CHINA: One of China's leading plastic surgeons cuts the trend in plastic surgery industry

Record ID: 572495

  • Title: CHINA: One of China's leading plastic surgeons cuts the trend in plastic surgery industry
  • Date: 18th November 2008
  • Summary: AN OLD-VIDEO CLIP SHOWING SHI PERFORMING CHINESE OPERA ON STAGE SHI WATCHING THE CLIP SHI SINGING AND DANCING ON STAGE ON THE VIDEO CLIP
  • Embargoed: 3rd December 2008 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: China
  • Country: China
  • Topics: Health
  • Reuters ID: LVA51U1Q2X2SUEPM35HEFYH2FNXS
  • Story Text: Shi Sanba is dubbed China's "Michael Jackson" for having had more than 50 plastic surgeries - both the sake of her own image and the plastic surgery industry.
    Among thousands of plastic surgery clinics that mushroomed across China, "Sanba Plastic Surgery Hospital" has stood out not only because of the fame of its owner, but because she is known for testing herself under the knife in the search of beauty.
    As more and more people are desperate to change their looks to be more beautiful, more successful and more marriageable, about one million operations take place every year, with eye and nose modifications the most common, according to Chinese media.
    The recent global financial crisis also played an important role in the trend, said Zhang Yu, a 41-year-old employee at an IT company.

    "In the past, I had a stable job, but now under the international financial crisis, our company is also cutting jobs, thus for a woman, when looking for a job, looks are very important," she said.
    For Zhang, to have a nose job is her "pre-emptive" move.
    Shi, who herself has changed her nose numerous times, performed the design for Zhang.
    After twenty-minus of cutting, sculpting and knitting, Zhang came out of the operation room beaming.
    The operation cost her 15,000 yuan (around $2,200 U.S. dollars) and it would take her about a week for the swelling to vanish, but she said it was worth every penny.

    "I am very satisfied with the result, and I feel that my nose does look higher than before and I look much better," she said while looking into a mirror.
    Zhang is one of the many that chose Shi's hospital, convinced by the fact that Shi had tested different materials on herself.

    "Since I am in this industry, I have to continue to try different new materials for plastic surgery, so that I can tell my clients the first-hand information, such as how I feel when I have them inside my body, what the reactions are and whether there are any side-effect. Some people said I have done plastic surgeries 16 times, some said 50 or 60 times, but honestly, it is countless," said Shi.
    Pointing at pictures of herself before and after surgery, she recalled the time when she was an opera actress in central province of Henan nearly 28 years ago.
    Growing up under Mao Zedong's austere Communist rule, when plastic surgery was unimagined and pursuit of feminine beauty frowned upon, it was a difficult decision for Shi to have her first cut.
    Small eyes, flat nose and big face, which had hindered her career, and a heart-broken divorce had finally helped her make up her mind to start altering her fate by changing her face, she said.
    She went one step further and studied to become a surgeon herself.
    Now she owns a hospital with nearly 80 doctors and nurses, but the changes on her face and body did not stop.
    She had her eyes enlarged in different styles, chin reductions, breast implants, tummy flattened and buttocks lifted.
    The experience won her the nickname of "China's Michael Jackson", the American super pop star who has had numerous plastic surgeries.
    But Shi was not very happy about the comparison.

    "The key difference between me and Michael Jackson is that he violated the law of nature, while I am following it. Why is that? Because he is black, but how can you change yourself from black to white? After the change, he became someone who is not black yet not white and looked worse than before. I did my surgeries based on the law of nature," she said.
    Even though the surgeries may seem like no big deal for Shi, health authorities have warned that patients face medical risks as they do in any surgical procedure.
    But another growing risk to people desiring these cosmetic operations, according to health experts, is the influx in recent years of opportunistic doctors not certified as plastic surgeons aiming to get a slice of this lucrative business.
    In addition, health insurance companies typically do not cover elective beauty makeovers.
    Still, an estimate $2.4 billion is spent annually on plastic surgery, according to Chinese official figure.
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