Mother worried about daughter’s looks and addiction to online games pays for plastic surgery to bring her out of her shell. Move earns plaudits from many online but others criticise the cosmetic solution to a real-life problem. — SCMP
A mother in China who turned to plastic surgery to help her shy, video game-addicted daughter become more self-confident has triggered mixed reactions on social media.
“When my daughter was in secondary school, she was really addicted to playing online games. Her father and I were wondering if it was because she wasn’t good-looking and lacked confidence,” the mother, surnamed Feng, is seen explaining in a video uploaded to China’s Twitter-like Weibo by local media portal White Deer Video.
To encourage her to socialise more in the real world and curb her excessive gaming, Feng suggested plastic surgery. Her daughter, who had just finished her university entrance exams, agreed.
The family from the city of Tieling in northeastern China’s Liaoning province then talked to a surgeon and outlined a treatment plan that included procedures on the girl’s nose and chin.
The video shows the daughter in hospital, her nose and chin covered in gauze. After a stay of a few days, she was discharged.
Feng was thrilled with the outcome.
“All the relatives and friends who visited our home praised my daughter, saying ‘She looks so beautiful!’,” she said.
However, her “gift” divided opinion among online observers.
Some praised Feng for being communicative and supportive, saying: “I feel envious. The girl’s parents are really open-minded.”
Another said: “What’s the big deal if improving one’s appearance a bit can make them more confident and outstanding?”
But others warned that such a “solution” might actually worsen appearance-related anxieties: “It’s not the girl who lacks confidence, but her parents,” they said.
Some also noted that the daughter was picked up from the hospital in a Porsche.
“What sort of family is this? Ordinary people shouldn’t try to imitate them,” one observer commented.
According to data from iResearch Inc, China’s medical aesthetics market has been growing exponentially.
The size of the market, which was worth 217.9bil yuan (RM140.12bil) in 2021, is projected to double to nearly 410.8bil yuan (RM264.17bil) by 2025.
More than half the customers placing orders on online plastic surgery channels are in their 20s, according to company data from GengMei, a leading Chinese app offering such services.
Online celebrities also often talk about how plastic surgery has turned their lives around.
For instance, Zhou Chuna, a Generation Z influencer from Shanghai, underwent more than 100 plastic surgery procedures between 2017 and 2021, according to the official China Youth Daily.
In March 2020, she took to social media to share her “cosmetic surgery diary” and quickly amassed more than 300,000 followers. – South China Morning Post
