Chapter 26 2. Heavy makeup

People love beauty, especially women, and especially girls. At the age of 12, Meiling was different from girls of the same age in that she matured precociously.It might have been the influence of the big girl's love affair in Piedmont, or it might have been her nature.One day, she painted her face with Chinese face powder and put on lipstick. The result was discovered. At that time in the United States, wearing rouge and lipstick was considered immoral. "Oh, Mei Ling," one of the older students exclaimed in surprise, "I think you have makeup on your face!" "Yes", Meiling replied disapprovingly, "It's Chinese powder! What's the matter?"

Her eloquence left the student speechless. However, this was only when she was young. After she became a public figure of the Chinese nation, her accompanying secretary called her "Song Meiling with light makeup". "Magpie tail" refers to the simple hair style of middle-aged Chinese women at that time, and people call it "magpie tail". She objected to wearing makeup in the office.That is to say, women who sit in an office should not wear makeup when they go to work.Moreover, it is emphasized that this article must become a constitution. The reason is this. Song Meiling's secretary Zhang Zige received a lady surnamed Qian.This lady is from Jiangnan, she just graduated from university and works in the Ministry of Finance.She not only considers herself highly talented, but also often goes to work with heavy makeup, so people call her a "vase".This incident finally reached the ears of the young lady, and she was very angry: she thought it was an insult to women, and it was a fundamental denial of equality between men and women.For this reason, she especially issued an appeal to the women's guidance organs across the country, hoping to use administrative orders and news and public opinion to stop this shameful phenomenon of contempt for women's rights.

The secretary reported this situation to Song Meiling. "You sent her away?" "Let her wait!" "Call her here!" Before Ms. Qian could speak, Soong Meiling asked, "Do you also wear makeup like this in the office?" "Of course! Aesthetics and grooming are women's rights!" "Then, it is also the rights and freedoms of men to call girls school girls, queens, and vases. Why should we attack others? I think the best way is that we are smart and strong like men, showing that we are definitely not vases." !" Speaking of this, Song Meiling especially emphasized: "I suggest you, don't wear makeup when you go to the office. Remember, the office of the Ministry of Finance is a place to show your talents...

" Since then, it has become a rule for female employees to go to work without makeup. Are men allowed to be slovenly in the office because they are against women wearing makeup? In this regard, Soong Meiling also has her own aesthetic principles. Once, after handling official business, Soong Meiling asked Secretary Zhang Zige: "Why are you so careless?" It seems that Song Meiling has been paying attention to him for a long time.So, he said truthfully: "A big man works in the Women's Steering Committee, gets along with women, and mostly receives women, of course to avoid suspicion!"

Of course Song Meiling knew this. She said: "It's understandable for a young man to work in the Women's Guild. His words are fearsome, so he simply wears his clothes disheveled to avoid the suspicion of being under the sun. However, I advise you, don't impose unnecessary constraints on yourself. The name matches the reality, so you won’t be turned away when you go out on business.” "It's not good to sit in the office with thick rouge, but it's also not elegant to be unkempt!" Song Meiling added a special sentence. In fact, Song Meiling also pays attention to makeup when necessary.

It was also when she attended the awards ceremony of the Volunteer Brigade to condolence to the Soviet Union and support China's Anti-Japanese War. Soong Meiling not only put on the most elegant cheongsam, combed the most beautiful hairstyle, matched it with the most refined accessories, but also put on heavy makeup.The staff around her described it like this. "Used a little eyebrow and mascara slightly, which made her eyelashes look long and fanned out, and her eyes became bigger and more beautiful. A thin layer of lipstick made her mouth small, and her lips were exquisite. There is a little water chestnut in line with her character."

This kind of makeup not only makes her more beautiful and chic, but also shows the solemnity and elegance of Chinese women. In Song Meiling's view, makeup is a kind of social courtesy, and it should be graded.You don’t need to wear makeup when you meet with close people; you must wear makeup when you meet with your children and grandchildren; as for formal occasions such as meeting foreign guests, that’s not to mention. Song Meiling paid great attention to makeup all her life, especially after she lived in the official residence of Shilin in Taiwan in her later years.A lady in the entourage recalled: "Song Meiling is an elder who attaches great importance to makeup etiquette."

