| APSG Comment: But why choose to carve himself into William Shakespeare of all people? Why not Confucius or some other wildly admired Asian man of letters or the intellect? Does becoming a better person in China these days require transmogrification based around a classical European ideal?
While all plastic surgery can be considered a process of body modification, most care in the West is undertaken to reverse the ravages of aging. In the East, it's different, with much cosmetic surgery performed to erase perfectly normal and attractive genetic traits.
This latest stunt, however, sits at the sick end of the cosmetic remodeling continuum -- hard-core physical degradation akin to Trekkies having silicone blocks inserted beneath their skin to shape-shift into aliens from another solar system.
Plastic surgery media happenings like this are becoming increasingly common in China but also South Korea. Conceived to help promote both the patient but especially the surgeon, they seem to reflect and encourage the region's overheated infatuation with mindless body mutation that may someday emerge as a major source of deep sorrow if not anger.
Surgery to become Shakespeare, Cinderella, Jessica Alba, a new husband's dead wife, and, of course, Barbie -- it's gotten rather out of hand.
None of this bodes well for the industry's future.
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