Be careful where you get your boob job done

We just read an article about a woman who sued a boob job clinic after they tried over fifty fruitless times in the last year to enlarge her breasts. On the basis of this deplorable record, Ms. Zhao decide to sue the clinic, and she won. The general rule in Chinese law is 1+1 compensation — meaning that if you spend 4800RMB, as Ms. Zhao did, that you get 9600 RMB as compensation. For Ms. Zhao, all's well that ends well, but the more we searched for similar stories, the more we got the feeling that this was just the very sensitive tip of a dark and sinister iceberg of fraudulence.

Take the story of Ms. Lin: people described her chest as an "airport" (the landing strip, if you need it spelled out) and her husband, who evidently didn't notice this until long after they were married, decided to leave her. She became a single mother, and yet there was still no reprieve: everywhere she went she saw busty lasses flaunting it because they had it. She decided to throw a couple thousand into a breast enlargement surgery.

Afterwards, the "airport" was no longer suitable for landing planes, but Lin's happiness didn't last long. There was swelling and then indescribable pain. The silicone began hardening into chunks. She went back to the clinic but gone was that friendly facade the staff had for her when she first went there as an eager patient. They adamantly refused any form of refund. She went to a doctor who said it was imperative she get surgery to remove the silicone right away. And so she had to spend a few more thousand to get that done.

The internet seems rife with stories of these so called clinics and products, most of which are shady as hell — we're talking no licenses, no permits, phone numbers that aren't even registered to the company, etc.

But by far, the story of Ms. Lin is the worst one we've heard of in a long time: because she ended up paying for two operations and was worse off than when she started. The Chinese "health" product industry, it seems, is pretty sketch. Liberating a fool and his money are one thing: doing so while dashing their hopes and dreams is another. Ugh.