Asian Plastic Surgery - A Pursuit of Perfection?

This has been sitting in my drafts for some time now. But I think I should post this because Kpop is undoubtedly taking over the world and loved by growing numbers of young teenagers who are going through their most insecure years. With surgery becoming ever so cheap and easy, it's a scary thought imagining young people running to surgeons with pictures of their idols when it's probably just a Hallyu effect they are suffering from, unknowingly. The digital era we're living in is a dangerous, addictive and deceptive one, with information of all sorts multiplying every second. Which is why blogs like mine should provide some insight, and even if one person reads and understands, I've done my job.

I went into some depth discussing things, and I can't help be against full body/full face surgery (why do you hate your appearance THAT much?) But at the end of the day, people choose plastic surgery for themselves and we don't have the right to judge THEM, even though we may agree/disagree to it ourselves. If you don't like it, don't get it done, but don't judge others who do. Peace xx

Finally I'm here with a post to talk about my personal views on plastic surgery in Asia.

Today I watched the new Japanese film 'Helter Skelter', which is about a young celeb Ririko who had full body plastic surgery, and how she dealt with her issues as the surgeries took their toll. I found that the film very graphically pointed out to the evident problem Asian societies have with beauty, but left it open for viewers to think for themselves whether plastic surgery culture should continue or not.

Personally I'm fascinated by plastic surgery for obvious reasons, but I'm very annoyed at many articles and videos online of non-Asian people or Asian people living outside of Asia talking about plastic surgery as if it's the most absurd thing in the world. They make fun of it without thinking through why people do it, why so many people do it, why society allows for it etc. 'Omg, can you believe people make their eyes bigger to look more Western?' is the type of mocking tone all these videos use, making most non-Asian people who don't understand about plastic surgery culture in Asia think young Asian people are all weird and white-wannabes. 'Motivational' videos of people continually drumming into their viewers 'it's the inside that counts' or 'why do you want to look American?' to persuade them not to consider surgery as a option are blatantly ignorant. They think that they know what beauty is, but really, how can anyone define beauty in such a homogeneous way?

Plastic surgery is so common in Asia that most people don't even think it's considered 'changing'. Let alone have time to think 'I'm beautiful on the inside' and all those irrelevant topics.

That man needs to shut his mouth.

I think there's something much deeper and concerned with human nature that drove plastic surgery culture to the scale it is today.

Desire is what every human is born with. Everyone wants what they don't have, and with the money and technology we have nowadays, what is there to stop us from getting the things we want? No one taught high school Asian girls that big eyes and small faces are beautiful. They don't care about looking American. We're talking about a society in which the rich and famous seek 'perfection' There is no room for flaws in success, which partly explains the no body hair, no bf/gf, no scandals, no talking of hardships, no social network, no talking about other celebs, no drinking/smoking in public, no overly private lifestyles these Hallyu stars are expected to give up to. It's understandable though considering how important they are to the country today.

"K-pop accounts for around 3.8 billion dollars worth of the country's economy. So whilst the girls and boys might look like they're at it like rabbits, they're very much investments, to be protected from the wrong kind of attention." - Vice

An average adolescent is surrounded by images of Asian celebrities with perfect features, and since they are so well loved, it spurs on a desire for these girls to idolise them and want to look the same. As humans, our instinct is to adapt and accept to our surroundings. Hence why controlled political systems still exist. When people don't see what is outside of the box, they will accept and will not question. No one will even think to ask why a certain celebrity got surgery, or why these features came about to be the most ideal in the first place. What people see is popularity and love that these 'beautiful people' receive, and that's what they desire.

"We'll be forgotten. We're just machines for the processing of desires. 'Pretty!' 'Wow!' 'That's what I want to be!' Desire doesn't care. It just keeps on going with another name and another face." - Kozue Yoshikawa, Helter Skelter

It doesn't matter to them whether in the future their surgeries will take their toll, and whether in the end they'll realise outward appearance is not everything they desire. Most people who have surgery know very clearly that appearance is not everything. But physical beauty is a weapon and a source of courage. Especially in Asia where it is very much a financial weapon. Hence no matter how many failed surgeries, regrets, scarring, post medication stress there are, there will always be a new generation of young people willing to try. The journey will never end because of curiosity. People see more utility in short term happiness, when they get attention and praise from others, than not having any of this at all.

