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Students spend summer holiday trading faces
(Reuters)
Updated: 2006-08-25 09:34 NO LUXURY
Pan is one of many students in China
getting plastic surgery over the summer break when a three-month vacation gives
time for bandages to come off and bruises to heal before school resumes.
"There is definitely a trend in students having operations," said Dr Liu
Yanqun, EverCare's director. His hospital gives students 20 percent discounts on
plastic surgery procedures.
A patient's jaw is marked before a facial
reconstruction operation in Beijing July 27, 2006. For China's graduating
students, cosmetic surgery offers a skin of protection in an increasingly
brutal job market where women often come second. Picture taken July 27,
2006. [Reuters] |
Their parents encourage
their kids to go under the knife with the hope that a prettier face may give
them an edge.
"It's an economic age of beauty," said Liu. "A
good-looking girl earns 10 percent more than others."
EverCare performed
over 1,000 operations last year. Around 95 percent of the patients were women
and over 20 percent were aged under 25.
Like cars and mobile phones,
plastic surgery is no longer considered a luxury, Liu said.
"It has
become a need for ordinary people," he said.
Government officials
estimate that US$2.4 billion is spent annually in China on plastic surgery
procedures. They say about one million such operations take place every year.
Eye and nose modifications are the most common operations.
"These are the areas for that all-important first impression -- the
place where people first look and where a lover's eyes gaze," Liu said.
Now school-age girls can get "double eyelids" for 2000 yuan (US$250) --
a procedure favoured by aspiring stars -- where a crease is added to the eyelids
to make the eyes appear larger.
Bi Shumin, a prominent psychologist and
writer on women's health, said the youth boom in plastic surgery reflected
China's frantic modernisation. The sheer pace of change has made first
impressions paramount, she said.
"Unlike the past, we had a lot of time
to get to know each other. Now, we judge people and are judged within a very
short period," she said.
PARENTAL GUIDANCE
For
China's graduating students, cosmetic surgery offers a skin of protection in an
increasingly brutal job market where women often come second.
While the
nation's economy charges full-steam ahead, millions of university graduates are
finding the jobs promised when they began their degrees simply don't exist.
This year, 4.13 million students are entering the workforce -- 22
percent more than in 2005. Many are reluctant or ill-qualified to work in the
heavy industries fueling China's growth and face a service industry too small to
absorb them.
With media reports of this year's graduates taking jobs as
cleaners and domestic helpers for rich families, it's no wonder that students
and their parents are seeking an edge in looks, said Yang Chun, a 32-year-old TV
anchor.
"Many parents fully support their kids getting these procedures,
particularly high school kids going to university," she said.
"They'll
say 'It's a new environment, no one will know you. Why not enter it with
confidence and a fresh, new outlook," she said, speaking after receiving a
collagen injection for her lips.
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