When the world gets closer.

We help you see farther.

Sign up to our expressly international daily newsletter.

China

Extra! On The Perils Of Low-Cost Plastic Surgery In China

Extra! On The Perils Of Low-Cost Plastic Surgery In China
Emeraude Monnier

Over the past decade, there have been countless reports about the boom in cosmetic surgery in Asian countries such as China, Japan and South Korea. Names have even been given to particular facial features in vogue, including the term "red net face," taken from the "red net" young female internet celebrities making a mark in China's popular culture.

These online superstars, including live-streamers, self-published writers, bloggers and assorted digital-minded fashionistas, tend to share a particular set of facial features: high cheekbones, big eyes, double eyelids, a narrow nose bridge and a V-shaped jawline. The overexposed digital stars often cover each step and slice of their plastic surgery across their social media accounts. But now, China Newsweek has featured a cover story this week about the downside of such body transformations, including pain, scars and the risk that operations are being illegally carried out in beauty salons by uncertified surgeons.

The Chinese-language magazine reports the case of Yang Jinwei, a young woman from Shanghai who fell into the trap of what is referred to as "aesthetic black medicine": While getting a haircut in a beauty salon, an instant low-cost rhinoplasty was suggested by her stylist. Having never liked the shape of her nose, Yang accepted and the surgery was performed with a simple injection to reshape it and no anesthesia or "cutting" was involved. But one week later, Yang Jinwei's nose skin started to bleach and turned into a scab, along with the injection propagating into her nasal mucous membranes.

As more and more young women fall into such traps, China Newsweek writes that "heaven is the most impartial judge" of the way we look.

You've reached your limit of free articles.

To read the full story, start your free trial today.

Get unlimited access. Cancel anytime.

Exclusive coverage from the world's top sources, in English for the first time.

Insights from the widest range of perspectives, languages and countries.

Migrant Lives

What's Driving More Venezuelans To Migrate To The U.S.

With dimmed hopes of a transition from the economic crisis and repressive regime of Nicolas Maduro, many Venezuelans increasingly see the United States, rather than Latin America, as the place to rebuild a life..

Photo of a family of Migrants from Venezuela crossing the Rio Grande between Mexico and the U.S. to surrender to the border patrol with the intention of requesting humanitarian asylum​

Migrants from Venezuela crossed the Rio Grande between Mexico and the U.S. to surrender to the border patrol with the intention of requesting humanitarian asylum.

Julio Borges

-Analysis-

Migration has too many elements to count. Beyond the matter of leaving your homeland, the process creates a gaping emptiness inside the migrant — and outside, in their lives. If forced upon someone, it can cause psychological and anthropological harm, as it involves the destruction of roots. That's in fact the case of millions of Venezuelans who have left their country without plans for the future or pleasurable intentions.

Their experience is comparable to paddling desperately in shark-infested waters. As many Mexicans will concur, it is one thing to take a plane, and another to pay a coyote to smuggle you to some place 'safe.'

Venezuela's mass emigration of recent years has evolved in time. Initially, it was the middle and upper classes and especially their youth, migrating to escape the socialist regime's socio-political and economic policies. Evidently, they sought countries with better work, study and business opportunities like the United States, Panama or Spain. The process intensified after 2017 when the regime's erosion of democratic structures and unrelenting economic vandalism were harming all Venezuelans.

Keep reading...Show less

You've reached your limit of free articles.

To read the full story, start your free trial today.

Get unlimited access. Cancel anytime.

Exclusive coverage from the world's top sources, in English for the first time.

Insights from the widest range of perspectives, languages and countries.

The latest