NYT
HONG KONG
Your phone can make your face whiter. A touch can taper your jaw. It can slim your cheeks. Widen your eyes. Of course, it can make you thinner.
In China, beauty ” of a particular kind ” can come from a swipe. A photo app called Meitu gives its users the power to create idealized versions of their real-world selves and share them with others. Its makers say:"Our mission is to make the world a more beautiful place."
Meitu and its related apps are hugely popular in China. The apps have 446 million users, and Meitu says more than half of the photos circulated on social media there in June were filtered using its editing app.
"Meitu makes everybody look more beautiful in an easy way," says Du Sha, 26, a graduate student who uses it mainly to erase acne and to smooth and brighten her skin."It's a good technology for people to be more social or improve their self-confidence."
Meitu, the company, now hopes its app will have appeal elsewhere. In December, it completed a $629 million initial public offering in Hong Kong, long a gateway for Chinese companies seeking foreign money, and is exploring taking its selfie apps to other parts of the world.
The question is whether the world wants Meitu's idea of beauty.
Apps like Instagram and Snapchat have long allowed people to apply flattering filters and wash out their pores. Meitu goes several steps beyond. Cheeks can be stretched and pinched. Chins can be shaved off. Eyes can be contoured.
In addition, its tools are tailored toward a standard of beauty ” female beauty, mostly ” that is particular to China and countries like South Korea and Japan: pale skin, elfin features, skinny limbs, eyes wide and guileless as a baby seal's.
"I want to look cuter sometimes," said Zha Nan, 23, an information technology researcher who has used the app for years."Using Meitu to fix these things, I feel more comfortable looking at my own face."
Meitu says local teams in different markets are tailoring the software to other standards. But, more fundamentally, Meitu approaches the subject of looks in a manner that reflects common thinking in modern China ” like money, education and a good job, beauty is something one can aspire to.
China ” which went from grinding poverty to economic powerhouse in the span of a generation ” is an aspirational market. Companies like Apple, Starbucks and Audi have made fat profits selling high-priced gadgets, coffee and cars to Chinese consumers who want to show they have made it.
Still, wealth is concentrated in the hands of a small elite, and the average Chinese consumer has only a fraction of the money to spend as the average American does. Hundreds of millions of people still live in rural areas with few prospects for jobs. Competition to get into universities is fierce, and competition for good jobs after college can be fiercer.
For women, the field can be even tougher. China's anti-discrimination laws are rarely enforced. Help-wanted ads often specify whether the employer is looking for a man or a woman, and those looking for females often set height or appearance requirements.
The growth of China's service sector puts further pressure on appearance. China's manufacturing jobs in the past had such strong job security that they were sometimes called the"iron rice bowl." But the growth of the service sector has led to more jobs that focus on appearance.
Liu Yu says she feels the pressure to look good. She even uses Meitu for photos that go on formal identification cards and her r`sum`, she said, though her edits are far more modest than what she posts for online consumption.
"Many women always feel like they have flaws," said Liu, 23, a graduate film student who uses Meitu to narrow her face, shrink her nose and remove dark circles from under her eyes."They all wish that through some kind of method they can make themselves more beautiful. Meitu is the cheapest and most convenient way to do this."
Meitu did not create this phenomenon, of course, and it rejects the idea that its business model relies on people's insecurities or cultural pressures. Gary Ngan, its chief financial officer, says the company offers a variety of apps in part because users have a personal idea of what is beautiful.
"We have to broaden the term beauty," he said."It's not just about a set way of thinking about Asian beauty. It's about making you happy."
He said the company was, instead, helping its users to become more confident and helping them to"become more beautiful in real life."
"For example, when you slim your face and then eventually you say, 'Oh, I look nice,'" he said,"then you go on a diet, go to the gym and then you become the one" in the picture.