So if surgeries do give people courage, and do offer positive utility subject to the individual, who are we to judge on whether people should get surgery or not? Maybe this surgery will genuinely make someone happier in life, so who are we to say that surgery is a bad thing? 

Many would say the fundamental problem is the media, what people around us tell us and what we see. But I think otherwise, because without role models, fame and power, societies wouldn't exist in the first place. No matter how civilisation evolves, every human being will always at the end day have an idea of what is ugly and what is beautiful. WE WERE BORN TO JUDGE. If you think back on your life, no one told you what is beautiful and what is not. We are influenced by so many things we experience that this judgment on beauty was already made long before you could even realise it yourself.

So who is to blame? No one.

There isn't anything to blame for. Beauty is an economic market which will never die down, because there is always a plentiful supply of young men and women who want to look above average. And naturally, with the invisible hand of capitalism, something will take advantage of this. When a market has demand, there will always be suppliers. It's just simple economics. Markets will expand technologically if demand allows it, and who would say no to becoming more beautiful overnight?

The people get surgery because desire for beauty is something that will never disappear. The plastic surgeons do their work because the economy asks for it. The society's idea for beauty is an accumulated concept that originates back to the start of civilisation. The motivation exists because of curiosity. So, who is there to blame?

Maybe it's just Asian culture.

In Asia, beauty is definitely much more important in society than in any other part of the world. You must include a picture of yourself in resumes, and employers can unfairly distribute wages based on appearance. In other words, being beautiful is essential. There are high school students in Asia who think when they finish their uni exams, they are finally allowed have a taste of the real society: drinking, getting into relationships, having plastic surgery etc, because it's normal and what everyone else is doing. When girls get surgery, it doesn't matter to them that their new face will be fake. All they care about is the new opportunities that they will have.

Even though I hate the idea of 'media influence' as a reason of why people decide to go under the knife, it's definitely a factor. I grew up in London, and not once did I think about the size of my eyes or face or anything before I discovered what Asians think about them on the internet. During secondary school here, I remember talking to my friends about double eyelids, and nobody even knows what they are. People here joke about Asians having slanty eyes, but I never heard anyone saying that slanty eyes are 'ugly'. One very interesting phenomenon that I want to mention is that in the West, when you tell your friends 'I'm ugly/fat' etc, they will say 'No way, you're pretty!', but in Asia, people will bluntly tell you 'Yes you're fat/ugly' if they think you are, because they think it's a genuine/helpful comment. 

In Asia, beauty is more of a second nature or obsession than enhancement. It's like a drug that's hard to quit. Asian makeup doesn't enhance your appearance, it's made to change it. The more you play with it the more addictive and the more you want. Until you're so obsessed that it doesn't matter if when you're old your face will become distorted. It doesn't matter if you have to take post surgery medication. It doesn't matter if most men will not date you seriously if you had surgery. What matters is that you can become more and more and more beautiful, so why should you stop?

What I'm fascinated by though is not why people pursue beauty, it's why people have the courage to let a stranger cut their faces/bodies open whilst they are unconscious, and how they can cope with living out the rest of their lives with plastic inside their bodies. Whatever the reason, it must be so crucial to the individual's life they s/he is willing to turn a blind eye.

On a casual note, I do think some Asian surgeons, particularly in South Korea, know what they're doing when they operate. Even though it's so obvious to me when someone's had surgery, you can tell there has been an attempt to make each look unique. The doctors consult their patients in great depth about their bone structures etc, and will often make suggestions on what they think suits their patients' faces/bodies. Most of the ones that come out looking unnatural are probably mindless people who pile on mix-matched ideal features from celebrities, which generally will not look good together.

