A WAFT OF perfume and the jingling of a necklace of tiny bells precedes her as she walks into the cafe of an upscale Dongguan hotel. Dressed in a smart, black satin dress, Fanny Zhu Feiqun is an unlikely heroine. But over the past few months, the wealthy housewife has joined victims of the toxic hydrophilic polyacrylamide gel (PAAG) and become a warrior in their fight for justice.
Her leather notebook is now crammed with the contact information for hundreds of victims from across the mainland; the hospitals, clinics or beauty parlours they visited, and those who injected them with the gel. Uniting fellow victims, Zhu and her friends are taking a two-pronged approach: creating a support network for each other, and fighting to eradicate PAAG and bring those responsible to justice. Zhu, who has since set up a victim's website (lovesky110.com), realises theirs is a protracted struggle, but says it gives purpose to her life. A mother of two, the 36-year-old used to have a stereotypical tai-tai lifestyle.
'I never cared about others. I played mahjong, went shopping and threw money around. All I cared about was my looks,' she says. 'This has forced me to change.'
'This' was the breast-enhancement procedure Zhu underwent five years ago, putting her among the many women who suffered from the use PAAG in cosmetic treatment. After the birth of her children, Zhu felt her breasts needed a lift to look good in her favoured spaghetti-strap tops. But she was reluctant to go under the knife and instead took a beautician friend's advice to inject PAAG. The initial results were good, but her breasts then fell, her cleavage hardened and her fingertips went numb. Examinations revealed the gel had migrated into her chest.
Zhu was playing mahjong in mid-April when local television reported the Hong Kong Consumer Council's warning on the gel. The report highlighted how six of 53 women who sought medical help after receiving injections were forced to have their breasts partly or completely removed. The gel blocks mammograms and contains a toxin that can leak into breast milk, cause infections and even cancer.
'[My friends] all started laughing as we watched the news,' Zhu says. 'Nobody knew I did it, but they knew I loved makeovers. They started joking with me. I tried not to cry.'