Bored with the same old candlelit dinner, red roses and chocolate truffles on Valentine’s Day? Newly rich Chinese are looking to something decidedly more edgy — matching plastic surgery for him and her.
In Shanghai’s increasingly competitive plastic surgery market, clinics are offering Valentine’s Day discounts to lovers looking for something extra to signify their emotional bond.
“We are offering a 20% discount for skin improvement procedures … as well as double-eyelid surgery,” said Wang Yong, a marketing manager at the Shanghai ConBio and Laser Surgery Hospital.
The hospital’s Valentine’s Day promotion started on Monday, one day ahead of the celebration of romance, and continues through the week.
One couple who have already undergone mutual makeovers for Valentine’s Day is Liu Yan (24) and her 28-year-old boyfriend, who two weeks ago paid 10 000 yuan ($1 200) for matching nose jobs, the China Daily said.
“I suggested it as a way of celebrating our relationship and bringing us closer together with a special kind of bond,” Liu told the newspaper.
“My boyfriend loved the idea and paid for the whole thing. We’re very happy with the results.”
Some medical facilities in Shanghai have reported a surge in business by as much as 30% in the lead-up to Valentine’s Day.
Plastic surgery, which was illegal in China until the early 1980s, has proliferated over the past five years as people have become richer.
The official Xinhua news agency estimates that cosmetic operations are now a three-billion-dollar business in China, with more than one million clinics nationwide. – AFP