A beauty contest seeking to discover the ten most beautiful college students in China's Hubei Province has come under fire for requiring applicants to prove that their nipples are a specific distance apart from each other.

The space between the two protrusions shall be no greater than 20 centimeters, the organizers specify.

The contest, launched by the website Campus Model, also has very exact requirements for the applicants' bust, waist, and hips. "We want the winners to be extremely good-looking," one of the organizers told the Global Times. "We have based our criteria both on the traditional Chinese and more modern Western aesthetic values."

Responding to a question about their source for the perfect nipple distance, the website staffer said "Internet research" was involved.

Many locals took to social networking sites to criticize the contest and those who would participate in it.

"Check out what the brain-dead college people spend all day doing, then you'll know why China can't produce a Harvard, Oxford!" said one irate Sina Weibo user. "When we select the most handsome boy, we'll measure his dick length and width," said another.

So far only a handful of young women have agreed to subject their nipples to scrutiny for a shot at winning 10,000 yuan (~$1,600) "and the chance to act in online dramas."

[photo via 365JIA.cn, diagram via Beijing Cream]