Chinese seek more cosmetic surgery

Beijing - China’s global economic impact is now being felt in the cosmetic surgery world, the online New York Times reports.

According to Health Ministry statistics, cosmetic and plastic surgery now ranks fourth - behind home buying, car buying and travel - as the most popular way the Chinese spend discretionary income. Though no official figures exist, the International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery estimated in 2009 that China ranked third, behind the United States and Brazil, with more than 2 million operations annually. According to Ma Xiaowei, China’s vice health minister, that number is doubling every year.

According to the government-run Chinese Association of Plastics and Aesthetics, the most popular procedure is designed to make eyes appear larger by adding a crease in the eyelid to form what is called a double eyelid. The second most popular procedure raises the bridge of the nose to make it more prominent-a sort of reverse rhinoplasty. Third is a procedure that narrows and elongates the jawline.

As in the West, facelifts and wrinkle-removal treatments also are popular. But China’s cosmetic surgery patients aren’t just people wanting to look young - they are young. According to officials of Evercare, which operates a chain of cosmetic surgery centers in China, two-fifths of patients are in their 20s.