In Which This Man's Face Is Freaking Me Out, Man...

Image from ChinaSmack.com

EW EW EW NO NO NO. I have an unreasonably shrill response towards plastic surgery at the BEST of times and stories like the one illustrated above don't help at ALL.

The unfortunate young man pictured above--yes, that's a before and after of the same guy--is Xiahn Nishi(not his birth name), a Brazilian model/student/professional fool who has undergone 10 surgical procedures and countless cosmetic ones in order to look..."like a Korean".

ICK.

You can read more about him and his feelings HERE but basically this dude came to Korea as an exchange student, "fell in love with Asian culture" and despite the fact that he clearly didn't bother learning anything about Korean naming conventions or beauty standards while he was here, decided that making himself look like a drive-by slapfight victim like he stuck his head in a beehive a hideous hot mess   like this was somehow an appropriate homage to the "Korean culture" that he "loves so much."

Sir. REALLY?




Now first of all, I live in Korea. I like living in Korea. There are some GORGEOUS, GORGEOUS, BEAUTIFUL people here. There are also some mouth-breathing cavity creeps and mountain trolls. In other words, Korea and Korean people are just like the rest of the planet--there's a nice broad distribution of physical traits and body sizes. Korea has become known for its obsession with physical attractiveness, and I may break down my thoughts about that another time, but right now, suffice it to say that there are shallow people everywhere. Korea's shallow people just get more attention than shallow folks in other places, and because of the easy access and low cost of plastic surgery, they're also a bit more noticeable. It's a shame that this guy came here, studied for however long, and somehow managed to come away with a pretty superficial viewpoint of the place.

Second of all, he doesn't look Korean. He doesn't look Asian. He barely looks human. He just looks strange, and ugly.  Yeah, I said it. UGLY. Like, scaring small children, no alibi U-G-L-Y. I think that folks like Flava Flav and Steve Buscemi just need better stylists, but this dude actually physically repels me. If I saw him on the street I would probably avoid all eye contact and edge away quickly. It's partly because I'm not a fan of fake faces(no matter how good they look) but I really find his whole permanent racial drag thing deeply unappealing. Gross, man.

The Asian innanets have been going a bit mad about all of this, with most people rightfully decrying the sheer ignorance of this move, and a few people wishing he'd never changed his look. Weibo, a Chinese site similar to Twitter, is going in HARD and while I got quite a few chuckles and virtual fist bumps out of the comments, it's clear to me that poor deluded Mr Xiahn is never really going to understand why the response to him is so overwhelmingly negative(or in the case of his "beloved Koreans", indifferent). Or, if he does, it will be far too late.

On a final note...Nishi Xiahn is Brazilian. I can't WAIT to bring this up the next time someone tries to hold up the obsession with plastic surgery in Korea as some sort of pathological anomaly and then poo-poos me when I note that there are similar obsessions in some South American countries. Heh.

Now, if y'all will excuse me, I'm going to go purify my eyes by looking at pictures of Rain, who is Korean and seems to be doing okay for himself and his career as a sex symbol with all of his original body parts unaltered.

Image from Soompi

Peace!