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It started off with the Chinese being so ashamed of their names that they discarded them and replaced them with Western sounding ones.
But it hasn't stopped there. They're now trying to look Caucasian!
It's a nation with no self confidence, no pride and obviously very low self esteeem.
But it hasn't stopped there. They're now trying to look Caucasian!
It's a nation with no self confidence, no pride and obviously very low self esteeem.
Chinese cosmetic surgery boom
Updated: 09:11, Tuesday January 18, 2011
Until the 1980s, cosmetic surgery was banned by China's Communist government, but new figures now show the industry is worth $A15.98 billion a year.
Unlike in the West the most popular procedure here is not a facelift or breast enlargement but something known as 'double eyelids'. The operation begins with a thin layer of fat being sliced from above the eye and is completed with a crease being stitched into the socket.
The goal is to make the eyes appear less Asian and more European. Other common procedures aimed at making Asian faces look more Caucasian include nose enlargements, jawbone reshaping or 'grinding', and liposuction on the cheeks.
'Foreigners think that the Chinese all have flat faces and small eyes, because that's what our race looks like,' explains Dr Shi Sanba, the founder of a high end clinic in Beijing.
'But now that China's getting richer people are no longer satisfied with their appearance. We think Westerners are more beautiful.' Dr Shi has herself had more than 60 operations, and says she liked to experiment with new techniques on her own face before recommending them.
Her clients include the wives of government officials and a host of celebrities.
But China was recently stunned by the news that Wang Bei, a well-known singer, had died on the operating table during an operation to have her jaw reshaped.
Wang's mother - who was also undergoing cosmetic surgery in the same hospital - woke up to hear that her daughter had choked to death on her own blood.
Thousands of other women who do not make the headlines are also victims of surgical errors.
China's blossoming market economy is short on regulation, and lax on enforcement.
For unscrupulous doctors, the cosmetic industry is a golden, money-making opportunity where even disastrous surgeries are unlikely to come with legal consequences.
Exact figures are difficult to come by, but in one incident it is believed several hundred thousand women were injected in the face and breasts with a toxic substance known as Aomeiding. Photographs posted online show women with the greenish, carcinogenic substance leaching from their skin.
Bao Bao, a 28-year-old former dancer from Shanghai, had Aomeiding injected into both her breasts and chin and says she is now in constant pain. The self-confessed cosmetic surgery addict has also had over 100 other procedures, including three face lifts, laser skin whitening and implants in her heels in an attempt to add stature.
'I've lost everything, my youth and my career,' she said in a tearful interview.
'No man wants to be with me, and sometimes I look so frightening that I don't even want to leave the house.'
But online advertisements for plastic surgery tell a different story. 'To change your life, you have to change yourself,' says one hospital website.
Another clinic offers to help its patients 'emerge from the chrysalis and become a beautiful butterfly.'
In a Beijing recovery ward 18-year-old Ting Ting hopes she has done just that.
To mark her birthday, the high school student's parents spent over $A15,985 on facial surgery.
'I used to look so ordinary, so nobody ever noticed me,' she said, examining her newly stitched double eyelids in a mirror. 'But now I'm beautiful people will pay attention.'
