Slice of heaven: One surgeon's duty to beauty
Chen Huanran during a morning consultation. For anxious beauty seekers, getting Chen's permission for surgery can be difficult. |
Meet Chen Huanran, a plastic surgeon who is in such high demand that he has formulated his own test to weed out which clients he doesn't want to operate on.
For anxious beauty seekers, from teenage girls to middle-aged women, getting doctor Chen's permission for surgery is an arduous process.
From a Monday morning consultation where he examines 20 women, only a few patients will qualify to go under Chen's knife. Getting your dream nose is not simply a matter of making an appointment.
And Chen is the first to admit that we have entered "a crazy age of plastic surgery".
"The media is crazy, publicizing plastic surgery so much. The capital is crazy, investing heavily in the business for its huge profits. The doctors are crazy, dermatologists, orthopedists, or even veterinarians now want to be plastic surgeons. The beauty seekers are crazy. They don't know that many of them will become victims," Chen said.
A building in Beijing shows advertisements for beauty treatment and plastic surgery. The beauty business has flourished in China in recent years. |
Now in his 40s, Chen adheres to a strict system when choosing who he'll operate on. To get his approval, visitors must first undergo a psychological test.
From the results, about 30 percent of applicants will be denied.
According to Chen, domestic plastic surgeons need to work more closely with psychotherapists, who can establish why the candidate wants the procedure to begin with.
"I have learnt from bitter experience. The surgeries are perfect but the patients can't accept their new look and have to receive psychological treatment," Chen said.
"Plastic surgery is not magic. For some people, it would only improve their looks a little. What they get is not worth the money and pain."
Chen believes doctors should stop and think before agreeing to the procedure.
"An experienced plastic surgeon knows if the surgery will meet the patient's expectations. Sometimes, they go ahead with it simply for the money or to practice their skills," he said.
In 1987, Chen graduated from Anhui Medical College and went on to postgraduate study at Peking Union Medical College. There he was told that three particular medical fields would thrive in the 21st century: plastic surgery, psychology, and sexology.
"The forecasts proved to be true. People have become increasingly concerned about how they look," he said.
Chen still remembers how scared he was 20 years ago before his first double eyelid operation on a young girl. After removing the sutures, the patient and her mother were happy simply because the surgery was performed. They didn't seem to care that the new eyelids did not fit her eye shape.
"At that time, people had very low expectations for plastic surgery," he said.
He now wishes that he could correct the "mistakes" made during his first nose and eyelid operations.
"Now patients invite me to meals to show their gratitude," he said.
When he was starting out, Chen indulged in a pastime he considered to be work related: studying beautiful women.
While eating his lunch, he would gaze out his window staring at girls passing by on the street. He would sometimes comment on their appearance.
Wherever he went, he always carried his camera. When he saw a beautiful girl on the street, he would ask if he could take her photo. Most would pose for him after he told them he was a plastic surgeon.
He also carried a tool case filled with all kinds of rulers for body measurements and gesso for making models.
"Beauties are the best textbooks for plastic surgeons. If they do not know about beauties, how can they perform beautiful surgeries?"
Before he rose in the plastic surgery ranks, Chen was regarded as a transsexual surgery pioneer. He claims to have conducted about 80 percent of China's sex-change cases.
In 1990, Chen underwent a doctorate study in transsexualism, which was still a new area of expertise in Chinese medicine.
To prepare for his thesis, he buried himself in the laboratory for six months and conducted autopsies on more than 200 bodies of men and women.
"Transsexual surgeries refined my plastic surgery techniques," he said.
"Transsexual patients don't care how much I change their bodies. They only want to turn into beauties."
However, Chen says that his mental health suffered on account of these gender mutations. The moment he saw a girl he only thought how to make her better-looking through plastic surgery.
Two years ago, he started to visit a psychotherapist. He said he did not have a life outside of work, spending all of his time on surgeries and replying to patients' mail when at home.
This therapist said that he was too absorbed in his work and that he should take advantage of his time away from the operating room.
This inspired him to learn how to ski. "I discovered for the first time how cold the snow feels in your hands," he said.
Now Chen rarely performs sex-change surgeries and has also cut down on cosmetic surgeries. He says he now plans to study for a sociology degree. "I am now more interested in the stories behind the tens of thousands of beauty seekers that come to me each year."
(China Daily 03/06/2007 page18)
