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Thread: Korea's hip makeover changes face of Asia

  1. #1

    Default Korea's hip makeover changes face of Asia

    hey guyz check out this article By Gordon Fairclough, The Wall Street Journal and let me know what you think. agree or disagree?


    SEOUL, South Korea -- Cate Siu is from Hong Kong, but she's a fan of South Korean television shows and she keeps up with gossip about Korean celebrities on the Internet. Her favorite is a beautiful soap-opera star, Song Hye Kyo, whose bee-stung lips and feminine features she admires.

    "Korean actresses have prominent and elegant noses," says Ms. Siu, a 25-year-old aspiring actress. "They look so pretty."

    So, when Ms. Siu decided she'd have a better shot at breaking into the entertainment business after improving her looks with a surgical makeover, she knew where she wanted to go. In April, she flew more than 1,000 miles to a clinic here for operations to raise the bridge of her nose, make her eyes appear larger and sharpen her chin.

    Across Asia, South Korea is cool. From fashion to music to film, the country of 48 million people is redefining style. And as notions of Korean beauty become popularized by the country's exploding cultural exports, women from around the region -- and some men, too -- are flocking to Seoul to have their faces remodeled.

    "A lot of my patients bring a picture of a Korean star from a magazine and say 'I want to look like that,' " says Chung Jong Pil, a surgeon who runs the Cinderella Plastic Surgery Clinic in a fashionable Seoul neighborhood.

    Dr. Chung estimates that just under 10 percent of his customers come from overseas; the rest are locals. Most of the foreign visitors come from China, Taiwan and Hong Kong, he says. Jung Dong Hak, a surgeon who specializes in rhinoplasty, or nose jobs, at another Seoul clinic, says roughly 15 percent of his patients are foreign. That number has been rising in the past few years. "The increase has been very big since the Korean Wave started," he says.

    The trend says a lot about Korea's own image makeover. Not long ago, many people saw the country as a decidedly uncool industrial park pumping out cheap cars and appliances. But that started to change in the late 1990s, when the Korean government decided that entertainment could be an export industry. The film business in particular benefited from government help and a big influx of private capital.

    Now, countries from Japan to Singapore are flooded with South Korean hip-hop and pop acts, melodramatic soap operas and movies from horror flicks to romantic comedies.

    The final episode of "Jewel in the Palace," a dramatic series about court intrigue during Korea's Chosun Dynasty, starring Korean beauty Lee Young Ae, this year became the most-watched television show in Hong Kong history. More than 40 percent of the city tuned in. Korean pop star BoA outsells Britney Spears in Japan. In 2004, Chinese television stations carried more than 100 Korean shows.

    The popularity of Korean stars is establishing Korean ethnic features as a standard of beauty across the region. Some sociologists see a subtext in the craze: a rebellion by Asian people against the images of Caucasian good looks that dominate much of the international media.

    Others see dangers. Wang Simei, vice general affairs director of the All-China Women's Federation, says the focus on beauty could result in long-term psychological damage for women who are banking too much on their looks. "Korean culture is something worth studying," Ms. Wang says. "But we might have paid too much attention to their soap operas and pretty actresses."

    Critics also point out that what appeals to many about Korean looks are exactly those features that make them look more Western. Koreans, related to the Mongols who once ruled the Central Asian steppes, tend to have more prominent noses and, often, lighter skin than other Asians, the country's plastic surgeons say. In physical terms, the Korean ideal is a relatively small, oval face with a high-bridged nose and large eyes with Western-style eyelids. Caucasians and many other ethnic groups have eyelids with a fold that allows them to retract. Many northeast Asians lack the fold, making their eyes appear smaller.

    Complicating the issue further, some Korean actresses have spoken openly about their own plastic surgeries. This has led to widespread speculation in Asia that nearly all Korean stars have gone under the knife. Purported before-and-after photos of Korean celebrities are widely available on the Internet.

    Lee Bingping, a woman from Foshan in southern China who visited Dr. Jung's clinic last year, says many of the Korean features she admires may be the result of a surgeon's skill. "I think Korean actresses are pretty. Because of Korean plastic-surgery techniques, they have a very soft, graceful style," Ms. Lee says. "If you have the money and the resources, you should try to look as good as possible."

