美容师 冬梅Dong Mei说腿拉长装置可以给她1米45的身高增加12厘米。她说："如果长得不漂亮，怎麽能让我的顾客相信我能把他们变美呢？"
(倪青青Ching-Ching Ni / 《洛杉矶时报》LAT)

March 31, 2005
Times Headlines

《洛杉矶时报》记者倪青青 Ching-Ching Ni报道

北京 — 她是个演艺系学生，坐在轮椅上。他是个商务专业学生，用拐杖站立。

他们都希望医生打断他们的腿，利用断骨增高，在膝盖和脚踝之间插入钢针。钢针围起来像个金属笼子。有半年的时间，他们都带着这套带来给人极大折磨的剧痛的装置，靠止痛药来缓解剧痛。

他们每天都要调节这个装置，让愈合的断腿拉开。随着骨头的生长，这个装置迫使骨头再次分开，结果更多的新骨头来填平裂口。使用这个装置的患者半年内平均能长高7厘米。

听起来像是中世纪的酷刑，但是决心长高的人们说这算不了什麽。

这个治疗大约花费6,000美元，超出了年均收入1,100美元的中国城市居民的承受能力。但对于一些有钱人来说，这个价钱还可以。在这个竞争日益激烈的社会，身高成了能够向上爬一种看得见的标准。

"我以前的身高不够电影学院的标准，"这位20岁的表演系学生说，身高增加了7厘米到1米55后，北京电影学院录取了她。北影的网站说女学生的身高至少要1米60。

"我花一年休学来做手术，"22岁的商务专业学生说，他1米62的身高可能妨碍他成为白领。"我想自我感觉更好些。"像大多数同样遭遇的人一样，这名学生缺乏自我认同感。

几十年前，身高在中国根本就不是问题。邓小平是中国近代史上的巨人之一，尽管他身高只有1米52。

但从那时开始的1980年代的市场经济改革，中国人的生活方式的选择开始多样化了。美容手术和其他相关行业开始吃香。

现在的中国淹没在高个子人成功的故事中了。从时尚杂志到广告牌到电视节目，年轻崇拜这样的偶像，像卢燕Lu Yan，身高1米77，国际超模，NBA明星姚明，身高2米28，被吹嘘为中国的移动长城。

为了让国人长高，中国政府鼓励学龄儿童中喝更多的牛奶。 中国女人的平均身高是1米57，男人1米67。由于营养改善和甚或水平的提高，中国人的平均身高比10年前高了大约2厘米。中国人成了世界上身高增长最快的人群。

这个国家对身高的偏见带来了诸如补钙，药补，增高鞋等相关市场。这里卖的最新的锻炼机据说带有红外线功能来刺激激素生长。

现在腿拉长手术把美容事业带到了一个新的高度。

"中国经济改革之前，我们吃的都不够，就没心思管相貌。"北京的一个身高咨询事业的发言人张春江说。"今天我们吃得足够了，开始关心相貌了。"

用手术来增加身高对其他健康人来说还是一个新概念。这个技术是基于一个俄罗斯医生的工作，本来是用来矫正跛足的。这个手术一些国家有能力做，包括美国。中国之外的大多数医生不愿意单纯为了美容来做这个手术。

"我们比世界上任何其他国家做的腿拉长手术都多，但是只有5%是为了美容的，"位于巴尔的摩的肢拉长国际中心的主任佩利Dror Paley医生说，该中心自1987年起已经做了大约8,000 例肢拉长手术。大多数手术时给有出生缺陷或外伤的病人做的，佩利说，在为美容目的做这样的手术前，他需要仔细考虑一番。

"不像大多美容手术，这个手术有很大的风险，"他说，"你可能落下个终身残废。"

