A young woman calling herself Xiaoyun (Little Cloud) has spurred controversy by posting risque photos of herself to Chinese Web sites. She claims to be from Sichuan, and says she’s posting the photos to encourage people to donate money to earthquake relief. Some Chinese netizents are condeming her actions, calling her “shameless,” however others are praising her altrusitic spirit.

From AsiaOneDigital:

One blogger questioned whether the teen genuinely wanted to help, or whether the stunt was simply to help catapult her to online fame.

The blogger wrote: ‘These photographs look like they were carefully selected. She probably just wants to use the viral nature of the Internet to raise her profile online.’

Another blogger lamented: ‘It’s a pity that these ‘post-90′ (referring to the year 1990) girls are so shameless. Is this all they know how to do? What happened to their dignity?’

However, another blogger lauded her, saying that he admired her ‘willingness to express herself’.

‘It’s a pretty creative way to get donations - we need more creative people like her around,’ the blogger wrote.

The photos have been linked to on some 6,500 blogs, prompting Xiaoyun to face her critics:

‘I urge you to admire my photographs from an artistic point of view. Womens’ bodies are meant to be admired that way,’ she wrote.

She added that she had seen most of the comments left about her on the forum.

Responding to several personal messages sent to her through the forum, Xiaoyun wrote that she ‘felt terrible’ and was ‘nearly in tears’ after reading some of the more hurtful ones.

‘I don’t regret posting the pictures - I only regret that they have been seen by people who cannot appreciate them,’ she wrote.

She added that she hoped her critics would hear her out before judging.

‘I hope that you will read what I have to say and change your mind about me. I am still willing to be your friend,’ she wrote.