Chasing perfection: plastic surgery and unemployment in China

Kozlov Alexander

ВЕСТН. МОСК. УН-ТА. СЕР. 13. ВОСТОКОВЕДЕНИЕ. 2018. № 1

A. Kozlov

CHASING PERFECTION: PLASTIC SURGERY AND UNEMPLOYMENT IN CHINA1

The Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, UN

76 Rajadamnern Nok Ave, Bangkok, Thailand

This article explores how women in contemporary China answer to unemployment challenges which have affected China after its shift towards the market oriented economy. The paper discusses the changing approach to body politics in China as an answer towards rising rate of unemployment among Chinese women. It traces the history of how market reforms and changes in educational policies have put Chinese women in a position where they have to seek help of plastic surgeons to increase their value on the job market. The author argues, that due to a rapid economic development of China and rise of the middle class with a larger disposable income, competition for employment in has China increased dramatically and which made women highly vulnerable pushing them to use body alterations to secure jobs.

Key words: Unemployment in China; Educational Reforms in China; Youth Unemployment; Gender; Plastic Surgery; Beauty Economy.

Introduction

In 2009 the Chinese internet was blown by a story of Luo Yufeng who became known as Sister Feng or Feng Jie. After graduating with an associate degree from a provincial college, Feng Jie decided to chase dreams in Shanghai. Sister Feng acquired publicity after she was distributing flyers in Shanghai advertising herself for marriage. In flyers she listed atrociously stringent requirements for a boyfriend candidate. She stipulated that a potential boyfriend must have a master's degree in Economics from Peking University or Tsinghua — Chinese tantamount to Ivy League schools, drive BMW, be between 173-186 cm tall and aged between 26-28. According to Zixue Tai2, in entire China there would be only 5-6 candidates who could meet these requirements. This incident

Alexander Kozlov — Consultant in the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (e-mail: [email protected]).

1 The views expressed herein are those of the author and do not reflect the views of the United Nations.

2 Zixue Tai, "Fame, Fantasy, Fanfare and Fun: The Blossoming Chinese Culture of Blog mongering." In T. Dumova & R. Fiordo (Eds.,), Blogging in the Global Society (pp. 37-54). Hershey, PA: IGI Global, p. 39.

immediately made her famous in the Chinese internet with roughly 1,9 million subscribers in Weibo — Chinese analogue to Twitter. In 2012, Sister Feng worked as a manicurist in one of New York's parlours and was featured in The New York Times3 due to her non-orthodox matrimonial endeavours and high expectations. Sister Jie planned to undertake several plastic surgeries to improve her marriage prospects and expand career options as she thought being more physically attractive would help her get a job as a Wall Street financier.

Although the topic of plastic surgeries may seem to be superficial, it is not the case for contemporary China. As the paper argues, many Chinese People see cosmetic surgeries as a part of the investment to their careers. Plastic surgery as a way to a better life has become an option in the fiercely competitive China.

It is natural for people to constantly look for the ways to get leverage over others to secure a better future for themselves or their children. However, if previously the battlefield was mainly in the educational domain, nowadays, as China has been getting richer and more parents are able to send their children to prestigious schools within China or abroad and more people have obtained advanced degrees of Master or PhD's from respected institutions worldwide, the focus has shifted. These days anything that can provide even a slight advantage is worth trying. Altering one's appearance is one of those things.

According to the United Nations Population Division, Chinese population exceeds 1.35 billion of people4. By the World Bank statistics, the unemployment rate in China is 4.6 percent5. However, the officially reported and actual data may vary significantly to the increase side. (Bloomberg6 data states that "Fathom Underemployment in China" is three times higher and stands for hideous 13 percent).

The topic of plastic surgeries, its impact and utilitarian implications is vast. Due to space constraints this paper focuses mainly on how Chi-

3 Vanessa Piao. "Q. and A.: Luo Yufeng, a.k.a. Sister Feng, on Life as a Manicurist in New York." The New York Times. June 20, 2015. Retrieved from https://mobile.nytimes. com/blogs/sinosphere/2015/05/20/q-and-a-luo-yufeng-a-k-a-sister-feng-on-life-as-a-manicurist-in-new-york/

4 The United Nations. "World Population Prospects The 2015 Revision. Key Findings and Advance Tables." 2015. Retrieved from: https://esa.un.org/unpd/wpp/publications/ files/key_findings_wpp_2015.pdf

