The global makeover

原文：
The global makeover
In recent years Western notions of beauty have been sweeping aside classical ones,from China and India to Korea and Japan.The classical Zaftig Indian goddesses and the heart-shaped face of the Chinese beauty are yielding to round eyes,oblong faces and lean figures.The signs can be seen n the faces of the stars of the big screen and the glossy magazines,many of whom take on a kind of amalgamated look of East and West.”It’s going both ways”,says Nancy,”but there’s still a huge influence from the western standard”
The current trend is in many ways an extension of the longstanding influence of Western image in movies and television,accelerated in recent years by the addition of satellite television and Internet .But the proliferation of cosmetic surgery has given this trend a new twist.Techniques and technologies of plastic surgery are more widely available than ever before .As prices keep coming down,more and more women and men are electing to go under the knife in pursuit of an emerging global standard of beauty .What started years ago in Beverly Hills and Palm Springs,California,has spread to Seoul ,Beijing,Tokyo and Mumbai,not to mention thousands of smaller places in between.It’s not just the wealthy and the famous any more who are free to warming to the idea of augmenting the breasts,hips and buttocks or shaving a few millimeters off the cheekbones.
All this tinkering with facial and body types may be changing the way our brains perceive beauty.For millions of years our sense of beauty served an evolutionary function:it helped us choose the best mate-the wide-hipped woman best suited to bearing children,or the broad-shoulder hunk of a man who could protect and provide.But a good portion of what we think of as beautiful is merely our brain’s average of all the faces we’ve been exposed to.Back in the days when we expressed out beauty preference in our choice of mates,the course of human beauty was determined by natural selection.
For many years Asian women water fair skin,a small pouty mouth,a straight nose,very shiny black long hair and an oval ,melon-seed-shaped face,Nowadays,some Asian women want their faces lengthened and their cheeks made more angular.In China,Evercare performs about a half-dozen operations a day,seven days a week,while elsewhere doctors work in hospitals,clinics and even beauty salons.Although the Chinese government doesn’t keep official statistics ,the number of cosmetic operations performed in the past several years is probably in the millions.The practice had become so widespread that last year the government issued regulations to control the industry for the first time.In South Korea,business has been even more brisk.Although official figures aren’t available ,Korea has more 1200 plastic surgeons,the highest per capita in the world.who perform roughly half a million procedures a year.
In fact,the cosmetic industry is booming worldwide-including makeup,plastic surgery and spa treatments.Cosmetic procedures from Botox to breast-lift ,are safer,readily available and easier to access that ever before.Sales revenues of Allergan’s cosmetic pharmaceuticals-the company that makes Botox,the wrinkle-smoothing drug-reached close to half a billion dollars,of which 30 percent came from outside the United States.Cosmetic procedures in the United States jumped to 6.9 million last year,up 226 percent from 1997;the jumps in Europe and Asia have followed suit.
Fueling the democratization of cosmetic surgery is a steady stream of new technologies-implants,Botox and laser treatments-that have come out of the lab in recent years.Dr.Stephen insists that ideal beauty can be reduced to a facial geometry based on the Golden Ration-the recurring
Measurement in nature of 1.3 to 1 that shows up on everything from snail shells to tree leaves.”People tried to understand a beautiful face,but what the hell is it?””It’s an image that is mathematically quantifiable .All life is biology,all biology is chemistry and all chemistry is mathematics” He’s invented technology for digitally scanning a client’s face and then morphing it on a computer to conform to his mathematical standard,which surgeons can then use as a guide.
Despite the progress,cosmetic surgery is still a tricky business,especially when it comes to Asian women.Because the Asian face is vertical and smooth,without all the contours of Western faces,a slip of the surgeon’s hand is readily apparent.Moreover,standards are often poor .In China,many illegitimate practitioners offer procedures for less than $100,turning out almost as many beasts as beauties.In the past decade more than 200 lawsuits have been field by patients who claim they’ve been victims of botched procedures,who had had to repair damage done by these so-called doctors.Another disturbing trend is that procedures are being marketed at young people-the ones most insecure about their looks.In Korea,plastic surgery is common among youth.on the streets of Seoul these days,we see so many same-looking standardized young people produced by the same surgery.Plastic surgery deprives Korean youth of their individual characteristics.
In many ways,the western fixation on looks is being exported eastward.There’s been an estheticization of the whole culture.Everything has become an esthetic choice.The trend is bolstered by studies showing that good-looking people are more successful in getting jobs and higher grades in school and making friends.It’s changed her life:friends gave her compliments,her boss praised her for her positive attitude and she had better luck on date.They used to say I was just cute but now they say I am pretty.
Although the global tendency is toward homogenization,there are some countervailing trends.L’oreal ,the industry leader in cosmetics,now operates 12 research centers around globe to understand how the company can fine-tune its products to the unique needs of different cultures.In September,L’oreal opened up the Institute for Ethnic Hair and Skin Research in Chicago,devoted to African-Amercian beauty,and the company has also done similar work in China.We’re fighting against in ideal beauty.some experts say that greater travel and cultural exchange among Asian countries is creating more of a Pan-Asian standard of beauty than a Western one.
Some scientists think that beauty has always been standard.They have a point.Part of our perception of beauty has been programmed by evolution to ensure that we choose the best mates,and so hasn’t changed much since we were hunter-gathers.But that’s only part of the beauty formula.Nature also gave us the ability to adapt to changing circumstances-in a sense,to love the ones you’re with,even if it means learning to like the look of silicone-augmented buttocks and Botox-smoothed skin.

