From Overseas Press

A trendy import: Western look via cosmetic surgery

(chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2010-07-28 17:35

In this undated file photo, doctors conduct a corrective operation for a woman disfigured in faulty cosmetic surgeries at the AAA-rated Southwestern Hospital in Chongqing. [Photo/Chinacqsb.com]

In order to secure a coveted career or romance, thousands of young Chinese, mostly women, are choosing cosmetic surgery to reshape themselves with Western-looking features. The operations, blissful for some, could be quite painful for others, Washington-based McClatchy Newspapers reported on Sunday.

From subway billboards to shopping mall posters, young people in China's metropolises are flooded by images of wide-eyed foreign models with straight noses and busty chests, features widely considered beauty icons here, the newspaper observed.

"If all the media show are very thin, blond-haired, blue-eyed women, they'll try to emulate that," said Valerie Monroe, the beauty director at O, the Oprah Magazine.

He Zen is one of the followers. She spent $290 at a clinic to make her eyes Caucasian-looking. She later got an internship with the British banking giant HSBC that led to a full-time job.

Thanks to China's economic growth in the last three decades, such a costly cosmetic surgery like He's has come within reach of many. According to the report, the surgery cost varies according to procedure, ranging from $290 for eyelid reconstruction to $7,300 for breast implants. A hospital website advertises more daring stunts such as belly fat suction and lower jaw sharpening.

However, the surgical procedures, expensive as they are, don't promise perfection, sometimes even turning disastrous. Just in the past 10 years, more than 200,000 lawsuits have been filed in China over faulty cosmetic procedures, many of which took place in small clinics like in He's case, according to an industry report.

Yang Yunxia, a veteran cosmetic surgeon with New Generation hospital, said to the newspaper that her team performed about 40,000 procedures a year, often for women disfigured in skewed cosmetic surgeries.

"It happens a lot. Patients come with one big eye and one small eye or uneven breasts," Yang said. "China is a big place with lots of different standards."

But no matter how many botched cosmetic surgeries are reported, the desire for Western-looking features such as wide eyes or large breasts continues, the newspaper said.