5 The World Bank. "Unemployment, total (% of total labor force) (modeled ILO estimate)". 2016. Retrieved from: http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SL.UEM.TOTL. ZS?locations=CN

6 Miao Han and Xiaoqing Pi, "China Is Grappling with Hidden Unemployment". Bloomberg. August 22,2016. Retrieved from: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/ar-ticles/2016-08-21/behind-stable-job-data-china-grapples-with-hidden-unemployment

nese women address challenges set by economic reforms through plastic surgeries. The paper examines how Chinese women fight unemployment through plastic surgeries and reviews consequences of economic reforms in China.

Changing the public perception of plastic surgeries in China

With the development China has stepped from the traditional approach to its economy and challenged Mao-times communist mentality. If before natural beauty, purity and the beauty within were emphasized, current tendencies have shifted towards more consumer-oriented views. During Mao times use of cosmetics and taking care of one's looks would have been considered excessively sexual and seen as reactive, capitalistic. As Otis notes, "Maoist socialism officially rejected the pursuit of feminine adornment"7. In the social life gender differences between men and women were eliminated during Mao times to maximise the use of female labour8. With the reforms and "opening" of China, people were allowed to travel freely and well and received access to international perspectives through media. Hence a traditional communist view on appearance has been challenged. Xu and Feiner argue that "routiniza-tion of beauty pageants is also changing traditional Chinese notions of feminine beauty and, by extension, the historic Chinese aesthetic"9. As appearance became a valuable asset which could substantially influence employability, more and more people started considering surgeries as a logical and necessary step. By many females in China today pursuit or enhancement of beauty is considered to be the most certain way to achieve career success.

As China gets richer — in 2015 China's GDP per capita was 10,112 USD10 — and disposable income among urban citizens grows, physical appearance is started to be seen as one of the forms of "physical" or "sexual "capital11. Along with Economic, Social and Cultural types of capital proposed by Bourdieu, "physical" capital can be exchanged, transformed or

7 Eileen Otis. "China's Beauty Proletariat: The Body Politics of Hegemony in a Walmart Cosmetics Department." Positions: East Asia Cultures Critique, Vol.24, Number 1, February 2016, p. 155.

8 Jie Yang. "Nennu and Shunu: Gender, Body Politics and the Beauty Economy in China". Signs, Vol. 36, No. 2 (Winter 2011), p. 335.

9 Gary Xu and Susan Feiner. "Meinvu Jingji/ China's beauty economy: Buying looks, shifting value, and changing place". Feminist Economics 13: 3-4 (July 2007), p. 316. Retrieved from: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13545700701439499

10 The World Bank. "GDP per Capita (Current US$)". 2016. Retrieved from: http:// data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.PCAP.CD

11 Hua. Buying Beauty, 80.

invested12. Just like "guan xi" (personal network) which can be described as a form of social capital, people's appearance or "sexual" capital plays an important role in Modern China and can significantly improve one's employability. Plastic surgery and physical alterations are not a prerogative of young people only, as well as reasons for surgeries are not limited only to increasing employment chances. Among other reasons are such as trying to find better marriage partners, saving existing marriages or trying to look more "urban" which would increase the social status of an individual.

There are conflicting views on plastic surgery within China. In general, Chinese government and media view beauty pageants in China favourably as they bring profit, develop infrastructure within cities which host those events, show China's opulence and are good for marketing China to the world13. However, some Chinese scholars see plastic surgeries negatively and view women who had plastic surgeries as victims of patriarchy, consumerism and subjugation to men's perception of women14. It can be compared to the perception of foot binding in China which nowadays is regarded a crippling, mutilating practice which objectified women and compelled them to live up to male stereotypes on women. Western feminists believe that women opting for plastic surgeries are passive victims who accepted patriarchal norms of beauty imposed on them by men15. As it was stated earlier, as plastic surgery emphasises outer beauty, it contradicts the traditional Chinese perception of female inner beauty manifesting itself mostly in benevolence and care. Women who undergo plastic surgeries are often seen as paying more attention to their appearance than to other virtues, and hence more egoistic. Hua quotes Chen Si, who in her research interviewed a doctor from the Chinese Medical Association stating: "What these women really need is a psychologist, not a plastic surgeon."16

Although feminist rhetoric does exist in China, and according to portal feiminisminchina.com there are roughly between 70 to 100 NGOs which advance the gender equality agenda17, the situation on feminism is grim in China. According to Xiao Meili, a Chinese activist for Human Rights, it is endemic for China to have lower requirements and expectations for

12 Pierre Bourdieu. (1986). The forms of capital. In: Richardson, J., Handbook of Theory and Research for the Sociology of Education. Westport, CT: Greenwood, p. 242.

