It’s summer vacation in China, time for students to relax after the exams. Apart from the usual holiday spots, one popular destination this year is the hospital. From cherubic six-year-olds to teenagers, students are lining up to put themselves under the knife — only to look better.
This isn’t happening only in the big metros. It was in Zhu Hai, a city where a traffic jam can still raise eyebrows, that a nine-year-old was brought in for plastic surgery. Her parents were undeterred by two widely publicized tragedies in this very city last year. The first girl died during a breast enlargement, the second ended up a cripple after a “leg extension” (by insertion of a steel rod) intended to make her taller.
All along Zhu Hai’s “walking street”, young dandies thrust vividly illustrated flyers into your hands, all advertising surgically-induced beauty: breast and hip enlargements, nose bridges, dimples, round eyes, fuller lips, even hymen restoration, at the hands of “foreign doctors using American techniques”.
Last year, Hao Lulu, a 24-year-old fashion writer, became the nation’s first completely artificial beauty when she went in for a 200-day “head-to-toe” overhaul. A Beijing hospital sponsored the entire 300,000 yuan procedure in return for using her as their advertisement. Even as a debate on the merits of “artificial beauty” raged in the media, a Shanghai tabloid offered a 100,000 yuan procedure to any girl wanting to risk becoming a “man-made” beauty.
After Hao Lulu, one after the other, capital cities began flashing the names of their very own “first plastic beauty”: either chosen by local newspapers or hospitals, or offering themselves for sponsorship. Soon, parents were allowing 13-year-olds “double eyelid” procedures as reward for academic achievement.
Change of face
That was last year. Today, parents themselves seem unwilling to let their little ones grow up with typically Chinese features. Perhaps they hope to give them a head start in an economy where good looks have become so important that two universities announced that only boys 167 cms tall and girls 157 cms tall need apply for certain subjects, since they stood a better chance of landing jobs. Until now, height was advertised as a prerequisite only for jobs not requiring more than a middle school education.
One of the most attractive career options today is modelling. What better gift can parents give their children than equip them to make a mark in the beauty contests conducted specially for them? Five to 65, each age group has its own beauty contest, prestigious events presided over by local government officials. No wonder then that a 60-year-old grandmother recently went in for a breast enlargement. Men haven’t been left behind: a Shanghai hospital will soon choose three men for its offer of plastic surgery, and the first “Mr China” contest has been announced.
As plastic surgery becomes commonplace, the premium on natural beauty goes up. A husband not only divorced his wife, but sued for compensation when he discovered that the stunner he had wooed was an “artificial” beauty. The discovery came about when she delivered their first child.
But the more alarming news for those willing to risk their lives for instant fame is the disqualifying of one such aspirant from a beauty contest on the ground of unfair advantage. As the indignant contestant threatened to sue, claiming that she had spent 110,000 yuan on 11 facial operations only to win this contest, a special “plastic beauty contest” was announced. Not for nothing is China’s beauty industry estimated at $ 5 billion, and its plastic surgery industry at $ 2.4 billion a year. Was it just 20 years ago that women were frowned upon just for getting their hair curled?
