Internet

Height extending surgery in the Western media, again

local9_height.jpg

On June 6, a Florida TV station broadcast a news item and published an article (online here) about height-extending surgery in China:
Xia breaks his patient's legs, then attaches metal pins to the separated bones, which are held in place by metal frames around the patient's legs...

...The patient then has to twist a knob daily to drag the ends of broken bone apart gradually, encouraging new bone to grow to bridge the gap as the fracture heals, resulting in longer bones, and a taller person, according to the report.

Well it seems that this is one China story that can be used again and again and again when Western media outlets need a weird news item. Below is a Danwei post written by Joel Martinsen, originally published in April this year:

Writing about height
The Chinese are stereotypically short, right? So it's really ironic that there are height requirements on all kinds of jobs, and that people will undergo surgery to increase their chances, right? Western newspapers seem to think so.

Every year or so the English-language press rediscovers a rare Chinese operation to increase height. The L.A. Times, in its March 31 issue, is the latest to run what has become a cliched story. Comparing it to a New York Times article from May 2002, we find:

- Bad pun for a title: check
- A pretty, college-educated 20-something woman goes under the knife: check
- Comments from Dr. Xia Hetao: check
- Foreign Ministry has height requirements: check
- Warnings from western doctors: check
- Reference to how short Deng Xiaoping was: check

Then there's the Guardian from 2003, with "A Tall Order," and Time Asia from back in 2001, with "High Hopes," whose stories are basically the same. Sure, human interest is a nice break from "Tall Buildings!!"-type stories, but, you know, I bet there's other interesting human stuff around, too.

LINKS:
LATimes story, NYTimes story repost, Guardian story, Time Asia story
Dr. Xia's Beijing Institute of External Skeletal Fixation Technology has an English site which shows before and after pictures (under "Cases")


Thanks to Paul Clark and Tian for emailing the link.

There are currently 1 Comments for Height extending surgery in the Western media, again.

Comments on Height extending surgery in the Western media, again

The news is pretty wince-inducing. Is currently doing a research about such surgeries for my screenplay.

Media Partners
Visit these sites for the latest China news
090609guardian2.png 090609CNN3.png
China Media Timeline
Major media events over the last three decades
Danwei Model Workers
laomo2008fpA.jpg
Recommended blogs and new media
Books on China
AXL091030storiesforthcoming.jpg
Princess Der Ling: Two Years in the Forbidden City: Two years in the Forbidden City is largely a reminiscence of the minutiae of life for one of history's most powerful women, by one of her court attendants, a Manchu noble's daughter by the name of Der Ling.
Carl Crow's The Long Road Back to China: In 1939 Carl Crow - an American journalist, advertising executive and author who had lived in Shanghai for 25 years until forced out by the Japanese - travelled up the Burma Road from Rangoon to Chongqing on assignment for Liberty magazine - 'the most interesting assignment I have ever been given'.
Front Page of the Day
A different newspaper every weekday
From the Vault
Classic Danwei posts
+ The 'national' in National Day (2006.10): Xiao Feng writes about China's national flavor, national curse, national bird, national car, and so forth, Dongfang Yu writes on the true meaning of China's National Day in the age of angry youth.
+ Don't ask so laowai don't have to tell (2008.07): An essay was written by Geremie Barmé, scholar, filmmaker and author of the new book The Forbidden City.
+ Religion and government in an uneasy mix (2008.03): Phoenix Weekly (凤凰周刊) article from October, 2007, on government influence on religious practice in Tibet.
Danwei Archives
Danwei Feeds
Via Feedsky rsschiclet2.png (on the mainland)
or Feedburner rsschiclet.gif (blocked in China)
rsschiclet2.png rsschiclet.gif Main feed: Main posts (FB has top links)
rsschiclet2.png rsschiclet.gif Top Links: Links from the top bar
rsschiclet2.png rsschiclet.gif Danwei Jobs: Want ads
rsschiclet2.png rsschiclet.gif Danwei Digest: Updated daily, 19:30