翻译：
全球改头换面
近年来，从中国、印度到韩国、日本，西方对美的观念已逐渐淡出古典，印度的古典女神和中国美人的心形脸都屈从于圆圆的眼睛，长方形的脸和瘦削的身材。在大银幕上的明星和光鲜的杂志上都可以看到这些标志，他们中的许多人都呈现出一种东西方融合的面貌。南希说：“这是双向的，但西方的标准仍有巨大的影响。”
目前的趋势在许多方面是西方形象在电影和电视中长期影响的延伸，近年来卫星电视和互联网的加入加速了这一趋势的发展，但整容手术的普及使这一趋势出现了新的转折，整容手术的技术和技术得到了更广泛的应用比以往任何时候都要低。随着价格的不断下降，越来越多的女性和男性为了追求一种新兴的全球美容标准而选择采取行动。几年前在加利福尼亚州比佛利山和棕榈泉开始的美容活动，已经蔓延到首尔、北京、东京和孟买，更不用说其间的数千个小地方了。不仅仅是有钱人和名流们都可以自由地接受隆胸、隆臀、隆臀或剃掉颧骨几毫米的想法。
所有这些对面部和身体类型的修饰可能改变了我们大脑感知美的方式。千百万年来，我们的美感起到了进化的作用：它帮助我们选择最适合生育的伴侣——宽臀女人，或者是一个能够保护和提供的男人的宽大的肩膀。但是我们认为美丽的一部分仅仅是我们大脑中所接触到的所有面孔的平均值。回到我们在择偶时表达出对美的偏爱的时代，人类美的过程是由自然选择决定的。
多年来，亚洲女性皮肤白皙，嘴巴小而撅，鼻子直，乌黑发亮的长发，瓜子形的椭圆形脸，如今，一些亚洲女性希望自己的脸变长，脸颊变得更有棱角。在中国，Evercare每周7天，每天大约做6次手术，而其他地方的医生则在医院、诊所甚至美容院工作。虽然中国政府没有官方统计，但在过去几年中，整容手术的数量可能达到数百万。这种做法已经非常普遍，以至于去年政府颁布了管理整容业的规定这是第一次。在韩国，生意更加红火。虽然官方数据还不清楚，但韩国有1200多个整形医生，是世界上人均水平最高的。他们每年要做大约50万个手术。
事实上，化妆品行业在全球范围内蓬勃发展，包括化妆品、整形手术和水疗。从肉毒杆菌到隆胸的整容程序，比以往任何时候都更安全、更容易获得和使用。生产肉毒杆菌（一种能消除皱纹的药物）的Allergan化妆品制药公司的销售收入接近一半10亿美元，其中30%来自美国以外的国家，美国去年的整容手术增加到690万，比1997年增加了226%，欧洲和亚洲也随之增加。
近年来，不断涌现的植入物、肉毒杆菌素和激光治疗等新技术推动了整容手术的民主化。斯蒂芬博士坚持认为，理想的美貌可以简化为一种基于黄金比例的面部几何学
从蜗牛壳到树叶，每样东西都有1.3到1的测量值，“人们试图理解一张美丽的脸，但这到底是什么？“这是一个数学上可以量化的图像。所有的生命都是生物学，所有的生物学都是化学，所有的化学都是数学”他发明了一种技术，可以对客户的脸进行数字扫描，然后在计算机上对其进行变形，以符合他的数学标准，然后外科医生可以将其用作指导。
尽管有了进步，整容手术仍然是一项棘手的工作，尤其是在亚洲女性身上。因为亚洲的脸是垂直的，光滑的，没有西方脸的轮廓，外科医生的手很容易滑落。此外，标准往往很差。在中国，许多非法从业者提供的手术费用不到100美元，几乎和美女一样多。在过去的十年里，有200多起诉讼是由声称自己是拙劣手术受害者的病人提起的，他们不得不修复这些所谓的医生造成的损害。另一个令人不安的趋势是，手术正在向年轻人推销，年轻人对他们的外表最不安全。在韩国，整形手术在你们中间很常见
在很多方面，西方对容貌的迷恋正在向东输出。整个文化都有了审美化。一切都变成了一种审美选择。这一趋势得到了研究的支持，研究表明，相貌英俊的人在找工作、升学和交朋友方面更成功。这改变了她的生活：朋友给了她她的老板称赞她态度积极，而且她在约会中运气更好。他们过去常说我很可爱，现在却说我很漂亮。
尽管全球趋势趋于同质化，但也有一些反补贴趋势。化妆品行业的领导者欧莱雅目前在全球设有12个研究中心，了解该公司如何根据不同文化的独特需求微调产品，欧莱雅在芝加哥开设了种族头发和皮肤研究所，致力于非洲裔美国人的美容，公司在中国也做过类似的工作。我们反对理想的美。一些专家说，亚洲国家之间更大的旅游和文化交流正在创造一种泛亚式的美，而不是西方式的美。
一些科学家认为美一直都是标准的。他们有一个观点。我们对美的感知有一部分是通过进化来设定的，以确保我们选择最好的伴侣，自从我们成为猎人聚集地以来，情况并没有太大的变化，但这只是美容配方的一部分。大自然也让我们有能力在某种意义上适应不断变化的环境，去爱你身边的人，即使这意味着学会喜欢硅胶加厚臀部和肉毒杆菌平滑皮肤的外观。