Freckles Challenge Chinese Beauty

Model Li Jingwen with a natural freckled face showing off Zara's makeup

The Chinese can be a sensitive lot, especially when it comes to their perception of beauty.

The latest fashion label to be on the hot seat following Dolce and Gabbana is Spanish fast-fashion brand Zara. It released a post on its Weibo account, showing model Li Jingwen wearing a new lipstick and lip glaze, though her freckles were very visible which sparked immediate controversy.

Some Chinese netizens took it to mean Zara was being racist towards Chinese people, saying the brand was "uglifying China" as they don't see freckles as a sign of beauty.

"Does it mean that us Asian women all have dull eyes and have faces full covered by freckles?" asked one netizen.

"Sorry that we Asian women don't have freckles -- or only a small proportion of us have," said another. "You spent such an effort finding a model with freckles, just like searching for a needle in the sea. How hard you've been working on this!"

A third netizen remarked, "Selling products in China had better respect Chinese people's aesthetic taste. I don't understand why Zara showed this face with a lot of freckles?"

Zara clarified the photos didn't make Li look ugly

Others felt the photos were realistic and one news platform called The Paper said: "It's common for international fashion brands to use freckled models, and some freckles are even welcomed by the public from foreign countries."

The fact that this needs to be spelled out in this day and age is a sad commentary on some Chinese people's tunnel vision definition of beauty.

Nevertheless, some appraised the photos as authentic and felt the public should be more open to different aesthetics and tolerant of imperfect facial features instead of just accepting edited pictures.

Zara had to clarify that the new makeup line was not solely targeting the Chinese market, and that the appointment of Li the model was determined by the headquarters in Spain, showing her in a natural state without any final touch-ups.

"Spanish people have different beauty standards and they did not intend to make this model look ugly," a Zara spokeswoman said. "They usually don't modify the photos of models. That's what the model looks like."

Does this mean the Chinese are going to hate on Li for her freckles? Or will they begin boycotting Zara?

Maybe they have to learn to accept that beauty is not one with a completely made-up face that looks impossibly perfect -- natural beauty is real beauty, and that includes freckles.