
Thursday, February 8, 2007
800 Hong Kong dollars

Monday, February 5, 2007
To each her own
Express yourself



Sunday, February 4, 2007
Girl next door dot com

Saturday, February 3, 2007
New School

Monday, January 29, 2007
Japan + Taiwan + Vietnam = cute

One of my favorite photo books (not that I've ever laid hands on the actual book) is "La Petite Amante", a Japanese-made showcase of Taiwanese acress Annie Yi, aka Yi Neng Jing, aka in Japan as Shizuka Inoh. The title seems to be a reference to the book/movie "L'Amant", aka The Lover, which is about a French girl coming of age in colonial Vietnam.

Photos are here, though not all of them from this book.
Friday, January 26, 2007
Mayabang persons need not apply


Here's looking at Angel -- eight galleries of her, a commercial and some cheezy montages. And here's more on Angel's TV role as Darna. She also plays Narda, the Clark Kent to Darna's Superman. The photos are strangely fun to look at, and the story's worth checking out too if you want to learn about the Philippines' greatest comic book darling. Not doing so would be downright mayabang.
Thursday, January 25, 2007
The Rise of Saigon



The fact that Vietnam has, arguably, Asia's most fetching traditional women's clothing, is a sign that the culture has good taste when it comes to female appearance. Which is really the most important thing, after all. On the minus side, Vietnamese photos are plagued by excess airbrushing, odd choices of settings and poses, and an inexplicable addiction to the fan-blown hair look.
Galleries here and here.
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
She died for beauty

Why is Korea driving its pretty stars to suicide? Probably a combination of a corrupt and abusive pop-culture industry (I've read that female stars are routinely blackmailed by their agencies, via secretly-shot nude photos or videos), lingering traditional moralism that's always lashing back against liberal popular culture, and a society where women's status is probably lower than anywhere else in Asia, which is saying a lot.
But U-Nee's death also gives me pause as an avid consumer of pretty girls, or their images at least. I don't think there's anything inherently wrong with the marketing of sexiness. But because the industry is a made up of older men who market young kids, mainly girls, the risk of abuse of power is very high. And in countries where the balance of power between men and women is already skewed, and where speaking out against your superiors is frowned upon -- like, say, Asia -- it's even worse.
U-Nee's suicide will no doubt cause some soul-searching in South Korea, as it should. For me, it's a reminder to be a conscientious consumer.
Meanwhile in the United States of America...



Monday, January 22, 2007
In the mood for Ploy


Here's a photo set where the emphasis seems to be on putting a lot of gel in her hair. In this one she's goofing around at the beach after a long day mending fishing nets.
And for those of you who prefer your women horizontal, she does that too (full gallery here):

Nut Job

Stop right there, it's not what you think. The roadside transaction you're looking at the bottom half of involves betel nut, the mildly stimulating natural intoxicant favored by a wide variety of less-privileged Asians, including in Taiwan where this photo was taken. Wikipedia explains the phenomenon of the Taiwanese bīnláng xīshī, or "betel-nut beauty":
Taiwanese betel nut kiosks, heavily decorated with bright neon lights, are most common on highways and suburban roads in the western part of the island, such as around Taichung. The main clientele is composed of truck drivers who chew the mildly addictive nuts for the stimulant to help them stay awake on long trips. The high profitability of betel nut production and commerce has led to a multiplication of such kiosks, and as competition for customers' attention has increased, the girls staffing them have been wearing less and less. In 2002, local governments began to ban nudity and excessively revealing clothing in betel nut kiosks...
The girls are so popular, they've spawned a line of action figures:

This is the real thing:


It's a nutty job, but somebody's got to do it.
Sunday, January 21, 2007
Other Indonesians

So maybe Anggun has whetted your appetite for the Indonesian strain. Well, there are plenty of other dishes on the menu, and you can get a sampling at the Indonesian Celebrities blog, which is informative and entertainingly snarky. The girl above is named Adinda, by the way.
There's also a big database of Indonesian girls at the Beautiful Indonesian Girls web site, but there's no information on the girls or the photos, and it's all a bit hard to make sense of. The girl below doesn't have a name, and if she was, say, Thai, I'd guess this was a magazine photo from the 1960s or 70s. But since it's Indonesia, who knows. Quite beguiling, though, and more stylish than most more recent-looking Indonesian photos.

She can sing, too

Indonesia has a case of the China Syndrome -- lots of beautiful women but they don't find their way into jpegs (and you thought bird flu was the only illness they had on common).

Anggun, an Indonesian-born singer who's made her name in France under the banner of exotic chic, is a happy exception, because she's been photographed mainly outside her native land. Here's a gallery from a fan club web site.

