Behind a seemingly benign news story on China’s exploding plastic surgery industry, we have an unexpected and kind of scary development: Chinese people want to look like Westerners. What’s so scary about that? Well, I don’t hear about Americans going to plastic surgeons and demanding that they be made to look more Asian. Cosmetic Surgery Big Business In China:
Until the 1980s, cosmetic surgery was banned by China’s Communist government, but new figures now show the industry is worth £10 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.
Cosmetic surgeons in China peform an eye-widening operation known as ‘double eyelids.’ “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.”
A few years ago, I recall reports of bowlegged Korean women who had their legs broken and reset straight. Another story involved husbands who sued their plasticised Asian wives because their children were not as beautiful as expected. Why an Asian female would want to look Western is way beyond my Westernized sensibilities — nearly every male I know regards Asian females as the most attractive on the planet.
