Back in March this year, Talent Management spoke about the increasing popularity of Chinese models, and concluded that this rise is not just a fad. Now, some months later, it seems we were right as we’ve been seeing even more Chinese models in the industry, and not just in China.

This year, Vogue China Editor Angelica Cheung noted that because we’re seeing more Chinese models in the industry, Chinese consumers are starting to change their perception of beauty.

“Traditionally the Chinese favoured a classic kind of beauty — big, round eyes, cute small mouth, a high nose, and very fair skin,” said Cheung. “The Chinese models who have made it internationally are not beauties in the traditional sense, so they are modernising the concept of beauty in China.”

Blue Carreon, an Asian Forbes fashion contributor, recently posed the same argument, asking: “Are we Asians finally embracing our own kind? Are the days of ‘white is always better’ over? Will there no longer be a market for whitening creams? Will we come to love our flat noses and dark eyes?”

Carreon went on to say that if we take our cues from what has been happening in the fashion industry, “it would seem that we Asians have come to love our own”.

Hong Kong-based Lane Crawford, for example, used an all-Chinese cast to front their A/W 2011 ad campaign, including Estee Lauder’s first-ever Asian model Liu Wen, as well as FeiFei Sun, Ming Xi, Shu Pei and Xiao Wen Ju.

Then, of course, there’s this year’s Vogue China September issue, which saw several of the Chinese models in Lane Crawford’s campaign joined by pioneering Chinese supermodel Du Juan and new face on the modelling scene Sui He.

The magazine’s first ever cover featured Caucasian model Gemma Ward alongside five Chinese models – Du Juan, Wang Wenqin, Tong Chenjie, Liu Dan, and Ni Mingxi – which in hindsight, says Carreon, may have been a precursor of things to come.  “[That cover] could have been the signal of the start of a fashion revolution: the Chinese are going to take over the world,” he said.

Furthermore, Chinese models are not only being used by the Chinese market, but are in fact gaining mass appeal through international campaigns by European and American design houses.

Givenchy’s Spring/Summer 2011 haute couture show, for example, used only Asian models, while Vera Wang, Ralph Lauren, Calvin Klein and Giorgio Armani are only a handful of designers who have featured Chinese models in their ad campaigns.

“What does this all mean? Is the Chinese luxury consumer now aspiring to be like the Chinese faces modelling her favourite brands? Is she relating more to models with features similar to hers instead of the conventional go-to blonde and blue-eyed beauties? Or is this just another fad? The industry’s new form of tokenism?” asks Carreon.

We at Talent Management want to hear your thoughts.