13 Hua. Buying Beauty, 4.

14 Ibid., 10.

15 Ibid., 67.

16 Chen Si. "A Chinese Pamela Anderson?" Beijing Today. December 19, Retrieved from: https://archive.org/stream/BeijingTodayCN20031219/2003-12-19_djvu.txt

17 According to the feminist portal http://www.feminisminchina.com

girls in academic and professional domains18.Xiao says that generally, parents discourage children to engage with social movements or NGOs as it may be dangerous in many aspects. Even if feminists campaigns will not have serious government reprisals, feminism is still frowned upon in China. Xu Zihua, 20 years old, says "Nobody wants to be called a feminist. Otherwise, who will marry you?"}9

The word "feminist" in China has a strong negative connotation which scares the public in general and potential marriage partners in particular. Beeing a feminist is considered to be a woman with a strong personality, which is not highly appreciated among Chinese men as a feature of a future wife. Hua quotes Ms Gao,33, who has a successful career but struggles to find a boyfriend. Gao says,

"Look at me, I am 33 years old, and I am still single. Both men whom I dated got married with the girls who are very feminine with a small face, big eyes, white skin and long straight hair... When I was young, it was cool to be labelled as a woman who had a "strong personality" (gexing). Now that I am over thirty, if someone says that I have gexing, I know it's just a polite way of saying that I am not pretty "20.

Nevertheless, according to one of Hua's interviewees, she did not feel any peer pressure and did not see herself as a victim of males' perception of female beauty. She says that she did surgery of her own free will. "I did it for myself, and I am happy with the results.It should be all about yourself, not your boyfriend, husband or anyone else!"21 Another interviewee continues,

"I did it entirely for myself because I knew it would give me more confidence. After the surgery, not only have the shapes of my nose and eyes been changed, but my spirit and my energy have also been restored. Even if it may not change the way people perceive me, I can feel the changes. I can see and feel the changes about myself. I feel like a new person. We're judged by our appearance all the time. It's perfectly rational to want to look good"

Hence it is not entierly correct to say that women in China are pushed by men to do plastic surgeries.

18 Xiao Meili. "China's Feminist Awakening". May 13, 2015. The New York Times. Retrieved from: https://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/14/opinion/xiao-meili-chinas-feminist-awakening.html?_r=0

19 "Celebrating the V-word". Analects (blog), The Economist. January 2, 2014. Retrieved from: https://www.economist.com/blogs/analects/2014/01/feminism

20 Hua. Buying Beauty, 97.

21 Ibid., 67.

Reasons for plastic surgery: Reforms and changes in education system

Experts name several reasons why women in China opt in favour of plastic surgeries. Motives could be divided into personal and economic. Among economic reasons, the main one is to enhance employment chances. Both young and more mature women's grounds for changing their looks fall into this category, however, their intentions vary. Younger respondents consider appearance alterations for better employment due to college certificate per se being insufficient for securing employment. Older and more experienced candidates often employ surgical methods to compete not only among themselves but with fresh college graduates of a new generation, so-called "digital natives". While the lack of work experience is a typical problem for fresh graduates, it is not an issue for mature candidates, but insufficient technological familiarity and experience with new gadgets as well as age-discriminative realities of the Asian job market is what restrains their career prospects.

Plastic surgeries as a way to increase employability

Since its creation in 1949 until Chairman Mao Zedong's death in 1976, the PRC (People's Republic of China) experienced almost three decades of turmoil. The Great Leap Forward of 1958 — 1962 and a decade-long Cultural Revolution severely damaged China in many domains. There was a pressing need to resuscitate its economy. Gregory C. Chow states that examples of rapid economic growth in neighbouring South Korea, Singapore, Hong-Kong and Taiwan served as examples for CCP (Chinese Communist Party) leaders which proved that market-economy could perform better. Moreover, the previous experience provided evidence to economic planners in CCP that a planning system was difficult to manage and inefficient22. Something had to be changed.

