Make me perfect: Manufacturing beauty in China

Loading player...
In China today, looking good is seen as key to career success. With beauty videos promoting extreme weight-loss flooding social media, beauty apps making booking surgery click of a button away, China’s cosmetic surgery industry is booming.

But the surge in demand has led to a shortage of qualified practitioners and licensed clinics. Hundreds of accidents are happening inside Chinese clinics every day.

We talk to young women pressured into cosmetic procedures and expose the surgeon behind one of China’s most notorious botched surgeries.
You can hear the full investigation ‘Make me Perfect’ on BBC Sounds or wherever you get your podcasts just search for ‘BBC the documentary’.

Presenter: Natalia Zuo
Producer: Ly Truong
Editors: Rebecca Henschke and Monica Garnsey
Mixed by: Gareth Jones
19 Apr 8PM English United Kingdom Education

Other recent episodes

The Fifth Floor: Tackling Nigeria's skin bleaching problem

According to the World Health Organisation, 77% of Nigerian women have used skin-lightening creams. When BBC Hausa’s Madina Maishanu decided to look into this, she uncovered an even more worrying trend: mothers using potentially harmful products on their babies. Madina spoke to the campaigners trying to stop these practices. Plus,…
26 Apr 8AM 25 min

BBC OS Conversations: Remembering the life of Pope Francis

Mark Lowen in Rome brings people together to share their memories of the Pope, who died on Easter Monday. In our conversations, Mark hears from Catholics in Argentina, including one of Pope Francis’ friends who knew him when he was a priest in Buenos Aires. We also bring together three…
25 Apr 8PM 26 min

Bonus: Bridgerton actor’s interview on Dear Daughter

A bonus episode from Dear Daughter - the award-winning podcast from the BBC World Service. You can find more episodes by searching for ‘Dear Daughter’ wherever you get your BBC podcasts. Bridgerton actor Adjoa Andoh joins Namulanta in the studio to share the letter she’s written to her three children…
24 Apr 8PM 29 min

The call of Anastasia

Members of the new age Anastasia movement espouse strong family values, farm small plots of land and try to educate their own children outside the public school system. Originating in Russia, the quasi-religious group has now spread to Germany, where there are more than a dozen ‘Anastasia’ rural settlements. But…
23 Apr 8PM 28 min

Witness History: The Environment Movement

To mark Earth Day, we bring you remarkable stories of the history of the environmental movement, told by the people who were there. Selected from the BBC’s Witness History program, we hear about the major moments that changed our understanding of the planet we live on.
22 Apr 8PM 54 min