After watching some youtube videos, I realised that Korean women who get surgery find it a very pleasant experience. They often go through minimal pain (or less than they can endure), and the result is most of the time desirable. Hence more and more women go. I often wonder what goes on in the minds of these plastic surgeons. Why do they find so much pleasure in changing people's bodies when it's not needed? Their patients' entire lives and futures are in their hands, do they find it satisfying that they have such immense power over someone else, or do they enjoy being trusted? Do they sincerely want to make others' lives 'better'? How can anyone be strong enough to watch themselves cut open another person's flesh and tell themselves that it's for their own good?

However even though I don't hate plastic surgery, it does make me sad when you ask a teenager living in Asia 'what is beauty to you?' they will reply with 'Big eyes, small face, high nose bridge, white skin, tall, etc'. I think that even though surgery removes your outside flaws, it will never remove your insecurities. Everyone has them and it's hard to deal with it especially when you have Asian friends who tell you you're fat/ugly on a daily basis (trust me, they don't mean to make you feel bad!), it's even more hard not to do something about it. I think it's impossible to fully accept yourself when you know you have flaws, but it's always good to think that your flaws makes who you are, and your good points may even come from your flaws. It's hard to believe, but no matter how 'ugly' you think you are, there will be people out there who will think you are beautiful in your own unique way. I once watched a Chinese TV programme where one of the presenters went to S.Korea to shoot a show, and she recalled "all the celebs I met were every pretty. But when I came out of the studio, I couldn't remember any of the faces."

There was one scene in Helter Skelter which I found especially memorable.
'Tiger Lilies' is in the film a name given to young girls who are willing to go on lengthy 'adventures' in order to become beautiful. In that scene, two older people stood in the middle of Shibuya. Looking around they said:

"There are Little Tiger Lilies everywhere. Young, glittering. But everyone knows one day it has to end." 

References:
High school girls in Korea
http://vimeo.com/26833191

kpsurgery.tumblr.com

Maybe she is really happier?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fn3H6WXdgU

Surgery creates extra economic activity+jobs by hotels who offer patients private plans for them to rest and heal. Korea is also a tourist destination for plastic surgery (many Chinese and even Caucasian people travel to Korea just to get surgery).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJDjEGX7SDg

Watch how these girls are STILL overly conscious even after surgery
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0caS8OPnS4

Not all people in Korea like plastic surgery, and modern Korea's obsession with 'perfection'. Seoul Fashion Week recruit models who have natural faces
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wWKjxxM6q8

Asian Skinny Syndrome: are Asian girls going a bit too far?

Look at the picture of this girl above. What's your first impression of her? Amazing figure? Too thin? Can you believe that some actually think she's fat? I bet most of you won't know that she's considered to have thunder thighs in Taiwan. 

No joke here's the proof. On a Taiwanese show called '女人我最大' (W Queen) which tries to teach girls how to be 'prettier' in the utmost futile fashion, a male 'teacher' tells her that her thighs are so thick she resembles an athletics athlete.

It's so hard to believe just what standards the Asians have for 'skinny'. In the west, a skinny figure includes a large range of sizes from borderline anorexic to a healthy weight. But in Asia, chances are that if you have at a healthy weight, you are likely to be 'chubby'. For example Korea's Goo Hye Sun is considered by Taiwanese people to be '肉肉的' or 'chubby' (in a less patronising way).

she is... chubby?!

I've always been fascinated by Asian girls' perception of the perfect body way back in secondary school, because of personal interests in Asian culture, but recently I'm beginning to wonder whether people are taking it too far. People on TV demonstrating the weirdest exercises for isolated fat areas, for example punching your arm flab to diminish it or rubbing your arms towards your shoulders so that the fat would travel to your boobs. And watching all these girls on the shows and in the video comments being genuinely intrigued by these cult like beliefs and trying them out for themselves, I think to myself: do they really have no sense of judgment? There must be something out there that brainwashes these people to believe that every 'secret to skinniness', no matter how absurd, is worth investing time and money into.

