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  • This is the modern face of China. The whole nation looks to Shanghai for a vision of their

  • future - modern, rich, and luxurious.

  • The oriental superpower is undergoing a radical transformation. The economic miracle has fundamentally

  • changed the country; China is becoming a consumer society. And according to Chinese sociologists,

  • the beauty craze is its most striking effect.

  • A glance at this chemist leaves no doubt about what's desirable in modern China: white skin

  • is chic. Whitening beauty creams outnumber non-whitening varieties everywhere you look.

  • With the opening up to capitalism there came a flood of foreign films, books, magazines.

  • This made a huge impact. It changed our ideas and values.

  • This is why many young women want to look like Western celebrities. 30 years ago this

  • would have been unthinkable. No one could afford cosmetic surgery. No clinics offered

  • cosmetic surgery for reasons other than accidents.

  • So just what should a woman in China look like? What now counts as desirable? And why

  • have these ideals of beauty changed? In a former factory on the outskirts of Beijing,

  • Photographer Zheng Chen believes he has some of the answers to these questions.

  • This is a woman from the Tang dynasty. Under the Emperor, being curvy was considered beautiful.

  • A wide face, long eyebrows, small mouth...

  • Until recently, communist ideals valued natural beauty. Women didn't use make up. The natural,

  • realistic look was 'in'.

  • Today other things are considered beautiful. Big eyes, small mouth, high nasal bridge,

  • pointy chin and of course, one's meant to be skinny.

  • Unusually tall with white skin and an oval face, model Ai Xiao Qi has more than a hint

  • of a Western appearance; and she makes good money on it. At just 19, she is already a

  • well-known model. But she's still not totally happy.

  • I want to look even more Western. My job demands this. Especially when you're a model, when

  • you're standing in front of cameras, your face must have a strong profile.

  • Cheng Zhen does what he can to help out: computer software allows him to pick up where nature

  • has left off.

  • I make the skin cleaner, then change the face shape, I make it smaller and longer. This

  • makes people look younger and cuter.

  • Then I take care of the eyes and nose, and other details.

  • According to Xiao Qi, cosmetic surgery is out of the question... at least for the time

  • being.

  • Asian models with Western faces adorn the showrooms of European luxury goods stores

  • throughout Shanghai.

  • Do you like this woman, her mouth, her face? Do you think she looks good?

  • I like her. She's sexy.

  • But why?

  • She's very pretty, she's almost ideal...

  • Her face shape is very three-dimensional. Especially her cheekbones and pointy chin.

  • What do you think is so beautiful about European facial features?

  • The European face is three-dimensional. The eyes have got a good shape, a high nasal bridge.

  • European women also have full lips.

  • Us Chinese on the other hand have very flat faces. It doesn't look good in pictures. That's

  • why many Chinese women would prefer to look more European.

  • These four friends initially claim they wouldn't go under the knife for the sake of beauty.

  • But they're not being completely honest.

  • Do you like my new chin?

  • Yes, very pretty. The surgery did you good.

  • Another girl from the group has recently had an eye surgery. She also keeps quiet about

  • it. Somehow, they find it all a little embarrassing.

  • The girls are typical of a new affluent, young demographic. So they have a good handle on the latest tastes

  • in cosmetic beauty.

  • Small face, big eyes, high nasal bridge, white skin. That's pretty.

  • I would look better with a smaller face. But women are never satisfied.

  • A good appearance helps at interviews. But ultimately your achievements matter most at

  • work.

  • But apparently, this isn't always the case. This recording clearly suggests cosmetic beauty

  • can seriously help your employment prospects.

  • What looks like a fashion show is in fact a serious application process, organised by

  • an official employment agency.

  • Beauty promises success to women in China, both personally and professionally.

  • I went to the States. I studied at Colombia University in New York...

  • This wealthy bachelor is in search of a beautiful dream wife, and he's come to the right place.

  • This marriage market has been organised by an exclusive dating agency, designed for rich

  • men to meet beautiful young women. In China, as in the West, financial concerns often come

  • to the fore when it comes to choosing a partner.

  • A recent study questioned tens of thousands of couples and singles from the across the

  • country. 4 out of 10 women will only marry a man who earns at least 1,000 euro a month.