Stable, often permanent, employment was one of the pillars of any communist system, and China was not an exception. So-called "iron-rice-bowl", a system of a lifelong employment which functioned through assigning jobs to new graduates by the state, accompanied by social support and benefits, started collapsing during Deng Xiaoping's transformation of China from a centrally planned economy to a free markets economy23.

22 Gregory Chow. "Economic Reform and growth in China". Annals of Economics and Finance, Vol. 5, Issue 1, 2004, 12<5.Retrived from: http://down.aefweb.net/AefArticles/ aef050107.pdf

23 Neil C. Hughes. "Smashing the Iron Rice Bowl". Foreign Affairs, Vol. 77, Number 4, July/August 1997. Retrieved from: https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/asia/1998-07-01/smashing-iron-rice-bowl

In 1978 when Deng's reforms were to begin, almost 80 percent of urban workers were employed by the state24. One of the first steps in constructing of a new "Socialism with Chinese Characteristics" was to allow some flexibility to the state-owned enterprises including that in human resources management. Cai, Du and Yang state that as reforms were progressing, SOEs (State Owned Enterprises) were granted rights to select and dismiss workers as well as to regulate their salaries according to employees' performance. These innovations challenged and consequently "cracked" the "iron rice bowl".

Stepping away from the traditional planned economy cost China millions of jobs in layovers from state-owned enterprises. By the end of 1993 state-owned enterprises employed 76 million workers, of which 15 million were officially estimated as redundant25 .With the progression of reforms and economic development competition for workplaces became more fierce. Better educated and adaptive to changing realities youth started to displace older workers who were not protected by permanent employment anymore. Between 1993 and 2001, almost 43 million urban employees were laid-off. This figure represented roughly a quarter of the urban labour force26.

Women traditionally find themselves in more disadvantaged and vulnerable employment circumstances comparing to men. ILO (International Labour Organization) states that globally women are overrepresented among unemployed and often compelled to live up to gender stereotypes at work. Moreover, women often hold temporary or part-time positions at workplaces, enjoy less job security compared to men as well as their earnings are significantly lower than men's (women earn 77 cents to each 1 $ earned by men for performing the same work27). Lin affirms that although girls' enrollment to primary schools is equal to boys', in universities females stand for only 40 percent of students28. Moreover,

24 Cai Fang, Du Yang and Wang Meiyan. "Employment and Inequality Outcomes In China". Institute of population and Labor Economics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. 12. Retrieved from: https://www.oecd.org/employment/emp/42546043.pdf

25 Hughes. "Smashing the Iron Rice bowl"

26 Xiaoyuan Dong. "China's Urban Labor Market Adjustment: A Summary of Literature Review". A working paper For World Bank, July. University of Winnipeg, Winnipeg, Canada. Retrieved from: http://www.academia.edu/24137198/Chinas_Urban_Labor_Mar-ket_Adjustment_A_Summary_of_Literature_Review

27 International Labour Organization. Women at Work. Geneva. 20016. 22. Retrieved from: http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---dgreports/---dcomm/---publ/docu-ments/publication/wcms_457317.pdf

28 Jing Lin. "Chinese Women Under the Economic Reform. Gains and Losses.". Harvard Asia Pacific Review, Vol. 7, Number 1, 2003, p. 89. Retrieved from: http://web. mit.edu/lipoff/www/hapr/summer03_security/LIN.pdf

after graduation females are often challenged by job hunt as only 63.4% of women are hired right after university comparing to 72.1% of men (not to mention that their salaries are significantly lower than males'). According to Lin, in Chinese campuses, there is a widespread belief that a M.A. for a woman equals a B.A. for a man, and a PhD for a woman equals an M.A. for a man29. These factors contributed to growing income disparities and gender inequality in China. During Deng's reforms, women were first to get laid-off, and consequently, the broken "iron rice bowl" threw millions of middle-aged women, who often did not have a higher education, to an extremely competitive job market where they had to compete with university graduates versed in using computers and other technical devices.

