Plastic Surgery in Asia

South Korea’s market size of plastic surgery is KRW 5 trillion annually, number one in the world (one-quarter of the world's plastic surgery market). If this can explain enough it is easier to think about this way. The number of plastic surgeries per 1,000 people is 13.5 cases, which is also world number one. The average annual salary for plastic surgeons is 2.78 million won, is also the number one in 26 medical subjects. The current status of plastic surgery in Korea is that there are 745 professional plastic surgeons and 9000 non-professional operators (Lee, Nam, Kim, Hyun, Kim, Min, Ha, Jeong, Lee, Na, Huang, Jeong, Jeong, & Hyen, 2014).

There are several ways to collect data. However, surveys are capable of obtaining information from large samples of the population (Glasow, 2005). Also, Surveys are very useful where it is necessary to elicit information about attitudes that are otherwise difficult to measure using observational techniques (McIntyre, 1999, p.75). This is also why social psychologists to conduct survey research. Social psychologists are interested in understanding how people influence and are influenced by, their social environment (Visser, Krosnick, & Lavrakas, 2000). Therefore, when it comes to research large samples of the population’s attitudes and the relationship between population and social environments, a survey research method is an appropriate method to use.

Cosmetic culture does not have tangible measurements or the answer. Its attribute is similar to the attributes of culture. Sometimes it is “…visible but many times it is invisible such as ideas or the thoughts people have (Dou, 2012).” Therefore, the purpose of this research is to investigate the reasons why or why not women wear make-up and what cultural differences may behind these reasons. Also to analyze two cultural groups’ differences and similarities of their cosmetic culture by using questionnaire, literature, and in-depth interview.

The data needed in this study are obtained by survey. It is because the survey is the quickest and easiest way to get a broad range of targets to give their ideas and opinions. Also, it is easy to compare two different groups of people by the results of the questionnaire. The content of this survey is divided into three parts. The first part is mainly about the simple personal background information of the respondents including ages, income, educational backgrounds, and occupations. The second part is the questions about make-up behavior such as the frequency of wearing make-up and the reasons why or why not the respondents are wearing make-up. The third part is asking the respondents’ satisfaction of their make-up-free face. Finally, the last part was the questions about the respondent's opinions of plastic surgery. The second part through the last part of the survey was designed to ask respondents’ own ideas and opinions about make-up and plastic surgery.

In order to compare the cultural differences and similarities of Chinese and Korea women, the main target respondents of the questionnaire were defined as Chinese and Korean women. There was a total of 170 respondents, including 101 Chinses female respondents and 69 Korean female respondents. Male respondents were not allowed to participate in the survey. The Chinese respondents are living in 26 different provinces such as, Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Fujian, Zhejiang, Yunnan, Guangdong, Jiangsu, Shandong, Chongqing, Liaoning, Hebei, Shanxi, Sujiang, Jiangxi, Shanxi, Heilongjiang, Guizhou, Hubei, Henan, Guangxi, Sichuan, Hunan, Xinjiang, and Anhui. The South Korean respondents are mostly living in Korea and it was not able to track the IP address to find out which province they are living in. The Chinese respondent’s age range is between 10~49years old, and Korean respondent’s age ranges between 10~59 years old. 85.15% of Chinese respondents are students, 13.86% of them are workers and 0.99% of them do not mention what their occupations are. 54.41% of Korean respondents are students, 35.29% of them are workers, 8.82% of them are housewives, and 1.47% of them do not mention what their occupations are.

There were three research methods used in this paper such as the survey analysis, literature research, and in-depth interview. All three methods were useful to research all the information, ideas, and opinions of cosmetic culture.

The survey was conducted using a self-compiled questionnaire about the cosmetic cultures of China and South Korea. The survey is mainly focused on the respondents’ attitudes, ideas, and opinions about make-up and plastic surgery. Because this questionnaire is not about statistics of numeric data, the author did not use SPSS measurement tool. However, the author compared two groups’ survey results in one by one. The survey is in two different languages but the contents of the survey were exactly the same. The survey consists of four different parts, one is the background information of respondents including ages, income, educational backgrounds, and occupations. The second part is the questions about make-up behavior such as the frequency of wearing make-up and the reasons why or why not the respondents wear make-up. The third part is asking the respondents’ satisfaction of their make-up-free face. Finally, the last part is the questions about the respondents' opinions of plastic surgery and the results of the plastic surgery.

Another method is literature research. The literature research method is an important and basic research method. The specific step is to collect and read a large number of relevant papers through the retrieval of network resources and library literature, which is to deepen my theoretical level and obtain a rich knowledge of China and South Korea’s cosmetic cultures. By consulting relevant literature and databases, the author constantly analyzes and understands the core ideas and the keywords of cosmetic cultures and cultural differences in this respect.

Finally, proceeding in-depth interviews with both countries’ women are the last research method the author used. To proceeding one on one interview, the author could get more accurate ideas and opinions of both countries women’s view on cosmetic culture preparing myself for the questionnaire survey and confirming the survey results for the second time.