The Chinese are trying to get taller

[Queasy]

:music: I like Chinese. They only come up to your knees. :music:

Competition for jobs and marriage partners has sparked a national height craze in China that has people lining up to be surgically stretched or to purchase torture rack-like stretching machines, according to a Local 6 News report.

A senior executive at one of China's largest job-search Internet sites admits that it's a commonly-held belief that "taller people will have more opportunity for promotion."

In recent months, advertisements on Chinese television are regularly promoting "stretching machines," which look like benches reminiscent of the medieval torture rack.

Users are supposed to strap themselves in by head and foot and turn a crank to extend the bench beneath them.

A voice-over on one of the TV advertisements claims that the "body stretch and exercise machine" can stretch human cartilage and "boost young people's height."

Also, a private hospital in Beijing has become famous for its height-extending practice which puts patients out of action for six months or more.

If it works, the procedure can extend the length of your bones by more than "15 percent," according to Dr Xia Hetao, who performs the surgery.

Xia uses an adaptation of a method originally developed in Russia more than a century ago.

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.

He insists that his procedure has a high rate of success. However, Xia said that there are other operators in China who botch the job.

As leg-lengthening becomes more popular, Xia is calling for official regulation of the practice.

China's Ministry of Health says it is very concerned about the trend.

One of Xia's patients, Wang Junhong, traveled thousands of miles from southern China to get her legs lengthened in Beijing.

She said she knows of doctors that offer the surgery near where she lives, but she doesn't trust them to get it right.

Competition for work and business success in China can pressure job seekers to take drastic action to increase their height.

Job advertisements often prominently list height requirements for potential candidates

The average Chinese woman is about 5 feet 2 inches tall and the average man about 5 feet 6 inches, according to the report.

 

[Heisenberg]

 

[PanzerIV]

Voluntarily have their legs broken!? Hell no.

 

[chowmein]

i'm 5'8 natch.

my friend from Ghana once told me about a different type of stretching done, extends the height err length of something else.

 

[eigen]

They just need to eat more.

 

[91TTZ]

As soon as they find out about growth hormone, they'll become a nation of mutants.

 

[777php]

So Yao must have broken his legs about twenty times then.

 

[Mo0o]

That's pretty sick, but then again plastic surgery in America is pretty messed up as well

 

[chowmein]

Originally posted by: 777php
So Yao must have broken his legs about twenty times then.

do you know how tall yao's parents are?

 

[GhettoPeanut]

wow, amazing...just amazing...

 

[777php]

Originally posted by: chowmein

Originally posted by: 777php
So Yao must have broken his legs about twenty times then.

do you know how tall yao's parents are?

dude...I was joking

<-- is Chinese and 5'10

 

[CPA]

Originally posted by: 777php
So Yao must have broken his legs about twenty times then.

Yao was at a BestBuy I was at Sunday here in Houston. My wife, while waiting in our truck saw him, but I was in the store and did not. Amazingly, she said that he had no security around him. He was by himself. She also said he towered over everyone else.

 

[OS]

Originally posted by: Mo0o
That's pretty sick, but then again plastic surgery in America is pretty messed up as well

heh, out here they advertise implants and lipo combos on the radio now.

"Get a breast job AND tummy tuck to save a grand!!"

 

[slydecix]

Originally posted by: Queasy
A senior executive at one of China's largest job-search Internet sites admits that it's a commonly-held belief that "taller people will have more opportunity for promotion."

About 58% of Fortune 500 CEOs are 6 feet or taller

 

[Queasy]

Originally posted by: slydecix

Originally posted by: Queasy
A senior executive at one of China's largest job-search Internet sites admits that it's a commonly-held belief that "taller people will have more opportunity for promotion."

About 58% of Fortune 500 CEOs are 6 feet or taller

It is funny. At my company, all upper managment is 6' or taller as well. Guess there is some hope for me afterall. LOL

 

[Plasdom]

why don't they just marry into other races

 

[OS]

Originally posted by: slydecix

Originally posted by: Queasy
A senior executive at one of China's largest job-search Internet sites admits that it's a commonly-held belief that "taller people will have more opportunity for promotion."

About 58% of Fortune 500 CEOs are 6 feet or taller

heh;

Of the tens of millions of American men below 5'6", a grand total of ten--in my sample--have reached the level of CEO, which says that being short is probably as much, or more, of a handicap to corporate success as being a woman or an African-American

 

[OS]

Originally posted by: Plasdom
why don't they just marry into other races

I think there is also an environmental/nutritional component, pretty much all asian guys I known who grew up in the US are taller than the listed average height.

They say that the average american male is 5'9", so even at 5'6" if it were possible to correct for the fact that china is mostly a poor country where getting food on the table is not easy, there probably isn't a huge difference in genetics.

 

[thelanx]

Heh, I'm a Chinese American and 5'10", guess that should give me an advantage in many aspects compared to the average Chinese male if I go back to China. Hmm, get the ladies and the nice jobs...

 

[91TTZ]

Originally posted by: Queasy

Originally posted by: slydecix

Originally posted by: Queasy
A senior executive at one of China's largest job-search Internet sites admits that it's a commonly-held belief that "taller people will have more opportunity for promotion."

About 58% of Fortune 500 CEOs are 6 feet or taller

It is funny. At my company, all upper managment is 6' or taller as well. Guess there is some hope for me afterall. LOL

I've worked at many companies and I've noticed this as well. Management is always tall.

 

[SagaLore]

Expect a lot of crippled men 30 years from now.

 

[Mrvile]

I'm about 5-8 or 5-9, and I'm 15. Doc says I should be 6 foot by the time I stop growing.

 

[audi]

Originally posted by: Mrvile
I'm about 5-8 or 5-9, and I'm 15. Doc says I should be 6 foot by the time I stop growing.

congratulations, great story! awesome news! glad to hear it!

 

[Pepsei]

Originally posted by: thelanx
Heh, I'm a Chinese American and 5'10", guess that should give me an advantage in many aspects compared to the average Chinese male if I go back to China. Hmm, get the ladies and the nice jobs...

I'm 5'11, when I went back to Taiwan, I was pretty tall, but most of the kids now have good nutritional food, they're catching up.

 

[Queasy]

This reminds me of Gattaca by the way.