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Why Asians wear surgical masks in public (2014)

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Re: Why Asians wear surgical masks in public (2014)

#91

Post by duxup »

vorpalhex wrote: post #73
resoluteteeth wrote: post #4

Surgical masks don't protect you against airborne viruses, but if you wear one when you have a cold it does help protect other people from viruses in your snot/water particles. The facts about this are fairly well known in Japan now (although there may still be people who wear masks in the misguided hope that they won't catch other people's colds despite), so it's not very accurate to try to imply that use of surgica…

Our local clinic in the US has actually started a policy of asking visitors to wear masks if they think they might be sick. Seems sensible enough.

Every hospital and clinic has them available at the entrance where I am in the US.

I'd be curious how effective any of this is, but that would be hard to test.

Re: Why Asians wear surgical masks in public (2014)

#92

Post by gnome_chomsky »

wenc wrote: post #85
vhb wrote: post #17

Something that shocked me while visiting Korea was a friend explaining to me that a mask is the only way for her to go out without makeup. The societal pressure on appearance is so high, that just going to the grocery shopping without makeup is seen a socially unacceptable. The simplest way around it is to hide your face, and the best way to do so is to wear a surgical mask. On a side note, in Korea, this is not rese…

> lot of men wear makeup as well I was in Seoul a few days ago and I didn't notice any makeup on men. I had heard that standards of appearance are high there, so I had this expectation going in. And it was certainly true of the women, though I didn't notice this being true of the men, except maybe a certain more fashionable crowd?

If you don't wear makeup, you will often not notice others wearing makeup if they use just enough to enhance their natural appearance and hide blemishes.

Re: Why Asians wear surgical masks in public (2014)

#93

Post by perlwle »

Located in Beijing.

Besides the usual usage of the mask, I have noticed something different.

Since last year, I have seen more and more people wearing non-surgical masks in public, esp the young ones. The strangest thing is that the mask is pulled down to the chin and totally defeats the purpose of the mask.

I have seen too many and started wondering what the heck was going on. after some searching I found that it's more of fashion reason.

You see, with the mask covering your chin, your face looks smaller. I remember watching a video that a girl showing the difference between with and without the mask. She def looks cuter without the mask.

Re: Why Asians wear surgical masks in public (2014)

#94

Post by tomjen3 »

duxup wrote: post #91
vorpalhex wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Our local clinic in the US has actually started a policy of asking visitors to wear masks if they think they might be sick. Seems sensible enough.

Every hospital and clinic has them available at the entrance where I am in the US. I'd be curious how effective any of this is, but that would be hard to test.

Get a sample of ill people, compare the amounts of particles excreted in to the air with and without the mask. You will require a decent sized n, but it doesn’t seem insanely high.

Re: Why Asians wear surgical masks in public (2014)

#96

Post by m-p-3 »

marcus_holmes wrote: post #46
rhacker wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My wife stays the FUCK away from people wearing them - she thinks they are all ebola carriers. I think that alone is what keeps the mask wearers healthy - all the americans think the mask wearer is the sick one.

that's absolutely true. Well, not the ebola part. It's one of the examples I use to demonstrate differences between Western and Eastern culture: in the West we would only wear a mask if we were worried about being infected with other people's germs. In the East they wear a mask to indicate that they are unwell and to stop other people from being infected with their germs.

Yeah, wearing a mask won't really protect you from catchin something, but it will reduce the odds of you transmitting the disease to others around you.

Re: Why Asians wear surgical masks in public (2014)

#97

Post by CapricornNoble »

laurieg wrote: post #41

I think hiding your identity and not wanting to be recognised by your co-workers/old school friends/exes is a big reason in Japan. Surgical masks just have the handy excuse built in: "Oh, I felt like I was getting a little bit of a cold". I was walking down the street in Japan and walked past my company's receptionist wearing a mask. We made eye contact but she didn't react in the slightest. That only added to the aw…

This is definitely true for attractive females employed in Japan's myriad sex businesses. We don't have a decent rail system where I am so it's most noticeable in the airport: you constantly see women in facemasks, wearing baggy velour jumpsuits that don't completely conceal their physique. High probability they are gravure models who came to shoot a beach/tropical video, or they worked in the sex clubs for a bit. The facemask definitely helps maintain anonymity when they are out in public and don't want to be accosted by creepy fans.

Re: Why Asians wear surgical masks in public (2014)

#98

Post by CapricornNoble »

booleandilemma wrote: post #70

Have any Westerners here tried wearing surgical masks in public? What was your experience like?

One of my friends who has lived in Japan a while (10+yrs, speaks fluent Japanese) said he did it once. In his mind, he was just trying to conform to local customs. He said people looked at him like he had Ebola. I guess their thought process was "normally foreigners don't wear masks when sick, so a foreigner with a mask must be DEATHLY ILL and CONTAGIOUS".

He said the reactions he received that day were so bad he'd never wear one again.

I've worn them while on bikes in Hanoi. The air pollution is terrible there. Nobody seemed surprised/concerned, just as no one reacted to my wearing a helmet. It's just PPE (Personal Protective Equipment). Safety first.

Re: Why Asians wear surgical masks in public (2014)

#100

Post by wigl »

coldtea wrote: post #42
vhb wrote: post #17

Something that shocked me while visiting Korea was a friend explaining to me that a mask is the only way for her to go out without makeup. The societal pressure on appearance is so high, that just going to the grocery shopping without makeup is seen a socially unacceptable. The simplest way around it is to hide your face, and the best way to do so is to wear a surgical mask. On a side note, in Korea, this is not rese…

> The societal pressure on appearance is so high, that just going to the grocery shopping without makeup is seen a socially unacceptable. Well, "socially unacceptable" if you're superficial and want to be popular and trendy. I have a few Korean friends and they don't particularly care. So, it's as much "pressure" as wearing brand name clothes would be in the Valley in the 90s.

Being around Koreans as a non Korean, especially in another country, is vastly different than being in Korea. As someone below asked, if your friends are not living in urban Korea working white collar jobs this is likely less relevant. OC's friend was most likely half joking, half not.

>Well, "socially unacceptable" if you're superficial and want to be popular and trendy.

The hardship of trying to break into an exclusive group ("popular") and working towards that goal ("trendy") is not too far off from that which looms over much of Korean culture. The fear that a social slight might cast you as an outlier, hurting your possibility of getting into such a group and undoing all your work, is unfortunately well founded. In the Korean language, if one is an outlier in a group, the word used to compare them to the rest is not "different" but "wrong."

You also imply that one's own sense of identity should be the main view considered, over the "superficial" views of others. While I agree on moral grounds, this is simply not the case in Korea.

Tablo incident: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tablo#2010%E2%80%9311:_Musical... It doesn't matter if Stanford verified his attendance--if it seemed fishy it was as good as true.

Korean Air stewards being required to do makeup training: https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/05/the-k-pop... "This February, cabin crew for Korean Airlines participated in makeup training, a mandatory requirement for all new stewardesses. This year, there were more than the usual numbers in the room. Korean Air now requires male cabin crew to attend -- and to learn how to blush and bronze themselves."

https://www.businessinsider.com/plastic-surgery-in-south-kor... "In fact, a 2016 survey by Saramin, a Korean online job portal, found that more than 60% of human resources personnel feel an applicant's appearance affects his or her candidacy."

In a country where photos are usually required with applications for jobs that are expected to last you your lifetime, would it be superficial to use makeup/photoshop in your photo? At least nobody in Korea thinks so.

Not mentioned: Korea espouses a ton of misogynistic attitudes towards women

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