Yes, we Chinese love our “face.”

In the past, this love for “face” was largely metaphorical. In recent years, however, to Chinese, especially young Chinese, the importance of “face” is becoming more literal than ever. With the growing appeal of entertainment and celebrity culture, Chinese youth seem to be increasingly obsessed with good looks. The employment and gender inequality has given rise to a culture that disproportionately values outer beauty, especially in young women.

A reality show featuring "artificial beauties" was canceled by media authorities in 2007.

The lure–and pressure–of having a beautiful face and an attractive figure has motivated tens of thousands of young Chinese to go under the knife each year, spending millions of dollars of cool cash for a hot look that they hope will bring them, if not fortune and fame, at least job opportunities and love. According to Phoenix TV (ZH), China has become the third biggest market of plastic surgery in the world after the U.S. and Brazil. From 2009 to 2010, 3.4 millions of plastic surgery procedures were conducted in China. In 2010, the plastic surgery in China was already a 300 billion yuan ($47.7 billion) industry that employed more than 20 million people. The industry has a 40% annual growth and its suppliers boast a staggering 60% annual growth in sales.

Besides those who undergo plastic surgery in China, other Chinese chose to do it in South Korea, a country with the world’s highest per capital rate of cosmetic plastic surgery. According to the statistics from the Korean Embassy in China, in 2011, Korea issued 1,073 visas (ZH) to Chinese citizens who would travel to Korea in order to undergo plastic surgery.

The burgeoning celebrity culture in China feeds young Chinese’s curiosity and interest in plastic surgery. News, gossips and speculations about celebrities’ faces have become popular topics online, often accompanied with before-and-after photos for comparison.

Recently, Faye Wong, the legendary pop icon who is known for her unique style and uncompromising attitude towards media, is at the center of speculations. Gossips about whether Wong has gone under the knife to fix her nose and chin are circulating wildly online and getting mixed reactions from fans. Some are surprised that even the unearthly “goddess” of pop has resorted to plastic surgery, something that only lowbrow (su, 俗) celebrities seek. Other fans, however, respond with understanding and respect. “Online on-lookers love meaningless gossips. Whether or not the icon Faye Wong has undergone plastic surgery is none of anybody else’s business,” a fan wrote on Weibo.

Nevertheless, plastic surgery is almost an open secret in the entertainment circle. Many aspiring young men and women won’t hesitate to spend money and go through painful procedures to change their looks so that they have better chance in their career. This trend compelled Beijing Film Academy, the number one film school in China, to announce before its entrance examinations this year that students who had tattoos or had undergone plastic surgery would be disqualified for admission. “The changes in their faces or other parts of the body, and the tattoos too, might affect their performance when they are trying to depict a figure in a play,” Wang Jinsong, deputy director of the Performance Institute of the academy, told China Daily.

The popularity of plastic surgery, however, isn’t just among those who work in entertainment. Gender inequality and employment pressure for young women have forced some of them to consider plastic surgery seriously. It is almost an unspoken rule that some employers tend to hire female employees based on their looks more than their educational and professional merits. “They may not say it openly, but during the process they will pick the prettier one,” a college graduate, who had her eye lids worked on told Los Angeles Times.

Sadly, the great value society puts in women’s looks has created image issues for many young women in China. Although society respect strong, intelligent and capable women, many Chinese men still consider physically attractive women who are less capable than they are more desirable than otherwise as their partners. In the first-tier cities where single women outnumber single men (7:1) and where young people have more disposable income, as many young women feel great pressure to have good looks and a slim body more than anything else, plastic surgery looks more and more like a viable option to happiness and security to young women. In a recent post on zhuansoo.com, an online community for Chinese students who are interested in studying overseas, the author asks, “Should female students go and study abroad or save the money to get plastic surgery?” According to her, almost all male students who responded to a post she came across had said that they would choose a pretty girl who was only interested in beauty, shopping and fashion as their girlfriend over a plain-looking but academically successful girl. “Is face really that important?” the author is confused.

However, image is not only an issue for young women. More and more Chinese government officials, both men and women, are also rushing to go under the knife so that they will look younger, thinner, and more attractive. Caring more and more about their image, these official hope that plastic surgery will improve their popularity among the public and hide the signs of aging.

As more Chinese are willing to invest in their looks each year, health experts have warned the public of the risks related to plastic surgery, especially in a country where poisonous milk power and fake cooking oil are not rare cases that scare the public on a daily basis. In fact, in the past ten years, on average, 20 thousand cases of medical malpractice claims were filed each year, which amounted to a total of 200 thousand faces destroyed in China. In 2010, a reality show starlet died from a medical accident during a plastic surgery procedure, which raised the awareness of the negative impact of the craze for artificial beauty on Chinese youth’s mental and physical health.

