Spanish high street fashion house, Zara, found itself in a heated debate this week after the release of their new makeup campaign. The Spanish fast fashion brand was accused by netizens on Weibo, the Chinese version of Twitter, for “uglifying” Chinese model Li Jingwen. According to Zara, the photos have not been retouched and the model has minimal makeup on.

The reason for the controversy? It was the model’s freckles.

On social media, Chinese netizens were outraged at Zara for portraying Asian with freckles. “Sorry, we Asian women don’t have freckles. Only a few of us do,” one netizen wrote. While others said they have lost their interest in Zara after seeing the ad.

However, not all Chinese netizen are offended. Some netizens beg to differ, calling the au natural look as “self-confident” and argued that western beauty standards have always been different from eastern beauty standards.

In Eastern cultures, having pale porcelain skin, double eyelids and high nose bridge are considered ideal beauty. It’s not surprising to see that most advertisements in Asian are saturated with Caucasian faces. Asian women even go to the extent of using facekini to avoid tanning their face and skincare with whitening properties is also common in Asian. There is an old Chinese expression that goes “yi bai zhe san chou”, which translates as “A fair complexion is powerful enough to hide several blemishes.” Asian women were taught since young to avoid sunlight as it will cause melasma spots on their face.

In contrast, western beauty standards prefer olive and tanned skin. Freckles have also been embraced by many in recent years and were even made into a fashion statement on runways.

“Being overly sensitive is what uglifies the country,” one netizen commented. Others also agreed that beauty is in the eye of the beholder; there is simply just a difference in culture and there is no intention to insult the Chinese on Zara’s part.

Zara commented on the controversy saying that the promotional photos were meant for global release, and not targeted only at China’s consumers.

Zara is not the only brand that got into hot water for their advertisement in China. Italian luxury fashion house Dolce & Gabbana (D&G) was accused of racism in their campaign last November. The campaign featured a Chinese model eating Italian food clumsily with chopsticks. After the campaign was released, Dolce & Gabbana was boycotted by major Chinese luxurious retailers.