What they say

Yang Yue, 15, high school student in Kunming, Yunnan province.

"'Cuteness' is a popular word among my peers. Most of my female classmates have cute things, including clothes with lovely images of pets or cartoon characters. A Monchichi toy, a monkey with brown fur, is popular among girls. Contact lenses can also show cuteness, making the pupils looks bigger like Barbie's. In addition, cute gestures in daily life are quite normal among high school students. Pouting in a cute way is most common. However, some students think it's unnecessary."

Deng Di, 26, an advertising company employee in Beijing

"I think meng, first emerged on the Internet and was not at all well-known a few years ago. Personally speaking, the preference for meng results from people wishing to avoid reality. Those cute things don't suggest anything aggressive, just loveliness. With the wider spread of cuteness in recent years, the culture has also influenced the older generation. My boss is 42 years old and sometimes uses baby words such as 'doggie' to display a cute attitude and maintain a close relationship with younger workers."

Sara Chen, 27, works in marketing sales in Taipei

"'Cute' is popular with teenagers in Taiwan. Many stay-at-home men often fall in love with cute girls. In their view, cute means pure, innocent and ingenuous. Therefore, many advertisements use this image to attract teenagers, for example, to online games and 3C (computer, communications and consumer electronics) products. It is like wanting to make somebody happy and so you try to look cute, wear a pink dress and even speak like a child. You are eager to attract somebody. If an adult hopes to be cuter and then speaks like a child, I feel uncomfortable. It is play-acting. I wonder what they really think? Do they really feel cute? I don't think so. I hate to see adults trying to be cute and dressing like a Barbie doll. It's ridiculous."

Shine Chiang, 28, an engineer in Taipei

"To me, 'cute' is a description of all lovely things with a pure and simple nature. Most of my friends know meng from Japanese cartoons. Even among the older generation, cuteness can commonly be found, including the 'cute' mode on the camera that makes your eyes look bigger. The concept is also used in business, especially for products targeting females. In shopping malls in Taipei, some products are designed in a lovely way, such as a pet logo or colorful pictures of fruit with smiling faces, which can stimulate sales."

Contact the writer at jiangxueqing@chinadaily.com.cn

Yang Wanli also contributed to this story.