Uygur faces are finding their way to movie screens, phones, and billboards across China. Members of the ethnic minority group have facial features that Chinese brands have deemed “attractive,” creating opportunities for talented Uygurs to break into the entertainment business as singers, models and TV stars.
One of the most famous Uyghur stars may be Dilraba Dilmurat, an actress who starred in the popular series “Swords of Legends”, and who played the lead role in the drama “The King’s Woman.” Fellow Uyghur actress Gulnezer Bextiyar was recently named a Fendi brand ambassador – the first Chinese ambassador for the luxury brand.
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Uyghur model Parwena Dulkun has found success with brands in China
According to survey data from McKinsey, the "Generation 2" group of Chinese consumers are the most Westernized to date / source: McKinsey
Dilraba Dilmurat
Gulnezer Bextiyar
Like other Uygurs, both Dilraba and Gulnezer hail from the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. Located at the northwest edge of China, the region is home to the largest population of Uygurs. The ethnic group has Turkic roots and speak a language that’s more similar to Turkish than Mandarin. Their script is derived from Arabic and their physical appearances resemble central Asians more than the Han ethnic majority that make up China.
Dilraba Dilmurat
Gulnezer Bextiyar
Demand for men and women who share the same Eurasian characteristics as Gulnezer have been on the rise lately according to Dengyang Liu, founder of Fun Models, an online platform that connects models, actors and photographers to Chinese clients. Though he cautions that Han Chinese still far outnumber the number of Uygur models, many of his Chinese clients are “looking for a face that have some Asian characteristics, but also have some kind of white Europeanness to it.”
Uyghur model Parwena Dulkun has found success with brands in China
Parwena Dulkun
What’s driving this demand? For Dengyang, it’s nothing new. He likens it to patterns he’s seen in other Asian countries, especially as cities become increasingly cosmopolitan. “Hong Kong, Taiwan, S. Korea, even Thailand…basically, faces with mixed Eurasian features were used as a symbol[s] of a changing fusion trend in aesthetic standards,” says Dengyang.
Gulnezer Bextiyar
Gulnezer Bextiyar
The power of the purse
In many ways, the shift in beauty standards correlates to a rise in purchasing power. Increased disposable income is a calling card for international brands looking to take advantage of the new market. The brands bring their own standards for beauty, revealing the Western bias in defining beauty, even in local cultures.
China’s first-tier cities have grown at breakneck speed in the past few decades, creating a new generation of Chinese with disposable income and increasing exposure to international standards of beauty. Consulting firm McKinsey has dubbed this new middle class “Generation 2." Born during China’s period of economic reform and opening up to the world, this generation accounted for nearly 15 percent of urban consumption in 2012. This number is expected to rise to 35 percent in 2022.
According to survey data from McKinsey, the "Generation 2" group of Chinese consumers are the most Westernized to date / source: McKinsey
A 2012 McKinsey survey of this group found that “this generation of Chinese consumers is the most Westernized to date.” In terms of consumption habits, Generation 2 respondents were more likely to be loyal to brands, view expensive items as “better”, and get satisfaction out items that signify better taste or higher status.
As this generation’s spending habits mirror those found in the West, foreign faces have also become more common in Chinese media. Chinese audiences are accustomed to seeing “more international-themed faces or stories… even the 'zhibo' video stuff that’s been popular in China in the past two years,” says Dengyang.
Dilraba Dilmurat
Dilraba Dilmurat
We don’t have to look far to see other examples of the same experience. In the past four decades, S. Korea has seen explosive growth, joining the trillion-dollar club of world economies in 2004.
The 1990s spawned K-pop, one of the most influential factors in shaping the country’s beauty standards. As Patricia Marx from the New Yorker puts it, the K-pop phenomenon “shapes not only what music you should listen to, but what you should look like while listening to it.”
Many of the K-pop stars share similar characteristics: fair skin, double eyelids and a small face. Koreans go to great lengths to replicate these looks, as the country has one of the highest rates of plastic surgery in the world. Though some argue that these procedures produce beauty results that are universally appealing, these are also the same beauty standards that dominant Western culture.
Dilraba Dilmurat
Dilraba Dilmurat
Dilraba Dilmurat
Dilraba Dilmurat
Gulnezer Bextiyar
Gulnezer Bextiyar
Gulnezer Bextiyar
Parwena Dulkun
Parwena Dulkun
Parwena Dulkun
Parwena Dulkun
Parwena Dulkun
BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Alexis Damancio Silva can’t forget the hardship in his town of Puerto Narino in far southern Colombia last year when extreme drought nearly dried up the Amazon River. Pink dolphins and fish died. Crops dried up. The town lost its easy access to markets.
Silva is hopeful the U.S. would help fund projects that could make Indigenous communities like his more resilient — solar panels for energy to refrigerate fish, for example, or cisterns to catch precious rain water.
“We ask the government of President Trump ... to send us resources,” to help the region’s Indigenous people, he said in a Zoom interview with The Associated Press. Little comes from the state, he said.
Environmental groups say that's unlikely to happen, and that was even before Trump froze new funding for almost all U.S. foreign assistance.
They fear Donald Trump's second administration will bring nothing good for the Amazon rainforest. Besides Trump's Day 1 move to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement, they fear he'll cut U.S. funding for policing that has targeted illegal logging, mining and other things that have damaged the rainforest. They also worry he will back right-wing politicians who favor aggressive development in the Amazon, which is critical for storing carbon dioxide that would otherwise warm the planet.
“The implications of the Trump administration for the Amazon rainforest range from very concerning to horrifying,” said Andrew Miller, advocacy director of nonprofit Amazon Watch.
Trump's first week back in office was loaded with executive orders that prioritized fossil fuels, including declaring an energy emergency in the U.S. and his intent to sweep aside barriers to developing oil and gas. They've also been wrapped in an “America First” message that doesn't fit with expansive foreign aid.
