End of a long march for Miss Ugly

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End of a long march for Miss Ugly<br>
By Hamish McDonald<br>
February 14, 2004<br>
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Zhang Di in front of her "before" picture. Photo: Hamish McDonald <br><br>
Three months after her name was proclaimed around the world as China's "Miss Ugly", Zhang Di is looking at the world with new eyes.<br>
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And a new mouth, in fact. Not to mention a new nose, a new shape to her jaw and a new hairline.<br>
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No fashion victim she. Any embarrassment is fast receding as the Shanghai 27-year-old meets the world with a new chicness, thanks to the careful makeover achieved by a cosmetic surgeon, Zhang Wei, at Shanghai's Kinway Clinic. <br>
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"It has changed my feelings. I feel much better about myself," says Ms Zhang. "When I go shopping, the attitude of the sales people, especially the men, is much more attentive."<br>
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The reverse beauty competition, run by a brash tabloid newspaper called Mid-day News, attracted about 50 entries from young women in Shanghai. The prize was 100,000 yuan ($16,000) worth of cosmetic surgery from Dr Zhang.<br>
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In Chinese, the title was not as tasteless as the "Miss Ugly" adopted by international news agencies, but "Grey Girl", which is the somewhat literal Chinese translation of Cinderella.<br>
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But coming just before China hosted the most recent Miss World competition in a Hawaii-style resort on its southern Hainan island, it seemed brashly symbolic of how the country was commodifying female beauty in its indiscriminate rush to modernise<br>