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."
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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.
Watch Local 6 News for more on this story.
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