Millions of Gen Z Chinese have cosmetic surgery such as double eyelid operations to boost their career chances
- High school graduates in China increasingly choose to go under the knife before starting college, believing it will improve their chances at work and in love
- Nearly two-thirds of the 20 million people in China who had cosmetic surgery in 2018 were born after 1990, and one in five were post-millennials
Less than a month after taking the national college entrance exam, Lin Li, a 17-year-old high school graduate in Nanjing, eastern China, said on a social networking platform that she wanted to get a nose job and double eyelid surgery before entering college.
The post on Xiaohongshu garnered more than 1,000 replies in just two weeks – some recommended plastic surgery clinics, while others suggested that she should use make-up instead of going under the knife at such an early age.
Lin is among a growing number of Generation Z students who are seeking cosmetic surgery in the hope that it will tip the scales in their favour in school, at work and in their love lives, according to Xinhua, China’s state news agency.
A report released by So-Young, a Nasdaq-listed Chinese online plastic surgery marketplace, shows the number of people undergoing cosmetic surgery in China reached 20 million by the end of 2018. Among the people who booked treatments on So-Young, 64 per cent were born after 1990 and 19 per cent are post-millennials (generally defined as those born after the mid-1990s).
In a bustling shopping centre in Nanjing, the capital of Jiangsu province, many plastic surgery companies have set up counters to promote procedures ranging from facelifts to Botox injections.
