Asia Sentinel

Mixed-blood models dominate much of Asia’s advertising scene, sometimes generating jealousy and xenophobia

Maya Karin, Threat to Malay Pride?

It’s called the pan-Asian face, and it usually means olive skin, black hair – and probably a Caucasian parent. That sticks in the craw of Zainuddin Maidin, Malaysia’s information minister, who in January demanded that the number of pan-Asians be reduced on local television and replaced with ethnic Malay faces.  Already, two government-owned television stations are forbidden to use anything but Malay models in their advertisements.

Malaysia is a particularly difficult case. The country’s uneasy racial balance has been sensitive for decades – ever since 1969 when ethnic tensions exploded into violence that took the lives of what are believed to have been hundreds of Chinese and Malays.  The country is 60 percent Malay, 25 percent Chinese and about 7 percent Indian.  Over the last year, ethnic Malays, who control the political dialogue in the country, have become increasingly xenophobic on a wide range of issues.

Beauty now has joined that parade, particularly as a rising tide of mixed marriages, not only in Malaysia but across much of Asia, seems to be creating a new super race of beautiful women. Over the past couple of decades they have taken Asia’s modeling world by storm and changed the very definition of international beauty. They largely dominate magazine advertisements, fashion shows and catwalks from Singapore to Manila to Hong Kong. Some modeling agencies, like Elite Model Management of Hong Kong, have built their business on the faces of mixed-blood models.

It hasn’t always been thus. Not too many decades ago, mixed-blood children in much of Asia were treated as pariahs. In some countries, particularly Japan, Korea and Vietnam, where they were the product of occupying American military forces, they were particularly ostracized. But as soldiers have been replaced by well-to-do western businessmen and women who have taken Asian spouses, their progeny have done considerably better.

They are a vast and variegated mix, ranging from American-Filipino, Thai-German, Japanese, Lebanese and Swiss. One of Malaysia’s hottest models is Maya Karin, a German-Chinese-Malay combination.  Sara Malakul Lane, with Looque Models of Singapore, is a descendant of the Thai royal family whose father was a British corporate executive. Her mother, Madam Tuptim Malakul Na Ayuthaya, 53, is a descendent of King Rama II.

Mixed Royal: Sara Malakul Lane is descended from a Thai king

“Malaysia has been very protective and sensitive about being less competitive compared to the faster- developing countries across the region and therefore, began to apply what we call MIM (made in Malaysia) in the 80's,” said Anthony Leung, head of television production for JWT Hong Kong. “The goal of the rule is to secure business within the country thereby guaranteeing a certain level of work remains produced on Malaysian soil. Pan Asian models are extremely popular because they blur the boundaries of races and can capture a wider audience without being offensive. This hard-to-categorize group quickly becomes regional advertisers' favorites because they can share regional resources further as well as better manage their assigned budgets.”

Much as American advertising and movie companies work African American actors and models into their products as a kind of social contract, in Malaysia regional or international advertising agencies work ethnic Malaysian models into their advertisements.

Some advertising executives say Maidin’s move is going to backfire, though, because Malaysian advertising agencies will be less competitive across the region.

“I am no expert on the subject matter but I can assure you that multinational clients will spend less in Malaysia or they will produce target-specific campaigns in much smaller sizes in order to reach Malaysian viewers,” Leung said. “To me, this is not just a matter of promoting the use of local faces in advertising, it is segregating the community into labelled camps and Malaysia will once again be one step behind.”

Because mixed-blood models are the country’s most sought after, Maidin’s  proposed ban has kicked off a storm in Malaysia’s fevered blogging scene, with heated commentary on both sides – a good deal of it sounding like jealousy.

“I have always laughed at the fact that so-called pan-Asians ‑ people of mixed Asian-European descent ‑ are overrepresented in advertising here,” wrote one. “After watching a week’s worth of ads on Malaysian TV, foreigners here could be forgiven for thinking every Malaysian has creamy white skin.”

Another, blogging as “Ducky,” wrote: “Just because (mixed-blood models) were fortunate enough to live overseas, makan (eat) bacon and eggs for breakfast, have afternoon tea, be exposed to overseas culture, mix with a variety of foreign people or breathe orang putih (white man) air, does that make them less equal?”

“What the hell is up with the whole ‘Pan-Asian’ thing anyway?” wrote a third. “Shouldn’t that mean they just have a general Asian look, like they could be from any Asian country? You’d think so, but somehow in Malaysia the term has come to mean ‘one parent is Malay or Chinese but the other one is white’. Eurasian seems more accurate, but for some reason people here call mixed-race Malaysians like my son Pan-Asian. Very odd.”

