Korean LPGA Players - What's up with the long sleeves?

[JWL1957]

Who care how they tan........those Korean girls can play some golf ! :)

[mjtoal]

what's so funny? i know ''oriental'' has a certain negative connotation, which is what happens when speech becomes overly PC. but the SE asian haplogroup are by definitian orientals. for the life of me i can't see how that's become a racist terminology. we can call someone from france a frenchman, but god forbid you call someone from china a chinaman.

He didn't mean it. It was occidental.

[SpoiledRotten]

Being Asian myself, I can say that it's mostly, if not all, about beauty. Non-American born Asians prefer girls with white fine skin as opposed to tanned one. I think this applies to most east and southeast Asia. Not sure about other regions.

Maybe I'm part Asian and just don't know it.

[senorchipotle]

He didn't mean it. It was occidental.

lol, nice one.

[drglew]

man, i've seen lots of stuff in my day, but i have yet to see a black asian!

ever heard of that Tiger Woods fellow? i've read about him in my wife's US Weekly--apparently he's a golfer ;)

I'm Korean by the way, and tan like crazy; agree with the original reasons early posts stated, in that in many Asian cultures, very tanned skin was associated with lower "classes"...which is certainly the opposite of the "golfing class", especially in Southeast Asia. I remember my folks saying I looked like a "laborer" after a beach trip once...

[nike_golf]

Oriental is racist now? I guess I didn't get the memo.

Why is the term, "Asian" okay for Korean and/or Japanese folks then? Technically, while part of the Asian continent, they're on their own island.

Can/Do we call a Russian person "Asian" too then?

I guess the real correct term for Japanese/Korean/Phillipeanno folks would be Pacific Rimmers then?????

[IcemanYVR]

in the asian culture, the shade of skin is an indicator of social status. the wealthier a person, the lighter their skin should be hypothetically cause they work in an office, etc. the darker skinned people are looked down upon as manual laborers. it's really stupid, but that's the gist of it.

That is an old fashioned reason... it is cultural but these days it's simply to protect their skin from the sun... and when you see a 60 year old asian woman that looks 40, you can appreciate that they took care of their skin.

An important factor that rstyle hit upon is that Asians in general appreciate their skin. They don't want wrinkled, sun baked skin, nor are too fond of skin cancer. Therefore long sleeves to cover themselves up better. Some companies these days even make sleeves out of their "dry" material.

My wife is S. Korea (from Korea not N. American born to Korean parents) and she will always wear long sleeves out in the heat of the day or when she comes with me to the golf course. Skincare is very important to her, and for that I'm sure one day I will be grateful

[nevets88]

Oriental is racist now? I guess I didn't get the memo.

It depends on the context in which it's used and based on my own experience, not commonly used as a disparaging term because no one knows about it because it's so dated. The few times I encountered the word it was used as a descriptive term, not as an insult.

Here's a NY State memo about it: “The words we use matter. We in government recognize that what we print in official documents or forms sets an example of what is acceptable. With this legislation, we take action against derogatory speech and set a new standard,” Governor Paterson said. “The word ‘oriental’ does not describe ethnic origin, background or even race; in fact, it has deep and demeaning historical roots. http://www.state.ny.us/governor/pres...s_0909095.html From Webster's Dictionary: 1 sometimes offensive : Asian; especially : one who is a native of east Asia or is of east Asian descent http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/oriental From the free dictionary: Oriental - meaning "eastern" is that it identifies Asian countries and peoples in terms of their location relative to Europe. However, this objection is not generally made of other Eurocentric terms such as Near and Middle Eastern. The real problem with Oriental is more likely its connotations stemming from an earlier era when Europeans viewed the regions east of the Mediterranean as exotic lands full of romance and intrigue, the home of despotic empires and inscrutable customs. At the least these associations can give Oriental a dated feel, and as a noun in contemporary contexts (as in the first Oriental to be elected from the district) it is now widely taken to be offensive. However, Oriental should not be thought of as an ethnic slur to be avoided in all situations. As with Asiatic, its use other than as an ethnonym, in phrases such as Oriental cuisine or Oriental medicine, is not usually considered objectionable. http://www.thefreedictionary.com/oriental

[colin007]

the way i was taught, you use "asian" for people and "oriental" for a region.

[golfro]

Oriental is racist now? I guess I didn't get the memo.

Since when the hell is Korea on an island? Perhaps you need a geography lesson.

[Ben]

My wife is S. Korea (from Korea not N. American born to Korean parents) and she will always wear long sleeves out in the heat of the day or when she comes with me to the golf course. Skincare is very important to her, and for that I'm sure one day I will be grateful

The girl I'm starting to try and date is Korean. Wow, talk about flawless sking. This girl is the definition.

