Buying Beauty
Subtitle: Cosmetic Surgery in China
Publisher: Hong Kong University Press
Published: 2013
Language: eng
Number of pages: 284
ISBN-13: 9789888139828
Subjects: Surgery, plastic; Women, health and hygiene; Women, china; Women, social conditions; China, social conditions
Description: Cosmetic surgery in China has grown rapidly in recent years of dramatic social transition. Facing fierce competition in all spheres of daily life, more and more women consider cosmetic surgery as an investment to gain "beauty capital" to increase opportunities for social and career success. Building on rich ethnographic data, this book presents the perspectives of women who have undergone cosmetic surgery, illuminating the aspirations behind their choices. Wen Hua explores how turbulent economic, sociocultural, and political changes in China since the 1980s have produced immense anxiety that is experienced both mentally and corporeally. This book will appeal to readers who are interested in gender studies, China studies, anthropology and sociology of the body, and cultural studies.