Often unemployed or laid-off women may experience dislocation and deprivation, and feel betrayed by the state after having given its youth to its service30. Hua tells the story of Ms. Zhang, 47, who worked as a receptionist and technician in one of cosmetic surgery clinics in Beijing. She worked in a state-owned factory since 1984 and had a stable income until she was laid-off in 1999. After that, she was eligible for a 280 yuan per month unemployment benefit. However, it was not even close enough to cover basic needs31. Eventually, she found a job as a cleaner in one of Beijing's plastic surgery clinics. Later, the boss offered several middle-aged women free plastic surgeries in exchange for being clinics ambassadors. Ms. Zhang says,

"I was't ugly, but I definitely looked older than my age due to the hard work I had been through. I thought that if I could get free operations to make myself younger, I might get more chances of finding a better job. Of course, I was scared of surgery. I knew that there was a risk. But it was the last opportunity I had. The competition to find a job is so brutal for a middle-aged woman like me. In order to get a younger look, I was willing to take any risk. "32

She continues,

"Since the result of my operation was good, aside from doing some cleaning and assisting in the reception, sometimes when clients, especially middle-aged women, hesitate about operations or want to see real people who have undergone surgery, I show up in person to show the effects of the operations...Although I am just a bottle washer, I need to put make-up every day to keep my good image."

29 Ibid., 89.

30 Ibid., 88.

31 Hua. Buying Beauty, 100.

32 Hua. Buying Beauty, 103.

However, mature and less skilled applicants facing employment problems look towards plastic surgery as a possible solution. It is not rare when mothers bring their daughters for double-eyelid surgeries before their first year of university. Hua describes the story of Ms. Tong, mother of Xiao Juan,18, who just passed her College Entrance Examination and came to one of the clinics in Beijing for a double-eyelid surgery, a gift from her mother. In the interview, Ms. Tong said:

"Society is so competitive today. The competition for jobs is so fierce. She is a smart girl who studied so hard. If surgery can make her happy and more competitive, why not? Of course, I thought about a possible risk, that is the reason I chose this hospital. It is reputable, and surgeons are well trained. I have a close friend who supported her daughter's cosmetic operation. She is a college student who just graduated recently. I heard that she complained about the tough time for her daughter to find the desiredjob. It's definitely true. Although I keep telling my daughter that the most important thing about a person is her good temperament and ability, I know that appearance is an absolutely essential element in the keen job today. If other parents already investmented into their daughters' appearance, I need to do whatever I can for my daughter's future. A pretty face is a worthwhile long-term investment for my daughter's future!"33 Usually, after the hectic time of Chinese National Examination passed, many parents bring their daughters to the hospital as both a gift for hard work and future investment. Many Chinese parents believe that appearance plays an important part in their career and will significantly influence their prospects at both career market and finding a better boyfriend. South The China Morning Post reports that as graduation and end of entrance examination period approaches, clinics in China have more than 200 percent increase of student patients34. When college students were asked for reasons they decided to undergo surgeries, the most frequent answer was to get leverage on the job market35.

When one thinks about what is more important in job hunting, a look or merits, it is useful to look at an example of Chen Jing. After not being able to find a desired a job, Chen realised that her appearance might be a key.

"I was naive to believe that if I study hard, I will get a good job. So when pretty girls in my class were busy hanging out with boys, I stayed

33 Hua. Buying Beauty, 77.

34 Sarah Zheng. "Chinese students having cosmetic surgery to aid job interviews". South China Morning Post. April 24, 2017. Retrieved from: http://www.scmp.com/news/china/ society/article/2090075/chinese-students-having-cosmetic-surgery-aid-job-interviews

35 Hua. Buying Beauty, 79.

in the library. But when we were about to graduate, pretty girls could get employed more easily than me. It's so unfair! To get an opportunity to show my ability, I first needed a pretty picture on my resume. A college graduation certificate cannot guarantee me a job. I need an edge to stand out!"

Although equal opportunities mean that people should be judged on their merits, not appearance, many agree that that in China appearance is often a defining factor in recruitment.