而在中国，很明显，越来越多的人认为值得冒这个险。

在过去国家包分配的年代，大多中国的大学生们不用为自己找工作烦恼。但现在的人才市场是卖方市场，看上去毫不相关的因素，比如身高，成了找工作的条件。

"中国找工作的竞争太激烈了，"这个国家少数的几个专攻肢拉长的医师 夏何涛(音)说，"其他条件相同的情况，身高成了决定因素。"许多老板在他们的职位描述上列出了身高要求。求职广告上这样的例子多的是。

一个服装制造商目前正在为它的北京办公室找一个女秘书。在要求上首先是年龄25~40，身高1米62以上。

一个餐饮连锁星期五餐厅TGI Friday的要求相对宽松：女1米55以上，男1米62以上。

准驾驶员也有身高限制。根据北京公安局交通管理局Beijing Public Security Bureau of Traffic Administration的网站，驾驶员的条件是，小汽车驾驶员要求1米55以上，卡车公共汽车1米62以上。

尽管许多教育机构为了追求入学率，不再有身高要求。但像北影这样的学校还是在身材高的申请人中挑人。

据外交部的一名官员说，满足一个非正式的身高标准是常识。

"这是个形象问题,"这名官员说，"例如你长得很矮或者脸上有缺陷，这将影响到政府的形象。"

目前，消除"长得矮"的偏见不是那麽容易。在一起诉讼中，一名女士起诉南方的深圳市政府因为她的身高而拒绝雇用她。 这个起诉去年被法院拒绝，理由是法院没有权力干涉政府内部的规定。

"法律规定人人都有工作的权力，但是由于我们资源有限，而设置了一些障碍，"北京大学的法学教授 孙东东(音)说。"去掉身高要求是不现实的。如果雇主只有一个职位而有许多申请人，他有权力雇用他认为是最合适的。"

身高有这样的优势，那些做腿拉长手术的人就要考虑了。官方媒体羞于报道这样的手术。

一些做这样手术的人受到神经或组织损害，感染或骨头不能康复，让他们无法行走，甚至无法站立。

然而如果手术得当的话，失败率很低，夏何涛(音)说。他说他自从1996年做了1,400多例这样的手术，一年有100到180例，只有8例没有完全康复。

张万中(音)，东部城市杭州的一名外科医生说，他已经做了2,000多例手术，占他做的整形外科手术的大约10%。

"我试着劝人们不要做这个手术，"张万中(音)说，"但是一些人说他们受够了歧视，感到不安全，沮丧，甚至想自杀。简直成了心理疾病。"

夏何涛(音)回忆起一名比他女朋友还矮的病人。她的父母说他们死也不愿意看到他们结婚。这个人找到夏何涛(音)的诊所，当他比他的女朋友高了以后，他们结婚了。

夏何涛(音)岁数最大的病人是一名52岁的退休工程师，热衷于跳舞，但由于身材不行，而找不到合适的舞伴。

"一些人说你怎麽不去治那些真正的病人。我说他们就是真正的病人，他们挺遭罪的。"夏何涛(音)说。

大多做手术的病人，是偷偷的。在他们"长高"的时间里住在医院或是家里。他们说，承受痛苦时不想分心。

"我的等不及要买新衣服了，尤其是新裤子——以前的都太短了。"夏何涛(音)的一个病人冬梅(音)说，"我再也不需要穿那些穿起来难受得高跟鞋了。"

每天，这位24岁的美容师在别人的帮助下像婴儿一样练习走路，一步一步地慢慢地向前挪，腿上带着金属架，有时，她用编织的腿带来取暖。

"我给客户做化妆和皮肤处理，"她说，"如果我看上去不漂亮，怎麽能让我的顾客相信我能把他们变美呢？"

过去1米45的冬梅(音)长了12厘米。

"改变是很明显的"冬梅(音)说，她刚刚拿掉腿支架几个星期，"我以前比我嫂矮。现在比她稍微高一点。我喜欢唱歌跳舞。他们说我能演肥皂剧了。我现在能做更多的事了。"

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COLUMN ONE
Stature of Limitations in China
In a newly competitive society, being short can mean being passed over. To some people, the answer lies in a painful surgery that adds inches.