Song Meiling's makeup is not done hastily, she has her unique procedure: after washing in the morning, rub some oil like LOTION on the face, and then draw thrush, wipe lipstick, and comb hair. In the eyes of ordinary people, the cosmetics used by the noble Song Meiling must be the most high-end in the world.actually not. "Song Meiling's thrush paint is very special. It is said that it is a "palace secret recipe" in the past, which is to burn paper to ashes and use it as a paint for thrush. It is very interesting to use paper ash as eyebrow tattoo material. At first, the service staff of the internal affairs department had to burn unused waste newspapers almost every once in a while, but they never removed the paper ash.Some new guards don't know what this is for.It turned out that the lady's entourage had collected the ashes of the burnt old newspapers and carefully turned them into a black paste-like liquid.It turned out that these paper ashes were "pigments" for Song Meiling's eyebrow tattooing.

For this reason, Song Meiling made a wonderful confession in her later years.Whenever she watched TV with her entourage, when she saw some cosmetic advertisements broadcast between some programs, and saw those youthful, beautiful, delicate skin beauties, she always said slowly: "These businesses use beautiful women to advertise, I promise you that you will be able to stay young forever after using their cosmetics. Every day, every hour, there are countless new cosmetics coming out, which makes you dazzled. I don’t know which one to use. In fact, all cosmetics are aimed at those who love Beautiful and vain women come here to take money out of women's pockets."

As for lipstick, Soong Meiling only used ordinary lipstick, nothing special. "Song Meiling's Commentary" said: "After all, Song Meiling is getting older. Sometimes when she draws her eyebrows or puts on her lipstick, she often draws them low or high, and they are always uneven. There is often a comparison between the face and the face when applying powder. Bai, one side is darker. If she doesn’t go out to meet guests, and it’s just for home use, we know that there seems to be something wrong with her makeup, so we won’t interfere with her. If she wants to go out, or even attend an important state banquet Usually she will take the initiative to ask us: "Are there any shortcomings in my makeup!" We help her point it out, or tell her that the eyebrow line is crooked, the lipstick is out of bounds, or the face The powder applied was uneven. She listened to our reminder and decided whether to paint again, or to touch up the makeup and so on."

Soong Meiling has been doing makeup by herself all her life, unlike some noble ladies who ask makeup artists or people around them to do it for them.Widowed in the United States in his later years, there are fewer and fewer people around him. He is in his eighties and has no hands and feet, but still insists on doing makeup by himself.After all, people are getting old, and some of the more delicate movements are not flexible when applying makeup. When applying lipstick, they often don't fit into the shape of the mouth, but there is no one who can help with trimming.Therefore, it often happens that the lipstick is applied to the outer edge of the lips, and the lipstick and the true color of the lips are interlaced and mixed. There are strict procedures for makeup, and you must pay attention to everything when removing makeup. Most people unload with soap.But Song Meiling did not.Because soap is too alkaline, it will accelerate skin aging, so Song Meiling uses cleansing oil.That is, first use the cleansing oil to remove the makeup, and then use a special small white towel to slowly wipe off the cleansing oil and powder on the face until the small white towel is covered with a layer of white powder, and then use warm water to wipe off the makeup. Wash your face and apply skin cream at the end to complete the makeup removal work. The last step of Soong Meiling's makeup is to comb her hair, combing her "buntou". The so-called "bag head" is a bag made by real hair that resembles a hair. Through the "bag", the inside is the real hair. A "bag" is often referred to as a wig, which is a wig that protects real hair.To do "baotou" is to go to a special shampoo shop. Song Meiling occasionally went to the Grand Hotel to wash and wash her hair, but the number of times she went was very seldom.When I was in Taiwan, it was rare to go there once a year.But "Bao Baotou" often goes to Yuanshan to tidy up.Because the "bag head" will be dirty after a long time.As long as she thinks the "baotou" is dirty, she will ask Miss Kong Er's girlfriend, Mrs. Xiao, to take it to the women's hairdressing department of the Grand Hotel for cleaning. Careful friends may find that Soong Meiling has been away from the mainland for decades. In the Shilin official residence, in the United States, "her dressing style is still following the way of the past 20s, with willow leaf eyebrows and thin lips. The only thing that has changed is that of the old The bangs on the forehead that are common to women of a generation are gone."