Her treatment went smoothly, but Chinese media frequently report on bungles that result in deformity and infection. In November, the Health Ministry banned the procedure except for medical reasons.

But height increases job prospects and help-wanted ads sometimes stipulate the requirements for white-collar posts.

"Taller people will have more opportunity for promotion," said Sun Honggang, an editor for Human Capital and Career Post, a Beijing newspaper dedicated to employee recruitment.

"Lovely Cinderella" producer Wang Zhiyi said that while his show is meant as entertainment, it's also cautionary. The footage is graphic, showing grotesquely swollen postoperative faces and surgeons vigorously sucking fat from a contestant's waist.

A video clip shows Chen, the beautician, crying out on the operating table for her husband and for more anesthetic. Later, she is shown throwing up and weeping in her hospital room because she misses her 5-year-old son.

But as she gazes at herself in front of the studio audience, the memories seem to evaporate like the theatrical fog blasted out of fire extinguishers before she stepped to the mirror.

What would Mao, leader of China from the 1949 revolution until his death in 1976, make of "Lovely Cinderella"?

Chen, born in Mao's hometown of Xiangtan in Hunan, laughs.

"How can I answer that?" she says. "I think that people today, with their more liberal ways of thinking, are at a place where if someone has an opportunity to change their life and become more confident, then everyone would want to support that."

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