Recently, on a special topic page on Weibo, netizens are asked whether they will choose to undergo plastic surgery considering its benefits and risks. The topic became one the most popular on the website, which has received 3,419,100 responses.

Although most of those who responded still prefer “natural beauty,” they are also open to surgery, being aware of the risks. However, now, one may take more caution and think twice before she/he lets anybody cut open her/his face or body: “if you’re to undergo these procedures, you must first verify the source of the products and whether the service provider is a professional institution so as to reduce the risks,” as a netizen warns.

But if you think that travel is the only challenge of the New Year, you’re too naive. How can you forget the relatives? Yes, relatives, families, those people whom you haven’t talked to for a whole year but sadly share some genes with, or those who are connected to you solely with some kind of arbitrary marital ties. Sure, we Chinese value our families, but time has changed. The week-long celebration of the Chinese New Year with extended families can be overwhelming to younger generations. Emerging from the New Year celebration, many young Chinese are now sharing their love and loathing of these holiday family reunions on social media.

One of the things that annoys and in many cases “scares” young (or young-ish) Chinese during those family reunions is their parents’ and inquisitive relatives’ persistent interest in their personal lives, especially the part about marriage and money. On weibo.com, one of the most popular microblogging websites in China, a poll, which asks”When you’re back (to your parents’) home for the New Year, what are the most annoying questions you get?,” shows that 65 percent of respondents chose “Do you have a boy/girlfriend this year?” and 63 percent chose “Where do you work? How much do you make a month?” The poll allows each respondent to choose up to two answers, and these are the two most popular answers, with percentages significantly higher than the third ranking answer “How was the year? Much much money did you make?” with a 13-percent popularity.

Traditionally, it is not only acceptable but also expected from senior relatives to ask younger people about their love life, marriage or kids. Same is true with questions about their income. To the older generations, this is a gesture of love and caring, but to most Chinese who are in their 20s and 30s, it is nothing but intrusive. Also, as young Chinese are increasingly faced with employment and economic pressure, more and more of them choose to give up dating and delay to have a family so they can focus on their career. Questions about love life and money can only remind them of the pressure and anxiety that they try to escape especially at a time of holiday celebration. No wonder on weibo.com, netizens gave these questions a name: the questions of “poisonous tongue” (dushe wenti or 毒舌问题).

For many young women, the expectations of marriage from their family and those of career success from society can be overwhelming. “Every New Year the pressure is on,” writes a young woman, “with so many relatives, the older ones and the younger ones, as a single young woman in between, my wallet is pretty tight! Plus (I’m) asked repeatedly when to get married, or whether I have a boyfriend! Before I have a successful career, I won’t consider getting married! Why does happiness have to involve a family and children?” While choices like this are quite common among young women in China nowadays, they’re still hard for older generations to digest.

Similar pressure is shared by young men, who are supposed to make money and provide for a family so that the family name will continue. These expectations can make some young men quite bitter. “During the New Year at home, some people asked you how much money you made each month, some asked you when you would get married, some asked you about your plans after the holidays,” a man writes, “but they seldom asked you: Are you happy and content? (an emoticon of a sad face).” Another man writes, “You know what is more annoying than being asked by your relatives about your girlfriend when you don’t have one? That’s when your relatives ask you, not knowing that you and your girlfriend broke up a year ago, ‘Why don’t you bring your girl?’ ‘How’s your girl?’ etc.”

What’s more frustrating to young people is that, despite their aversion to these questions, they are supposed to show respect to their senior relatives and answer their questions politely. To shut up her parents’ endless inquiry about her love life, a young woman lied that she was into girls. “After a week of silence,” she writes, “they said, ‘Next time bring your girlfriend back and let us have a look at her!'” Yes, Chinese parents are persistent.

From the New Year experience shared online, one can see a generational cultural change. Compared to their parents’ generation, Chinese youth expect more personal space and more respect given to younger people, including children. Based on people’s comments on the topic, weibo.com summarized ten New Year’s taboo questions:

1. Are you seeing someone? When are you getting married?

2. Son, where are you ranked in your class?

3. How much money did you make last year?

4. What did you eat to get so fat?

5. How’s your job?

6. (To kids) Why can’t you greet people properly? You’re a big boy/girl!

