The taller one is, a common belief goes, the better one's career and romantic prospects are. (There is some truth to this; studies (in America, I believe) have quantified the expected increase in income per inch of height to be in the order of thousands of dollars a year.) In China, this belief has reached its logical conclusion, with height-anxious Chinese investing in
torture-rack-style stretching machines and Gattaca-style height-enhancement surgery.
I can vouch for this. While on holiday in China last October I saw informercials for these rack-like devices on TV. Neat winding mechanism and all. Now the kid can slam dunk with the best of em etc..