Buying Beauty

China's recent, dramatic social transition has rapidly expanded the desire among women for cosmetic surgery. Facing fierce competition in all spheres of life, more and more women are pursuing cosmetic surgery as a way to increase their "beauty capital" and create new opportunities for social and professional success. Building on rich ethnographic data, this book shares the perspectives of women who have undergone cosmetic surgery and illuminates the motivations behind their choices. Wen Hua explores how turbulent economic, sociocultural, and political change in China since the 1980s has produced immense mental and corporeal anxieties. Her work contributes immensely to gender studies, China studies, cultural studies, and the anthropological and sociological study of the body.