What would be the best way to describe a Chinese characters eyes? Is "slanted" considered racist or offensive? Is there a better term? I'm not the kind of guy who'll comb through every sentence trying to make everything as inoffensive as humanly possible, but if I feel there's a chance something might cause more of a problem then it's worth, I'll try to fix it. So...whatch think?
it might be construed as racist its also not accurate - if we consider this image his eyes aren't much slanted than a white guy's
Almond shaped. BSM is right, they are not slanted. Take some time to study the features. Or even better just skip the detail of shape entirely, since it doesn't define the character as a whole.
Offence is something I rarely concern myself with, but the question I have is: If the character is noted within the narrative as being Asian (generally) or Chinese (specifically), why are we describing his eyes? Honest question. If there is a specific reason, I'm guessing the verbiage you want is packaged within that reasoning. Other than being crass, slanted is generic, and the average Joe or Jane is perfectly well aware of the attributes typically associated with Asian features. Who is observing? Why are they observing? What is that person's relationship to the character being described? Descriptions are born of context. What is the context?
Eyes like these are what I'm specifically imagining: And the context is that the one narrating finds the character he's describing very attractive, so he goes into a lot more detail describing her features than he would for anyone else.
"He had eyes like a wall of incomprehensible text.. she swooned, gobbledygook always made her hot..."
damned if i know - i got the shot from pixabay... I'm guessing the photographer shouted 'say nipples' just before he pressed the shutter (as a photographer i always found that worked better than cheese)
So far I have, "Her sharply angled eyes glittered a dazzling violet, and the long, luscious hair that reached to her back was like a waterfall of raven feathers."
chinese girls don't generally have violet eyes... unless she is wearing tinted contacts. That aside it feels like there are too many words here. "her almond shaped eyes glittered in the low lighting, luscious raven hair cascaded past her shoulders"
If its a fantasy story and she isn't typically chinese then this whole thread is pointless... her eyes could be any shape and you don't need to worry about racist connotations
She is Chinese, but...okay, I'll explain it from the top. It's an urban fantasy. The girl (Jade) was a normal human until she was kidnapped by cultists and forcibly turned into a djinn/genie (not sure which one I'm going to use yet). She kept her human appearance (hence still looking Chinese) while technically not actually being human. There are even some rumors that she might have used her powers to enhance her beauty, hence why the narrating character is so stunned when he first sees her and describes her in so much detail.
Just dump the "sharply angled" already. Her eyes aren't angled. She has epicanthic folds. Just say she looks Chinese, describe the colour of her eyes and move on.
Just saying, violet eyes in a female fantasy character is a huge cliché. Some people even openly make fun of some these books. Not me, though... It was a friend of mine... I tried to stop them! I personally would generally stay away from saying things that are oddly close to derogatory slurs. Slant eyes, is definitely something I wouldn't call my Asian friends unless we had that kind of relationship. I would also probably just mention her ethnicity/where she was from originally/etc. and leave it at that. Unless her exact eye shape is somehow plot specific, then I'd drop it. Just say she's beautiful and move on. Everyone's got their own idea of what a beautiful Asian woman with purple eyes looks like and cramming too much description on there will either, ruin the mental image the reader's already formed in their mind, disrupt whatever pacing you've already established, or be a waste of words since almost no one pays attention to anything other than broad character descriptions anyway.
Not to mention that a Chinese girl who grew up with a typically Chinese mind map of what beauty looks like wouldn't give herself violet eyes to make herself more attractive.
As an Asian, I agree with everyone else. Say she's Chinese. Say she's beautiful. Move on. Don't say slanted. 'Almond' eyes is a little better but not by much so I'd ditch that too. Honestly, the purple eyes falls into that 'POC with beautiful, exotic eyes that would never work in real life to make them seem more exotic' trope which I hate to death but that's my personal opinion so you can disregard that. If you have to describe her beauty make it short and sweet and if you can't do that just say a simple, "She was beautiful."
"Bob felt his breath catch in his throat, the girl was simply beautiful, long silky hair as black as a ravens wing, dark eyes that glittered with reflected firelight." something like that is sufficient - you don't even have to say shes Chinese, if she has a Chinese name that will be obvious from context
I couldn't care less about being offensive either, but I agree. Why is describing the shape of the eye important to the story? Are we assuming that your reader has no clue what Asian people look like? Let your reader form their own picture in their mind. Everything doesn't have to be described unless it's important to the story.
