Near our school there is a photo studio we call the "magic photo studio". It is a place where student job seekers can expect a resume photograph that will surprise anyone.
If you are worried about your appearance, about the fate of your resume with your terrible photo on it, do not hesitate to try this one. It charges a lot. But my classmates' recently developed photos have all proved its value. I believe if I had known this earlier, the Shanghai Star would surely enjoy a better circulation due to the improvement of my photo and perhaps all the photos here.
For some time I am a little worried the resume readers (mainly employers) at various companies would be afflicted by a new disease called SADS - severe acute disappointment syndrome - after suffering from repeated expectation disparity between the person in photo and the real one.
In fact it may be good for both sides to seek a once-and-for-all solution - face-lifting or cosmetic surgery.
Shanghai No.9 Hospital, excelling in cosmetic surgery, has been receiving a growing number of face-lift requests over this summer holiday, ranging from double eyelids to nose surgery. Among those queuing in the hospital corridor there seem to be more teens than appropriate.
Last year the estimated amount spent on cosmetic surgery by Shanghai people was around 600 million yuan (some US$75 million).
All this was done on the conviction beauties get virtually everything, from quicker promotions and fatter opportunities to endless compliments and enviable courtship. They even get better helpings than me in the school canteen. If you suffer from insomnia these days, forget sheep and try counting the benefits of being beautiful.
The instinct favouring beautiful faces is not wrong and cannot be prevented. It is very likely I would vote for Arnold if I were able to.
How fortunate that the Goddess of Justice is blindfolded, otherwise she might have even been more affected by beautiful men than gold.
It is a pleasant thing that human beings are benefiting from advancing technologies and the pursuit of beauty and "self-improvement" are justifiable. What cannot be justified is a society's blind inclination to the appearance-as-the-main-criteria mindset. A boy can expect his girlfriend to be beautiful, just as a husband can expect his wife to be, and one can hope to be oneself.
But society as a whole should not judge a person solely or substantially, consciously or unconsciously, by the first glance. How is it justified that an employer who is looking for an employee to fill a position that does not need a beautiful face arbitrarily skips the resume with a plain-looking photo? How is it justified that one will not get a chance to be reviewed, be listened to or fairly judged when he or she simply has another face?
A recent CCTV programme documented the arduous job-hunting life of a 25-year-old girl named Zhang Jing, who is a little worse than "plain looking". She loses every job opportunity for which she strives and is qualified - even the job of a dish washer at a small restaurant, which position requires no "public relation" work. The reason is as simple as the sentence: "I know it when I see it."
Her case is somewhat extreme compared with the experience of the plain-looking majority. And I will be accused of hypocrisy in calling for someone to employ her. But do we fare any better? Are the interviewers we meet more sensible than the restaurant owner who refused her? Do they not frown at the photos on our resumes and not throw them into the dustbin afterwards?
Finally do we like a society which places the emphasis on first appearance and in which one is made more a victim of human or system failures than of natural contingencies (if what the latter produces can really be called victims)?
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