This will probably eat into Dr. Rey's business

BEIJING (Reuters) - Not content with banning "vulgar" reality TV shows, China's culture guardians have added transsexuals and plastic surgery patients to the burgeoning hit-list of proscribed content on the country's airways.

China's broadcasting watchdog, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT), has outlawed shows featuring "public participation" in sex-change operations and plastic surgery.

"All levels of television broadcasters must not plan or produce sex change or plastic surgery programs involving public participation (including news, specials or interviews), effective immediately," SARFT said in a notice posted on its Web site Friday.

"(Such programs) currently being screened or in production must stop at once," it added.

The order follows the axing of controversial "Beautiful Makeover," a reality show produced by a TV station in China's southern province of Guangdong, showing scenes of plastic surgery operations.