Comments (5)

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Beware of pseudohistory
written by lirelou, March 13, 2007

Interesting article. I always preferred "eurasian" myself, since White could refer to some peoples of Northern India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. Reference "Foreign Legionnaires" and Montagnard tribes. Up to 29,000 Foreign Legionnaires served in Indochina at the height of that war, but none served in the Central Highlands, which were the preserve of the French Special Forces (the G.C.M.A, in the Hre country) and Montagnard battalions (B.T.M.S.A.s) cadred by the Colonial Infantry. The 2nd Foreign Legion Parachute battalion did spend just over a month in Kontum and Pleiku just before returning north to jump into Dien Bien Phu in 1954, but their battalion journal makes plain there was no time for visiting Montagnard villages. Having spent some time among both the Rhade and Jarai in 68-69, I never saw a single blue eyed montagnard, although many of the children were brownish to red haired, thanks to malnutrition. There were some mixed bloods left over from the French period, but these were the offspring of the occasional French plantation manager, Colonial Infantry Sergeant, or colonial official. The vast majority of Eurasians in pre-1956 Vietnam were the offspring of French and Vietnamese (Kinh), only natural given that One, 85% of the population was Vietnamese, and Two, the great majority of French presence was in the Red and Mekong river deltas, which was likewise where the majority of French troops were garrisoned. The same is true of the American presence. The great majority of social contact (to include sexual contact) was between Vietnamese and Americans. This was true even in the Central Highlands, given the American proclivity to surround themselves with large bases, whose adjacent towns quickly filled with Vietnamese merchants, restauranteurs, bar owners, and brothel owners. Very few Americans, beyond Special Forces, ever got out to Montagnard villages except on the occasional combat sweep. There was a respectably large U.S. Advisory effort to the Vietnamese, and very small numbers of these made it into Montagnard areas. The Advisory effort, by the way, tended to produce marriages between American men and Vietnamese women of good reputation, given that the men generally spoke some Vietnamese and were culturally attuned to Vietnam, while the women were often war widows, or relatives of some Vietnamese officer or NCO who had become good friends with his advisor and would vouch for his character. The remainder of viet-U.S. liaisons, and sometimes marriages, tended to occur among the support troops, i,e., supply sergeants, MPs, and the like, who manned the large bases and were in daily contact with Vietnamese employees. There were, of course, many more fleeting contacts between the combat soldiers and Vietnamese prostitutes, which also resulted in amerasian children. The tragic coda is that the supposedly progressive government of Vietnam did everything it could, short of outright extermination, to erase these children from history. The belated recognition of the problem by the U.S. government places them on only a slightly higher moral plane. By the way, the U.S. never occupied Vietnam. It was there as an invitee, however badly they failed the government that invited them in the first place.

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morality
written by said makil, March 18, 2007

following what is ordained to humanity by Allah is absolute and unconditional. This includes women.Don't be misguided by Satan. Follow the Qur'an and the Hadith. ijncv

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The see the fire from the smoke!
written by EAF, March 18, 2007

What the Malaysian Information Minister did was taking preemptive action to enhance and protect the interest of a well organized group of pseudo Malays i.e. the Malaysian Indian Muslims! A group which at every opportunity try to out Malay the Malay so that their Malay-ness will never be questioned! The Malaysian constitution were even amended to accommodate i.e. "an Indian who is a Muslim and following the Malay custom is a Malay" ! Many UMNO ministers including the previous Prime Minister and his former disposed deputy are Indians by origin. The information minister himself is a full blown Indian ! But in Malay skin ie. "bin" in lieu of s/o, a/l in his name. With the help of a very powerful but secretive network many of them managed to occupy senior positions in the Malaysian civil services and in return en-powered their group. At present in Malaysia there are 3 groups of "Malays" ie the Indian Muslims, the first generation Indonesian Malaysians and the Indigenous (original) Malays. And all locked in a power struggle. Strangely enough the Chinese were never "Malay" enough, even if most of them lived in the Country for over five to ten generations and that Malaya was once the seventeenth (17) Vassal State of China! So the battle of these "Malays" jockeying for wealth (corruption), power and upmanship, influence and colour the politics, morals, antics and behaviour of UMNO and the government. They will champion the Malay's (racial?) rights to gain the support of the gullible Malay's masses and to entrench themselves in UMNO. If the rights of a few models are to be sacrificed in the name of protecting the "Malay's" rights/interests so be it. After all the "Malay credits" earned in this instant is so high. Rather strange and fascinating that this sort of antics had been keeping the Malay masses in always believing that UMNO is looking after their interest in spite of the fact that the per capita of Singaporeans and Malaysians were around US$1000 during the independence of 40 years ago and that the Singapore Malays are now earning around S$50,000 p.a. while their Malaysian cousins are getting about 5 to 15% of that and all with UMNO so staunchly and supposedly protecting their rights and looking after their best interests! A Malaysian paradox I presume. Or a big whopper in thick smoke which a Malaysian Malay still cannot see through after more than 40 years! . Some snake oil salesmanship I suppose!

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I am irani.
written by sina, March 23, 2007

in the tehran.

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...
written by A Malaysian first, June 26, 2011

In trying to convey his point about 'xenophobic Malaysians', in particularly Malays, some of the wording in this article leaves reader to wonder if the author might be Islamophobic.

What he wrote is true, in that the majority of Muslim women in Malaysia cover their heads as it is suited to their belief, but calling it as a mean of 'hiding themselves' and associating this to backwardness and being poor, shows little religious tolerance on his part.

I'm sure there are some brilliant points that the author is trying to make. I am just sorry that it is obscured and undermined by these unnecessary remarks.

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