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<p>[Plastic</a> surgery boom as Asians seek ‘western’ look - CNN.com](<a href=“http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/05/19/korea.beauty/index.html]Plastic”>http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/05/19/korea.beauty/index.html)</p>
<p>Where does one even begin to address the implications of this phenomenon?</p>
<p>Tongue snipping? Ridiculous! If Koreans couldn’t make the L sound because of tongue structure, then kids of Korean descent who are born in the US would have the same problem. As far as I know, there’s no problem.</p>
<p>Surgery around the eyes or nose to look more Western has been around for a while. My mother (who is Japanese) could always tell which TV personalities had had the surgery.</p>
<p>When I was a kid, the doctor suggested snipping the membrane under my tongue for speech reasons. My parents didn’t do it, and my speech is fine–but I can’t roll Rs. I’m not Asian, either. I suspect this is really about that membrane, not a muscle. On some people, it attaches further out toward the tip of the tongue.</p>
<p>Korean families have been going to extremes to acquire English education for a long time. There are numerous articles out there about the phenomenon of sending mothers and children to live in English-speaking countries while the father stays home and works. There are many Korean kids in the US who live in group homes in good school districts where a parent rotates through every few months–as long as a visa lasts–so that they can go to public school in the district for free. There are other group homes that are run by Korean-born adults who live here permanently. There are kids who are sent here to live with a Korean graduate student. There are Korean families who send their kids, as young as 13 or 14, to the US as “exchange students” so that they don’t have to pay tuition or room and board, but the kids have to move to a different family and sometimes a different school every year. I was exposed to this entire subculture when we hosted a Korean “exchange student.”</p>
<p>There are other families who send their kids to private schools and actually pay the tuition and a stipend to a host family, rather than engaging in subterfuge. Although in some cases this works out, there is also a whole network of private schools, mostly religiously affiliated, that will take pretty much any Korean student whose family will pay the tuition, regardless of the kid’s ability to actually function at the school.</p>
<p>And there are some who actually send their kids to legitimate boarding schools. Which is, of course, extremely expensive and so not within the means of most.</p>
<p>But the idea that they would resort to bogus surgery is if anything even more distressing than sending your 14 yr old off to be raised by random strangers.</p>
<p>More info:
[Helpful</a> Information for Parents and Professionals](<a href=“http://www.southwestoralmyo.com/changinginfo.htm]Helpful”>http://www.southwestoralmyo.com/changinginfo.htm)
It’s certainly possible that people who don’t need this are seeking it. It’s also possible that this is another more-or-less bogus “trend” story that doesn’t really describe a significant trend.</p>
<p>Such things have been around for decades. Many Asians also sought surgery to make their eyes and noses look more western and I am sure there are many Asain and other doctors who specialize in that. Old news.</p>
<p>Very old news: Teahouse of the August Moon addressed this on Broadway in the 50s (?)</p>
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<p>I remember it being mentioned in James Michener’s Sayonara.</p>
<p>What struck me was the mother’s belief that her daughter couldn’t be “pretty” without Westernizing her look. It’s sad, really.</p>
<p>While this eye surgery for bigger looking eyes may seem odd to many of us, don’t many of us use cosmetics, etc, to make our western eyes look bigger. </p>
<p>One of my classmates (white) had her eyelids “done” when we were in high school because she had eyelids that drooped a bit. </p>
<p>I don’t know if it’s the “western culture” thing …I think humans just think “bigger is better”…for all kinds of parts of our bodies. </p>
<p>On the other hand…I’d like to have slimmer hips like many Asian women. :)</p>
<p>I really know why people believe that the eyelid surgery is to make eyes more western looking. Asians have single fold eyes and double fold eyes. Those who have single fold eyes want to look like those with double fold eyes. People in southern Asia(southern China, Vietnam, Thailand etc) tend to have double fold eyes and their eyes look bigger. There is no caucasian looking involved.</p>
<p>As for caucasians who like to darken their skin through tanning, who are they trying to look like?</p>
<p>cbreeze: The origins and landslide popularity, post WW2, of the eyelid surgery was to make Japanese look less Asian, and ergo more “acceptable” (after the war) and beautiful. You have to remember the time and place where the surgery originated. One of my best friends, half Japanese, had an older sister who had the surgery at 14 or 15. She wanted to look more “American.”</p>
