Whereas Southeast Asian destinations are growing in popularity
for holidaymaking Chinese, others see the weeklong National Day
vacation as a perfect window to squeeze in some plastic surgery and
bolster their self-esteem without others catching on.
For the likes of Zhang Lin, 25, a white-collar worker in
Beijing, the double eyelid operation she has scheduled for this
week means much, much more than a week on the beach.
"I am too busy to take the surgery on working days and the
seven-day holiday is the best opportunity for me to do it and
recover, which will make me more beautiful and therefore boost my
confidence at work and in my life," Zhang said.
Zhang is one of a growing number of mainlanders who are
selecting to go under the knife to give themselves an advantage in
love, work, or just to feel better about themselves in an
increasingly image-conscious society.
This is why Cui Qing, a division director with CAMS, a cosmetic
clinics in the capital, looks forward to working during the
holiday: because business is likely to boom.
"We always receive a surging number of customers around the
holiday," Cui said. "Most of them go for minor plastic surgeries on
the face."
The double eyelid treatment (3,000 yuan or nearly $400) and
nasal augmentation are the most sought after procedures as they
take just seven days for the bandages to come off and the bruises
to heal, Cui said.
Most of the customers for these types of surgery are young women
in their 20s and early 30s, but college students are making up a
larger part of the demographic, she added.
"Nowadays China's graduating students face an extremely tight
job market," Cui said, adding that her clinic gives them a
discount. "So they turn to cosmetics surgeries to seek an edge and
land a decent job."
"It's an economic age of beauty," said Liu Hui, a 21- year-old
college girl in Beijing. "An above-average-looking girl can earn 10
percent more than others doing the same job."
Middle-aged customers are also appearing more on the radar to
smooth wrinkles and have liposuction as China's growing economy
spurs more disposable income.
"Some are even men in their 40s," she noted, adding that
tummy-tightening and nose-straightening operations are the most
common among this social bracket.
(China Daily October 2, 2007)