Plastic Surgery is becoming more and more popular in China.
In an economy marked by rapid upward advancement, plastic surgery has become the fourth most popular way to spend discretionary income in China in just a decade. Ma Xiaowei, China's vice health minister says that only houses, cars and travel rank higher.
While no official figures exist, the International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery estimated that in 2009 China ranked just behind the United States and Brazil in terms of countries with the most elective cosmetic surgeries, with more than two million operations annually. The number of operations is doubling every year, Mr. Ma said at a conference organized by the Health Ministry in November.
"We must recognize that plastic and cosmetic surgery has now become a common service, aimed at the masses," he said.
The most common surgery is a crease added in the eyelid, forming what is called a double eyelid designed to make the eyes appear larger.
The second most popular operation raises the bridge of the nose to make it more visible, the opposite of a typical "nose job" in the West. The third most popular is reshaping the jaw to make it narrower and longer, said Zhao Zhenmin, secretary general of the government-run Chinese Association of Plastics and Aesthetics.
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