Abstract
East Asian beauty aesthetics are routinely treated as a single, homogeneous category, both in popular discourse and in the AI representation literature. This integrative review challenges that assumption. Drawing on postcolonial theory, prior colorimetric evidence from East Asian selfie cultures, practitioner accounts of K-beauty as a commercial mediation chain, and an exploratory colorimetric audit of commercially produced virtual human figures, it examines what happens to aesthetic diversity when beauty is no longer individually expressed but institutionally designed. The review documents nationally differentiated hue patterns in East Asian selfie aesthetics that resist reduction to a single whitening desire, then examines how commercial mediation appears to erode that differentiation in commercially designed synthetic faces. The central contribution is the concept of selective aesthetic compression: the targeted erosion of nationally specific hue cues while commercially legible warm-tone properties are preserved. This process is situated within a postcolonial framework drawing on Iwabuchi’s (2002) mukokuseki and Tolentino’s (2019) Instagram Face, and extended to argue that generative AI systems trained on commercially compressed imagery may recursively normalize a narrowed aesthetic range. The implications extend beyond beauty representation to the broader question of whether algorithmic systems can preserve the aesthetic plurality they inherit from the cultures they are trained on.
Data availability
The data analyzed in this study include previously collected social media image data, practitioner interview materials, and publicly available virtual human images used for exploratory visual analysis. The underlying datasets are not publicly available due to ethical, privacy, and platform-related considerations, including the use of social media images and qualitative interview materials. Aggregated results and analytic details necessary to support the arguments of the article are reported in the manuscript.
References
Allen TW (1994) The invention of the white race. Verso, New York
Ashikari M (2003) Urban middle-class Japanese women and their white faces: gender, ideology, and representation. Ethos 31(1):3–37. https://doi.org/10.1525/eth.2003.31.1.3
Ashikari M (2005) Cultivating Japanese whiteness: the ‘whitening’ cosmetics boom and the Japanese identity. J Mater Cult 10(1):73–91. https://doi.org/10.1177/1359183505050095
Baum J, Villasenor J (2024) Rendering misrepresentation: diversity failures in AI image generation. Brookings Institution. https://www.brookings.edu/articles/rendering-misrepresentation-diversity-failures-in-ai-image-generation/ Accessed 29 Mar 2026
Bianchi F, Kallini V, Laio A, Ferrante M, Conti M, Cuconato G, Hovy D (2023) Easily accessible text-to-image generation amplifies demographic stereotypes at large scale. In: Proceedings of FAccT 2023. ACM, New York, pp 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1145/3593013.3594095
Bolukbasi T, Chang K-W, Zou J, Saligrama V, Kalai A (2016) Man is to computer programmer as woman is to homemaker? Debiasing word embeddings. In: Advances in neural information processing systems, vol 29. Curran Associates, Red Hook, pp 4349–4357
Boursier V, Gioia F, Griffiths MD (2020) Selfie-engagement on social media: pathological narcissism, positive expectation, and body objectification. Addict Behav Rep 11:100263. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.abrep.2020.100263
Bullingham L, Vasconcelos AC (2013) The presentation of self in the online world’: Goffman and the study of online identities. J Inf Sci 39(1):101–112. https://doi.org/10.1177/0165551512470051
Buolamwini J, Gebru T (2018) Gender shades: intersectional accuracy disparities in commercial gender classification. In: Proc 1st conf. fairness account transpar., PMLR, vol 81, pp 77–91
Cave S, Dihal K (2020) The whiteness of AI. Philos Technol 33(4):685–703. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13347-020-00415-6
Chae J (2017) Virtual makeover: selfie-taking and social media use increase selfie-editing frequency through social comparison. Comput Hum Behav 66:370–376. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2016.10.007
Chow R (2011) Framing the original: toward a new visibility of the Orient. PMLA 126(3):555–563. https://doi.org/10.1632/pmla.2011.126.3.555
