Keeping Young

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30745, 8 May 1965, Page 12

Keeping Young

(From EDWARD NEILAN in Hong Kong.) The long-sought “fountain of youth” may be located somewhere in this bustling Crown colony. Chinese women here look younger longer than any other women, according to a

visiting French beauty expert, Miss Michele Irish.

Miss Irish, from the Paris cosmetic house of Orlane, recently spent a month here advising on beauty treatment. “My biggest problem was guessing how old the women here were,” she said. “One woman I thought was 20 turned out to be 44.”

What causes this phenomenon that is mentioned by every beauty expert who spends time here? Is it a combination of climate and diet-humidity and noodles? Miss Irish thinks she has the answers. “I think they stay young for three reasons: First, they don’t drink liquor very much. Second they don’t worship the sun the way Europeans do. Third they don’t work as hard as European women do.”

The three treats mentioned are indeed characteristic of middle and upper-class Chinese women here. Drinking of alcohol by Chinese women is rare except for toasts at birthdays and special occasions, and when entertaining foreigners. Chinese women avoid the direct sun like the plague The soft, white skin of Shanel hai and northern Chinese beauties is the ideal. Sun-tans are not regarded as desirable With as many as three and four amahs or servants in middle-upper class households Chinese women here do not have to engage in such activvities as scrubbing floors and washing windows.

One habit detramental to beauty that is a result of this leisure time is the game of mah-jongg. All-night mahjongg games cut down on the number of hours of sleep some women get. Thia leads to “MahJongg” eyes-dark circles—and puffy cheeks. “Of course, Chinese women are also very conscious of the value of beauty treatment and are extremely interested j n cosmetics,” said Miss Irish but she had one criticism of .™ < i raen ' s grooming habits: “They don’t use enough perfume. They must learn that perfume is as valuable to a woman as lipstick.”