The 25-year-old Guangdong native’s face sparked fierce debate over the past weekend when the Spanish fashion retailer posted photos of her with minimal make-up on its Weibo page.

The close-up images, released last Friday as part of a campaign promoting Zara’s make-up line, show off the freckled cheeks of the model – whose full name is Li Jingwen – in all their glory.

Chinese netizens were quick to spot the model’s freckle, but many were outraged that Zara would use a promotional photo of a Chinese model with “blemished” skin.

One Weibo user with the handle @Ymlucky said: “By photographing a model this way, are you trying to be sensational or vilify Asians?”

Another netizen with the handle @EvelynYoung_23 said Zara must have worked hard to search for “a needle in a haystack”, as it had managed to find a model whose skin was blemished at such a young age.

“Sorry, but we Asian females don’t have skin blemishes,” the netizen said. “Even if there are [such women], they are also few in number.”

One woman said initially she had been interested in the release of Zara’s new make-up collection, but “after seeing the model’s looks, there is no desire to buy”.

Yet not all Chinese netizens agreed with these viewpoints.

“Does she not look good? Everyone has their own understanding of beauty. Do you feel that the influencer look is good looking? This is the beauty of self-confidence, do you understand?” one top Weibo comment read.

A Weibo user with the handle @yialoon said that the difference between Eastern and Western make-up concepts was that, in the West, make-up aimed to accentuate a person’s uniqueness and charm, while in the East it emphasised “the hiding of these features”.

Another user said: “As a Chinese person born and bred in China, after reading the comments, I’ve learned for the first time that my looks are insulting to China.”

‘Difference in aesthetics’

The unexpected controversy prompted Zara to issue a response, clarifying that it had not mean to insult Asians with its latest photos.

Blaming the controversy on a “difference in aesthetics”, Zara’s China office said Jing Wen was chosen for the campaign by the brand’s headquarters in Spain.

It also said that the photos were taken in a “natural manner”, without any digital manipulation.

It added that the promotional photos were meant for global release and not targeted only at China’s consumers.

The comments about Zara’s campaign come less than three months after Italian designer brand Dolce & Gabbana (D&G) was accused of racism.

Last November D&G had to cancel a large-scale fashion show in Shanghai after it published a video showing a Chinese model using chopsticks to clumsily eat Italian food, including pizza.

The brand’s two co-founders also had to apologise after one of them, Stefano Gabbana, reportedly insulted China in social media messages sent to people who had confronted him about his alleged stance.

The brand said at the time that Gabbana’s social media account had been hacked.

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