The Chinese Physique

If you're Chinese, you may well have had experiences like these:

You try on a pair of trousers and find that they fit you perfectly in the waist and seat but are way too long. Or a shirt fits fine around the chest and collar, but the sleeves hang down to your fingertips.

You pick out a pair of eyeglasses in your size, and when you try them on they slide down your nose.

Even more frequent is what happens on buses. The cushions are brand new and the seat back is in the right position, but after half an hour of riding around your legs are numb and sore.

It's not just a problem for consumers. It's also a headache for manufacturers. Here are a couple of examples.

Chiang Huang-hui, 51, is the R&D director of a major local motorcycle maker. A long-standing worry for him has been, "Just what is the 'standard' physique of a young person today?" In the past he used his own build--166 cm. tall--as a standard in designing handlebars, frame, and seat height. But young people today are becoming bigger and taller--by just how much is the question.

A famous lingerie maker introduced a series of panties for young women two or three years ago that sold quite well. Unfortunately, the "small" sizes had an overstock ratio of 80 percent. "What was the problem?" retailers wanted to know.

According to Wang Ming-yang, a lecturer in industrial engineering at National Tsing Hua University, the problem lies in mass production. In a traditional society, where products were made by hand, clothing and everyday items could be custom designed to fit the individual. But in the industrial society of today, to make products and sizes widely acceptable to consumers, designers must rely on the collection and analysis of statistical information on the average human physique, on anthropometric data.

Besides height, length of arms and legs, and bust, waist, and hip measurements, anthropometric data may include a broad array of other measurements, from forehead width to toe length. The names of some of the features measured may not be familiar to everyone. How many of us know where our philtrum is, for instance? (It's the little trough under your nose.)

The earliest large-scale surveys of the human physique were performed by the U.S. Army during the First World War for reference in making uniforms, and anthropometric data were widely used in World War Ⅱ for the design of helmets, fighter cockpits, submarines, and other items of military equipment.

Applications have since spread to the design of all kinds of industrial products, and anthropometric data banks are quite thorough for Japan and the countries of Europe and North America. But the Republic of China is still at the initial stage.

"That's because we've depended too much on 'foreign aid,'" Wang says. The "foreign aid" has come mainly from Japan.

"After all, Chinese and Japanese are built about the same," a designer for a well-known local suit maker maintains. "If you take their numbers and fiddle around a bit from experience, you won't be too far off." Fortunately, loose clothes have been in fashion recently, so a good fit is not all that important.

In fact, for reasons of genes, environment, diet, and living habits, Japanese and Chinese differ markedly in physique, to say nothing of Westerners. That's why a Chinese, a Japanese, and a Westerner with the same waist measurement can rarely wear the same cut of trousers.

Three years ago the R.O.C. National Science Council commissioned Li Cheng-chung, an associate professor of industrial engineering at National Tsing Hua University, along with his colleagues Wang Ming-yang and Huang Hsueh-ling, to assemble the first anthropometric data bank on the Chinese physique. In a study that took two years to complete and cost NT$1.6 million (about US$53,000), the team surveyed a random sampling of 993 people from Taichung County, aged 15 to 64, grouping the data into various categories according to age, sex, and occupation. Taichung County was selected as the site of the study because a preliminary survey had shown that the population structure there most closely resembles that of Taiwan as a whole.

People in the survey were photographed in a standing position, and their photographs were enlarged and carefully measured for 96 physical criteria. Some of the results are shown in the accompanying chart.

The measurements that changed the most with age were, not surprisingly, height, bust, and waist. Men and women aged 20 to 24 had average heights of 170cm (5'7") and 157cm (5'2") respectively, as compared with 165cm (5'5") and 153cm (5'0") at ages 60 to 64. Women's bust and waist measurements filled out from 35"x27" in the 15-to 19-year-old category to 39"x35" for the over-60 group. And men's waists expanded from 28" in their late teens to 33" in their late thirties before tapering off to a comparatively trim 32" by age 60.

Practitioners of the Chinese art of physiognomy, who believe that the width of a person's nose reflects his or her generosity; the length of the ears, good fortune; and the length of the philtrum, longevity--will be particularly interested in the data on facial features.

In fact, the standard of what constitutes an attractive physique is closely tied to fashion. Beauties in the ancient kingdom of Ch'u had wasp waists, while a Rubenesque plumpness was preferred during the Tang dynasty. When narrow waists were de rigueur some women starved themselves to death to stay thin, and when fat was fashionable there was no such thing as a diet.

Changes in the physique of the Chinese people living on Taiwan will no doubt keep pace with changes in world fashion--where fashion leads, the body will be forced to follow along.

[Picture Caption]

A line-up of three generations shows how the Chinese physique is improving.

Average build of Chinese men and women, ages 15 to 64.

When a tall fellow rides the bus, he just has to try to make do.

Besides being attractive, equipment at the workplace should fit the physique.

Lovely footwear, but does it fit?

Average build of Chinese men and women, ages 15 to 64.

When a tall fellow rides the bus, he just has to try to make do.

Besides being attractive, equipment at the workplace should fit the physique.

Lovely footwear, but does it fit?