Taller
(Ching-Ching Ni / LAT)
Graphics

A cut above
March 31, 2005
Times Headlines

By Ching-Ching Ni, Times Staff Writer

BEIJING — She's an acting student. She sits in a wheelchair. He's a business major. He relies on crutches to get around.

Each of them willingly had a doctor break their legs and insert steel pins into the bones just below their knees and above their ankles. The pins are attached to a bulky contraption that looks like a metal cage. For six months or so, they will wear this stretching device even though it delivers excruciating pain eased only by medication.

They dial the adjustment knobs daily, forcing the ends of the broken limbs to pull away from each other even as they heal. As new bone grows, the device forces it apart again, resulting in more new bone to fill the gap. Patients on the device typically gain about 3 inches in six months.

It may sound like medieval torture, but people who are determined to stand taller say it's nothing short of a dream maker.

At about $6,000, the treatment is out of reach for the average Chinese urbanite, who makes just more than $1,100 a year. But for some with money, it's a price they're willing to pay. In this increasingly competitive society, height has emerged as one of the most visible criteria for upward mobility.

"I was not tall enough to apply to film school before," said the 20-year-old acting student, who was accepted to the Beijing Film Academy after adding 3 inches to her 5-foot-1-inch frame. The school's website says female acting department applicants must be at least 5 feet 3.

"I'm taking a year off from school to do this," said the 22-year-old business major, who at 5 feet 4 worried that his height would keep him from getting coveted white-collar jobs. "I want to feel better about myself." Like most who undergo the procedure, the students asked not to be identified, for reasons of self-consciousness.

For decades, height was largely a nonissue in China. Deng Xiaoping was one of the giants of the country's modern history even though he stood only about 5 feet tall.

But then came the market-oriented reforms of the 1980s, and Chinese began to face an explosion of lifestyle choices. Cosmetic surgery and other appearance-related industries became big business.

These days, China is inundated with images of long-legged success stories. From fashion magazines to billboards to TV shows, young people look up to icons such as Lu Yan, an international supermodel who stands 5 feet 10, and NBA star Yao Ming, who at 7 feet 6 is trumpeted as the walking Great Wall of China.

To help produce a taller nation, Beijing has been advocating more milk consumption for school-age children. The average Chinese woman is about 5 feet 2, the average man about 5-6. Partly the result of improved nutrition and living standards, they're about 0.8 inch taller than a decade ago, making the Chinese among the fastest-growing people in the world.

The country's obsession with height has created a market for such items as calcium supplements, herbal tonics and special shoes with massaging soles. The latest exercise machines sold here are said to feature infrared energy to stimulate growth hormones.

Now leg extensions have taken the beauty business to new heights.

"Before the economic reforms that changed China, we weren't getting enough food to eat, so we paid little attention to how we looked," said Zhang Chunjiang, a spokesperson at a height consulting business in Beijing. "Today we have enough to eat and we care a lot about how we look."

Using surgery to boost the height of otherwise healthy people is a relatively new concept. The technology is based on the work of a Russian doctor and was originally intended to correct uneven limbs. The surgery is offered in about a dozen countries, including the United States. Most doctors outside China are reluctant to do it for purely cosmetic reasons.

"We do more leg lengthening than any other place in the world, but only 5% of that is for cosmetic purposes," said Dr. Dror Paley, a director of the International Center for Limb Lengthening in Baltimore, which has performed about 8,000 leg-lengthening procedures since 1987. Most of the surgeries are performed on patients who suffer from birth defects or trauma, Paley said, adding that he requires lengthy psychological evaluations before he will do the procedure for cosmetic reasons.

"Unlike most plastic surgeries, the risks here are huge," he said. "You can end up permanently crippled."

In China, apparently, an increasing number of people think it's worth the risk.

