darklovelyandsouthasian:

I was delighted to find this tumblr.

My name is Joy Hui Lin, I’m a half Thai and half Chinese entertainment writer and poet. My Thai family is considered dark/tan which we’ve always said must mean that we’re part South Asian from a long while back. In Thailand being a Chinese-Thai which are the fairer skin citizens is the ideal. All the women on the TV programs or commercials are fair skinned and of course there are skin bleaching creams galore advertised nonstop. As I’ve gotten tanner my cousins on both sides tell me “You’re like a black person …” in a tone of equal parts insult and dismay. My sisters and I stand around while our other Asian friends remark with disappointment to their children, “You’ve gotten so tan,” after a frolic in the sun.

I wanted to submit my picture because when I was 18, the whitest most popular football jock in my biology class asked me after a long and sunny tennis season, “Haven’t you ever heard of sunblock?”

And this is for my niece who wishes she had blonde hair like Princess Aurora because “she’s the most beautiful.”

I’m happy to be considered “dark and lovely.”

Photo credit: Tobias Kinnebrew

Submitted by Joy Hui Lin

(via newwavefeminism)