She read a newspaper article about a Beijing woman who was transformed by a plastic surgeon. Such tales are easy to find in China, as cosmetic surgery clinics have staged competitions to drum up publicity and business. One young woman, Hao Lulu, underwent a full body transformation to help promote a Beijing clinic. In all, she had 14 different procedures at a cost of more than $30,000, a huge sum in China. ''Everybody wants natural beauty, but nobody is perfect,'' Ms. Hao wrote in a diary entry carried by the Chinese press. ''Everybody has flaws, but now we can have shortcuts to beauty.'' Other artificial beauties have followed as newspapers have eagerly carried before and after photographs. Some hospitals have imported cosmetic surgeons from South Korea. Last month, a group of men competed to be selected by a clinic in Beijing. The winner is undergoing seven surgeries to become the first ''artificially handsome man.''
