For Asian women small has long been beautiful as far as bums are concerned. The majority pine more for Jennifer Lopez's buxom breasts than her butt. 'Hong Kong women are not concerned about their bums, it's their boobs they want to be bigger,' says Rita Chau, divisional buyer for the Swank Shop. 'The bum is still not seen as a symbol of sex appeal in Asia.'
The Asian aesthetic is about wafer-thin waists and petite posteriors. It has been culturally ingrained by icons honed to look more like a Giacometti sculpture than J-Lo. From the twig-like Anita Mui in the Eighties to Sammi Cheng in the Nineties and Cecilia Cheung in the Noughties, thin is in. Just ask Miss Asia 1997, Belinda Hamnett. The former beauty queen became the butt of jokes in the Chinese-language press for her largest asset when scribes cruelly dubbed her the 'God of Bum'. Hamnett was so upset she recently joined a slimming clinic to shrink her rear.
But not all Asians want flat backsides, says Dr Franklin W.P. Li, President of the Hong Kong Society for Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons. 'I'm looking at photographs of a bottom right now,' he says, referring to a recent 'bum job' he has performed. 'It's not as popular as breast enlargements, facelifts and liposuction, but bottom enlargement is required. Some women just want to be a bit bigger.'
Li either transfers excess fat from the stomach to the bottom or pumps the buttocks with a gel or saline solution, much like the methods used in a boob job. It's a small operation, but the bill is on the lumpy side - upwards of $40,000. 'It depends on the size,' says Li.
Romance novelist and socialite Eunice Lam says: 'For Chinese women it is breasts first, waist second and third is a good bum.' A good bum means small and pert, but not necessarily bigger, says Lam. 'Chinese men like bigger bums, they think women should be well-cushioned. But Chinese women prefer smaller ones. Many celebrities look like they have been starving for years.'
Fashion houses in the West are designing clothes to accommodate the trend for more rounded figures. But while hipsters that show off the bum have proved popular in the West they have not sold well in Hong Kong, says Seibu's senior buyer, Frankieanna Woo. 'Women think they are too sexy,' says Woo. High-waist trousers are next off the rank, but the Swank Shop's Chau says these are designed to accentuate slim waists. Low-cut halter dresses may point to the rear cleavage as much as the front, says Chau, but the plunging neckline is still the focus.