Going under the knife in China's plastic surgery stampede
Shanghai : Chen Yan is 35 and fears middle age is upon her, so like all of her friends she sees cosmetic surgery as the solution: time to get a new nose.
Plastic surgery is booming in China, fuelled by rising incomes, growing Western influences, and the imperative of looking good on social media.
Some parents are even paying for teenage children to get work done to help their employment prospects.
"We Chinese think that after you've married, given birth to a kid and you’re past 30, they call you a middle-aged woman," said Chen.
"I don’t want to be a middle-aged woman that early."
The shop owner travelled from the central province of Hunan to pay 52,515 yuan ($8,000) in a quest for the perfect nose at Shanghai's private Huamei Medical Cosmetology Hospital.
Spread over four floors and featuring a peaceful convalescent roof garden complete with tea house, the vast majority going under the knife are young women.
It offers an array of options including breast augmentation, ear shaping, bone shaving, pubic-hair transplants and a procedure that promises to reduce armpit odour.
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