"I haven't been involved in Braun fashion for a long time"

Serena Han, 50 years old, microbiologist.

She comes from Seoul and has lived in Ludwigshafen for 22 years.

Married, two daughters.

In Korea, porcelain-white, flawless skin has always been an ideal of beauty that radiated from the aristocracy to all of society. It is still the case in my home country that white skin signals wealth. Korean women invest a lot of money in their skin care routine to look white and youthful into old age. That's why my mother always wears a huge hat and gloves outdoors, and a protective suit when exercising. White hands, as soft as a baby's, are also considered very beautiful, as they show that a woman doesn't have to work hard. The shop assistants also pay attention to this.

Then in the nineties the supermodel fashion came up. In Korea I didn't go through this rather distant Braun fashion. But when I went to study in the United States from Seoul at the age of 19, I followed this trend for eight years. Sun-tanned skin and a sporty appearance represented the image of health and wealth, vacations and playing golf. Being pale and white was the symbol of having to sit in the office all the time.

I've been living in Germany since 1999, and since then I've been extremely careful to stay white. After playing tennis for a few hours in the summer, I get really dark. Caring for my skin has been particularly important to me for 20 years. It should look transparent and beautiful. I consistently do masks every week, including whitening masks. I bring them back from Korea every year or order them online. For us these masks are routine, my mother is 70 years old and still uses one every day. My aunt's housekeeper even wears her face mask when cleaning.

When I came to Germany, I was amazed at how little women paid attention to their appearance compared to Korea and the USA. That has changed today. At the beginning of my professional career here I already experienced something like racism and because of my appearance I was not treated very nicely by some of my colleagues. I had to listen to sentences from colleagues with a doctorate such as: “Oh, men marry such international women because they can't get Germans.” Many Europeans find that we Koreans are hard to estimate our age. Today I have a lot of German friends whom I like to give my beauty tips to. For my 50th birthday my sister sent me a cosmetic light helmet from Korea, which you put on and whose impulses should make your skin whiter and younger. It costs a fortune.If they can afford it, many Koreans go for beauty treatments, massage, lasers and syringes once a week. We are convinced that it is better to invest in good maintenance than repair it later.

"In my home country we are a United Nation of Colors"

Sunitha Hertel, 48 years old, media consultant.

She comes from Singapore, is of Indian descent and has lived in Hofheim with her husband and son since 2010.

I had my first encounter with Germany in 1997 at a Rotaract meeting in Hesse.

I was the only "brown girl" there.

I was warmly welcomed by the students.

It was the same in 2010 when I came to Germany to live here.

Today I'm still the only "brown girl" on my street.

I feel very comfortable here, the Singaporean mentality certainly helps: “Always smile first.” In 2016, however, I had an unpleasant experience in a bus in Hanover. It was shortly after many Syrians came to Germany and there were attacks by young men on women on New Year's Eve in Cologne. When I got on the bus with my little son, the bus driver said: "Go back to Syria!" He had an ugly racist aura about him.