    Just how common these procedures have become is hard to track but the number of surgeons performing image-enhancing work such as nose jobs and eye lifts has increased sharply. The Korean Society of Aesthetic and Plastic Surgery, a professional group, says its membership has risen 85 percent to 960 since 2000. Another group, the Korean Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons, lists 1,300 members. (California, with a population of 34 million, has 864 plastic surgeons, according to the state medical board.)

    "All the buzz and atmosphere makes young people today think (surgery) is common," says Lee Yihsiu, who runs the Taipei office of International Plastic Surgery, which matches up foreign patients with Korean surgeons. "Korean pop culture has made plastic surgery fashionable."

    Ms. Lee says business is "growing amazingly." The company arranges for 15 to 20 foreigners to visit South Korea for operations every month, with clients coming from Taiwan, China and Hong Kong. The 27-year-old Ms. Lee had a nose job in Seoul herself earlier this year as part of a makeover ahead of her wedding.

    Korean surgeons are coy about their celebrity patients. In Dr. Chung's consulting room at the Cinderella clinic, under the glass top on the coffee table, are dozens of autographed Polaroid pictures of stylish pop musicians, actors and actresses posing with Dr. Chung. The doctor describes the stars as friends and won't disclose which of them also are patients.

    But Dr. Chung says that beliefs about the power of surgery to transform appearances can be a mixed blessing. "People come with before-and-after pictures of celebrities," Dr. Chung says. "People expect a lot because of those kinds of pictures. But it's not realistic. We'll tell people they will look better, but not like the stars in the pictures."

  2. #2
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    plastic surgery are taking over the word. the more important factor is whether it's doing permanent damage to the body/face as time progress. *cough* micheal jackson.

  3. #3
    Member Tei's Avatar
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    Any type of surgery will have its side effects, especially unnecessary surgery, such as cosmetic enhancement.
    Lol, ppl bringing pics of celebrities to consulting sessions...cracks me up.

  4. #4

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    haha that's true. however the growing number of pple wanting to look like stars in disturbing. but just out of curiousity if you were going under the knife, which star would you want to look like?

  5. #5
    Member Tei's Avatar
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    Believe me, the thought has never crossed my mind. I'm perfectly happy with the way I am. Why waste time, money, effort and health trying to look like someone else? That seems like the epitome of confidence issues.

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    Senior Member Sugar's Avatar
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    I am too, I can walk, breathe, eat.. i don't see why people would want go to such extreme ( more stupid to me) measures to look like some stars.

    Personally, i always viewed having surgery is another way to say, " I want to look white"

    Elegant noses? Some can have nice noses.. but.. a goo majority seems to be fake noses. Time magazine revealed that surgeries can start from 3-4 years old with mothers wanting their children to look beautiful. 14 years old can get surgery in korea, no problem

    I have to disagree about the eye lids about korea. having single eye lids is common in korea, a reason why double eye lid surgery is popular. Bi Rain has single eye lids...and people with double eye lids now want to look like him.... I remeber the article said that having one eye lid shows the Proud heritage of korea

    I tell ya, Boa had surgery, no one believes me
    Last edited by Sugar; 07-17-06 at 11:11 PM.
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  7. #7

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    Quote Originally Posted by Sugar

    Personally, i always viewed having surgery is another way to say, " I want to look white"

    I tell ya, Boa had surger, no one believes me

    boa??? hmmm... i can see that. then again i think a great majority of actresses has one form of plastic or another. top among them chae rim and kim hee sun.

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    Senior Member Sugar's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by septembermoon16
    boa??? hmmm... i can see that. then again i think a great majority of actresses has one form of plastic or another. top among them chae rim and kim hee sun.

    SES all had....

    FINKL ladies, most had.


    even guys had it.. weird
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  9. #9

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    Quote Originally Posted by Sugar
    SES all had....

    FINKL ladies, most had.


    even guys had it.. weird

    hmmm... about the guyz. i heard kwon sang woo had some done, but other than him i haven't heard much. do you know who?

  10. #10
    Senior Member Sugar's Avatar
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    SHinhwa , Hye Sung openly said he did his eyes to have double eye lids.

    Jun Jin did his nose, Dong Wan.. yes


    Won BIn was said to have some done,


    The guy from All In, i saw his before and after pics...


    Kang Ta, not too sure.. but he just looks weirder somehow.. sharper nose


    and teh infamous, HARISU
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  11. #11

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    OMG!!! I just found this... soooo much plastic!!!