Hua refers to a twenty two- year- old student Zhang Lin, who had done rhinoplasty and planned to trim her lower jawbone to make her face look smaller. She said in an interview,

"We should not judge people only according to appearance. But if companies prefer pretty, tall and slim girls what can I do? I have to put my pictures on my resume. Sometimes companies even ask me to put my weight and height on my resume. I don't think it is right, but it is a reality! There are some pretty girls in my class. They can easily find part-time jobs because of their good look. I used to think that I could never be one of them. But last year, after I came back from vacation, I found that the faces of two of my classmates changed. Their eyes became bigger, faces became thinner, and noses became smaller and higher. One of them has already signed a preliminary contract with a company, where I also got an interview. I didn't get the job, but she did. It is so unfair! My academic record is much better than hers, and I am sure I performed better than her in the interview. It's just so unfair that they chose her over me. The only explanation is that she is taller than me and also prettier than me with the help of the scalpel. I don't think that a pretty face is everything, but it definitely brings advantages and opens doors. "36

While it is evident that appearance may be a decisive factor in securing a job from applicants' perspective, it will be helpful to see HR professionals' opinion. Ms. Du and Mr Liang, two HR professionals in large enterprises, shared their views on screening applicants. Ms. Du says, "We usually have higher standards for women applicants' appearance over men because women are generally performing differentjobs. Women usually work with people and relationships while men are working with things. In many situations, especially in communications with clients, pretty women do get an advantage because of their looks." That sounds similar to Mr. Liang's opinion, who states, "If a pretty woman and a normal-looking woman have similar qualifications, of course, I choose the pretty one. That's natural! Appearance is

36 Hua. Buying Beauty, 86.

not the only criteria. We definitely consider their ability and personality. But since they all have college degrees, why not the pretty one? Since people meet face to face during job interviews, of course, the first good impression is very important. Good-looking job seekers do get extra credit. "37

Appearance criteria are set not only by private sector enterprises and Kahn gives a narrative of such cases in a Chinese public sector. Chen-Hong Ping, a thirty five-year-old woman, 1.56 meter tall, was denied a government job because of the height requirement. Chen was applying for a local government position in her city administration. She scored high on the entrance test, impressed her interviewers, made it to the closing round and was shortlisted with other finalists out of more than 600 initial applicants. After that, she was called for a second physical check-up and was told that she would not get the job because she was two centimetres shorter of the unwritten requirement of height, which is 158 cm.38

Thus, we can see that better-looking candidates are preferred due to a utilitarian approach. Companies can utilise their physical capital in negotiations with clients and achieve business goals. Otis argues that due to poor implementation of employment discrimination laws, appearance-based discrimination is widely spread in China, and even more, considered to be a reasonable business strategy39.

Economic reforms

Deng's reforms,changes in the life-lasting employment and elimination of an "iron rice-bowl" system fuelled Chinese women's resort to plastic surgery. A labour market in its contemporary understanding was nonexistent in China before Deng's reforms. Since the creation of the People's Republic of China, the Bureau of Labour and Personnel was responsible for matching workers and employers. This system eliminated competition for jobs and provided certain work security for workers as in most cases they were not afraid of being fired by employers, though it did not allow any career changes once a match was made40. Before the reforms started,

37 Ibid., 88.

38 Joseph Kahn. "Chinese People's Republic is Unfair to its Short People". The New York Times, May 21, 2004. Retrieved from: http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/21/world/ chinese-people-s-republic-is-unfair-to-its-short-people.html

39 Otis. "China's Beauty Proletariat: The Body Politics of Hegemony in a Walmart Cosmetics Department", p. 162.

40 Fang Cai, Albert Park and Yaohui Zhao. "The Chinese Labor Market in the Reform Era" in Loren Brandt and Thomas Rawski, eds., China's Economic Transition: Origins, Mechanism, and Consequences, Cambridge University Press, 2008, p. 4. Retrieved from: http://ihome.ust.hk/~albertpark/papers/Chinalabor.pdf

the majority of workers were entierly dependant on the State for their employment. However, when it became evident that the planning system proved itself being inefficient, the government revised many of its policies, and allocation of labour was one of them. The system of job-assignment was replaced by a bilateral selection system, which allowed workers and employers to choose each other. As Cai, Park and Zhao argue,

"Before the mid-1990s, there was virtually no unemployment. Things changed dramatically in the mid 1990-ies, when the Chinese government moved forward with long-delayed plans to diversify ownership of state-owned enterprises and to allow inefficient firms to reduce employment or go bankrupt. Aggressive economic restructuring led to the layoffs of at least 10 million workers by 1997 and 27 million workers from 1998 to 2004, mostly from the state sector. The number of state sector workers fell from a peak of 113 million in 1995 to 88 million in 1998 and 64 million in 2004"4

Abolition of the state job allocations not only put graduates to a position where they look for jobs themselves, jobs are not permanent, and contracts may not be extended, but also expose them to the situation where even a slight advantage in a small thing may be a decisive factor for winning in the job market. Hence a shift from traditional planned economy to market economy and changes in employment search strategies pushed people to use plastic surgeries to increase their employment chances.