Dass A (2014) Humanæ. https://angelicadass.com/photography/humanae/ Accessed 15 Sept 2022
de Rigal J, Abella M-L, Giron F, Caisey L, Lefebvre MA (2007) Development and validation of a new Skin Color Chart. Skin Res Technol 13(2):101–109. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-0846.2007.00223.x
Dkidjic D (2018) iPhone XS camera forces “beauty mode” by default; and you can’t turn it off. DIYPhotography. https://www.diyphotography.net/iphone-xs-camera-forces-beauty-mode-by-default-and-you-cant-turn-it-off/ Accessed 15 Sept 2022
Dobke M, Chung C, Takabe K (2006) Facial aesthetic preferences among Asian women: are all oriental Asians the same? Aesthet Plast Surg 30(3):342–347. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00266-005-0091-3
Dyer R (1997) White. Routledge, London
Ghosh S (2017) How popular smartphones make your skin look ‘whiter’ in selfies. Business Insider. https://www.businessinsider.com/samsung-huawei-smartphone-beauty-filters-whiten-your-skin-2017-8 Accessed 12 May 2021
Goffman E (1959) The presentation of self in everyday life. Overlook Press, New York
Gomez ME, Patel R, Robertsen K, Lockhart K (2020) Finding wellbeing in filters and selfies: how to build transparency and control into face retouching features. Material Design Blog. https://material.io/blog/digital-wellbeing-face-retouching Accessed 15 Sept 2022
Green B, Chen Y (2019) Disparate interactions: an algorithm-in-the-loop analysis of fairness in risk assessments. In: Proc. conf. fairness account transpar., pp 90–99
Hall RE (2011) Eurocentrism and the postcolonial implications of skin color among Latinos. Hisp J Behav Sci 33(1):105–117. https://doi.org/10.1177/0739986310391639
Harville M, Baker H, Bhatti N, Süsstrunk S (2005) Consistent image-based measurement and classification of skin color. In: Proc int. conf. image process (ICIP-2005), pp 11–14
He Q, Wang R (2020) Hyperspectral imaging enabled by an unmodified smartphone for analyzing skin morphological features and monitoring hemodynamics. Biomed Opt Express 11(2):895–910. https://doi.org/10.1364/BOE.378470
Hooks B (1992) Black looks: race and representation. South End Press, Boston
IMARC Group (2024) K-beauty products market size, share, trends and forecast 2025–2033. IMARC Group. https://www.imarcgroup.com/k-beauty-products-market Accessed 29 Mar 2026
Iwabuchi K (2002) Recentering globalization: popular culture and Japanese transnationalism. Duke University Press, Durham
Jahanian A, Keshvari S, Vishwanathan SVN, Allebach JP (2017) Colors—messengers of concepts: visual design mining for learning color semantics. ACM Trans Comput-Hum Interact 24(1):Article 2. https://doi.org/10.1145/3009924
Keevak M (2019) The Chinese were white—until white men called them yellow. South China Morning Post. https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/2184754/chinese-were-white-until-white-men-called-them-yellow Accessed 6 Apr 2021
Kwon YJ (2020) Rituals and myths of Korean skin care practices: the emergence of K-beauty in the global marketplace. J Korean Soc Costume 70(5):45–61. https://doi.org/10.7233/jksc.2020.70.5.045
Lo KYK (2016) The propaganda of Pantone: colour and subcultural sublimation. https://lokidesign.net/en/texts/the-propaganda-of-pantone-colour-and-subcultural-sublimation Accessed 30 June 2021
MacAdam DL (1942) Visual sensitivities to color differences in daylight. J Opt Soc Am 32(5):247–274
MacEvoy B (2009) Color temperature. http://www.handprint.com/HP/WCL/color12.html Accessed 30 May 2021
Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, Republic of Korea (2025) Cosmetics exports in 2024 rank 3rd worldwide with USD 10.2B. Korea.net. https://www.korea.net/NewsFocus/Business/view?articleId=272319 Accessed 29 Mar 2026
Park S, Hong S-K (2019) On the intersectionality of race and gender in the skin-whitening culture of K-beauty: a case study on the whitewashing/yellow washing debate. Journal of Communication Research 56(2):43–78. https://doi.org/10.22174/jcr.2019.56.2.43
Park S, Hong S-K (2021) Performing whiteness: skin beauty as somatechnics in South Korean stardom and celebrity. Celebrity Studies 12(2):299–313. https://doi.org/10.1080/19392397.2021.1912258
Pescott CK (2020) “I wish I was wearing a filter right now”: an exploration of identity formation and subjectivity of 10- and 11-year olds’ social media use. Soc Media Soc 6(4):1–10. https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305120963436