    $this->handle_bbcode_img_match('http://monkorean.skr.jp/monkorean/korean/all6/all6.jpg')

  12. #12
    Senior Member Sugar's Avatar
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    We have to factor in airbrushing and everthing else.

    I think the most everyone did was nose and eyes..since asian in general USUALLY don't have the highest nose bridge compared to the Aryan race.

    I think some chiseled their bones for face shape.. but it also could have been from weight lostand makeupq
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  13. #13

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    ai yai yai here's some more....

    $this->handle_bbcode_img_match('http://okinawa.ave2.jp/cgi/free/source3/0122.jpg')

  14. #14

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    i think the better question now is who ISN'T plastic.

    there's been a lot of arguments over whether or not song hae gyo has gone under the knife or not

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    i heard hyori lee had some plastic surgery, not sure. never saw her "before" pix. she's pretty though. BoA i'm not so sure. she's cute not pretty, therefore i like to think she have not had anything done (but with the way korea is doing plastic surgery like buying make up, it's really hard to tell)...

    other than that, with that gigantic list from korean stars, it's like 90pct of them admit to haveing some sort of work done, and the other 10pct is hiding that they have some sort of work done...

    BTW the "sharp" look is in right now. it make you look thin and fit. The reason why stars look so hot is because of the make up, they tend to do it so the face looks sharp... i don't know how to explain it, but if u look at stars without make up and with makeup u know what i'm talking about.

    PS: shape your face like a star is a dumb ***. if people have something to compare to, they are going to go with the original for the following reason
    a) you will never have their hair style all the time = they look better
    b) you ain't gonna look exactly like them = freak because u look like a half *** star

  16. #16
    Banned strife_au's Avatar
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    fark some of those pics are disgusting.

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    Senior Member resident:alien's Avatar
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    this is why you never trust beautiful women...NEVER!
    [ 空蕩的街景 想找個人放感情 做這種決定 是寂寞與我為鄰...我們的愛情 像你路過的風景 一直在進行 腳步卻從來不會為我而停...給你的愛一直很安靜 來交換你偶爾給的關心 明明是三個人的電影 我卻始終不能有姓名...你說愛像雲 要自在飄浮才美麗 我終於相信 分手的理由有時候很動聽...給你的愛一直很安靜 來交換你偶爾給的關心 明明是三個人的電影 我卻始終不能有姓名... 一直很安靜 ]

  18. #18
    Senior Member Sugar's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by resident:alien
    this is why you never trust beautiful women...NEVER!

    you tell them Alien!

    Don't trust Harisu
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    Senior Member pemberly's Avatar
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    boa definitely had (a lot of) work done.

    have any of you ever seen se7en's sisters? they look so unnatural. nothing like him at all. they obviously had their eyes done.

    and it seems that this korean plastic surgery craze is sweeping through all of asia. i read an article in the ny times about women in indonesia, thailand, vietnam, etc. wanting paler skin. in more westernized asian countries, the women there tend to have more money and better access to skin whitening creams and procedures. the women in the 3rd world asian countries a lot of the times buy counterfeit or back alley products, resulting in horrible disfigurations. i read one account of a woman who can't walk out into the street without kids screaming ghost! at her.
    nytimes: Every hr you have 10 minutes where you’re not doing anything productive at work, & you can’t look at porn. So you make a comment & fulfill this desire to show yourself off as a smarty-pants.

  20. #20
    Senior Member Sugar's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by pemberly
    boa definitely had (a lot of) work done.

    have any of you ever seen se7en's sisters? they look so unnatural. nothing like him at all. they obviously had their eyes done.

    and it seems that this korean plastic surgery craze is sweeping through all of asia. i read an article in the ny times about women in indonesia, thailand, vietnam, etc. wanting paler skin. in more westernized asian countries, the women there tend to have more money and better access to skin whitening creams and procedures. the women in the 3rd world asian countries a lot of the times buy counterfeit or back alley products, resulting in horrible disfigurations. i read one account of a woman who can't walk out into the street without kids screaming ghost! at her.

    terrible.. Actually a guy did surgery to look like Andy Lau.. quite silly'

    anyways.. my collection:

    Boa

    $this->handle_bbcode_img_match('http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d190/mtldcc/Fakeboa.jpg')

    Takuya Kimura

    $this->handle_bbcode_img_match('http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d190/mtldcc/FakeTakuya.jpg')

    Utada Hikaru

    $this->handle_bbcode_img_match('http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d190/mtldcc/FakeUtada.jpg')
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