<p>The origin of caucasians tanning themselves? To look like you had plenty of leisure time to lay out in the sun, as opposed to working. (Forget people who worked outside…)</p>
<p>I don’t think unecessary surgery for young children is a good idea. if you’re older and want to change your appearance, that’s fine, but I’m concerned about the health risks/psych impact for kids who undergo these kinds of surgeries and get told at a young age that they’re not pretty enough to succeed without extraordinary help. It reminds me of the “botox mom” hoax from a week ago.</p>
<p>ellebud, think about the results. No Japanese or Koreans or Chinese who was born with double fold eyelids ever needed to have the surgery.Only those who were born with single fold eyelids have them. So it is to look more “American”, (forgetting all those Europeans?) or to look more like other Japanese or Asians who have natural double lids?</p>
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Ironically, it used to be fashionable to be pale to show you didn’t have to work outside - back when most work was outdoor work.</p>
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I guess a difference is that the stated purpose of this surgery is to make the person appear more like a race other than their own for some perceived benefit. This is beyond whatever reasons ladies find for applying all that eye makeup (which I frankly don’t like and ‘don’t get’ but I’m just a male).</p>
<p>On the pronunciation of the 'L’s - this is a brain issue - not a physical issue. It’s been proven that if one grows to the age of 3 or so in an environment where certain sounds aren’t made, then apparently synaptic connections in the brain aren’t made which would enable the person to easily make those sounds so when they try to learn those sounds much later in life they’ll have a very difficult time of it and may never get it down. This was studied with Japanese making the ‘L’ sound, non-Basgues being able to make sounds unique to that language, and others not being able to make the unique sounds used by certain African tribes. </p>
<p>If the same young kid is taken out of that environment at an early age (before 3 or so) to the culture where the sounds are pronounced then the kid has no problem at all with the sound. It’s not a physical thing with the tongue or anything the person can really help. The proof of this is all around us with the Americans born to parents of Japanese or Korean descent.</p>
<p>I work with a lot of Japanese and they definitely have the issue of mixing up ‘R’ and ‘L’ sounds and spellings but that’s no fault of theirs. And when I’ve tried to say some Japanese words back to them which to my ear sounded exactly the way they said the words, they usually couldn’t understand me because apparently I wasn’t making the sounds quite correctly.</p>
<p>*
The origin of caucasians tanning themselves? To look like you had plenty of leisure time to lay out in the sun, as opposed to working.*</p>
<p>Actually, the opposite was also true…to be “tanless” was to suggest that you were of a higher class and didn’t have to do any outdoor work.</p>
<p>*I guess a difference is that the stated purpose of this surgery is to make the person appear more like a race other than their own for some perceived benefit. *</p>
<p>Some might be saying that…but what about those who are just saying that they want their eyes to look bigger because they think bigger eyes are prettier?</p>
<p>I don’t think we should read too much into any of this in regards to adults making these choices (for kids, that’s another issue). Who is anyone to judge why an adult might make any of these choices for themselves. I know whites that want dreadlocks. What does that mean?</p>
<p>BTW…does the “second fold” ever develop with age. My SIL has never had this surgery, but as she approaches her mid 40s, she has developed a second fold. When you look at her wedding pic at 24, she didn’t have a second fold.</p>
<p>is it me or that girl doesnt look that different than before she had it done?</p>
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I’m sure you’re right that some are messing with their eyes for this reason but it’s the following from the article that I was commenting on and that I think is a problem -
Why do they think they need to ‘westernize’, i.e. not really westernize but ‘racialize’ their eyes to that of non-Asians and why do they think the ‘definition of pretty’ is the caucasian face?</p>
<p>Actually, they’re likely wrong since I think most people often find features they’re used to more attractive than features they’re not used to (with exceptions of course). I actually asked this question to a Japanese friend once who I could speak very openly with. He stated he found the Japanese look of Japanese women more attractive than the look of non-Asian women. There’s a sample size of 1 right there.</p>
<p>However, there’s likely some influence by the media - western movies/programs and their own media who may be pushing that perception.</p>
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I can understand why Asians who are in the minority in a Western country might feel an impulse to do this, but it does surprise me that Asians in Asia might want to “westernize” their appearance. Perhaps it has to do with the globalization of media.</p>