In a spacious and modern room at the Daifei Women's Club in Qingdao City, Shandong Province, a group of women in brief body suits are dancing with confidence to the accompaniment of light music. They are preparing for a shaping beauty contest.
Shaping is a kind of bodybuilding. With the aid of computer technology, such as measuring and appraising systems for physique, for physique and hairstyle, and for physique and clothes, shaping has won a reputation as the All-Round Bodybuilding Engineering System. Many world-famous models practice shaping, and thus, many girls dreaming of becoming models also practice it. One such girl is 18-year-old Li Bing from Qingdao. She is a student at a modeling school and has practiced shaping for two months, with encouragement from her family.
Shaping practitioners usually have good educations and work at such jobs as secretary, accountant, teacher, or bodybuilding coach. They differ in age, but they have the same goal: to keep fit and preserve their youth.
Although these beautiful models seem confident on the stage, they experience unimaginable hardships in their exercises. Wang Ling, for example, is a teacher who likes sports and dancing, but as time went by, she started to put on weight. In order to recover her figure, Wang joined the ranks of shaping practitioners. "It costs me only one hundred yuan per month to learn bodybuilding," she says, "but the tuition for learning shaping is 380 yuan per month, not including outfits and shoes."
"Shaping is pretty tiring," she continues. "I ached all over after the first time. Some of the women could not take it and gave up, but I stuck to it. These sacrifices are worthwhile for a woman who wants to keep her beauty."
Every contestant in the shaping beauty contest seems confident of success, but there can only be one winner. The key lies not only in youth and beauty but also in the whole image, from inside to outside. "Youth is my advantage," said Li Bing, the youngest contestant, but she told us in private that she felt uneasy because this was her first contest.
People's minds are changing with the times, but women's pursuit of beauty remains unchanged. "The health and fitness industry will see its most rapid development ever in the 21st century," says Song Bojun, president of the Daifei Women's Club.
(China Pictorial 04/12/2001)
