All About Asian Plastic Surgery: Part 1
I remember hearing a story a while back about a Chinese man who sued his wife for producing an ugly child, convinced that she must have been unfaithful, only to find out that she actually had over $100,000 of plastic surgery prior to meeting him. According to the story, he actually won his case!
While this story spread like wildfire throughout the internet, it actually turned out to be an old urban legend. However, it brings up the topic of Asian plastic surgery and the uniquely different procedures sought after by Asians that may sound crazy to other people.
One of the most common procedures performed in Asians is the double eyelid procedure, where a crease is surgically created in the upper eyelid to more resemble a Caucasian eye. It gives the eyes a wider open appearance, everts the eyelashes, and significantly reduces the heaviness of the upper lids. Julie Chen even admitted on The Talk back in September that she was advised to have the surgery by her agent in order to help boost her career, which it actually did.
The surgery is done on an outpatient basis, can be under either local anesthesia or sedation (“twilight”), and takes about an hour. Swelling, though, may take several weeks to resolve.
For anyone not quite ready to commit to surgery, there are a number of nonsurgical alternatives such as tape and glue which I have come across on the internet and in Daiso, a Japanese dollar store, on the West Coast. I have to admit, though, that I saw a woman on the Metro once with tape on her upper lids and I couldn’t help but do a double-take. Did she think I couldn’t see it? I couldn’t help but try not to stare for the next 20 minutes out of the corner of my eye, all the while thinking I should try that when I got home. Then I promptly forgot when I got off the train.
Even more amazing, is that some Asian parents are using the promise of double eyelid surgery as a carrot to get their children to study harder. What happened to getting a car for graduation as a reward for, well, graduating?
Double eyelids are just the tip of the iceberg in Asian plastic surgery. Next time, we’ll discuss nose and jaw reshaping…