[senorchipotle]

the way i was taught, you use "asian" for people and "oriental" for a region.

see, the problem with that is people who live in saudi arabia, iran, uzbekistan, kyrgystan, malaysia, korea, japan, india, fiji, sri lanka etc. are all technically asian, but ethnically they are not recently related. so to single out far easterners and exclusively call them asian is stupid. since japanese, koreans, chinese, etc. are all closely ethnically related and live in what is historically called ''the orient,'' to refer to them as oriental should not be a pejorative term. if a rug is made in the u.s. by a u.s. citizen, we may call it an american rug made by americans. but if a rug is made in japan by a japanese, it's an oriental rug made by ''asians.'' ridiculous!

[Kingfisher]

Since when the hell is Korea on an island? Perhaps you need a geography lesson.

The TV show springs to mind - "My name is nike_golf and I am not smarter than a fifth-grader!"

He's not the only one though. Once, one of my American colleagues (i.e. working for the same company as me) asked me which part of China Singapore was loctaed in

[Acropo]

I was playing in Spain last week with a pal who has Irish ancestry - he has dark hair but fair skin. He played all but one of the rounds in light, long-sleeved shirts, to protect himself from sunburn. The exception was an evening game.

Temperatures: mid to upper 20s C, say 80s-90s F. Clear skies, very strong sun.

That passes for Spring in Murcia!

[Yukari]

The TV show springs to mind - "My name is nike_golf and I am not smarter than a fifth-grader!"

I thought the Chinese are taking over the whole globe--at least economically. Last I heard, China owns $900,000,000,000 of the U.S. debt. Yes that is $900 BILLION. So basically, they got the U.S. in their back pocket.

[kafka01]

Aside from the cultural reasons for them to stay pale - if you spent most of the day outside practicing/playing it certainly isnt a bad idea to expose yourself as little as possible to sun. Personally i always wear long trousers on the course just for that reason - in the last 4 years i might have worn shorts twice. And if get sunburn on my forearms (especially during the beginning of the season) i just wear long sleeves too.

The first time i was exposed to asian culture and habits, was at a beach resort where you could find lots of honeymooners spending their time. One thing that really stood out - I was laying at the pool and i saw this young japanese woman - pale as a piece of paper - completly covered in towels (from head to toe) protecting herself from the sun, in 35 °C and really humid conditions (like Florida in the summer). Actually you could only see her when she got up, since otherwise she was compleltly covered - that was mind boggeling to me. Why go to a place near the aquator where the sun is really aggressiv, when you are not used to it or trying to avoid it anyways...

[Fat Slice]

see, the problem with that is people who live in saudi arabia, iran, uzbekistan, kyrgystan, malaysia, korea, japan, india, fiji, sri lanka etc. are all technically asian, but ethnically they are not recently related. so to single out far easterners and exclusively call them asian is stupid. since japanese, koreans, chinese, etc. are all closely ethnically related and live in what is historically called ''the orient,'' to refer to them as oriental should not be a pejorative term. if a rug is made in the u.s. by a u.s. citizen, we may call it an american rug made by americans. but if a rug is made in japan by a japanese, it's an oriental rug made by ''asians.'' ridiculous!

I definitely understand what you are saying, but please realize that groups who have used a word against them in a derogatory fashion end up not liking the word, no matter how etymologically correct it may be.

In England, for example, if I am correct, a person from India would be called "Asian." In the U.S., we wouldn't do that - we'd call them Indian. The only time we refer to an Indian person as "Asian" is usually on government forms where we'd call them "Asian Subcontinental". Among Asians who discuss race with some regularity, it would be common to find a distinction between East Asian and South East Asian, but you'd almost NEVER hear anyone saying "Oriental" when discussing a person. Part of that is due to the fact that for many years that word was prefaced by "Those damned..." Right or wrong, that's how words change. In the 70s, you could call a person who was developmentally disabled "retarded" but you'd catch a lot of flak for it today and probably hurt someone's feelings along the way. The use of the word Oriental in the US has pretty much been relagated to things, such as (the aforementioned) rugs, spices, medicine, philosphy. Now of course to me nobody is a racist for using the word oriental to describe a person, but...if you learn they don't like it why wouldn't you stop using it just out of courtesy? On to the tanning issue. When I was golfing in China, the rich Hong Kong ladies would be head-to-toe in white. They had giant hats with white shawls tied over them, totally covering their faces so that only some giant sunglasses showed. They looked like something from Star Wars! I have a picture somewhere I will upload. While this is mostly for vanity, for sure, there's no denying that their skin keeps its youthful appearance well into middle age. My wife keeps out of the sun and that's fine by me. As for Asians not tanning....that's a new one on me! All the ones I've known can get pretty dark with all the shades available along the way.

[B-Con]

I thought the Chinese are taking over the whole globe--at least economically. Last I heard, China owns $900,000,000,000 of the U.S. debt. Yes that is $900 BILLION. So basically, they got the U.S. in their back pocket.

That's all? We're over $12 trillion in the red with a deficit of something around $1 trillion a year. Either that's a low number or our debt to them is small compared to our overall debt. I think we owe them more than just that, we spend 50% more than that on just social programs annually.