China today crowned its first ever Miss Plastic Surgery, a woman who herself wants to become a plastic surgeon, at a pageant that attracted widespread attention at home and abroad.

Feng Xian, a woman in her early 20s, was considered the most beautiful “Renzao Meinu,” or “Artificial Beauty,” among 19 finalists aged 17 to 62 vying for the honour in Beijing.

“I want to feel the operation myself so that I will have confidence when I become a plastic surgeon,” Feng said.

“This business only allows success, not failure.”

The winner will receive gifts such as club membership and jewellery, plus a free fact-finding trip to cosmetic surgery salons in Japan.

Like many women in China who are increasingly influenced by Western standards of beauty, contestants have typically undergone surgery for bigger busts, larger eyes, more defined noses and slimmer bodies. Plastic surgery has taken off in China in recent years as people become wealthier and more conscious of their appearance.

Sponsors of the contestants - from private beauty clinics to cosmetic surgery hospitals - are vying for more business in a booming industry.

China, which used to frown upon beauty and fashion as frivolous and decadent, is now the world’s eighth-largest and Asia’s second-biggest cosmetics market.