The hoax that broke our hearts

Could a husband really have sued his wife after she gave birth to a daughter he considered 'ugly beyond description'?

Reports have been circulating that a Chinese man, Jian Feng, was so shocked at his little girl's appearance that he started to question his wife. He asked her how the child could be so ugly - his words - when he and his wife were so attractive.

Had she cheated on him?

She denied any affair and he underwent a DNA test which proved the baby was his.

It was then that she confessed that she'd undergone extensive facial plastic surgery years ago.

Feng quickly divorced his wife and then sued her for marrying him under false pretenses and for giving him an ugly daughter. He was awarded $120,000.

A controverisal advertising campaign in Hong Kong has made fun of the situation. They used the story to promote plastic surgery, saying, "The only thing you have to worry about after plastic surgery is explaining it to your children.” While the meme used as the main image on this article has gone viral since the report first went public.

While there's speculation the story is "probably false" from sites such as Snopes.com, it's true that an increasing number of Asian women are getting plastic surgery because they are dissatisfied with their looks.

South Korea, for example, has the highest per capita rate of plastic surgery in the world. One in five women in Seoul has undergone some kind of cosmetic surgical procedure. The most popular request is for eyelid surgery, to make their eyes "more Western".

Another booming industry is double jaw surgery, which involves realigning the upper and lower jaws to create a "V-shaped" chin and jawline, considered a mark of feminine beauty in many parts of South East Asia.

According to a recent study, 52 percent of people who had the surgery suffered sensory problems such as facial numbness.  Last year, a 23-year-old college student who underwent double-jaw surgery committed suicide after the surgery left her unable to chew food or stop crying due to nerve damage in a tear duct.

Whether Jian Feng's court win is an urban myth or a shocking reality, it's tragic that women are being driven to dangerous extremes by their desperation to conform with ideals of beauty.

Have you ever considered plastic surgery?