Make me beautiful

It is well known that plastic surgery in Korea is world-famous, or should I rather say world-infamous. Not only Korean celebrities, who are notorious for being plastic surgery-addicted, but also the normal girl and guy in the street and people from all over Asia, women and men, come to Korea to get new eyelids, noses, cheekbones, cup sizes and liposuction. There are hilarious stories about girls who travel from China to have their appearances fixed and cannot pass through customs to return because they don't look the same as on their passport photo.
If published statistics can be trusted, about every second to third person you see in Seoul's streets must have encountered some body sculpturing in one way or another. I was told that even parents urge their children to have plastic surgery, and once they graduate, they get a plastic surgery treatment - as a gift! Although plastic surgery also becomes more common in Europe, stories like these do seem a bit shocking. But where does this hype come from?

Well, the most obvious explanation lies in a fact that dominates the whole of Asia: The sheer number of the population. If there are more people, there is more competition. Only the bright and cunning will succeed. This drives the whole Korean society into preposterous forms of hard studying to compete from as early as kindergarten age. As there is a limit to how many hours a human being can study, another criterion becomes more important once they attain the job market: Appearance. And as the labor market becomes ever tighter in Korea, competition becomes even fiercer.
I was told a story about a girl who graduated summa cum laude - and the university being regarded as one of the best in Korea. But since her appearance was not up to the expectations of the employers, prettier girls were given the jobs ahead of her and she ended up being on the dole for a full year - until the gods in white did the magic on her.
The second reason may be the uprising Korean TV drama industry with beautiful Korean actresses and actors, big time famous and popular in the whole of Asia, and now even making its way into the Middle East. It is not so surprising that while looking at all those beautiful folks certain desires arise.

But then again, you might ask what is so wrong about plastic surgery? In the end, it's a huge business driving up Korea's GDP and the people becoming more and more attractive and a feast for the eyes.

Another demonstration... once more

When you live in Seoul these days you might have become a little bit tired of all the demonstrations that can almost be seen daily especially around the Gwanghamun and City Hall area. One of my Korean class mates told us she lives around Gwanghamun and often couldn't use public transportation because the protesters blocked the streets and subway stations.
On Friday there was yet another demonstration. It wasn't clear to me if that was still about the US beef imports or something else. One of my colleagues told me it might be because of privatization plans of water and electricity companies by the government, driving the labor unions into the streets once more.
My plans to catch a taxi to get from my office in Myeongdong to Somerset Palace to meet up with some of my Swiss friends for a card game evening were baffled by barred streets from the police. Despite the clogged streets, I decided to walk in the humid summer heat of Seoul instead of taking the subway to get a glimpse of what was going on - even if that meant I was going to be very un-Swiss and arrive late to the card game. In the picture the police sits in file to wait for the protesters next to the artificial city stream Cheonggyecheon, which was built by the current president Lee Myung-bak when he was still mayor of Seoul. This is a very common picture to see when you live in Seoul nowadays.