Being Asian myself and thus having a rough idea of the Asian standards of skinniness in the back of my mind, I've always controlled my weight so that I'm at least not 'fat' in their standards. Right now I'm definitely at a healthy weight according of the UK BMI charts and body mass tests by my gym, but in Asia, I would be considered 'chubby'. Why do I know this? Well in uni I have been constantly pestered by some Taiwanese girlfriends that I need to lose weight around my middle and face. My western friends who don't give two shits about my weight because they know I'm healthy keep telling me to ignore them because it's damaging my self esteem, but it's not easy to brush off one year's worth of constant remarks about my weight and body shape.

What I find very interesting is that someone like me, who never thought that I was ever 'fat' or had to change my body shape, actually began to contemplate whether I should be losing a lot of weight when I was constantly reminded by these people. The girls AND the guys do it, all the time, so I figured that this must be a fundamental part of them that defines who they are. They make these snide remarks out of friendship, or so they think, because they think it's a very honest and supportive thing to point out to their friends that they need to lose weight so that they all maintain their shapes. It's pretty obvious that they live their lives with this topic at the tip of their tongues and the top of their heads. The very first thing they'd say to me after sharing pleasantries on campus would be something along the lines of: 'Oh! You look so thin today!' or 'Omg! Your face is so round!', followed by coming forth to pinch my arms or standing back to observe my legs. I find that they do this with each other as well, but never to non-Asian people (but they'll definitely make lots of silent observations and share them with me privately at a later session).

I know that they do this out of courtesy, as if they care about you because they care about your body so that's why they speak about it all the time. But sometimes I wonder what influenced them to begin the whole judgment process in the first place? I began thinking a lot more about my body because of them, but what made them start? Surely it must be the culture and media since that's how they grew up. And a little more research into Taiwanese media definitely answered that question for me.

Long story short, the Taiwanese media openly available for Taiwanese girls like myself are the epitome of brainwashing. Some of the thinking is so backwards for females, and almost all real feminine qualities are played down to almost nothing. it's all hushed up and never talked about. Yet girls willingly take the ludicrous advice to heart. Summed up, around 80% of a woman's appeal in Taiwan is made up of her looks. Men openly admit that they choose girlfriends by looking at their makeup and figures than their personalities. Over here in the West, it would still be right to say that a guy is attracted to a girl by her appearance, but he would remain by her side when he find out that the girl has a great personality. In Taiwan, a guy would be attracted to a girl because of her appearance, but would stay on being her boyfriend because she has remained 'beautiful'. Once on a show a guy said that he doesn't judge a girl by her makeup and hair. I remember smiling to myself feeling that not all hope is lost for Taiwanese men and hoped that he would say something more sensible. But then he just proceeded to say that the first thing he looks at are whether the girls' legs are lean and long, and that things would go from there. Then all the girls present just 'oh'ed and nodded in acknowledgement when I was just sitting there thinking 'are you being serious right now'. would have stood up and punched the guy's face in.

Talking about downplaying feminist qualities in China, I must mention here that some of the things men think and do on a daily basis in regards to treating their women is just unbelievable. First of all, a good looking girl would be called '正妹' or 'correct sister', as if being thinned down to the bone was the 'correct' way for a girl to be. When guys talk about bringing their girlfriends out on dates, they would say '把女朋友带出来' or '把女朋友领出来' which means 'bringing out my girlfriend' (the word '带' is used for objects or small kids) and 'leading my girlfriend out' (the word '领' is used for animals, normally dogs). Men use these phrases even in front of girls and one even said '把女朋友带出来一定要正，不能输给别人' which means 'if I take my girlfriend out, she has to be pretty ('correct'); she can't lose to anyone'.

And let me tell you something douchebag, if you bring your girlfriend out to dates just so that you can make sure she is prettier than all the girls out there, you'd be 110% better off without one.

Too often have I seen slimming/beauty products advertised with the slogan 'You'll get a man with the blink of an eye'. If you trim your hair, your face will look smaller and boys will be after you. If you consume this boob supplement, you will have '黄金比例' (golden proportions) and you will get a guy. If you wear this skirt with this top, you will show off your legs and get a man. Imagine if products like this were available in the west. Imagine if you switched on your TV and instead of idk Gok Wan or Weightwatchers you see a bunch of size 0-2 girls complaining about their weight and nodding like dumb sheep to guys saying they prefer body over brains.. it seems like a joke that will just never happen over here.

