The fashion industry dictates theaesthetics of feminine beauty.	International film star Gong Li is considered the ultimate Oriental beauty.	Eighty percent of Chinese women of normal weight want to be thinner..

The results of a recent survey show that among urban inhabitants in the 15-54 age group, 25.3 percent have tried, or are trying, to reduce their weight, and 80 percent of women of normal weight are steadfastly dieting. As to what constitutes a good figure is the question that only the women, ancient and modern, that strive to achieve it can answer.

There are written accounts of “figure fashion” within Chinese history. Two thousand years ago, one king of the State of Chu made known his belief that only women with waists “as slim as a willow branch” were truly beautiful. In order to concur with the king's aesthetic preferences, wives and concubines ate just one meal per day, and also tightened their belt to the extreme, torturing themselves in the same way as the corseted European women of the 19th century. Many women were so weak that they were unable to stand without the support of a wall, and the king's ministers, afraid of losing the king's favor because of overweight, also dared not eat their fill. After a year their complexions turned dark sallow owing to malnutrition, and many women in the imperial palace died of starvation.

“In numerous ancient Chinese books, slimness is cited as one of the requisites for beauty,” says Professor of classic literature Ge Xiaoyin of Peking University. “There are four adjectives, rather than concrete data, that describe womanly proportions: xiaoshou (thin), miaotiao (slim), fengyu (full and round) and feipang (fat). Within Chinese culture, which emphasizes the doctrine of the mean, the term yaotiao (gentle and graceful) encompasses miaotiao and fengyu , which correlates with the contemporary ideal of a slim torso with pleasing curves at the bust, waist and buttocks, while xiaoshou and feipang are not considered attractive.”

The most famous slim beauty in ancient China was Zhao Feiyan, wife of Emperor Chengdi, named Liu Ao, of the Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 220). She is reputed to have been too weak to withstand a gust of wind, and when she danced, it seemed that a breeze could carry her away. Within the space of two years, she had risen from dancer to empress, no easy achievement in any dynasty.

The people of the Han Dynasty were thin because of their lifestyle. In ancient times, noble women seldom left their homes and did no heavy labor. Lack of exercise caused them to eat little, so women of the Han Dynasty were generally thinner than now.

In the heyday of the Han Dynasty, however, more curvaceous beauty came into favor. Zhao Hede, younger sister of Zhao Feiyan, was the plumper of the two, and it was her extra inches that enabled her to replace her sister as the emperor's favorite.

The Tang Dynasty (618-907) stands out in Chinese history as a period where particular store was laid on aesthetics, and it was another period of preference for the plumper figure. Yang Yuhuan was the most famous “big” beauty. It is said that she was 164 centimeters tall and weighed 69 kilograms -- 9 kilograms heavier than today's standard. But her plumpness added to her bodily grace, and she excelled at dancing, dazzling all that beheld her, according to historical records. Wu Zetian of the Tang Dynasty, the first female ruler in Chinese history, was also well-endowed beauty. The statue of her at the Longmen Grottoes in Luoyang, Henan Province shows her to have had full and round face, neck and shoulders.

It was during the Tang Dynasty that plumpness was most fashionable, and there are those that attribute this phenomenon to the openness and prosperity of the dynasty. Tang Dynasty women enjoyed a high degree of freedom and social status, being unrestricted from entering taverns and marketplaces, or joining in sports activities such as horse riding, football, and polo. They were also allowed to divorce their husbands. In short, women and men were as equal as they have ever been, and this gave rise to an ethos of naturalness and health.

In the Song Dynasty (960-1279) that followed, however, the spirit of the times and aesthetic tastes changed dramatically as Neo-Confucianism (the rationalistic Confucian philosophical school that developed during the Song and Ming dynasties) reached its zenith. Confucianism emphasizes humanity, but Neo-Confucianism places greater emphasis on hierarchy, and women were expected to defer unquestioningly to men. Under the direct influence of Neo-Confucianism, women cultivated slimness of figure until abnormal, anorexic thinness became the norm. In order to avoid bosomy curves, young women would bind their busts tightly, and “willow branch” waists, the only area that was permitted a visible curve, became the ideal. Women's feet were bound to emphasize their grace when walking, and greater emphasis was placed on women's graceful carriage than their beauteous repose.

From the 17th century to the early 20th century, Chinese women submerged their curves in loose clothing. In the 1920s and 1930s, Western influence gave rise to the qipao , a close-fitting dress with a mandarin collar and a slit skirt that simultaneously flattered slimness and voluptuousness.

In the 1950s, the aesthetic orientation again reverted to that associated with naturalness and health. After the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, the Chinese government advocated gender equality, and women were encouraged to participate in the work of construction in various fields, sometimes in the form of heavy physical labor. Women's rise to equality from their subordinate status made them more self-confident and open-minded. It was at this time that the strong, more voluptuous figure came into vogue.

The 21st century is a time of transition in China. The farming civilization is declining, as post-industrial culture and post-modernism together with the globalization continue to influence traditional Chinese culture.

The latest ideal “vital statistics” for the ideal Asian figure are 84 cm, 62 cm, 86 cm. Zhang Ziyi, internationally hailed as epitomizing the Far Eastern ideal of womanly beauty, however, measures 82 cm, 58 cm, 82 cm.

In a recent newspaper poll of China's most beautiful women, international film star Gong Li ranked first, followed by Super Girl Li Yuchun, while Zhang Ziyi ranked a surprising fourth. It is generally agreed that Gong Li personifies the traditional aesthetic based on good health and vigor, and her good looks also accord with international standards. Li Yuchun won the 2005 Super Girl Singing Competition, and what this reed-slim 21-year-old lacks in curves she makes up for in charm and dynamism.

All civilizations retain their high regard of beauty as a result of good, healthy living. In the agricultural areas of northern China, it is the strongest and healthiest looking young women that are sought as marriage partners. When rural women choose wives for their sons, they pay attention to the buttocks of likely candidates, as their degree of fullness is believed to indicate fertility. According to Chinese fortune-telling books, plump women have a kinder fate than their thinner sisters because of their full foreheads and round chins. Women with pointed chins are believed to bring bad luck as wives.