Increase in Asian plastic surgery.

[Ronin4hire]

TIME Magazine: Plastic Surgery - Changing Faces

At 18, Saeko Kimura was a shy, sleepy-eyed university student. Until she discovered a secret weapon: if she applied a strip of glue to her eyelids, her eyes became wider, rounder, prettier. "Men noticed me," she says. "I became outgoing. Suddenly, I had a life." Her new looks also landed her part-time work as a hostess in an upmarket bar, where she gets top dollar on a pay scale determined by beauty.

But Kimura lived in fear of discovery, rushing off to the bathroom several times a day to reapply the glue and never daring to visit the beach. And so, at 21, she finds herself in a doctor's office in a Tokyo high-rise, lying on an operating table with her fists nervously clenched. Plastic surgeon Katsuya Takasu breezes in wielding a cartoonishly enormous needle. "This will hurt a little," he says cheerfully. Once the anesthetic is administered, Takasu brandishes another, hooked needle and threads it through Kimura's upper eyelids, creating a permanent crease. He then injects a filler fluid called hyaluronic acid into her nose and chin and pinches them into shape. Takasu inspects his handiwork. "The swelling will go down in a few days," he says. "But even if you went out tonight in Roppongi, you'd be a hit." A nurse hands Kimura a mirror. Though red and puffy, she now has the face she's always dreamed of: big, round eyes, a tall nose, a defined chin. The entire procedure took less than 10 minutes. But Kimura collapses with an ice pack on her face and moans, "Oh, the pain."

What we won't do for beauty. Around Asia, women—and increasingly, men—are nipping and tucking, sucking and suturing, injecting and implanting, all in the quest for better looks. In the past, Asia had lagged behind the West in catching the plastic surgery wave, held back by cultural hang-ups, arrested medical skills and a poorer consumer base. But cosmetic surgery is now booming throughout Asia like never before. In Taiwan, a million procedures were performed last year, double the number from five years ago. In Korea, surgeons estimate that at least one in 10 adults have received some form of surgical upgrade and even tots have their eyelids done. The government of Thailand has taken to hawking plastic surgery tours. In Japan, noninvasive procedures dubbed "petite surgery" have set off such a rage that top clinics are raking in $100 million a year.

Elsewhere in Asia, this explosion of personal re-engineering is harder to document, because for every skilled and legitimate surgeon there seethes a swarm of shady pretenders. Indonesia, for instance, boasts only 43 licensed plastic surgeons for a population of about 230 million; yet an estimated 400 illicit procedures are performed each week in the capital alone. In Shenzhen, the Chinese boomtown, thousands of unlicensed "beauty-science centers" lure hordes of upwardly mobile patients, looking to buy a new pair of eyes or a new nose as the perfect accessory to their new cars and new clothes.

Interesting read...

The above is just a little bit of the article...

Personally I think it's tragic... but I think consumerism is to blame rather than Asian culture or society. After all... this sort of thing happens in the West too.

[MissMisa]

It is really sad...

But understandable. As a 18 year old female growing up in today's society, I do feel the pressure that many people feel. It's always been the case that people will judge you on your appearance, but it feels really extreme now. It's not my main concern by any stretch, but admittedly it does effect me, even though I know that it's silly to be bothered by things like that. It's hard to be happy with yourself when everything you see is there to 'improve' you.

People often say they don't care how they look/it doesn't effect them etc because they feel ashamed to admit that they have been caught in the 'media trap.' I do think it runs deeper than that, though.

I don't know if I would goes to these lengths to change myself... I think some people believe it is self-indulgent and they are doing it to please men, however there is a serious problem underlying and that normally isn't the case at all in my opinion. I think nowadays there is a constant obsession with perfection, and trying to recreate what they believe is perfect, rather than accepting that nobody is perfect and encouraging people to be happy with that.

[cridgit001]

Very interesting, my thing is that I'm more of a natural beauty person so that wouldn't really appeal to me. Thanks for the post Ronin.

[burkhartdesu]

It seems to me that they're taking away their most Asian features...


What do you expect when their "role-models" look so unbelievably Western?

(I wouldn't have guessed she was even Japanese if I didn't already know)

[cridgit001]

Well snap.

[komitsuki]

Western beauty standards are very over-rated.

[DSX]

Originally Posted by komitsuki

Western beauty standards are very over-rated.

Yeah, people these days are oh so shallow, aren't they?

[Aniki]

You can thank the media for that.

[Jaydelart]

Hopefully, these numbers will decrease with time.


I personally hate plastic surgery... But, then again, I'm one attractive sob.

[Ronin4hire]

Originally Posted by MissMisa

I don't know if I would goes to these lengths to change myself... I think some people believe it is self-indulgent and they are doing it to please men, however there is a serious problem underlying and that normally isn't the case at all in my opinion. I think nowadays there is a constant obsession with perfection, and trying to recreate what they believe is perfect, rather than accepting that nobody is perfect and encouraging people to be happy with that.

I completely agree. I think there is a serious underlying problem here.

I think it's sad that this problem, far from being addressed, is actually used to make money. It is a well-known advertising tactic to prey on insecurity.