I personally think skinny is beautiful just as any other body weight. If you're not suffering from health problems due to your weight, then you are beautiful. End of story. However I have a problem saying to myself 'hey, skinny Chinese girls are beautiful too!' because a lot of the time, their skinniness look so artificial and unhealthy. Take Cindy Wang and Angela Zhang as classic examples. They just look like they've painfully starved themselves, even though I know they're already naturally thin. What I see is not a thin healthy body; I see a slightly tortured and unnatural body and it doesn't make me feel good knowing that they're role models for girls out there.

Let me give you just a tiny snippet from the huge deadpan well of info on the same old shit that is the Taiwanese beauty media. Last year, there was a new (and the most extreme) way to test out whether you need to lose weight around your middle.

You take an elastic sweatband, one you would put around your HEAD, but instead you put it around your WAIST.

That's right. And if that tight piece of elastic squeezes out some fat, it means you need to lose weight.

As absurd as it sounds, I'm not kidding you:

Now what do you guys think of this girl's figure below?

Normal and on the thin side right? Look at her waist!

Wrong! Actually if she turns around, you can see that the elastic squeezes out some 'fat' on the sides. 

I mean seriously Taiwan? Are you actually sane when you produced this program. Because let me tell you something you ought to know. If you put a piece of ELASTIC that was supposed to fit around your HEAD onto your WAIST, then it will DEFINITELY squeeze out some meat on normal people. If it doesn't you're either a skeleton, anorexic or SICK. 

And if you didn't think this was cruel enough on this poor girl as it is, one of the 'teachers' on the show (who solely teach girls how to be 'beautiful' on the outside) asks her to sit down so that the others can laugh a bit more at her 'fat'.

And as if calling that cute band of man made fat 'terrifying' was not bad enough, the MALE 'teacher' on the show bends over, and in his screeching-cat annoying voice calls out to the presenter to observe what he's about to do. He pulls the elastic band lower down her torso where there's supposed to be more body matter, and gasps at how 'petrifying' her lower waist is.

And lesson to be learnt here: if a guy says you are terrifyingly fat by putting an elastic band on the widest part of your body, making fun of you in front of your friends on live television, remove him from all aspects of your life and never venture to communicate with him ever again.

Then we have the female teacher pulling at her fat painfully and announcing to everyone that if you can pull out some fat like this, it means you have VERY high chances of getting '心血管疾病' or cardiovascular disease. Okay then.

Just to show you how VULGAR the male 'teacher' is, he calls a very thin girl on to put the band around her waist and mocks her that 'the band will not be stuck around her boobs', basically laughing at how her boobs are small.

I mean what this actual FUCK is wrong with you? What does the size of her boobs have anything to do with you?

Then Shao Ting, the ultra skinny super model is called on for the test, and even though she passed her waist test easily, she still doesn't escape nasty comments about her thighs being fat from the oh-so-knowledgeable male 'teacher'. He proceeds to put the band around her thighs and dramatically acts out a 'breath of relief' upon seeing that there is some space between the band and her leg muscle.

I mean, for goodness sake. Can you even believe it??

In Taiwan, THIS girl is considered to have FAT LEGS

What I find hilarious is that it is only after she passes her waist test does everyone present claim that she is skinny, as if they couldn't tell whether she was skinny or not beforehand just by looking at her. And tbh what right have you all got to say she's fat? Does that make you a better person? At the end of the day she's a beautiful girl with a beautiful heart, and that's all that matters. 

And from another episode, the presenter claims that these two girls are the 'fatty team', saying that if they were to drown in the sea, three grown men would be needed to carry each of them to safety because they're so heavy. I was expecting  some real obese women but to my 'surprise', these size 8 girls walked out:

Come onnn, I could carry BOTH of them by myself from sea to land and not even break a sweat.

