38 BEIJING REVIEW AUGUST 15, 2019 http://www.bjreview.com
BUSINESS
H
aving double eyelids was a dream of
Zhang Yiwen, a 31-year-old in east
China’s Jiangsu Province, for many
years, and it was finally realized during the
Spring Festival holiday in February with a sur-
gical procedure at a general hospital.
“From my perspective, having double
eyelids is part of the standard of beauty,”
she told Beijing Review. The swelling lasted
a long time, so she had to meet friends dur-
ing the festival with swollen eyelids. But their
reactions did not bother her. “The waiting
period to be pretty made me excited and
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goal: braces.
“To want a better me does not mean
that I do not like myself,” Zhang said. “Making
such decisions about my body is bold and
needs courage.”
Popular among people like Zhang, the
cosmetic surgery industry in China is devel-
oping rapidly, with a scale of 224.5 billion
yuan ($32.4 billion) in 2018, which is expect-
ed to exceed 500 billion yuan ($72 billion) by
2030.Love of beauty
Medical beauty refers to the changing of
people’s appearance and body through sur-
gery, medicaments, medical apparatuses and
instruments and other medical technology
methods that are invasive. Its technologies
were not mature when Zhang was younger,
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her surgery until this year. “I also struggled
before I decided to change. Luckily, my fam-
ily has always been supportive of me.”
While at the hospital, Zhang noticed
many young girls, some accompanied by
their open-minded parents, seeking consul-
tations about various surgeries.
“In July and August, we receive nearly
900 customers a day. In September, when
the cooler weather is better for recovery, the
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metic surgery agency said, adding that many
university students plan to have cosmetic
surgery before the new semester starts.
In 2018, the proportion of cosmetic
surgery customers below 28 years old was
54 percent, according to a report released in
December by Gengmei, an online platform of
medical cosmetology and health services. Its
top three programs include face slimming,
hydrating and whitening. As people become
more accepting of medical beauty, minor
surgeries for the nose and eyelids have be-
come more popular.
Last year, 22 million Chinese people
bought aesthetic medicine services, withEye of the
Beholder
Chinese cosmetic surgery industry boom comes
with challenges By Li Qing
A participant performs an eyelash extension procedure during an international skill competition, held in Shanghai
on June 3, 2018
XIN
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