and her father's eyes too.  It really interfered with my ability 
to suspend disbelief because it seemed nearly impossible.  So please, 
Tabouli, in your Eurasian wisdom - was this a cheap trick for the 
sake of the story, or is that plausible?

kimberly


kimberly