In the old days, when the government handed out the most desirable jobs, many college-educated Chinese didn't have to worry about finding work on their own. But now the job market is a seller's market, and seemingly irrelevant factors such as height play a role in who is hired.

"In China, the competition for jobs is too fierce," said Xia Hetao, one of a handful of physicians in the country who specializes in leg lengthening. "All else being equal, height becomes a deciding factor." Many employers list height requirements in their job descriptions. Help-wanted ads are loaded with examples.

A garment manufacturer was looking for a female secretary for its Beijing office recently. At the top of the list of requirements was age — between 25 and 40 — and height — at least 5 feet 4.

An ad for the restaurant chain TGI Friday's was more lenient: women above 5 feet 1 and men above 5 feet 4.

Would-be drivers must also pass a height test. According to the website of the Beijing Public Security Bureau of Traffic Administration, applicants must be at least 5 feet 1 to drive a car and 5 feet 4 to drive a truck or bus.

Though many educational institutions are trying to increase enrollment and no longer have height requirements, others such as the Beijing Film Academy's acting department continue to seek candidates of a certain stature.

At the Foreign Ministry, it's common knowledge that most candidates must meet an informal height standard, an official there said.

"It's an image issue," the official said. "If you are very short or have some other defects on your face, for example, it could affect the government's image."

So far, fighting the "shortness" bias hasn't been easy. In one case, a woman sued after she was turned down for a government job in the southern city of Shenzhen because of her height. The suit was tossed out last year by the court, which said it didn't have the power to control the internal practices of the government agency.

"The law says everyone has the right to work, but society has to set some limits because our resources are too limited," said Sun Dongdong, a law professor at Peking University. "To eliminate height requirements is unrealistic. If an employer has only one opening and many candidates, he has the right to hire who he thinks is the most appropriate."

Such benefits of height aside, those contemplating leg lengthening have reason to think twice. State media haven't been shy about reporting on botched operations.

Some of those who have undergone the procedure have suffered nerve or tissue damage, infection or improper healing of the bone, leaving them unable to walk or even stand.

If done properly, however, the procedure should have a very low failure rate, said Xia, the physician. He said he had performed more than 1,400 of the operations since 1996, usually between 100 and 180 a year. Only about eight patients didn't recover fully, he said.

Zhang Wanzhong, a surgeon in the eastern city of Hangzhou, said he had performed more than 2,000 of the procedures, accounting for about 10% of his orthopedic business.

"I try to dissuade people from doing it," Zhang said. "But some insist they suffer from so much discrimination they feel insecure, depressed, even suicidal. It's become a kind of mental sickness."

Xia recalls a patient who was shorter than his girlfriend. Her parents said they would rather die than see the couple wed. The suitor checked into Xia's clinic, and once he became taller than his girlfriend, they married.

Xia's oldest patient was a 52-year-old retired engineer who enjoyed ballroom dancing but was so petite she couldn't find a suitable partner.

"Some people say why don't you stick to real patients. I say they are real patients and they really do suffer," Xia said.

Most patients undergo the operation in secret and spend their "growing" time in the privacy of a hospital or at home. While in pain, they say, they try to concentrate on the results.

"I can't wait to buy all new clothes, especially pants — mine will all be too short for me," said Dong Mei, a patient of Xia. "I won't need to wear those uncomfortable high heels anymore."

Every day, the 24-year-old beautician practices taking baby steps with the help of a walker, inching along in her metal braces, which she sometimes covers with knitted leg warmers.

"I do makeup and skin treatment for clients," she said. "If I don't look good, how can I convince my customers I can make them prettier?"

Dong, who had been 4 feet 9, said she had grown 5 inches.

"The difference is obvious," Dong said, just weeks away from removing her braces. "I used to be shorter than my sister-in-law. Now I am slightly taller than her. I like to sing and dance. They said maybe I could be in a soap opera. I can do so many more things now with my life."