Plastic surgery victims should blame themselves

In March of last year, 30-year-old Shu Xue (pseudonym) from Anhui Province flew to Gangnam district in South Korea for a series of facial reconstructive surgeries. Shu had a successful career and was planning on studying for a year in the UK. She thought plastic surgery would be an investment in her promising life ahead. Instead, it destroyed her future, and her face.



According to the Shanghai Morning Post, the surgeries caused severe damage to Shu's nerves. Basically, her face melted. Shu soon lost her job and was also forced to postpone her plans to study abroad while she sought compensation from the Korean hospital that botched her surgery. Shu spent 400,000 yuan ($65,000) on the procedures and travel expenses. So far, she has had no success with her suit.



Shu is not the only casualty of gross malpractices occurring in Korea, where many unregistered hospitals thrive. A WeChat support group organized by victims of Korean plastic surgeons claims over 30,000 Chinese women as members, each suffering from various complications.



Plastic surgeries in Gangnam have become something of a fad among the Chinese in recent years due to the new wave of K-pop music and soap operas, Korea's largest cultural exports. In 2014 there were 56,000 Chinese "medical tourists" to Korea, often paying twice or thrice as much as locals for cosmetic procedures.



"They all want to look like Gianna Jun," said one WeChat user, referring to the female lead of a popular television program, My Love from the Star, about an alien who falls in love with Jun. Unfortunately for many Chinese women who go to Korea on a lark, their facial reconstructions often leave them literally looking like aliens.



Recently I got back in touch with a long lost classmate from college. As I remembered her, she had the typical narrow eyes and wide jaws of a Shandong native. When we found each other on WeChat, however, I barely recognized her. The person in her photos had a sharp, diamond-shaped face, big round eyes and profound facial contouring. I realized she had undergone extensive plastic surgery. "Martian" was the first thing that came to my mind.



Beauty is of course in the eye of the beholder, and if she is happier with herself, then I'm glad. But I just hope any woman who is considering making such an irreversible decision do their due diligence and learn about the risks before lying down on an operating table for a nip and a tuck. There is no turning back once the first incision to your facial nerves has been made.



Shu's biggest mistake was not her desire for man-made beauty, but for not being aware of what she was getting herself into. According to the Shanghai Morning Post report, she went to Korea just for a simple and common procedure for double eyelids and chin, but allowed the "beauty designers" (that's what Korean plastic surgeons call themselves) to talk her into cheekbone reduction as well, which requires removing actual bone. Just before she was put under anesthesia, the hospital handed her a contract to sign. It was all in Korean. Shu's signature on that document will probably prohibit her from collecting any compensation.



Ignorance of the law has never won a lawsuit, and foreigners in an alien (pun intended) culture like Korea can consider themselves doomed should anything go wrong. Had Shu bothered to inform herself of her options, she would have found that Shanghai is home to China's most reputable cosmetic surgery clinics, which would have spared her the expense and the risk. Hospitals in Shanghai informed Shu there is no chance of fixing her disfigured face.



Many members of the WeChat support group blame Korea's unregulated cosmetic surgery industry, and Korean tourism agencies as well, who regularly host plastic surgery expos in Shanghai, for preying on wealthy yet naïve Chinese women.



I, however, think we Chinese should place the blame squarely on ourselves - not just for making uninformed decisions, but for wanting to look Korean. Have we become so obsessed with Korean pop culture, and so dissatisfied with ourselves, that we are willing to mutilate our bodies?

