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The What We Do is Secret Issue

How To Count Cute!

Chinese girls do this thing called "cute counting." Actually it's called "da tou tie de ke ai zhi shi," which can roughly be translated as "cute faces for big-head photo stickers."

This is number 1. See below for numbers 2 to 10. Chinese girls do this thing called “cute counting.” Actually it’s called (pronounced “da tou tie de ke ai zhi shi”), which can roughly be translated as “cute faces for big-head photo stickers.” It’s a game in which girls try to outcute each other by counting with their hands. They do it when they’re taking pictures of themselves in photo booths, especially for photo stickers. The numbers are meant to help you remember how to make different faces when you’re taking the photos. Cute counting probably originated in Japan, but the trend has been taking over Chinese cities for the past three or four years and Chinese girls of all ages have been trying to outcute each other ever since. In these photos, our friend Yang Lei—her English name is Shine, her Chinese name means “sunflower,” and her friends call her Panda Girl—shows us how to count cute.

Yang Lei was a finalist in the 2006 Mongolian Cow Sour Yogurt Super Girl Contest—China’s version of our American Idol or the UK’s Pop Idol. Last year’s final episode of Super Girl reached an audience of 400 million people, making it by far the biggest TV show in the history of TV shows. Yang Lei is also the cutest girl in China. See more or Yang Lei in Shanghai Super Girl on VBS.tv