So you get an idea of what Taiwanese girls are exposed to everyday. Asking stupid things of themselves so that they can get guys or keep their boyfriends happy. I want my readers to know that this is absolutely NOT what beauty is about. Beauty comes of being healthy, and that comes from being at a healthy weight, with a healthy state of mind. You have to set realistic goals for yourselves, and make time for some other more worthy things in your life. If a guy sets out a visual framework for what he thinks his girl should be like, I beg you just leave him, because he's 100% not ready to be in a real relationship. Why are you even with a guy if you don't feel comfortable being yourself with him most of the time? Think girls. The person you want to be is NOT what the TV, internet or magazines tell you to be. As cliche as it may seem, everyone is born unique and it is the best asset you can hold true to only yourself. So why change that?

And to the guys, please understand that not all girls are born as slim and perfect visually as you want them to be. We work hard on keeping up with our appearances already so please show some respect for our efforts. If, at the end of the day you still do not like how we look, then please leave us because chances are someone else out there will overlook these things and love us for the inner person that we are. Even if you cannot bear to look at us don't make us change according to your standards if there was nothing wrong with us to begin with. And remember that when we try to look good it's mostly for ourselves to feel good on the inside and not to show off to you. So if you want to compliment a girl, beginning with the thickness of her legs is NOT a good way to start.

I'll end with an interesting video a similar problem in S. Korea:

Tumblr: display of the modern fashion era, or mere fad?

Warning: post may be narrow-minded.

2012, the year of Tumblr.

Of course Tumblr is used also as a social networking platform, but I see it as more of a 'lookbook' like website where individuals share their fashion styles and flaunt the good things in their lives etc. When I first joined the community, I treated it a tool for building up an archive of artistic photography, an upgrade to deviant art and myspace combined. In the end it turned out to be pretty much a reblogging experience of thinspo girls in rad clothes and makeup posing in weird 'oh-im-so-dope-and-thin' positions. Of course a lot of the times I'm indeed intrigued by the artistic quality of what Tumblr users upload, like its gifs and landscape images, but most of the time it's the human photography that gets the most views and attention.

Right now, I still believe and hope that Tumblr will remain to be a sort of lifestyle/fashion blog where people show their individualism in their pictures and posts. However recently after extensively exploring the ever so popular site I began to have some doubts.

Taking a VERY stereotypical stance, the average girl from Tumblr is roughly below legal age, wears vintage/boutique brands, follows the 'hipster' culture, wears unconventional makeup such as black lipsticks and blush under their eyes, dyes their hair into pastel pinks, lilacs, blues and greens (etc), reblogs explicit material about love, sex and drugs but probably never even had sex or taken drugs, pretends to be weird most of the time and write in a tone that is different to how they would normally speak. The average Tumblr guy also goes for the 'hipster' style, are upgrades from 'emos' from the 90s, scrunches their hair to their foreheads, wears skinny chinos, supreme/obey caps, large sweaters, has mose piercings and tattoos, and girlfriends that are the girls I just described. They often either play the guitar, or skateboard.

And I say the word 'average' for a frustrating reason. There was never a clear reason why the hipster culture became so big and how young people became so obsessed with vintage/independent things, yet all these Tumblr users appear to be fully fledged, going for generically the same look and style. So I think it's obviously unnatural and man-made: people were made to accept and embrace the culture because everyone else is doing it.

To be honest, there is nothing wrong with this and personally I think young people taking more notice of their personal styles is a very good thing. Also, a lot of people on Tumblr really do know how to wear their stuff and most importantly they do it with confidence. But my problem with this is how people are too overconfident to the point that they believe independence is something they can flaunt. They begin to take their freedom of speech, dress, whatever for granted and act based purely on their emotions. You often find people saying how they 'don't give a fuck', how they 'only live once' or how they want to live for the moment in the way that they want to without any consideration for others. What I think is dangerous about this is that originally not everyone started off wanting to rebel and be different, but sites like Tumblr are making them think that this is the way forward, in other words Tumblr is almost promoting egoism and narcissism. 'This is the way I am, haters gotta hate' is a concept that is all too familiar.

