Yo C
Asian people have colored skin. So do we have any exact words to express the color of Asian skin? Am I right to say: Yellow skin? Thank you!
Mar 28, 2017 11:33 AM
Comments · 5
5

"Yellow skin" is a very outdated phrase, and using simple colours to describe skin usually happens in discussions about racial conflict and racism.  It sounds strange to use it as a standard description these days.  A more modern phrase might be "Asian features" (although that's a wide range of skin colours and physical features!), or if you want to be properly accurate, use the nationality, eg. "of Vietnamese heritage".

Perhaps you could also say, "dark/light/tan/etc complexion."

March 28, 2017
4

Avoid saying anything like this.

In the United States, a century ago it was conventional to use the phrase "yellow skin." However, the use of simple color names ("yellow" skin for Asians, "red" skin for Native Americans, "black" skin for African-Americans--and, for that matter, "white" for a range of greyish pinks) is closely associated with race prejudice (which also was common a century ago).

In those days, "the yellow peril" was used in the United States to describe fear of Asian immigrants. 

When I was a child, the standard box of Crayola crayons had the color names printed on the them--red, blue, and so forth--and there was one in the box called "Flesh" (which was a pinkish grey).

In the drugstore, you could buy white bandages, or you could by pinkish bandages that were called "flesh-colored." I remember a cartoon of the era, in which there is a line of people of varying skin color in front of a drugstore counter, and the unhappy clerk is saying to somebody else: "What can I do? They all want flesh-colored bandages!"

March 28, 2017
1

I agree with Jerry. Call yourself whatever you like. Describe you skin color however you like.

March 28, 2017
1
Surely you have a word for this in Vietnamese.  How does it translate to English? Personally, I can't imagine any non-Asian would care what you call yourself. It's none of our concern.
March 28, 2017
Thank you so much for your answers!
March 29, 2017