CHINA: A growing number of young Chinese are willing to pay large amounts of money for cosmetic surgery

Record ID: 572553

  • Title: CHINA: A growing number of young Chinese are willing to pay large amounts of money for cosmetic surgery
  • Date: 5th August 2006
  • Summary: VARIOUS SHOTS OF HOSPITAL LOBBY / PEOPLE WAITING FOR HEALTH CHECK NURSE DOING BLOOD TEST FOR FEMALE PATIENT
  • Embargoed: 20th August 2006 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: China
  • Country: China
  • Topics: Nature / Environment
  • Reuters ID: LVA8OCSSNWWXZVEMSZBUPML2RF4E
  • Story Text: The popularity of cosmetic surgery amongst the young Chinese is surging, with thousands of college students willing to go through the onerous procedure in order to look more attractive.
    Beijing's 'Evercare' hospital is cashing in on the new trend.
    The number of young people under the age of 25 who want to have a cosmetic surgery has risen dramatically in the past two years.
    The hospital does at least a thousand plastic surgeries a year - a third of them are for people under 25. The most popular operations are eyes enlargement, nose jobs and facial reconstruction.
    Patients come for a series of surgeries which often include three to four major operations that usually need three to six months to heal properly.
    Founded in 2002 with only a few doctors at the time, the hospital now has 40 plastic surgeons at six locations in Beijing.
    According to the hospital, a few years ago, almost everyone who went through plastic surgery was between the age of 25 and 35. But these days, the majority of patients are young college students who hope that by changing their looks they will enhance their chances both in their private and profession lives.
    "Students have time to get plastic surgery done on them before they step into the real world. They all want to plunge into society with a better looking face. They feel it is more advantageous in finding jobs and finding a better boyfriend or girlfriend, if they are beautiful. So we have a lot of young students here trying to look more beautiful so they are more competitive once it comes to jobs and finding boyfriends or girlfriends," said plastic surgeon, Wang Jiguang.
    The cheapest operation is an eye enlargement job, it costs around 300 U.S. dollars. The most expensive, which is also the most popular one among students, is facial reconstruction, which costs 7,500 USD.
    To encourage students to go under the scalpel, the hospital even has special promotions for students.
    "I'm very supportive of it( young people having plastic surgeries for career). Personally, in this modern society, not only in China, but also in other parts of the world, the way people look at people is not only about this "inner beauty" anymore. The first impression you leave to people is extremely important. If a person looks good, then that's a great advantage. It's going to make his or her life and career much better," said Pan Ou, a student.
    For many years, Chinese officialdom forbade cosmetic surgery, seeing it as "bourgeois vanity". Only 20 years ago, plastic surgery expertise was restricted to a small number of doctors specializing in post-accident repair work.
    But now bourgeois vanity is fuelling one of the fastest growing industries in the country. According to figures released by the government, at present the Chinese spend 2.4 billion USD a year on cosmetic surgery, with an estimated 1 million operations performed a year.
    "Due to the spread of pop culture nowadays, more and more young people are being deeply influenced by it. Young people place a lot of attention on how they look because they are very into cartoon characters and movie stars. We carried out research before which showed that a beautiful girl is significantly more popular than an ordinary-looking, but smart girl. This is a sign that the era of beauty has arrived," said Liu Yanqun, chief of Evercare Hospital.
    Chinese interest in cosmetic surgery echoes attitudes in neighbouring East Asian countries. Encouraged by gaudy promotional TV shows such as Beauty Coliseum, the Japanese spend some 2 trillion yen (18.7 billion USD) on cosmetic surgery each year. South Korea's Seoul is now home to over 2,000 private clinics, with surveys suggesting that at least 50 percent of Korean women in their twenties have experienced some form of plastic surgery -- an estimate some call conservative.
    But there are dangers that come with the cosmetic surgery boom.
    According some industry estimates, at least 200,000 people have reported being disfigured after plastic surgery in China in the last decade. But the dangers are often overshadowed by dramatically increased wealth and changing values in a society where changing one's looks is just another service that can be bought for a price. ENDS.
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