In fairness to Indonesia, its pretty-girl-photo industry is more advanced than China's, thanks to far less censorship. But it's still a lot less freewheeling than the country itself because conservative Islamic groups exert a lot of pressure on the government (though in contrast to Malaysia, they don't control it).
Saturday, January 20, 2007
Back to civilization with Gybzy

After a brief foray into the mainland Chinese wilderness, here's a touch of sophistication: Thai starlet Wanida Termtanaporn, better known as Gybzy (yes, she's ethnically Chinese, but she's Thai now). A tiny girl, she's reputed to have a 20-inch waist. But she knows how to use it.

Her official job is singing in the band Girly Berry with three somewhat less attractive girls. Her voice is not her best asset -- she earns her keep as a pretty face with an attitude.

The China question

More than Japan, more than Thailand, China is Asia's superpower of vice. The whole country is a red light district that the borders can't even contain, with mainland girls spilling into neighboring countries and dominating their water trade. Their karaoke parlors and nightclubs are packed with tall, lithe, fresh-looking girls who would seem excellent fodder for magazine photographers. Which raises the question of why we're not seeing a flood of Chinese beauties turning up on the web.
Well, the beauties are there, like the anonymous one above waiting for the elevator (here's the gallery, from mainland Chinese web site mmkao.com). But the style's not quite up to par. Put this girl in the hands of Japanese or Thai stylists and photographers, get her out of that lobby and into some real clothes, and she'd be ready for prime time. A big part of the problem is that the usual market for good pictures of girls -- magazines -- is government-controlled, and while the government is fine with brothels on every block, they're not cool with printed material. They also control the web, but their grip is weaker there, and that's where we're starting to see some signs of progress.

School Daze

Like Japan, Thailand indulges in the cult of the uniformed schoolgirl. Thailand's fascination focuses on the university uniform, which is tighter and more revealing than anything seen in Japan. (On the morally bright side, the Japanese-style Lolita complex over underage girls seems absent in Thailand.)
Here's Richa Parichart showing off a typical college outfit -- a white, short-sleeved blouse with silver buttons, tucked into a navy or black miniskirt, with a slit on the side. No pleats... those are for high school.
A diverse array of uni uni photos can be seen here, courtesy of Jabchai.com. For example:

We sail tonight for Singapore

Southeast Asia's repressed little city-state is home to one of the most rollicking DIY girlie web sites in the East, sgGirls.com. It's been operating for years and has archives of thousands, nay tens of thousands of photos: candid shots, beach pictures, bedroom snaps, risque self-portraits, and the occasional revenge-post. Smartacres sometimes put up pics of professional models, but they get sussed out before long.
If Singapore is a nanny state, then I want my nanny.
Kratae: Thailand's favorite chipmunk

Ask a Thai person who their country's hottest female is, and they're likely to mention Kratae (กระแต, Thai for chipmunk), a model/actress with a stunning smile and striking curves. This gallery from Thai entertainment web site Jabchai.com will get you started with 165 shots of the rambunctious rodent. Unfortunately for you skin fiends, this is as undressed as she gets, at least for most of us.
Her full name is Supaksorn Chaimongkol (ศุภักษร ไชยมงคล), but like most Thai people, she's known by her nickname.
Blogger asiansweetheart.net also has a nice section on her.
A new perspective
Greetings. If you're here, that probably means you're a fellow connoisseur of the Asian feminine mystique. My goal is to help you explore that realm with more depth and breadth than you have up to now.
Language barriers and a lack of good marketing have kept most of Asia's girl-photo industry closed off from Western aficionados. Search the web for Asian girls, even ones with heir clothes on, and you'll find mostly Japanese material (which can be good, but uniform) and Southeast Asian hookers, along with the tired old crowd of stateside Asian debutantes.
In the world of girls, like in most other fields, Japan is Asia's has-been. Korea, China and the non-red light districts of Southeast Asia are producing the freshest stuff these days. I'm going to help you dig it up and provide links. There won't be any full galleries on this blog.
Nor will there be proper porn. For the time being, the girls will be covered up, if only barely.
Enjoy, and please feel free to contribute thoughts and links.
Language barriers and a lack of good marketing have kept most of Asia's girl-photo industry closed off from Western aficionados. Search the web for Asian girls, even ones with heir clothes on, and you'll find mostly Japanese material (which can be good, but uniform) and Southeast Asian hookers, along with the tired old crowd of stateside Asian debutantes.
In the world of girls, like in most other fields, Japan is Asia's has-been. Korea, China and the non-red light districts of Southeast Asia are producing the freshest stuff these days. I'm going to help you dig it up and provide links. There won't be any full galleries on this blog.
Nor will there be proper porn. For the time being, the girls will be covered up, if only barely.
Enjoy, and please feel free to contribute thoughts and links.
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