Episode #4: Media's Influence on Cosmetic Surgery
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You are not going to have a different identity. You're not going to become luckier and your life is not going to change because of this.

And similarly, people are not going to view you differently. People are not really evaluating you if you become prettier. And then to be honest, most of the time people can't tell. The only happiness you can really get from this, it's, you know, the satisfaction of like change the appearances that you don't like. So if you're not doing it for yourself, or if you're looking for additional values in cosmetic surgery, I think it means that you're

Hi everyone, welcome to 北侨门条 aka Cultural Collision. I'm Melody. I'm Victoria.

And today we will be talking about social media and its effect on beauty, why demand for cosmetic surgery is booming, and the most common cosmetic plastic surgery procedures done today. Our guest today is a visual artist, educator, dancer, lacrosse player, and most importantly, our go-to friend we go to for beauty advice. Welcome, Georgie.

Hi guys, I am Georgie and I'm from Beijing. I'm currently based in Beijing, but I joined between Beijing and New York City. New York City is where I received undergraduate and graduate education for six years. I love dancing and playing lacrosse, playing golf in my free time. I love hip-hop music.

And I run a lacrosse club and a dance team that have performances in many places in China. And I have a full-time job in the education industry.

Wonderful. Well, today we'll talk about procedures that we've done. But before we get started, we'll talk about what beauty standards are and how social media has influenced our perspectives of beauty. So we'll talk about procedures later. But first, we're going to ask is how have you found social networking sets to have impacted your perceptions of standards of beauty?

I think social media, including other media types like TV series and movies, they definitely influence your beauty standards by the repetition of certain type of facial features or physique.

However, I think beauty standards are highly contextual, meaning that it's different in different culture. And as we can see in U.S. TV series, the females are going to be presented very differently than in Chinese TV series or movies.

So what would you consider to be beautiful in China standards versus the U.S. standards? And who are some KOLs that you think people often aspire to look like? I think in China...

Definitely Angela Baby is someone that everyone thinks that she is really pretty. Her face is generally shorter, so it makes her look younger because our faces are shorter when we were kids, right? And she's very pale, skinny, so giving you an impression that she can be easily controlled, maybe even like physically.

you know, the fragile and then, yeah, that kind of impression that they're looking, Chinese people are looking for from females. When you see her, you feel like she's not edgy or she's not going to be very controlling or demanding. You feel like she is very, like a supportive kind of person. I think that's,

That's the Chinese beauty standard. And also they want, in China, they want females to look unexpectedly young. Yeah, no matter how old you are, because Angela baby is like 30 something and she's a mom, but we expect her to look young, no matter what her identity is. For US standard, they want high cheekbones, right? And then contour, eyeliners that are like really slay.

it's like they're the face that's attacking you when you see them so it's yeah i think and um definitely more curvy body strong stronger body it can be slightly more athletic but that's debatable um a kol that represent the u.s center would be kylie jenner and as she literally was saying that she usually never works out so

So it's debatable if that kind of physique represent it's more athletic, but I think it's slightly more athletic than Chinese standards. With you saying that Chinese girls look a little bit more good girl, that they're going to be a little bit more obedient. Do you think that dips into the culture aspect as well of how they think they should be acting, therefore how they should look? Whereas in the States, maybe you

females have a little bit more opportunity to be independent, therefore they can have an edgier look? I think yes and no, because I think both Chinese and American beauty centers are heavily influenced by male gaze. So American girls have more edgier look, have edgier look. And it's still because guys would also like that look, right? So it's more cultural than, you

I think in the visual wise, because at some point maybe we are not doing it or maybe we are not trying to be prettier to impress guys, but the logic of why we want that type of beauty, it's inevitably intersecting with male gaze. I think guys in China decided that they want that type of, they like beauty

that type of female. So that's the image that's that kept appearing in TV shows and movies. Right. And if all of the celebrities in China are the celebrity females in China are like that, it's hard for younger girls to escape that beauty center. And in the States, I think they definitely

American girls are more slightly more independent. We can't say that than Chinese girls. But I don't think their pursuit of an edgier look is because they're more independent. I think it's still because that's how most would view as beauty. Yeah. There's something I want to add is for China, the people like, they like the V shape, right? Like they think V shape is like,

I feel like Maladu have a perfect, like, standard face. I was just going to say, all three of us have a V shape. We all have a chin. We all have that V. Yeah, it's interesting. Like, when I did, like, the Yimei, so they're trying to recommend me to do Botox to get off my Yaoji. It was like...

I talked to a friend, it's interesting, she told me like, why do you want to do that? Don't do that. Just like, this is your signature, like makes you different than other people's. Then I realized, oh yeah, the Chinese people are looking for we shape because like small face makes you like beautiful. It'll make me feel like young. Yeah. And that's like, I think like kind of difference between China and the US. So yeah.

