Why Asian women are reclaiming tradition with teeth blackening

South China Morning Post

3 days ago

When
Vietnamese-American singer Sailorr's first live performances resurfaced online in late 2024, it attracted a lot of attention: not just for her hypnotic music, but for her distinctive black teeth. 'So I'm not the only one distracted by her mouth?' read a comment liked nearly 2,700 times under a video of one of her performances.
Against Instagram's sea of
bright-white veneers , Sailorr's dark smile isn't just a fashion statement: publicly practising teeth blackening is a homecoming, a cultural reclamation that she and other artists of Asian descent, including Molly Santana and Qui Yasuka, have been reviving in recent years.
A new take on a centuries-old practice
Teeth aren't a new canvas for self-expression. We've become used to seeing grills and gems everywhere since about the 1980s – the trend owes much to hip-hop culture's rich influence on fashion and music.
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While less known globally, Asia's traditions of dental adornment are no less culturally profound. Teeth blackening, in particular, has been practised for centuries and was regarded as a rite of passage, a marker of beauty, adulthood and refinement across the region, especially in Vietnam and Japan. In Japan, aristocrats stained their teeth with iron filings and vinegar in a practice called ohaguro from the 11th to 19th centuries. In Vietnam, nhuộm răng dates back to the Hùng King era (2879-258 BC) and made use of betel, charcoal and beeswax.
In both cases, the imposition of
Western beauty standards during colonial times nearly erased the practice throughout the region, explains Dr Aida Yuen Wong, professor of art history at Brandeis University. 'In Vietnam, French colonial rule engendered new beauty standards. And though Japan was never colonised, authorities banned the practice in alignment with Western ideals, driven by a desire to avoid appearing as uncivilised.'
Shunned into near extinction, teeth blackening was mostly preserved by the elders – until artists like Sailorr, and Japanese-American creatives Sukii Baby and Molly Santana, reclaimed the practice and inspired a new generation of women.
Beauty trend and identity politics
'I'm Vietnamese-American, so I knew of teeth blackening,' says aspiring fashion designer Mou Isabel Phung. 'But when I saw Sailorr and Sukii Baby mixing such an old traditional practice into modern fashion, I knew I wanted to do it as well.'