AsiaNews Magazine Jan10-16,2014 ( Jan 1-7,2014) | Page 65

COVER STORY

January 10-16, 2014

Will travel,
get new face
LEE WOO-YOUNG
The Korea Herald
Seoul

A

Chinese woman entered
Dr. Park Plastic Surgery
in the “beauty Mecca”
of Gangnam, known for
its cluster of plastic surgery
clinics, as the first patient
on a Friday morning. She
and her two friends were
greeted by a Chinese staff
interpreter in the lobby.
An hour later, a second set of
patients—a father and a daughter
from Kazakhstan—came in, and
were escorted by a staff interpreter
who speaks Russian to examination
rooms for a checkup.
On one side of the wall in the
lobby hang four plastic boards on
which the curriculum vitae of the
clinic’s doctor is written in Chinese,

Japanese, Russian and Mongolian—
the four major foreign languages
of patients who frequent the clinic.
“Thirty per cent of the patients
at the clinic are foreigners, coming
from China, Japan, Russia, Mongolia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan,”
said Park Jae-woo, a doctor at the
clinic, in an interview with The
Korea Herald.
More foreigners fly to Korea to
enhance their looks every year. Their
numbers have been growing, with
an average annual rate of increase of
75.6 per cent from 2009 to 2012, the
highest among medical specialties,
according to the Korea Health Industry Development Institute’s data
on foreign patients. The number of
plastic surgery patients showed a
dramatic jump from 2,851 in 2009
to 15,428 in 2012.
“Korean cosmetic surgery is
among the best in the world …
Many wealthy people are coming to
Korea for cosmetic procedures and
other people with average incomes
are hoping they’ll be able to visit the

country for cosmetic surgery in the
future,” said the Chinese woman at
Dr. Park Plastic Surgery through a
Chinese interpreter. She wished to
remain anonymous.
According to the Chinese interpreter, most of the patients at the
clinic are high-profile people in
their country, including congressmen, high ranking government
officials and CEOs.
Doctors said that several factors
that attract them to the Far Eastern country is the improved national image of Korea, combined
with the immaculate appearances
of Korean celebrities on dramas.
“They want a sort of likeness (to
Korean stars),” said Park.