The photo above, in all its colorful glory, was right, smack in the middle of today’s Wall Street Journal. Being so damn far away from Asia, I had no clue of the fact that S. Korea is the epicenter of cool in Asia. In my apparent ignorance, I always gave Japan that all-important recognition.
S. Korean girls (you know this was coming, alright) have always been one of my favs of the region. While we’re on this topic, my personal ranking goes something like this…
1. Filipino
2. Mongolians (Comments on this post support the Godly Mongolian hotties. The Mongols & Chinese are not in the same rickshaw!)
3. Koreans
4. Japanese
5. Chinese
6. Bethdamese
Ok, excuse the minor digression, but I felt the need to divulge such pertinent. With a lot of rich Koreans getting nose jobs, coupled w/ other surgeries early on in their lives, I can only see this as a positive move. If you see something wrong, fix it early in the game. Why wait until you’re a crusty, old woman to make changes?!
Here’s a brief excerpt from the article.
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% 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.” [Read it all @ WSJ]