In a Beijing hospital, a women is undergoing an operation. After sawing her leg bones in two, surgeons start drilling holes through her calves. They then hammer in long, metal pins. The aim is not to correct any illness or deformity, but rather to stretch the woman's legs by 8 cm, thereby making her taller and more attractive. These days, the dull conformity of socialist dogma has all but disappeared, to be replaced by a kaleidoscope of Western-style consumerism. It's a world where appearance is becoming all-important, where many will go to painful extremes to become something they're not. It's a time of breathtaking change in the world's most populous country. But for China's women, it seems they have merely exchanged one set of shackles for another.

Produced by ABC Australia