Apart from the cancellation of allocation of jobs, Chinese government reformed its educational strategies which also affected future unemployment dramatically. The radical expansion of the higher education started in 1998. Wan argues that during the period from 1998 to 2004 the enrollment of new undergraduate students on average grew by about 26.9 % annually. It resulted in the total increase of students from 3.41 million in 1998 to 13.33 million in 200442.0bviously, the increase of enrolled students consequently magnified the number of graduates in subsequent years and hence sharpened competition for jobs.

There were several reasons for the expansion of higher education in China, however, economic reasons are among the most commonly discussed. Lanqing Li, who was a vice minister in charge of education when the decision on expansion was made, names several reasons for it. They are - 1) The rapid growth of the Chinese economy revealed need in adequately trained personnel to sustain it. 2) As there was an evident steady increase in public demand for higher education, the government

41 Cai, Park and Zhao. "The Chinese Labor Market in the Reform Era", p. 15.

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42 Yinmei Wan. "Expansion of Chinese Higher Education Since 1998: Its Causes and Outcomes". Asia Pacific Education Review, Vol. 7, No. 1, 2006, p. 19.

had to meet public demand. 3) Through enrollment expansion delay in the employment of high school graduates and an increase in educational consumption can be achieved what in its turn can stimulate an increase in consumption and promote overall growth. Min Tang who was an economist at the Asian Development Bank in China wrote a letter to Premier Zhu Rongji proposing expansion and substantiated it by saying that it would postpone the employment of high school graduates, which would alleviate the employment pressure on the labour market that had already been stressed by the large number of laid-off workers from state-owned enterprises43.

According to the information from the World Economic Forum, 2017 will give China 8 million fresh graduates44. Recent research states that only 8% of those who graduated in 2015 were able to find employment within six months after graduation. Moreover, Joseph Cheng, professor of political science at City University of Hong Kong, gives a horrendous number of 30% for unemployed graduates45. That gives China a rough estimate of 2.5 million of unemployed graduates. Among the reasons why recent graduates cannot find jobs, experts name mismatch in skills graduates possess and employer's desires46. What Chinese graduates lack, according to McKinsey, and what employers want is so-called "soft skills"47. Inadequate English, lack of interpersonal skills, such as an ability to work in teams, deliver presentations and innovative flair — are among main complaints48.

Roots of the problem can be partially found in the Chinese education system which puts its emphasis on "hard skills". China has traditionally had a very hierarchical educational system which relied on a certain degree of indoctrination and pushed students to take whatever teacher says as an "ultimate truth" not to doubt and not to ask questions. Hence Chinese students do not have chances to develop "soft skills" as class discussions or presentations are not encouraged. Thus, while graduates of technical

43 Yimei Wan. "Expansion of Chinese Higher Education Since 1998", p. 22.

44 Katherine Stapleton. "China Now produces twice more graduates as the US". The World Economic Forum, 13 of April 2017. Retrieved from: https://www.weforum.org/ agenda/2017/04/higher-education-in-china-has-boomed-in-the-last-decade

45 Yojana Sharma. "What do you do with millions of extra graduates?" BBC News, 1 of July 2014. Retrieved from: http://www.bbc.com/news/business-28062071

46 Margit Molnar, Boqing Wang, and Ruidong Gao. "Assessing China's skills gap and inequalities in education." OECD Economics Department Working Papers, No. 1220, OECD Publishing, Paris. Retrieved from: http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/5js1j1805czs-en

47 Li-Kai Chen, Mona Mourshed and Andrew Grant. "The $250 billion question: Can China close the skills gap?" McKinsey and Company, May 2013. Retrieved from: http:// mckinseyonsociety.com/downloads/reports/Education/china-skills-gap.pdf

48 Ibid., p. 7.

majors have necessary technical foundation required by employers, they do not have needed "soft skills" and graduates of less technical majors lack both49.

Paradoxically, Terence Tse's research shows that less educated youth have more chances to find jobs in China compared to their university educated peers. Tse states that in China "there is an inverse correlation between educational attainment and ease of finding employment" which is opposite to the western countries where advanced education helps to secure better jobs50.