There are so many signs visible through Tumblr media of how people have 'too much fun'. I don't want to sound like a grandmother, but it's true. People live to make themselves look good, with no consideration for any others. For example people would take these coloured gas tubes and spray them across woodlands. They set fire to things, pose in front of dead animals, have radical opinions of everything and says 'fuck you' to everything. They want and desire everything, complains about everything and wants to break out of the system. These people live having no respect and thought for the environment, other people that care about them or are affected by their behaviour, and no priority other than themselves. To me, these people are pathetic, because they could have originally been unique individuals with smart ideas and untainted intelligence, but instead they give themselves up to the internet. It's not a fashion platform anymore, but a factory for the mass production of single-minded beings with no apparent interest in anything but how to look and act independent (or so what appear on the surface). They say 'fuck the system', but do they know what the system even is? Do they have any idea how much freedom they already have but take for granted? Somewhere in the world a person their age could be restricted from the internet and is living with no knowledge of fashion. They say 'I don't care', but what more can they not care about? There are people out there their age who have miles more responsibilities and worries, like how they can survive, afford to go to school, make their family united.

It's such a shame, because these people really ruin the name for the people who are truely passionate about fashion, are not wannabes and do care about the existence of other things as well as themselves. I often facepalm at how loads of people ask about why their lives are so depressing, when all they do is post pictures of themselves and expecting masses of anons to comment on it.

Everyone knows that individualism is a beautiful thing, so why does everyone still mindlessly copy each other? and worse, trying to become something that is unoriginal and that they can't relate to?

Human beings are such puzzling creatures.

Does time, environment and occasion affect our perceptions of beauty? On the corrosion of beauty and how to avoid it

"Every year of my life I grow more convinced that it is wisest and best to fix our attention on the beautiful and the good, and dwell as little as possible on the evil and the false." - Richard Cecil

I'm talking about beauty as in beauty of the world. Typically art, music, nature, or doing things we enjoy, things that us humans have always considered to be beautiful regardless of different tastes.

Recently I bought a Chinese book made up of 1-2 page short very philosophical, mind-opening articles, which I'm loving right now because it's teaching me a lot. I thought I would translate a few of them regularly from now on to pass on the good knowledge. There are a lot of interesting issue it covers, but today I want to focus on this question:

'Does time, environment and circumstance affect our perceptions of beauty?'

You might be sitting here reading this and thinking: of course not. I'm a great admirer of music/art/photography/fashion/etc and time and place does not matter. If I like this designer/artist/musician I will like them no matter what.

But is that really true? Will we always find certain things beautiful/enjoyable? How is it that some people can see beauty around them all the time while others can't?

One day you may be listening to a song that you find beautiful, and another day you might listen to it again and find it really annoying. You might find a book very interesting to read, but when you find out it's by a writer you dislike you automatically disregard it. In fact all these things: time, environment and occasion, they provide us with more knowledge of things we originally liked, eg how others think of them, whether there are better things than them, whether it's embarrassing to like them based on your character etc. Our perception of beauty changes depending on a lot of things around us, and sometimes it may be a very damaging thing. We may think we have a lot of things we think we love, but whether the passion for it is real or not, only time and place will tell.

Here I want to translate a short text from Chinese which is an insightful read:

"如果你看到一幅画像，而认识其中的人，八成回评他像不像。
如果你看到一幅画像，而不认识其中的人，八成回评他美不美。" 

"If you were looking at a portrait painting, and knew the person that was painted, you would judge it based on its similarity. 

If you were looking at a portrait painting, and did not know the person that was painted, you would judge it based on its beauty."

A fault with all of us is that with time, our interests for things fade, and it takes a lot of willpower, passion and inspiration for an interest to last a lifetime. The most obvious case is studying. You may love the course you're majoring in when you just start uni, but when you dive deeper into the subject, you find that it's not actually something you enjoy doing. When you come across such situations, you think too much and doubt yourself, eventually making yourself hate what you do.

