Asian Gift Idea: March Out With Asian Barbies!

Sep-7-09

Asian Gift Idea: March Out With Asian Barbies!

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Great Asian Gifts — Asian Barbie Dolls!

If you were a one of those girly girl as a kid, there must be at least one time that you have played with barbie dolls. But when Barbie first came out, who would have thought she would become such a big cultural icon and great collectibles for generations!!

As I was looking for Barbie dolls online this time, I stumbled upon some interesting information about Barbie as well. So, I am going to share it here.

First of all, as you already know, Barbie is a fashion doll that is loved by many women, (sometimes by men as well?) and has become a cultural icon for generations. It seems to have been around forever, but it is originally manufactured by American toy-company, Mattel, Inc, and launched in March 9th, 1959 which is considered as official Barbie’s birthday. So, she is actually as old as 50 years old. Barbie was born from the idea of American businesswoman Roth Handler (1916-2002). When she saw her daughter Barbara playing at paper dolls, she noticed that she often enjoys giving them adult roles. This gave her the idea of the first Barbie dolls using a German doll called Bild Lilli.

Fabulous Life of Barbie
As I learned more about Barbie, I started to see more reasons why Barbie has become such an cultural icon. Barbie has become a series of novels published by Random House in the 1960s. The setting is, she is from the fictional town of Willows, Wisconsin, went to Willows High School, (in other novel, she also attended the fictional Manhattan International High School in New York City), she has on-off romantic relationship with her boy friend, Ken (Ken Carson), she has has 40 pets including cats, dogs, horses, a panda, a lion cub, and zebra, she has owned a wide range of vehicles, including pink Corvette convertibles, trailers, and jeeps, she holds a pilot license, and operates commercial airliners in addition to serving as flight attendant. Barbie has become an icon to show that women can take on variety of roles in life, and in order to promote the image, there are the dolls such as “Miss Astronaut Barbie(1665), Doctor Barbie(1988), And Nascar Barbie (1998).

Controversies
While Barbie dolls has become a cultural icon and promotes the positive image of “super” woman, it seems there are also a lot of criticisms that came with it as well. One of the most common criticisms is about Barbie’s unrealistic idea of women’s body image for young women, which seems to be leading to a risk of becoming anorexic for those who attempt to emulate Barbie’s body. In recent years, Barbie’s body has been redesigned and given a wider waist, etc. Other than the criticisms about Barbie’s overall images, she also encountered a racial issue caused by black “Fun Oreo Barbie” was very unsuccessful and was recalled later, the problem of the doll house of which elevator is not big enough for the size of Barbie doll. In recent years, there are the cases that young girls go through a phase of hating Barbie dolls, and subject them to a range of punishment are reported.

Since Barbie is an American, when she went to other countries, such as Middle East, it seems that her images weren’t so always welcome as well. In 2003, the Islamic country, Saudi Arabia banned the sales of Barbie dolls saying Barbie didn’t conform to the ideals of Islam. In Middle Eastern countries, there is an alternative doll called Fulla which is similar to Barbie but is designed to be more acceptable to an Islamic market.

Speaking of an alternative doll, there is also one in Japan as well. Barbie is very popular in Japan too. However, before Barbie came to Japan, Japanese Vinyl company Takara created the alternative doll similar to Barbie as well. When Barbie first became popular in America, they wanted to bring Barbie as is. But the size of Barbie was a little too big for Japanese doll houses, so they instead created a smaller doll with more oriental looking called “Licca Chan” (though as far as I remember they were blond and brunette…). I actually grew up playing with them, not Barbie. I thought they were already long gone after Barbie became very popular. But, looks like they are still doing well. If you want, check the Licca-chan Official site: http://licca.takaratomy.co.jp/ and see the remembrance

As far as I am concerned, I think the fact that Barbie dolls went though those controversies isn’t really a bad thing, in my opinion. When it comes to the issue of cultural differences, I think it is normal to face some controversies. It is always important to respect other cultural point of views while you still honor your own. As for the criticisms regarding Barbie’s overall images, I also think they are the things that needed to be addressed at some point, when there is always two sides (or more) for everything. While what the image of Barbie dolls also promote the positive possibility of women, and children simply enjoy the doll plays, it is probably important for parents to teach their children the right values about certain important things in life.

While I was browsing Barbie dolls on the internet this time, I especially fell in love with the Barbie’s World Princess Collection series. It would indeed broadens the perspectives of Children, and gives a chance to explore and respect other cultures as well.

Today, I am intoducing Asian barbies that I didn’t know that they existed until now. They are so pretty!! They would make a great gift to girls who have asian heritage, or someone who is a big Barbie collector!! Some of the dolls that I am showing are from Collector’s edition, Barbie World Princess Collection So if you don’t already have one, it would be a great add to your doll collection for sure.

It seems other toy company make Barbie (look-alike) dolls, I recommend you get the ones from Mattel, Inc. For product info, please click the images.

Indian Barbie