3. Beauty Contestant Fights For Right of Self. Improvement

BEIJNG, June 11 – In the struggle for individual rights in China, a young woman named Yang Yuan is creating a new 1)category of enticement that falls somewhere down the list from freedom of speech and voting. She is fighting for her right to enter a beauty contest after having had plastic surgery. Ms. Yang’s plight, not likely to inspire outrage among international human rights 2)advocates, has titillated the Chinese media as she has become the latest in a growing 3)parade of young women who have become instant celebrities after undergoing 4) extensive cosmetic surgery.

Beauty pageants, once banned as bourgeois “spiritual pollution” are now held across the country, among them the Miss World pageant. Shopping malls now hold 5)underwear fashion shows. And the cosmetics giant L’Oreal saw sales in China jump by 70 percent last year.

Hung Huang, chief 6) executive of a media group that publishes Chinese lifestyle magazines, said Chinese women had always 7) emphasized appearance and beauty. She said the loosening of social controls, along with rising incomes, had unleashed pent – up demand and fueled a consumer boom.8)One government estimate a consumer beauty industry in China at $ 24 billion.

“In China, being well groomed is a wellness factor women, and probably stronger than anything else,” Ms. Hung said. “They feel good when they look good.”

For many women, the decision to have cosmetic surgery is less about vanity than practicality, 9)rooted in the belief that a more attractive appearance will help them find a better job or spouse in a more competitive society.

Ms. Yang, who is 19, was tall and striking before her surgery, and had started a modeling career after graduating from high school. 10)But she was not satisfied with her face and said makeup artists had suggested plastic surgery. She also had entered a handful of beauty contests without success. “I wanted to be equal to other beautiful women, ” Ms. Yang said. “That’s why I had plastic surgery.”