It would be reductive to see it as Westernization
Double eyelid surgery among Chinese women in Lisbon is driven by traditional Chinese beauty standards, not Western influence, according to doctoral research by anthropologist Isabel Pires. Chinese beauty ideals emphasize pale skin, triangular faces, larger eyes, and thin noses—characteristics with millennia of cultural significance distinct from Western aesthetic values.
- Anthropologist Isabel Pires studied 31 Chinese women in Lisbon over 18 months
- Double eyelid surgery is the most common cosmetic procedure performed globally
- Chinese beauty ideals emphasize pale skin, triangular faces, larger eyes, and thin noses
- Many Chinese women travel to China for surgery due to language, health system familiarity, and lower costs
- Women born in China show stricter attention to skin tone and makeup than those born in Portugal
Anthropological research reveals Chinese women in Lisbon undergo eyelid surgery to achieve beauty ideals valued in China, not Western standards, challenging assumptions about aesthetic westernization among diaspora communities.
In a Lisbon clinic or a surgeon's office in Shanghai, the conversation is the same: Chinese women want larger eyes. But the reason they seek out the scalpel has little to do with wanting to look European. According to a new anthropological study, these women are chasing a beauty ideal that runs deep through Chinese culture—one that has nothing to do with Western aesthetics and everything to do with home.
Isabel Pires, an anthropologist who spent 18 months embedded with 31 Chinese women living in Lisbon, discovered something that challenges a common assumption: that Asian women pursuing cosmetic surgery are trying to Westernize their appearance. The opposite is true. These women are seeking the double eyelid—a feature most Chinese people are born with—because in China, larger, more open eyes are prized. They want triangular faces, thinner noses, sharper chins, and higher cheekbones. None of this is about looking Western. "It would be reductive to see it that way," Pires explained in an interview. "It would be a form of looking at things with superiority, as if the whole world revolved around Western aesthetics."
The beauty ideals these women pursue have roots stretching back millennia. A pale, flawless complexion. Meticulous skin care. Careful attention to hair and body. The double eyelid surgery—technically called blepharoplasty—is the most common cosmetic procedure performed globally, yet in the context of Chinese women, it is often misread as an attempt to Westernize. Pires found that the women she studied were not trying to become European. They were trying to become more fully themselves, as defined by the culture they came from.
The research revealed sharp differences between women born in China and those born in Portugal to Chinese parents. Both groups care deeply about their appearance, but the China-born women are more rigorous about skin tone, makeup, and hair. The Portugal-born daughters are more relaxed, sometimes accepting a sun-tanned complexion in summer—something that would draw criticism back in China, where pale skin remains a marker of beauty and status. These women navigate between two worlds daily, adjusting their appearance depending on geography and audience. A woman might bronze herself in Lisbon, where it is celebrated, then face disapproval when she visits family in China.
Appearance, Pires found, is also a matter of class. Perfect skin and certain physical features signal wealth—access to expensive creams, costly treatments, and surgical procedures. Beauty becomes a visible announcement of social standing. The women in her study often chose Chinese products, creams and lotions that created what Pires called "a sense of familiarity," an emotional anchor to home. When it came to surgery, many traveled back to China to have procedures done, drawn by language, proximity to their home health system, and lower costs.
Interestingly, the surgeons and dermatologists Pires interviewed held a different view than what she observed. The doctors believed these women wanted Westernized aesthetics. The dermatologists she spoke with reported that younger Chinese patients worried most about acne-free skin, while those over 30 or 40 focused on wrinkles. But the women themselves told a different story—one rooted in Chinese beauty standards, not Western ones.
Pires' work is the first ethnographic study of aesthetic practices among Chinese women in Western countries, and it uncovered something larger: racism embedded in beauty itself. "There is still an idea that certain characteristics are more valued than others," she said. Questions of race, class, gender, and social status are woven through aesthetic choices everywhere—in television advertisements, social media, music, film, and streaming services. She pointed to African American celebrities who have gradually lightened their skin, changed their hair, and altered their noses over the years. She noted the rise of Ozempic, used not for obesity but to achieve an aesthetically valued body. These are not individual choices made in a vacuum. They are responses to a global system of beauty that privileges certain looks and devalues others. And that system, Pires suggested, is only accelerating.
Notable Quotes
This would be reductive, even a form of looking at things with superiority, as if the whole world revolved around Western aesthetics and as if Western aesthetics were still the prevailing standard.— Isabel Pires, anthropologist
Racism in aesthetics exists. There is still an idea that certain characteristics are more valued than others, and questions of race, class, gender, and social status are deeply intertwined in aesthetic forms.— Isabel Pires
The Hearth Conversation Another angle on the story
Why does it matter whether these women are chasing Chinese beauty standards versus Western ones? Isn't surgery surgery?
Because it changes how we understand what's happening. If we assume they're trying to look Western, we're saying their own culture's ideals aren't enough—that they want to escape being Chinese. But that's not what Pires found. These women are trying to embody an ideal that's already theirs.
But doesn't the fact that they're getting surgery at all suggest dissatisfaction with how they look naturally?
Not necessarily. In China, the double eyelid is common—most people are born with it. Some of these women weren't. So for them, surgery isn't about transformation into something foreign. It's about alignment with what they see as normal in their own culture.
The study mentions that women born in Portugal are more relaxed about appearance. Does that mean they're less influenced by Chinese beauty standards?
It's more complicated. They're navigating two sets of standards simultaneously. A tan is fine in Portugal, even valued. But when they go home to China, that same tan reads as a failure. They're not rejecting Chinese standards—they're just living in a place where different standards also exist.
You mentioned that doctors thought these women wanted Western aesthetics. Why the disconnect?
The doctors were interpreting the surgery through their own lens. In the West, we've been taught that bigger eyes, smaller noses, paler skin are Western ideals. So when they see Chinese women pursuing those things, they assume Westernization. But those features have been valued in China for centuries. The doctors were missing the actual story their patients were telling them.
What does this say about beauty standards globally?
That they're not neutral. They're tied to power, money, race, and who gets to decide what's beautiful. And right now, those decisions are being made across every screen we look at—and the pressure is only getting stronger.