Chinese girls were taking selfies way bore the West had even heard of them – and probably even bore 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.

　　之后，当世界开始“自拍革命”的时候——中国年轻女性又领先一步，用我们只能靠想像的方式，开始编辑她们的自拍照。

　　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.

　　这里所说的图片编辑不只是在Instagram上添加一些好看的滤镜那么简单。调整面部特征——使用手机应用程序，如美图秀秀——在中国变得如此的普遍和有影响力，网上盛传这比整形手术还管用。

　　These hugely successful, homegrown photo editing apps specifically target two distinct psychologies 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.

　　这些极其成功的国产照片处理应用专门针对中国女性的两大明显的心理特征：一是可以随心所欲地晒自拍(通常是一系列的特写照片，只有表情不同);二是希望自己看起来比实际更肤白貌美。

　　Such apps play to Chinese women’s fantasies of achieving a ‘Westernised’ aesthetic - whiter skin and bigger eyes.

　　这类应用也使中国女性实现了她们所追求的“西化”的审美观——皮肤白皙、大眼睛。

　　Photo enhancements are nothing new, of course and Photoshop has been readily available for a long time. But simple-to-use photo-editing apps, which create the same fect as Photoshop on your phone, are a relatively new invention.

　　当然，美化照片并不是什么新技术，Photoshop这样的图片处理软件我们已经使用了很久。相对而言，操作简易、功能与Photoshop相似的手机应用软件却是一个新发明。

　　In China at least, the phenomenon has become an integral part of the online culture. Most of my female friends edit their faces bore posting pictures on social media – it’s a must-do, ingrained step.

　　至少在中国，这种现象已经成为网络文化的一个必不可少的组成部分。我的大多数女性朋友在社交媒体发布照片之前一定会先美化这些照片，这已经成为发照片的“必经之路”，成为一个根深蒂固的习惯。

　　This is more than a digital ‘touch up’ – the likes of which are growing more popular in the Western world, too. Such apps play to Chinese women’s fantasies of achieving a more rined––or more ‘Westernised’––aesthetic that specifically lies in having a more streamlined facial contour, whiter skin and bigger eyes.

　　这已经不仅仅是数码“润色”，这在西方国家也逐渐盛行起来了。此类应用软件帮助中国女性“实现”了她们对精致容貌的追求——或者说是更“西化”的美貌——有更流线型的面部轮廓、白皙的皮肤和大眼睛。

　　Natural is the exact opposite of what many Chinese women want (posed by models) CREDIT: EPA

　　Meitu Xiu Xiu, the leading app of its kind in the Chinese market, is phenomenally successful, According to its official website, Meitu has over 500 million users and is installed on over 900 million mobile devices worldwide.

　　美图秀秀，是中国美图类应用市场中领先的应用软件，此款应用获得了极大的成功。根据其官网数据，美图秀秀的用户超过5亿，全球超过9亿用户安装了这款应用。

　　The ‘rine and whiten’ button is by far the most popular function, since having white skin in itself is a standard of beauty in China.

　　一键“磨皮美白”是目前最受欢迎的功能，因为皮肤白在中国是美的标准之一。

　　Famous Chinese women are driving the trend. The best-known actress in China, Fan Bingbing, has publicly declared Meitu her favourite app and often posts photos of her snow-white skin.

　　一些中国知名的女性也在推动这个潮流。中国最有名的明星范冰冰，就曾公开称美图秀秀是她最喜欢的应用，也经常在网上发她肌肤白皙的照片。

　　In recent weeks, a $1,000 'selfie camera' has also been flying off the shelves, as it make users look like they've had plastic surgery. The Casio's official name is Exilim TR, but it’s mostly known as ”zipai shenqi” in China, which means ”Godly tool for selfies.”

　　最近几周，一款价值约1000美元的“自拍相机”也被抢购，因为这款相机拍出来的照片能让用户看起来像是她们做过整形手术。这款卡西欧自拍相机的官方名称是Exilim TR，它在中国被称为“自拍神器”，意思是神奇的自拍工具。

　　Indeed, the hot plastic surgery trend in China and Korea in recent years has been ‘jawline thinning’ – where women try to reduce their ‘bigger faces’ to resemble those of Western women. This ‘shaving’ involves cutting into the jaw and trimming off some of the bone. The result is a more sculpted face and a more triangular chin that resembles the supposed “pixie” look of Western faces.

　　事实上，近年来在中国和韩国的整形手术中，“削尖下巴”十分热门——女性们希望自己的“大脸”可以像西方女性那样立体精致。这里所说的“削”需要切削下颌，以及削骨。其结果就是一张更有型的尖下巴“瓜子脸”，与人们印象中的西式“小精灵”面容相似。

　　But if you can’t afford surgery, these new apps let you ‘suck in’ your face with the subtle slide of a finger.

