A 24-year-old woman is to undergo six months of gruelling plastic surgery on her entire body in a bid to transform herself from an "ugly duckling" into a beauty.

Hao Lulu, an ethnic Manchu living in Beijing, went under the knife for the first time on Monday and hopes her new looks will lead to a career in films after the long surgery.

A crack team of plastic surgeons has been brought together for the operation, which is being financed by an unnamed sponsor.

But the surgery has drawn concern from other doctors and medical officials, who fear it is an elaborate publicity stunt.

Li Yongjie, director of the Functional Neurosurgery Department of Beijing Xuanwu Hospital, said: "I have never heard about this stuff before. This is a little bold."

The surgery began on Monday with the creation of a double eyelid for Hao and making her nose tip more pointed.

They will then remove the wrinkles from her neck and make her face thinner. Other operations will realign her jawbone and work on her breasts, abdomen, bottom and legs.

Hao said beauty was not the most important thing and that a noble character should be most highly prized in a person.

"But nowadays it is technically possible for me to become more physically beautiful too," she said. "If I can become beautiful both inside and outside, why not?"

But Hao, a freelance fashion writer and jewellery dealer, has braced herself for the loss of her original appearance.

And she has not told her parents of her plans for cosmetic surgery although her Chinese-American boyfriend is fully behind her decision to go under the knife.

Zhou Gang, who will lead the operating team at Evercare, a Beijing cosmetic surgery hospital, said doctors have a picture of the future beauty they hope to turn Hao into.

He said her new appearance would last for between three and five years.

(China Daily July 24, 2003)