This goes to the next one. Have you been influenced by beauty standards, the procedures you've done and why you do it? Is that because influenced by some beauty standards? I think I am definitely influenced by beauty standards. I've done a lot of procedures so that I can present myself the way that I want to.

I think I am proud of myself for knowing what I want and then not trying to find my beauty standards through a certain person or through Mel's perspective. But Mel's gaze is definitely inevitable when it comes to how I look.

want to present myself. Yeah, so I've tried everything from like ultraplasty to like skincare routines and then to bigger ones, full body anesthesia ones. I did like but that one is both for beauty and for health because it has potential.

risks if you have like food so I've tried a lot of things and then that's why people would come to me for advice and yeah so Georgie why do you do Yimei there's a lot of reasons that I do Yimei

First, I think I originally I started because I was really insecure about my look. Now that I think back on it, it was identity related because I couldn't find a identity that represent myself. And I was unsure of what where I should be in the entire world. And I think this is a problem that almost most

most of the Chinese kids would encounter. So I was trying to change my appearance so that I can at least agree with my appearance, right? Becoming prettier definitely gives me more confidence. Something else that it gave me was to realize what I'm really lacking in life. You know, when you get the look that you want, when you are fixing the issues that you're seeing,

you know that there's bigger problems after that. You know, your world doesn't become better when you're prettier. I hope every girl would consider before they try Yimei that your world is not going to change. You are not going to get luckier.

if you become prettier which which is sometimes the slogan of many um like in china right it's like oh just sure or something like that it's not gonna happen it's you only change your appearance you're not going to get luckier you're not going to get a better boyfriend you're not going to be treated better by your boss i

Nothing is going to change other than your appearance. That was something that I realized after I did. I think another reason would be to be honest, I don't believe you should embrace yourself, embrace how you look if you're truly insecure about your look and that is affecting your daily life, especially social life. But I think there's a difference from your insecurity to how you want to present yourself. If

you are strong enough to know, like mature enough to know what is your insecurity and what is something that just like you want. I think Yimei would be a really good choice to fix your insecurity because everyone has the freedom to present themselves the way they want it. So there is a Chinese verb. I don't know if it's a verb or like we call like 女被越及着容. The beginning of this sentence, I think is

targeting for like why women wants to like have a beautier version of themselves is for men but I take as another version when you're looking in the mirror you feel more confidence like Georgie said you won't change your insecurity or like any problem you have I hope when you look in the mirror you feel more confident and this confidence will help you to change to start want to change yourself and make yourself like start from outside and change your inside

It's so funny because when I turn 30, there are some people around me ask me if I have Rong Mao Jiao Lu. I told them, no, I don't have that. It's not because I'm not aging. It's just because I feel very secure. But then recently, the reason I do Yimei is because I broke out and missed my ex. And I feel like suddenly I have a Rong Mao Jiao Lu. I have this insecurity. And I do this. After I do this, I feel confidence. I don't have more like Rong.

anymore like not that much because I know that's only part of the reason I get insecure so I have other other ways to help me to get stronger I need to admit like doing email it's definitely helped me to get more like confidence

I think for me, I started Imei because of my mom. I started with very minor treatments like laser to get rid of sunspots and freckles. Literally started this when I was in middle school. My mom would be like, you have one mole on your face. Let's go to Taiwan and zap it off. And so

Every summer, me and my sister, we would just go to the medical clinic and we would just zap off all of our moles on our faces. And so my sister and I basically have like clear skin with no moles and freckles because we do this on a regular basis. And so I think early on, I never thought of EMA as something that is like very stigmatized because it was so natural in our family because my mom would do it as well. But I only knew of laser treatments. It

It wasn't until I went to China where it was like there was a zhansuo every other store on the block and everybody was doing it. And it was very clear, like you go on the streets and everybody's face clearly looks like it's been done. Like everybody's nose, everybody's cheeks, everybody's lips and everybody looks so good. And so I think for me, the reason why I started doing Yimei beyond laser treatments was because of the influence that I saw around me.

And so after that, I just got really curious. And then also on social media, everybody's getting their lips done, right? So that was one of the first treatments I got done, actually.

And it hurts so much. My gosh, it was like they were injecting needles all over your lips. And then the most painful part was when they were shaping it. I like almost died. I was just like dead. And so I've only done that once. I've also gotten fillers on my cheeks. Oh, another thing I've done is high tea.

