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China

The Competitive Spirit Driving China's Love Affair With Plastic Surgery

More and more Chinese are going under the knife for cosmetic reasons, and many admit that they do it for a very specific quest for a spouse or job.

China spends $2.5 billion a year on cosmetic surgery
China spends $2.5 billion a year on cosmetic surgery
Mark Godfrey

BEIJING — The Xinhua News Agency recently reported that the country spends $2.5 billion a year on cosmetic surgery, and the industry is growing at a staggering 20% annually.

The demand has led to a new wave of cosmetic surgery clinics opening up across the country. In the waiting room of one — Evercare, a private hospital in downtown Beijing — 23-year-old Dong Xin Yi is awaiting a post-surgery follow-up.

"I came here because my friend told me about it," Dong says. "I had my eyes done. Before they really didn't look good. I had to come several times for the operation, and today I'm here for a checkup, but I'm very satisfied.”

Evercare is experiencing a growing demand from young, wealthy professionals keen to look good. The procedure Dong had, to create double eyelids, is popular here, and the look is considered a hallmark of modern Chinese female beauty. It can cost up to $1,500. There's a similar fee for nose reconstructions.

Dong's doctor is Lin You Qun, one of China's leading cosmetic surgeons who sees dozens of patients every week. "Evercare is seeing exceptional growth," Lin says. "We have 16 clinics around China and see about 300,000 women every year. We're now the biggest cosmetic surgery clinic in China, and our business is growing at 130% a year."

The patients here range from ambitious students and young professionals like Dong to older female executives and a small but growing number of men.

"We see the younger women who come for eyelid and nose surgery mostly," Lin says. "Another category of client is the professional women over 35. They want to enhance their overall youth and slow the aging process. We work on the forehead, nose and mouth. They come back regularly for procedures.”

No. 3 globally for plastic surgery

According to an international group of plastic surgeons, China ranks behind only the U.S. and Brazil for the number of plastic surgery operations performed each year. The practice in China has grown parallel with the country's economic growth, as a better educated workforce competes for jobs.

Anthropologist Wen Hua, who recently published a book called Buying Beauty: Cosmetic Surgery in China, says women increasingly consider cosmetic surgery an investment to improve their chances of social and career success.

"In the past, few people would admit they had undergone cosmetic surgery, but nowadays they are more and more are willing to, and it depends on what kind of surgery you received," Wen says. "Like for facial surgery, nose job and double eyelid, they are OK. And in interviews it's OK to say, "Yes, I did. So what? It's no big deal.""

But she's worried that the growing demand has led to a wave of unqualified surgeons cashing in — at a huge risk to patient health.

"Government do have regulations to specify what kinds of surgery and which level of hospital, but unfortunately in practice there's still a lot of unqualified surgeons," Wen says. "They still offer this illegal service, but they charge a cheap price and attract a lot of women."

At Evercare, Lin stresses the importance of service and safety. And he's expecting a very busy year ahead with a growing number of male clients too.

"More and more men are embracing cosmetic surgery as a modern way of life," Lin says. "They usually come for nose and eyelid reconstruction."

For people like Dong Xin Yi, appearance matters, and she has been showing off her new eyelids to her friends. "I told all my friends, and several of them have come here to have operations too."

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Future

AI Is Good For Education — And Bad For Teachers Who Teach Like Machines

Despite fears of AI upending the education and the teaching profession, artificial education will be an extremely valuable tool to free up teachers from rote exercises to focus on the uniquely humanistic part of learning.

Journalism teacher and his students in University of Barcelona.

Journalism students at the Blanquerna University of Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain.

© Sergi Reboredo via ZUMA press
Julián de Zubiría Samper

-Analysis-

BOGOTÁ - Early in 2023, Microsoft tycoon Bill Gates included teaching among the professions most threatened by Artificial Intelligence (AI), arguing that a robot could, in principle, instruct as well as any school-teacher. While Gates is an undoubted expert in his field, one wonders how much he knows about teaching.

As an avowed believer in using technology to improve student results, Gates has argued for teachers to use more tech in classrooms, and to cut class sizes. But schools and countries that have followed his advice, pumping money into technology at school, or students who completed secondary schooling with the backing of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation have not attained the superlative results expected of the Gates recipe.

Thankfully, he had enough sense to add some nuance to his views, instead suggesting changes to teacher training that he believes could improve school results.

I agree with his view that AI can be a big and positive contributor to schooling. Certainly, technological changes prompt unease and today, something tremendous must be afoot if a leading AI developer, Geoffrey Hinton, has warned of its threat to people and society.

But this isn't the first innovation to upset people. Over 2,000 years ago, the philosopher Socrates wondered, in the Platonic dialogue Phaedrus, whether reading and writing wouldn't curb people's ability to reflect and remember. Writing might lead them to despise memory, he observed. In the 18th and 19th centuries, English craftsmen feared the machines of the Industrial Revolution would destroy their professions, producing lesser-quality items faster, and cheaper.

Their fears were not entirely unfounded, but it did not happen quite as they predicted. Many jobs disappeared, but others emerged and the majority of jobs evolved. Machines caused a fundamental restructuring of labor at the time, and today, AI will likely do the same with the modern workplace.

Many predicted that television, computers and online teaching would replace teachers, which has yet to happen. In recent decades, teachers have banned students from using calculators to do sums, insisting on teaching arithmetic the old way. It is the same dry and mechanical approach to teaching which now wants to keep AI out of the classroom.

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