Why korea is the capital of plastic surgery?

Women undergoing plastic surgery in South Korea are generally driven by a similar ideal of beauty: large, round eyes, a pointed nose, a pleasant smile, a V-shaped chin and a slim jaw.

Double-eyelid surgery — which creates an eyelid fold that many north Asian people are born without — and procedures that narrow the shape of the face are among the most requested operations.

While Seoul’s Gangnam region is best known to most of the world via the Psy song, it is better known in South Korea as the plastic surgery “beauty belt” where streets are lined with ultra-modern cometic clinics and plastic surgeons are treated as demigods.

 

 

 

 

K-Pop is in fact driving many young people’s fascination with getting cosmetically enhanced, Gangnam-based plastic surgeon Dr Rhee Se Whan told AAP.

Many K-Pop stars have openly admitted to their cosmetic procedures.

“K-Pop stars and Korean celebrities have influenced the younger generation (to get plastic surgery),” he said.

“For example, if you look at the before and after photos of K-pop stars you’ll see they have gotten prettier. When people see this change, they want to be pretty as well, they want to look as good as them.

“During school holidays, half the class would come in and get surgery done and when they go back to school, their friends would see that they’ve become prettier so in the next break you would have the other half of the class coming in.”

 

 

But professor of psychology Yang Yoon told Al Jazeera plastic surgery was about more than just the pursuit of facial perfection.

“While plastic surgery may seem like a tool for looking better, it’s actually all about comparing one’s self to others,” he said.

“Koreans always strive to be better than their peers.”

 

 

 

This is not the only way in which Korean society is super competitive.

Education is also so highly valued in South Korea that its school system has been described as overly stressful, authoritarian, brutally competitive and meritocratic.

“To be a South Korean child ultimately is not about freedom, personal choice or happiness; it is about production, performance and obedience,” Yale academic See-Wong Koo said.

The competition between students at school, which extends to adults looking for work, has led to bottlenecks in the labour market, according to the Economist.

Similarly, South Korea’s booming plastic surgery business is coming at a significant cost.

The rise in the number of cosmetic procedures has also brought about a rise in the number of botched surgeries, where patients are left with painful and disfiguring conditions as a result of going under the knife.