Ban minors from getting plastic surgeries, says Chinese legislator

China’s plastic surgery industry is booming but it’s not all pretty, especially for minors.

Now, the country’s legislators have moved a proposal at the ongoing National People’s Congress (NPC), China’s legislature, to ban minors from getting a cosmetic surgery where it’s not required to correct a defect or to remove a scar.

The industry is worth billions of dollars in China: One state media estimate said it pulled in 224.5 billion or $33.4 billion in 2018.

SoYoung, a popular plastic surgery portal, said more than 20 million people in China went in for cosmetic surgeries last year, of which more than 40 per cent were between 20 and 25-years-old.

What has worried China’s lawmakers is that going-under-the-knife for fashion is becoming more popular among teenagers - many want big eyes, a sharp chin, and a small face.

The uglier side of the trend comprises stories about “...failed plastic surgeries that cause difficult-to-repair damage, or infections, and sometimes even death”.

“Statistics from SoYoung show that people born after the year 2000 have become a booming group in China’s cosmetic surgery market, accounting for nearly 19 per cent of people going under the knife,” a report in China Plus, China Radio International’s overseas English portal, said.

An NPC deputy and a high-school teacher from northeast China’s Liaoning province with 30 years of experience, Wang Jiajuan, noticed a trend among her students that made her worried.

Wang found that some of her students have had double-eyelid surgery while others have had tattooed eyebrows and eyeliner - surgeries that are unnecessary and can cause irreversible damage.