So, you know, lines that you have on your neck that nobody ever sees, but because everybody's like, oh yeah, we're getting high tea done. So I'm like, okay, I'm going to go get high tea. Such a waste of money. I don't recommend that for anybody really, because like, who's going to look at your neck? No one. And the way that I position myself every single night, just like, you know,

Like being in bed and using my phone, I'm still going to have these neck wrinkles. And so I decided I'm not going to continue with that. But what I realized is the reason why I've really stepped into, you know, trying out all of these different procedures is because I'm heavily influenced by what I am surrounded by.

And so now that I've moved back to Taiwan, people are a little bit more natural here. They don't do as many procedures here. I think people really care about skin care, though. And so that's something I still continue with each month, just different laser treatments to protect my skin. But in terms of like injections, I haven't done that recently. Speaking of that, Georgie, what is the best procedure you have tried?

And what do you think is most worth doing? It depends because everyone looks different. But I really like hair transplant.

I love it. Yeah. And then, cause we all have a lot of hair in the back of your head, but it doesn't show as much volume because they are growing downwards, right? So it's never gonna show that even if you have a lot, but then if you move it to like your and everything, you just suddenly have a lot more volume, you know, hair volume.

And then also I've done a calculation that it's worth it because I did my , a huge part of it. It's transplanted from the back of my head. And I think I'm saving a lot of creams, skincare products, 'cause they just becoming your right.

And then, yeah, I feel like in the long run, you actually make some money out of that, even though it's like pretty expensive. But skincare products are also very expensive. You know, I felt that that's like literally 15% of my face. And I spent a lot of money on like skincare. And if you can save that, it's like really worth it. And then, yeah.

Literally my entire family's fatty sense, like really, really up there. So that's why I know I need to do it. But if it is not for you, if your forehead is like already pretty, pretty small and everything, don't don't do it. It's not worth it. Does it hurt the procedure?

Oh, like the entire procedure doesn't really hurt, but then when they're like, it hurt so much because it's like, in the front, right? Yeah, because it's huge. And then the pain actually adds up, and that's more like seven,

you just feel like the pain was unbearable. I think I cried. But after Ma Yao, you don't feel anything. And it's also really interesting. They don't put it in your maokong. They just put it wherever they want and then they can survive.

That is so interesting. Yeah. Yeah. And I can share a little bit more about lip fillers as well. I wanted to do a lip filler under the influence of like Kylie Jenner. I want her lips and I...

And then I follow her on Instagram so that I follow a lot of the products that she makes. And then when you see the Kylie Lip products, it always comes with it, like a really perfect lip, right? So after the repetition of that, I just really want that lip. But the pursuit of Kylie Jenner lip was, oh my God, it's such a, it's so much trouble in China because

they don't really do that kind of lip in China. So nobody knows how to do it. And then they do like the, the Han shi du du chun, like, like with san ge chun zhu. And then they don't know how to like make, like do your lip line and everything.

Yeah, and another reason that I want to do, that I did lip filler was because 我觉得我人中很长,然后这个是 under the influence of like Chinese beauty center. Because if you have like 很长的人中的话, you look

older and a Chinese beauty center is like into younger like kids and kids have like really short um so when you get your upper lip pumped up and then your drone's like automatically a lot shorter and um so I think me getting lip filler was really under influence of like all kinds of beauty centers and I'm still not getting the lips that I want but I think they look great

Thank you. So there was actually one injection that I did in Taiwan. I think I did it a month or two ago. And I would say that is the best email that I've done. It's called Sculptra. Basically, what they do is they inject just two spots. So it was on my cheeks over here. And they would inject the powder all around my face.

And this is a substitute for fillers like hyaluronic acid fillers, because previously, as stated before, I've done fillers for my lips and then I've injected stuff onto my cheeks as well. But after about six months, that disappears and fillers actually don't disappear fully.

which is why a lot of people, they have to dissolve their lips before they inject hyaluronic acid into their lips again. Otherwise, the filler is kind of just going to drag around your lips and then there's going to be that white part.

that is kind of like the excess filler. And so what Sculptra is, it's a powder that's injected into your face, but then it's a biostimulant for your collagen to grow by itself afterwards. And so when I got Sculptra, there was no effect similar to like or any of those laser treatments that you're doing on the outside. But then now it's been like a month or two. You can see I have like

cheeks over here like the apples of my cheeks are a little bit more full and I can really tell the difference in photos especially because before I had really serious like Indian one I think that's what it's called and that's from just like looking at the computer screen a lot looking at your phone a lot and that is why I actually got filler injections over here but then

I didn't want to keep getting it because then the filler is going to dry down. You're eventually going to have a moon face, which you see in a lot of celebrities. And so that's why I ended up getting the sculpture. And I think it's been pretty good so far. And it's supposed to last for two years. Wow. Is it in Chinese called Tong Yan Zhen? Tong Yan Zhen. Tong Yan Zhen is not like fully, I think it's not fully legal in mainland China yet.