7. How old are you? (Implying the kid is too old to receive the lucky money.)

8. You’re not planning on going to grad school?

9. You can’t recognize me now? I carried you when you where a kid!

10. When are you going to buy a house?

These questions used to be acceptable in China, but nowadays, they are considered offensive, intrusive or simply embarrassing.

Chinese New Year is a time of giving. Families exchange gifts and the older relatives give younger ones lucky money wrapped in red envelopes. But some people complain that materialism these days has turned the New Year into a time when relatives show off their wealth at family gatherings. Even those who do not have much are pressured to match their wealthier relatives’ giving so as not to “lose face.” A netizen summarizes this materialist trend of the New Year with some fun word play:

Spending the New Year with less than 10,000 yuan ($1,585) is hard… The “Spring Festival” (chunjie or 春节) has turned into the “Spring Robbery” (chunjie or 春劫)… New Year greetings (bainian or 拜年) have turned into “money worshiping” (baiqian or 败钱)… The lucky money has turned into a “face-saving project” (mianzi gongcheng or 面子工程)… “Looking forward to the New Year” (pan guonian or 盼过年) has turned into “being scared of the New Year” (pa guonian or 怕过年) — (This is) the New Year, with less and less a festive flavor but more and more the smell of money.

The lesson learned? If you’re young, single or poor in China, be thankful that the awkward and stressful time of the New Year is finally over.

• In case of paternity testing, refusal of testing establishes the other party’s position;
• Yields and accretions of premarital personal property is not considered common property;
• The property purchased by the parents of one party in the marriage for this party is considered personal property of this party;
• Immovable property purchased by one party before marriage belongs to the registered owner;
• In case of contested divorce, the articles concerning property settlement in the premarital agreement are void.

            More Share and Comments

But time has changed. Creators and/or beneficiaries of one of the fastest growing economies in the world, Chinese are no longer equally poor. The desire and, consequently, the pressure of obtaining wealth are on the shoulders of everyone living in China, especially younger generations who started their adult lives in the new market economic system. Nowadays, many Chinese expect to have houses, private cars, and fat bank accounts as prerequisites of marriage. However, with the soaring housing prices in many urban centers, rising living expenses, and a competitive job market, not all who are at the age for marriage can afford to get married. Because men are expected to provide for the family, those who don’t have a house, a car and a decent bank account became “left-over” singles. On the other hand, more women choose to be single before they can find someone who can provide for them. Because of the difficulty to find the Mr. Right, more women in China today who are over 25 remain single, and become “shengnu” or “left-over girls.”

Recently, however, a new and simpler way to enter marriage has emerged in China among young Chinese born in the 1980s, or the 80-hou generation. These young people choose to get married without owning a house, a car, or having a lavish wedding and even a ring, and this type of marriage is called “naked marriage,” or “luohun” in Chinese.

A television show based this life style The Era of Naked Marriages (Luohun Shidai) just finished showing on satellite television stations across China. From the first episode, the show topped the viewer rating list in China. About its success, the original story writer, Tang Xintian says:

The 80-hou generation is a most talked about generation. As the 80-hou generation grew up, we’re all going through relationships and marriage, so a work about relationships and marriage attracts us, the parents of us single children, and even our parents’ parents. No matter if they support [luohun] or just want to observe and understand [this life style], or if they are critical about it, it still attracts a lot of attention… Compared to other works about relationships and marriage, the theme of Luohun Shidai is in stark contrast with the materialist society. There are many people who respect luohun, with confidence, and also many who turn their noses up at it, waiting for the drama. All these people need more detailed material to support their views, and Luohun Shidai is no doubt the most blood-and-flesh-like, vivid material.

Indeed, the show has been a huge success and started much discussion. One tag line from the show “details beat love” became a popular expression among young people to express the difficulty for love to survive in a materialist mundane reality. Many netizens on weibo do not have much faith in the success of luohun:

Luohun Shidai tells us, it’d work better to run out in public naked than having a naked marriage.

Luohun takes courage; when the bread is too small, love will go bad; when the bread is too big, it’s till hard to keep love fresh.

After watching a few episodes of Luohun Shidai, I can’t help thinking of what Lu Xun has said, “First there’s life, and then love can have something to attach to.” This world is too realistic, so realistic that when we are down and out, we can’t eat spiritual food as pancakes that will feed us. The dated pledge of undying love will eventually be beaten by life. We will understand things we don’t understand now, because life teaches us how to live.

