Chinese girls were taking selfies way before the West had even heard of them - and probably even before the word 'selfie' had been invented in English. 

 

在西方国家的人们还没听说“自拍”这个词的时候，中国女孩就已经开始玩自拍了，甚至在还不存在“自拍”（selfie）这个单词的时候就已经开始了。

 

And so, while the world embraces the selfie revolution - young Chinese women are again one step ahead, editing their pictures in a way the rest of us can only imagine. 

 

We're not talking about adding a few flattering filters on Instagram here. The augmentation of facial features - using phone apps such as Meitu Xiu Xiu - is becoming so widespread and powerful in China that it's become fashionable to say online that they work better than plastic surgery. 

 

These hugely successful, homegrown photo editing apps specifically target two distinct psychologies¹ of Chinese women: the unabashed posting of selfies (often a whole series of close-up pictures with different expressions) and the desire to look whiter than they really are.

 

Such apps play to Chinese women's fantasies of achieving a 'Westernised' aesthetic² - whiter skin and bigger eyes.

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