Unemployement Rate for the 21 to 25 age group break down by education level

16,4%

11,3%

% 8

2%

4,2%

Primary Junior High Senior High Junior University & Education School School & College Graduate Vocational School

Source: Tse and Esposito: "Youth unemployment in China: A crisis in the making."

Conclusion

Death of Mao and further economic reforms transformed China's economy and greatly challenged its social norms and views on many things including body politics. After opening to the world, China re-examined its approach to Communist dogmas and traditional mentality. Deng Xiaoping laid the groundwork for his "socialism with Chinese characteristics" by encouraging "part of the population getting rich first". It marked a transition from established views in the days of Mao when everyone was supposed to be equal to others in terms of their chances for social success to the modern vision of the ways to raise their social status.

49 Stapleton. "China Now produces twice more graduates as the US".

50 Terence Tse and Mark Esposito. "Youth unemployment in China: A crisis in the making". CNBC, February 20, 2014. Retrieved from: https://www.cnbc.com/2014/02/20/ youth-unemployment-in-china-a-crisis-in-the-making.html

Despite the obvious positive changes in numerous aspects of life, economic reforms brought serious challenges to China. The two of them that boosted the Chinese industry of cosmetic surgery were a spike in compulsory redundancies of employees of state owned enterprises and surplus of university graduates. For the first time in its modern history China faced evident unemployment. Social welfare packages paid to the unemployed were inadequate to support a family, so people set out to find new ways to secure employment. Women looked to plastic surgeries as an opportunity to fight aging and hence compete for working places. As both businesses and government institutions never disguised their intentions to use their female employees' physical attractiveness as a bonus for their professional skills, it was no wonder that Chinese women were compelled to resort to plastic surgeries to increase the odds in their job hunt. Young female graduates also soon found out that university diplomas per se were not sufficient to land jobs, that during interviews you were judged not only by your education, resume and actual performance but by your looks, how tall and pretty you were.

China is not an exception in East Asia in point of the boom in plastic surgery industry. However, while in South Korea the dominating factor in people resorting to a plastic surgery is aesthetic, in China the most compelling reasons for it are socio-economic. Many Chinese women are undoubtedly guided in their decision to undergo "a beauty surgery" by the wish, inherent in women all over the world, to secure better marriage prospects or protect their existing marriage. Yet the reasons based on women's pursuit of increasing their employability are prevalent. Poor employment laws, double standards in recruiting and job insecurity have put women in a vulnerable position and pushed them to seek any other options to make themselves competitive in the contemporary Chinese employment market.

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А.Ю. Козлов

В ПОГОНЕ ЗА СОВЕРШЕНСТВОМ: ПЛАСТИЧЕСКАЯ ХИРУРГИЯ И БЕЗРАБОТИЦА В КИТАЕ

Экономическая и Социальная Комиссия для Азии и Тихого Океана —

ООН ЭСАТО, Бангкок, Тайланд

Данная статья рассматривает, как женщины в современном Китае отвечают угрозе возросшей безработицы, появившейся в Китае после экономических реформ. Затрагиваются вопросы того, как угроза безработицы изменила восприятие женщинами своего тела. Рассматривается тема того, как экономические реформы в Китае, а также реформы в сфере образования поставили китайских женщин в ситуацию, в которой они вынуждены обращаться к пластической хирургии для того, чтобы увеличить свои шансы на трудоустройство. Приводятся следующие аргументы: с ростом экономики Китая и укреплением среднего класса, и ростом доходов, увеличилась конкурентоспособность населения и соответственно, конкуренция на рынке труда, что, в свою очередь, поставило женщин в уязвимую позицию и подтолкнуло к использованию пластической хирургии для трудоустройства. Статья разделена на пять основных частей, в которых рассмотрено, как экономические реформы в Китае заставили китайцев пересмотреть отношение к внешности и усилили гендерное неравенство.

Ключевые слова: экономические реформы в Китае; безработица в Китае; молодежная безработица в Китае; пластическая хирургия; гендерная дискриминация.

Сведения об авторе: Козлов Александр Юрьевич — консультант ООН ЭСКАТО

(Экономическая и Социальная Комиссия для Азии и Тихого океана) (e-mail:

[email protected]).

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