Although luohun applies to a couple, most people believe that it is more unacceptable on the part of the bride, for traditionally men are expected to provide the material basis for a marriage. A blogger  灬硪卜會 writes:

I haven’t watched that many episodes of Luohun Shidai, but I already have this view: if a man has not money to sustain a relationship, isn’t this equals giving the girl a miserable life?

All of us want to live a better life than we have now; men also want to buy LV and Gucci.

The couple in the show are very much in love, and that is for sure.

But when they get married, there are a pile of real problems that make them unhappy.

Many people have the same hope like the couple in the show, that although they don’t have money now, if the two of them work hard together, they will get by, and will be able to buy a house and a car.

Of course, it’s not wrong to have these dreams, but how many people can actually realize these dreams?

I know there are people who have, but I also know they are very rare.

Unsurprisingly, some are still holding on to true love. A weibo user comments on the simple luohun wedding style:

I like this way; I don’t like rules and complicated conventions; complicated process wear you out to please others. Why? A simple certificate is good enough~

A blogger 明月几时 describes how her ideas about love and marriage changed through time:

When I just graduated from college, my young heart was full of passion and hope, and wanted to find a person who loved me back, who were able, and who shared the same goals and could have a conversation with me. At that time, I though owning a house, a car or money, or even the fact that my partner was rich had no appeal to me. At that time, I thought as long as the two people were together and worked hard, and then they would have everything in the future. After I had worked for a while, influenced by people around me, I thought love wasn’t reliable, and having a solid material foundation was the most important, so slowly, I had this idea in my head, started to accept this view unconsciously, and even pushed myself again and again to access it, making myself believe that marriage was like this. However, after several blind dates, I realized that I can’t force myself to accept these ideas; I still want to find what’s real in my heart, and ask myself, what do I really want.

What’s real in our hearts? Is love real? Or is a house or a ring more real? Who can answer this for us?

            More Share and Comments

Virgin boys and girls, let’s have a surprise wedding~ Have a relationship with marriage as its goal. You dare love me as long as the sky lasts, and I’ll dare love you as long as the earth exists.

Currently, #微博结婚证#, or “microblogging marriage certificate,” ranks the 5th on the Hot Topics of the Hour list on Sina Weibo. “Let’s do it!,” many reposted. Do you have a sweetheart in mind?

              More Share and Comments

Initially, shengnu has a derogatory undertone, a creation by ill intended men as some say. But now, many shengnu’s in China have turned the tables and owned the word, with confidence and even pride. This confidence sometimes is based on pure materialist views on relationships and life in general, and itself can be a form of sexism, but it nevertheless is confidence, something Chinese women have been discouraged to have by society and even their families. The Communist Party of China has always claimed to promote gender equality. My parents’ and my generation of Chinese grew up believing “women can hold up half the sky,” a quotation from Mao. But the reality is, women in China have never enjoyed true equality with men socially, economically, or politically. They have been often used as resources by the state such as in 50’s, or sacrificed so men can have resources for economic and political success. Cultually, sexism has never died out in China and seems to be increasingly pervasive in various forms nowadays. Owning shengnu, to many independent single women, is a way to resist and, indeed, a personal triumph over the male dominant society.

The following music video, “No Car, No House,” is a good example of this confidence of shengnu. It features a song sang by a group of shengnu’s. It’s circulated widely on major Chinese video sharing sites such as tudou.com, ku6.com, and youku.com. The lyric is translated below.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YB9RcyUP_A]

Readers in China watch here: http://player.youku.com/player.php/sid/XMjUxNjY3NDY4/v.swf

“No Car, No House”

Golden Shengnu Edition

*Affectionate sunshine/On your face/Take a look at the young men around/Everyone’s like a woman

What a woman wants is a car and a house/Her biggest wish is to marry the right one

I ask you if you have a car and a house/My mom also asks you/How many bank accounts you have

If you don’t have a car/If you don’t have a house/Get out of my way and don’t block

I have a car and I have a house/I also have RMB in the bank

If you’re not as strong as I/Don’t expect me to surport you ’cause I’m not your mother

You don’t have a car/You don’t have a house/Don’t dream to have a hottie in your bed

Don’t pretend to be poor and drive a shabby BMW/Don’t pretend to be a boss and try to keep me *

[repeat *]

You don’t have a car/You don’t have a house/And you want to get married and be a groom

If your life is not yet affluent/Why should I go and wonder with you

You say that I’m realistic and I admit it/You accuse me of being materialistic and I won’t be hurt

A man should look like a man/Without a car and a house/Don’t dream of finding a bride

Lalala…

              More Share and Comments