  • 7 out of 10 insist he must own a flat.

  • Ms Fei manages the Peking office of a nationwide marriage agency. Only the cleverest and prettiest

  • women stand a chance here, and many applicants are rejected. In contrast, male customers

  • must meet only one condition: they must have plenty of money

  • We are very exclusive here. The men who come here must have an excellent financial base.

  • 10 million yuan is the minimum requirement.

  • Once they've signed up, the male clients of this exclusive and expensive agency expect

  • to be able to 'order' a dream wife.

  • This customer for example is 55 years old and wants a woman aged between 27 and 35.

  • He has clear aesthetic expectations. Her face should be oval and have pretty facial features,

  • such as young skin colour. He wants her to have voluptuous breasts, and she should be

  • between 5'4 and 5'6.

  • Not many are able fulfil such high expectations. The average height of Chinese women is just

  • below 5'2" tall. This is why some opt for drastic measures.

  • In this operating theatre, one of the most extreme cosmetic procedures imaginable is

  • being undertaken. This treatment has in fact been banned in China, but some surgeries will

  • still perform the operation for a five-figure payment. First, the bones of the leg are sawn

  • in two. Then, holes are drilled through the calves. Long metal pins are hammered into

  • the legs, before a brace is attached that will stretch the legs as the bones grow back.

  • Due to the high risks involved, leg extensions are illegal in China; the procedure may lead

  • to muscular atrophy, nerve damage and arthritis. Nevertheless the demand for these risky cosmetic

  • treatments remains high - some clinics are performing as many as 300 procedures a year.

  • Leg extensions may seem drastic, but they aren't the only cosmetic procedure to come

  • with risks.

  • The victims of the beauty craze are well documented on some Chinese websites.

  • Wang Bei was an up and coming pop star. She wanted to narrow her jawbone. She died during

  • this routine surgery, aged 24. This is an extreme case, but there are many things that

  • can go wrong in China's beauty clinics. According to some estimates, 200,000 faces are being

  • deformed every year.

  • This woman is one of the many victims - even if it is barely visible today. Qi Lixia comes

  • from a village hundreds of kilometers away from Beijing. 4 years ago, the tour guide

  • decided to have nose surgery. After the first surgery failed, deforming her nose, she needed

  • three further, painful interventions to correct the botched job.

  • When I complained after the surgery, the doctors tried to re-assure me. They said the nose

  • looked good. But it was completely deformed.

  • She refuses to share pictures from that period. Instead, she will only show photos of her

  • face after the first corrective surgery. Qi Lixia spent 3000 euros to make her nose look

  • natural again. That's as much as an annual salary in China, and she had to pay for it

  • all by herself. Any suggestion of compensation was firmly rebuffed by her surgeons.

  • Lawyer Zhang Gang represents many cosmetic surgery victims, and says Qi Lixia's case

  • is not unusual.

  • Many go to private beauty salons and clinics without a medical license. The relevant documents

  • are missing, there's no treatment contract, no official accounts. No medical records.

  • Nothing. When something goes wrong, when the result isn't good, it's almost impossible

  • to demand your rights.

  • Such warnings generally go unheeded. Cosmetic surgery is booming. There's a 20% increase

  • in the size of the chinese market each year. With 4 million operations and 3 billion Euros

  • in sales last year, the Chinese cosmetic surgery market is now second in size only to the US.

  • China has bid socialism farewell long ago. China is like an apple - red from the outside

  • only. In China, capitalism is more brutal than in the West.

  • This discussion doesn't concern Qi Lixia. She's now happy with her appearance. Her fear

  • and pain seem to be forgotten. She tells us she'd be happy to have further operations.

  • Many customers want to have a good-looking tour guide. Looking good helps me in my job.

  • Before my colleagues were in a better situation contract-wise. Now this has changed.

  • The beauty industry is big business. And as it becomes more accepted as the norm in China,

  • the message to young girls is clear: it is what's on the outside that counts.

This is the modern face of China. The whole nation looks to Shanghai for a vision of their

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【深度報導】中國整形「歪」風:我想變老外 (China's Tortured Beauties: Make Me Look Western)

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    阿多賓 發佈於 2014 年 05 月 31 日
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