So there's a lot of like controversial like topics about it. But yeah, we should do some like digging research. Yeah, do some research on it. It was my first time hearing about it as well. But I mean, so far it's been really good. And it's actually producing collagen in your skin rather than injecting a plastic to support you up. So I think that's why I prefer it. And so far there hasn't been any negative side effects. So I think that's the best email I've done.

How about you, Vic? I haven't tried a lot, but I think for the new beginners, we're around to enter the e-mail. So I think 肉麻急 is something you can try because it won't have scars, but you do it after you can just walk around, just have your sunscreen and doesn't like, you can bear the pain. It's not like so painful. Yeah, especially for younger, like 20s.

generation maybe like early 20s or like in the middle of 20s and something like something like you can try the first and it's complete like very safe procedure for you if you have the money and you you want yourself look more beautiful just try it so do you guys think cosmetic surgery changes a person's identity would you say cosmetic surgery is the new makeup

I think it definitely doesn't change your identity. But I do agree that it could be the new makeup because makeup is essentially how you want to present yourself, right? And then I think cosmetic surgery, it's also how you want yourself to be presented. Your identity should really not be associated with your look. It should be associated with more intrinsic parts. I think anyone who is...

who is not in like the model or like acting industry should be really careful when they feel like cosmetic surgery could provide them a new identity because it shouldn't. Yeah, it's many other good things, but it shouldn't be providing you a new identity. Yeah, definitely agree. And just like what you said earlier, Georgie, your looks won't make you feel better at the end of the day. It's just a bandaid, but then-

there's actually like a whole wound that you need to figure out how to heal. So some advice for people who wants to try Yimei, I think the first thing that you need to figure out or try to figure out is that are you doing it for yourself? Are you getting your boobs done because your boyfriend said he likes bigger boobs, right? Or do you really want it? That's the first thing. Are you doing it for yourself? Second thing,

um do you have to do it is your insecurity or anxiety negatively influencing your mental health if not I I don't think you need it if it's just like something additional that you want that you feel like it will make you happy you shouldn't do it cosmetic surgery is only only positive um but you really feel like you're really secure about it and um yeah and the third thing is that

you are not going to be different after that. You are not going to have a different identity. You're not going to become luckier and your life is not going to change because of this. And similarly, people are not going to view you differently. People are not re-evaluating you if you become prettier. And then to be honest, most of the time people can't tell.

So if you're not doing it for yourself, or if you're looking for additional values in cosmetic surgery, I think it means that you're doing something wrong. So we're going to end our episode with three questions we normally ask. So the first one is, Georgie, how do you feel right now? Really?

Recently, I've abandoned a lot of things that I usually do. It's been a long time since I last done lip filler and I don't have lashes on because I've been doing a lot of sports recently, playing lacrosse, and I feel like I am...

breaking the perfect look that I was looking for before. Before, I was really serious about presenting myself at the most perfect that I can be. But then ever since then, I know that your facial expressions and your muscle, your skin moves when you're doing sports. And then people still love me.

at, you know, when I'm playing sports. So I think it changes my mentality and my standards in beauty as well. So I think recently, I am feeling really great about my look and I had a lot less 容貌交流 or like 身材交流. That's wonderful. What is something you're grateful for today?

I would say I'm grateful for the education I received because I think there's a lot of one loop I might

like walked in before, but I was able to reflect on it and then you know really think about what are my identities and what does like you know the beauty centers and cosmetic surgery could provide me and I think I wouldn't be who I am today. I wouldn't be so much stronger than when I just started to I am a lot stronger because of the tools that I received from education like

you know, daily reflections. And I really ponder on context of different things. Yeah, I strongly agree. I think education is so important, especially for girls. So like you can, the world is much bigger than you thought, right? So getting much education definitely help you to see the world. So what was our last questions? What are you energized about?

Honestly, I'm very energized about working. I like go to work every day. I'm really happily, as both of you know, as my previous coworkers. And yeah, I am happy with everything that I, yeah, I'm happy with my everyday life. I love doing sports. I'm energized to go to work, to do, yeah, to do anything. I think I'm in a, like a really great like shape, like mental shape right now. Yeah.

Well, thank you so much, Georgie, for joining us today, enlightening us and providing us as well as our listeners such wonderful insight into the world of beauty. Stay tuned on Wednesdays to chat with us. We have some exciting topics lined up, including how we manifest our future and how we work towards work-life balance in a workaholic culture. And also let us know what you're interested in hearing from us each week by commenting below. Chat soon.