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One-eyed grandmother keeps beauty-treatment tradition alive

October 14, 2006

The art of "wan-lian" -- a beauty treatment for facial skin involving removal of hair and cells using a maze of fine string held in both hands and the teeth of the practitioner -- is thought to be a dying trade by many, but in the hands of Jiang Jian-shen, 86, it is alive and well.

Jiang is a wan-lian practitioner living in Huilong, Taoyuan County. For more than five decades, she has relied on her two hands to make her living, and more than 100,000 people have come to her to be made beautiful. The finesse of her operations has made her popular with men and women alike, and even foreign laborers come here to experience her special treatment.

Over a decade ago the "wan-lian lady" was injured in a car accident, which caused her to lose the sight in her left eye. But her finely honed wan-lian skills were not affected, and, with more free time, she began to devote even more time to her beauty business, conducted in front of the Fude Temple.

Jiang's customer base is broad, and those wishing to come to her for a "lucky" treatment can often face an hour-long wait. Jiang's business hours are 6 a.m. to noon; and she generally sees five or six customers daily, with as many as a dozen showing up on some days. At times, her customers first make an appointment with her and to avoid a long wait.

The local village head, Jiang Qingwan, says that Jiang Jianshen's skills go far back, and that she can improve a customer's complexion without the use of other products. Her work is its own advertisement. For more than five decades customers have sought her out, without her ever having set up so much as a stand or cart to do business from, let alone a sign, and she has become a village treasure.

Zhang Huang-yao, head of the Taoyuan City Medical MALL Plastic Surgery and Beauty Center, says that "wan-lian" has the advantage of thinning the stratum cornea of the skin. In Jiang's generation, it was believed that thinning this layer made makeup go on better. Two or three days after a treatment, however, the skin cells will plump up and the pores will return, and any hair that was removed will grow back, so wan-lian is only a temporary solution.

Most people are concerned about their skin becoming thin or experiencing a proliferation of capillary vessels that might break easily as the result of having sensitive skin undergo wan-lian. Some people undergoing wan-lian have showed symptoms of flushing, and have had to seek medical treatment.

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posted by Cheryl Levesque @ 10:07 AM