- (AFP) -- A 24-year-old Chinese woman would undergo six
months of gruelling plastic surgery to change her entire appearance in
a widely publicised event that critics have branded a stunt, state media
said today.
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- Hao Lulu's surgical procedures will involve transforming
her eyes, nose, chin, breasts, abdomen, bottom, legs and skin, the Beijing
Weekend newspaper said.
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- The Beijing freelance fashion writer and self-employed
jewelry dealer's surgery began on Monday and has immediately drawn concern
from doctors and medical officials who feared it was an elaborate stunt
by the hospital performing the operations to promote plastic surgery.
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- Evercare, a Beijing cosmetic surgery hospital, has held
press conferences to promote the "Beauty Dreamworks Project".
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- An ethnic Manchu, Hao hoped to be made into an "outstanding
beauty" which would lead to a career in films, China Daily said.
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- Hao would begin by getting double eyelids and a more
pointed nose tip.
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- Plastic surgeons would then remove the wrinkles from
her neck and make her face thinner, the China Daily said.
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- Other operations would realign her jawbone and work on
her breasts, abdomen, bottom and legs.
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- Hao, who has been dating a Chinese-American man for the
past three years, said beauty was not the most important thing and that
a noble character should be most highly prized in a person.
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- "But nowadays it is technically possible for me
to become more physically beautiful too," she was quoted as saying.
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- "If I can become beautiful both inside and outside,
why not?"
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- She said her boyfriend was fully behind her decision
to go under the knife, but she had not told her parents of her plans.
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- Evercare has declined to reveal the cost of the project,
which is being financed by an unnamed sponsor.
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- Zhou Gang, a doctor who will lead the operating team
at Evercare, said Hao's new appearance would only last for between three
and five years.
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- Plastic surgery has become increasingly popular as Chinese
become wealthier and more appearance-conscious.
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- Clients, mostly Chinese women, are also becoming influenced
by Western standards of beauty and are seeking more Western looks, such
as larger eyes and taller noses.
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- The demand has spawned a large number of plastic surgery
businesses, some of which are unlicensed and poorly trained, leading the
government in recent years to launch a clean up of the industry to weed
out the dangerous operators.
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- Safety standards, however, are either non-existent or
rarely enforced.
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- http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,6803497%255E1702,00.html
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