On Sunday, he swiftly faced down Colombia President Gustavo Petro on Sunday by threatening steep tariffs after Petro refused to allow military planes carrying deported migrants to land in Colombia. Trump's plans to play hardball in the region were evident weeks ago when he suggested he could use military force to take control of the Panama Canal.
Miller said his organization had advised its partners “to assume the Trump administration priorities will not include climate, environmental or Indigenous rights programs.”
In Trump's first term, U.S. Agency for International Development's budget ranged from about $17 billion to $27 billion annually, with significant proposed cuts that were often moderated by Congress. Under President Joe Biden, USAID’s budget rose to $30.5 billion in 2024, with a focus on global health, climate action, humanitarian aid, and promoting democracy. The new administration said the aid freeze would be in place for 90 days as it considers which programs to keep.
In Brazil, home to around 60% of the Amazon, organized crime like logging and drug trafficking thrived under the far-right presidency of Jair Bolsonaro, with severe environmental consequences. President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva made the protection of the Amazon a central priority when he took office in 2023.
Brazil's environment minister, Marina Silva, told the AP that Trump’s return poses a significant test for U.S. democracy and international institutions, and that as the world's second-largest emitter of greenhouse gases, it is “crucial” the U.S. fulfills its responsibilities.
She sees some hope, saying the world has much stronger climate governance nowadays in the face of the climate crisis.
“This doesn’t mean we’ll have an easy time with Trump in office, quite the opposite,” Marina Silva said. “We just have to acknowledge that we´re already seeing some companies and leaders ... abandoning or loosening commitments made previously.”
Since Trump's election, several major U.S. banks have withdrawn from a network aimed at lending practices that square with a global commitment to reduced emissions.
Silva said it's important for countries to keep “reaffirming the size of the climate challenges” and showing how to overcome them. “Reality needs to take precedence over President Trump’s well-known denialist rhetoric,” she said.
The Trump administration did not respond to messages seeking comment.
Development in the Amazon is a polarizing issue in Brazil. Lawmakers who support it focus on economic growth, job creation, and infrastructure. More liberal lawmakers, environmentalists and Indigenous rights groups oppose it over damage to the environment and impacts on people who live in the forest.
Lula has had some success in clamping down on illegal logging, mining, drug trafficking, and conversion of land for agriculture. That came with support from Biden, who in November became the first U.S. president to visit the Amazon and pledged $50 million to the Amazon Fund, which raises money to protect the Amazon rainforest. Much of that money went toward increased policing in the region.
Carlos Nobre, a Brazilian climate scientist and leading researcher studying the Amazon rainforest, said he didn't see Trump continuing that commitment. He also said he is concerned about Trump's past support for Bolsonaro, and expected him to again boost right-wing politicians.
Though Bolsonaro is prohibited from running for office until 2030, his son Eduardo is a potential presidential candidate next year and Brazil's National Congress has plenty of members who favor Amazonian development.
Jair Bolsonaro, who has supported Trump's false claims of a stolen 2020 election, tried to attend his inauguration but wasn't allowed to leave Brazil to attend. Eduardo Bolsonaro did attend.
Miller expected Trump to tilt toward “extreme right-wing candidates” who offer him praise, boosting them in elections.
"Their policies, should they be elected, will spell disaster for the Amazon rainforest in the foreseeable future," Miller said. “Trump 2.0 will offer Amazonian governments a permission structure to ignore or walk back climate commitments, precisely at the moment when protection of the rainforest demands greater ambition and regional coordination.”
Miller is most concerned about U.S. support for multilateral human rights mechanisms like the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.
“Both are important for the protection of threatened Amazon community leaders and environmental defenders," he said.
John Walsh, director for drug policy and the Andes at the Washington Office on Latin America, said funding cuts are his major concern after policy.
“We can expect steep cuts if not entire elimination of U.S. foreign aid that was directed towards climate mitigation and adaptation globally,” Walsh said. “That’s matched by the incoming administration’s focus on how to cut the federal budget in ways that will fall almost entirely on discretionary programs that don’t have solid constituencies domestically." .
Trump was generally skeptical of multinational cooperation in his first term, preferring a more unilateral approach to foreign policy with his administration often prioritizing U.S. interests over international agreements or collaborations.
¨For an issue like climate change, that is a collective action problem ... and for the world’s largest economy and historically the largest emitter of carbon dioxide to absent itself from that ... is significant," Walsh said.
Follow Steven Grattan on X: @sjgrattan
The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.
FILE - Boats and houses sit next to the dry Aleixo Lake amid a drought in Manaus, Amazonas state, Brazil, Sept. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Edmar Barros, File)
FILE - Cut logs and wooden boards lie in an area opened by illegal loggers within the Renascer Reserve in the Amazon rainforest in Prainha, Para state, Brazil, on Nov. 22, 2019. (AP Photo/Leo Correa, File)
FILE - Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva holds a pact for ecological transformation alongside Minister of the Environment Marina Silva, second from right, and Minister of Indigenous Peoples Sonia Guajajara, to his left, during the agreement's signing at the Planalto presidential palace, in Brasilia, Brazil, Aug. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres, File)
FILE - People from the Tikuna Indigenous community carry aid from a nonprofit amid a drought on Amazon River in Loma Linda, near Leticia, Colombia, Oct. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Ivan Valencia, File)
FILE - President Donald Trump speaks at the 2025 House Republican Members Conference Dinner at Trump National Doral Miami in Doral, Fla., Jan. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, File)
FILE - Residents look out at the Madeira River, a tributary of the Amazon River amid a drought in Humaita, Amazonas state, Brazil, Sept. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Edmar Barros, File)