Chinese philosophers in the past have widely studied this topic, and they have come up with what is actually a very simple solution that just needs a lot of practice. It comes from the Chinese proverb '难得糊涂' which translates directly to 'it's rare to be confused', or better known English as 'ignorance is a bliss'. If you did not think too much about what this thing you love now can become in the future, if you did not know the author of that book you liked, if you studied without thinking whether it'd be useful in the future, you might appreciate more things in life and just be a little happier. People who are always happy are the people who live for the present - they try to love everything they have now without thinking what could become of them. They focus on that fact that it brings them happiness NOW and they should value it because one day, it could be gone. People say that children are the only ones who do not judge things based on their functions, outcomes and what others think of them.

Here's another translation:

"才几个月的婴儿，就已经回听音乐，哼出不成调的歌。
才学会走路的幼儿，就已经回手舞足蹈，应着节拍起舞。
才知抓笔的孩子，就已经回涂涂抹抹，花些不成形的东西。
人似乎天生就是音乐家，舞蹈家和画家。但是，为什么他们成年之后，大部分都不再像儿时那么放情地歌舞和绘画了呢？
因为他们渐渐学会了害羞，怕自己没有嘹亮的歌喉，曼妙的身段和绘画的细胞。
因为他们愈来愈忙绿，忙的没有时间欣赏音乐，没有余情应节起舞，没有闲暇挥笔作画。
就这样年复一年，他们遗忘天赋的才能，也失去许多的快乐。" 

"A baby who's only a few months old can already listen to music, and hum tuneless melodies. An infant who just learnt to walk can already wave their hands and feet in the air and dance to the music.A child who just learnt to hold a pen can already colour in, drawing shapeless pictures.It's like people were born to be musicians, dancers and artists. But why is it that after they grow up, the majority of them won't sing, dance and draw heartily like in their childhoods?Because they learnt to become shy, afraid that they won't have good voices, graceful bodies and a talent for drawing.Because they became increasingly busy, so busy that they wouldn't have time to enjoy music, spare interests for dancing, nor spare time to draw.Years pass like this, they forget their god given talents, and also lose a lot of happiness."

Sometimes it is best to just take a step back and take time to focus on why you love what you do/have rather than think what you could be having instead of it. If you initially loved something, be proud of it and always look at how you continue to love it. 'You only live once' is an overused, but extremely true motto in life. If you live being ignorant to disappointment, you can lessen your burdens of expectations, and without heavy expectations your life could become less rigid and restricted. In your desperate attempts to better yourself/obtain things more beautiful, you might neglect the beautiful things you already have. There are potentially so much beauty in the world right in front of your eyes, that you might not have time to see. When one pauses to see the beauty around them, every hour of life is an enjoyment.

Sadly many people understand this concept but think it's too idealist and doesn't fit in with their busy lives. Because one thought a song sounded terrible one day they may stop listening to that band altogether, and miss out on all the other good songs they haven't heard. Because one was too busy hating on their workload of having to read a large selection of books for their homework, they forget that in fact these books are written by the best authors ever existed. If we all kept picking out the flaws and kept believing that there are things out there better than them, how will beauty ever transcend?

An interesting topic related to this is when the world class violinist Joshua Bell pretended to be an average busker at a metro station in the US. He played 6 pieces by Bach, on his 4 million Stradivarius violin, and out of 1000+ who walked past, only 7 people stopped by briefly to enjoy the music. He played the same repertoire at a concert the day before and received excellent reviews for it. But when the same beauty appears at a time when people's priorities are not to seek beauty in music, but rather to hurry up with their rigid working lives, the beauty is almost completely ignored. As the report of this incident says: 'If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world playing the best music ever written, how many other things are we missing?'

So it's time to sift out the bad and see the good in everything we love, regardless of their flaws. Everything in the world has flaws, but because they have flaws, they are beautiful. If we can solidify our interest and passions, create more time to seek beauty in our normal lives, maybe we can physically create transcendental, everlasting beauty that are all in fact, made of the things we already possess.