Rhue L (2019) Beauty’s in the AI of the beholder: how AI anchors subjective and objective predictions. ICIS 2019 Proc, Paper 15. https://aisel.aisnet.org/icis2019/future_of_work/future_work/15
Ryding FC, Kuss DJ (2020) The use of social networking sites, body image dissatisfaction, and body dysmorphic disorder: a systematic review. Psychol Pop Media 9(4):412–435. https://doi.org/10.1037/ppm0000264
Said EW (1978) Orientalism. Routledge, London
Santarossa S, Woodruff SJ (2017) #SocialMedia: exploring the relationship of social networking sites on body image, self-esteem, and eating disorders. Soc Media Soc 3(2):1–10. https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305117704407
Santos RS (2014) PANTONE: identity formation through colours. Master’s thesis, OCAD University, Toronto. https://openresearch.ocadu.ca/id/eprint/185
Spivak GC (2003) Can the subaltern speak? Philosophin 14(27):42–58
Steed R, Caliskan A (2021) Image representations learned with unsupervised pre-training contain human-like biases. In: Proc FAccT ’21. ACM, New York, pp 701–713. https://doi.org/10.1145/3442188.3445932
Thompson RA (1978) The yellow peril, 1890–1924. Arno Press, New York
Thong W, Joniak P, Xiang A (2023) Beyond skin tone: a multidimensional measure of apparent skin color. http://arxiv.org/abs/2309.05148
Tolentino J (2019) Trick mirror: reflections on self-delusion. Random House, New York
Veldhuis J, Alleva JM, Bij de Vaate AJD, Keijer M, Konijn EA (2020) Me, my selfie, and I: the relations between selfie behaviors, body image, self-objectification, and self-esteem in young women. Psychol Pop Media 9(1):3–13. https://doi.org/10.1037/ppm0000206
Wang Y, Liao H, Feng Y, Xu X, Luo J (2016) Do they all look the same? Deciphering Chinese, Japanese and Koreans by fine-grained deep learning. http://arxiv.org/abs/1610.01854
Wang L, Wang C, Zhou X (2017) Blind image quality assessment on Gaussian blur images. J Inf Process Syst 13(3):448–463. https://doi.org/10.3745/JIPS.02.0059
Warade P (2025) Virtual influencer market size, share and trends analysis report. Straits Research, Report Code SRTE56866DR. https://straitsresearch.com/report/virtual-influencer-market Accessed 29 Mar 2026
Wittkower DE (2014) Facebook and dramauthentic identity: a post-Goffmanian model of identity performance on SNS. First Monday. https://doi.org/10.5210/fm.v19i4.4858
Xi N, Ma D, Liou M, Steinert-Threlkeld ZC, Anastasopoulos J, Joo J (2019) Understanding the political ideology of legislators from social media images. In: Proc int. AAAI conf. web soc. media, vol 14, pp 726–737
Yang Y (2025) Racial bias in AI-generated images. AI Soc 40:5425–5437. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-025-02282-1
Yeung J, Bae G (2022) Forever young, beautiful and scandal-free: the rise of South Korea’s virtual influencers. CNN. https://www.cnn.com/style/article/south-korea-virtual-influencers-beauty-social-media-intl-hnk-dst Accessed 30 July 2022
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
J.Y. led the overall study design and development, coordinated the research process, conducted the primary data analysis, and wrote the main manuscript text. S.P. contributed substantially to the theoretical framing and analysis of the relevant literature. S.H. provided foundational input on the postcolonial perspective and its integration into the manuscript’s conceptual argument. B.S. guided the image data analysis strategy and contributed to the methodological interpretation of the visual evidence. All authors reviewed and approved the final manuscript.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
The authors declare no competing interests.
Use of generative AI
During the preparation of this manuscript, the author(s) used ChatGPT to assist with language editing and reference consistency checks. All substantive arguments, analyses, interpretations, and conclusions were developed and verified by the author(s), who take full responsibility for the content of the manuscript.
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
About this article
Cite this article
You, J., Park, S., Suh, B. et al. From selfies to synthetic faces: selective aesthetic compression in East Asian beauty representation. AI & Soc (2026). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-026-03318-w
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Version of record:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-026-03318-w