The Korean Way (6): nip and tuck

This week is almost a "Golden Week", with the celebration for Buddha's Birthday going at full speed, Monday being May 1 (Labour Day) and a day off for most Koreans, and Friday off as well (Children's Day). So many do what the French refer to as "le Pont" (the bridge): they add three vacation days and get a long week off.
So what do Korean's do? They visit the neighbours (Japan, China, Thailand) and the old folks in the countryside. But they also fix their eyes, noses, faces, breasts... The plastic surgery clinics of Seoul are fully booked this week. This way, office workers can get their plastic beauty without having to go to work with their face in bandages.
There are of course good and bad reasons for plastic surgery, even some good aesthetic reasons. But in Korea, women are often so brainwashed with images of "Western" looks, that they come to regard their own faces as ugly. Korean men often go under the knife for career reasons.
Exactly how many Koreans elect to have corrective procedures is hard to find out, the statistics being unreliable. Some Koreans also go to China to get it done. But an English-language web page listing South Korean members of an international organization of aesthetic plastic surgeons lists almost 450.000 visitors. That gives an indication of the interest – taking into account that not many Koreans feel that comfortable in English.
BBC on "The price of beauty in Korea" (2005)
Women's e-news on "Eyelid Surgery Craze" (2004)
Time Magazine's cover story "Changing Faces"
Newsweek on "The Global makeover" (2003)
Global statistics of aesthetic plastic surgery.