　　但如果你负担不起整形手术，那么这些新兴的应用软件只需你动动手指就可以让自己的脸部缩小，拥有精致的轮廓。

　　One charmer asked me why I used such “life like photos” rather than edited pictures.

　　有人问我为什么更喜欢用“生活照”，而不是美化过的照片。

　　Chinese women are afraid to look natural online (posed by model) CREDIT: QUARTZ

　　“Brightening my skin and making my face thinner is normally all I do on Meitu”, says my attractive friend Leah Zhang. Although she does admit to having gone much further in modifying her features - and having toned it down after one boyfriend told her that her pictures looked nothing like her.

　　我的一位漂亮的朋友张莉(音)说，“我一般用美图秀秀‘美肤瘦脸’。”然而她承认自己对照片改动很大，自从她的一个男朋友告诉她，她的照片与她本人相去甚远之后，她对照片的美化就没那么夸张了。

　　I’ve experienced the opposite problem. All this extreme digital photo editing is leading to unrealistic expectations as to what Chinese women actually look like in real life.

　　而我却经历过相反的问题。所有的这些美化照片导致大家对于中国女性在现实生活中的模样有了不切实际的期望。

　　A guy I met on a dating app told me he was shocked when he first saw me as I was “much better looking” than my photos suggested. “You look really dark in your photos”, he said, “and your face looks round.”

　　我在交友应用上遇到的一个人告诉我说，当他第一次见到我时，他感到很震惊，因为我本人比我的照片更好看。“照片上你看起来真黑，”他说，“而且你的脸在照片上看起来是圆的。”

　　Another charmer asked me why I used such “life like photos” rather than edited pictures.

　　又有另一个人问我为什么用这样的“生活照”而不是美化过的照片。

　　“Nowadays, men are so used to seeing faces of girls on social media where the skin has been whitened, features softened and jaws thinned down, so that anything unfiltered looks strangely under par,” 27-year-old graphic designer Xiaolin told me.

　　27岁的平面设计师小林告诉我，“现在，男性都习惯于在社交媒体上看到已经‘磨皮美白、脸部特征更柔和、尖下巴’的女生的照片。所以，任何未经处理的照片反而让人看起来觉得奇怪不舒服。”

　　My 24-year-old friend Zhao Siyuan tells me that plenty of her male friends have been deceived in online dating with a little help from Meitu. A few were apparently so appalled by the difference in their date's face that they “just directly turned around and walked away”.

　　我24岁的朋友赵思源(音)告诉我，她的很多男性朋友在网上交友时被欺骗了，就因为美图秀秀的“一点点帮助”。有一部分在见面的那一刻，对约会对象的相貌是如此的震惊以至于他们“转头就走”了。

　　A couple of months ago I too gave into the pressure downloaded Meitu Xiuxiu, partly because I was curious. Now I’m addicted - because it's so easy to change the way you look, and because, no matter where you are from, a bit of “brightening” is never a bad thing.

　　几个月前，我也下载了美图秀秀，部分原因是因为我很好奇。现在，我竟然“上瘾”了，因为它真的可以轻易“改变”你的容貌。而且，无论你来自何方，“白一点”总不是什么坏事。

　　I can just tap to erase blemishes on my face – meaning my lazy morning routine doesn’t impact my online persona. My jawline, as much as I don’t want to admit it, is quickly streamlined with a quick ‘sucking’. It’s a lot of fun.

　　我可以点击抹掉我脸上的瑕疵——这意味着即使我每天早晨再懒，也不会影响我在网上的形象。虽然我不想承认，但我的下巴轻轻一点击就迅速“变尖”了。这是一个很有趣的过程。

　　Photoshopping your face with an app is just that – fun - and isn’t harmful in most cases.

　　用一款应用美化你的照片是如此地有趣——在大部分情况下，也是无害的。

　　But, in China, it’s increasingly redining standards of beauty. Chinese women are moving away from their natural selves and I can't help but feel this 'fun' is rapidly turning into an even greater pressure to conform, and look a certain way.

　　但是，在中国，美的标准不断被重新定义。中国女性正逐渐远离最本真的自我，这使我不禁觉得这种“有趣”正在迅速转变成一种巨大的顺应潮流、以及以一定的方式去看待周围的压力。

　　The gap between reality and our online lives is widening as we sit on our phones playing plastic surgeon - and it can't be long bore Western women join in.

　　我们的现实和网络生活之间的差距正在不断扩大，因为在手机上，我们都是一位整形外科医生——相信不用过多久，西方女性也将加入这个行列。

　　Vocabulary

　　selfie：自拍，自拍照

　　plastic surgery：整形，整形手术

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