Every year, hundreds of thousands of attractive young women with dreams apply for all kinds of fashion model contests around China. Only a few have what it takes to make it big time in the country and even fewer make a splash internationally.

The Elite Model Look contest searches for fresh new faces worldwide each year. The China final in September will be held, for the first time, in Paris - an indication of how important Chinese modeling has become.

Fashion scouts will be looking for interesting new looks, and what the professionals prefer is often quite different from what the public likes.

In the fashion world, everyone who makes it is tall, but beyond that, what works for a domestic audience with certain ideas of prettiness often isn't the same for international catwalks in Paris, Milan, London and New York, and the covers of international fashion magazines.

What flies internationally, in fact, turns many Chinese people off. Top models must be tall, thin and leggy and have tiny heads with "palm faces," so small they can be covered by an open palm of the hand.

As for features, Oriental exotic is out - it was popular a decade ago when people were just getting to know about China. And fair skin and "pretty" looks are not essential - makeup can fix anything, and some models see themselves as "palettes." Interesting, refreshing looks are in - conventional "sweet" looks are too conventional.

Sun Feifei

Still, it is possible to make it.

Success is not all fantasy. Look at Liu Wen, Du Juan and Sun Feifei, the three top models in China, who are also recognized internationally.

All of them entered the world of high fashion by entering a modeling contest "by accident." In a short time, their lives were transformed.

Born in Sichuan Province and reared in Shandong Province, Sun was an ordinary college student before she won third place in last year's Elite Model Look world final.

In less than one year, the 20-year-old has graced the covers of numerous international and domestic fashion magazines, signed up with luxury fashion brands to appear in their global advertising campaigns and earned far more money than most girls of her age.

Contest winners get more than US$100,000 in prize money, plus contracts to come.

Although these three young women, Liu, Du and Sun, are internationally appreciated, to most Chinese people they are far from "beauties."

This goes to show that you don't have to look perfect - at least you don't have to meet older ideas of perfection - to become a model these days. In fact, perfection doesn't sell so well.

"I think I look more like a 'girl next door'," says Liu, who appeared in 74 fashion shows earlier this year at the world's four major fashion weeks (London, Paris, Milan, New York). She's one of the hottest Asian models in the international market today.

"Years ago, when people told me that I should go abroad for career development, I thought they were indicating that I'm not pretty enough, in a nice way," she laughs.

In fact, Liu does look quite "ordinary" according to Chinese people's traditional standards of a beauty.

Favored domestically these days are regular features, large eyes (usually with double eyelids), a nose with a high bridge and white skin - a soft face. Oval is ideal. Many people also like a "sweet" face. The look is actually rather "Western."

Liu, by contrast, is attractive and interesting with darker skin, long, slanted eyes, an ordinary nose and a sharp chin.