The whole sentence is "each has its own beauty, the beauty of beauty, the beauty of beauty, and the world is a family." The idea of sixteen characters was put forward at Mr. Fei Xiaotong's eightieth birthday party, which was at 1990. In his speech entitled "China's Humanism-Personal Experience", Mr. Fei Xiaotong, a well-known sociologist, summed up the sixteen principles of "beauty is beauty, beauty is beauty, beauty is beauty, and the world is one". The full text of this speech was published in issue 1990 of Reading magazine.

Mr. Fei Xiaotong, a senior scholar, pointed out that we should have a clear understanding of the whole history of China culture, a clear understanding and self-confidence, and an independent ability of cultural transformation and an independent position of cultural choice. We first discover our own beauty, then discover and appreciate the beauty of others, then appreciate and praise each other, and finally reach agreement and integration. This is what Mr. Fei advocated: "each has its own beauty, beautiful beauty, beautiful beauty, and the world is one."