As shown by the survey results, there are evidences that peoples from different races, ethnicities and countries have different aesthetic perception about facial attractiveness. The amout of facial attractiveness can be quantitatively measured. I developed a smart phone application called as “Secret Face” in collaboration with SK Telecom and Firstec. Inc.. “Secret Face” is an app that analyzes the degree of facial attractiveness and facial beauty configuration according to racial or ethnic differences. 6, 7 It was a simplified mobile app version of BAPA. “Secret Face App” used automatic face recognition technology for convenience of mobile user and was not be as accurate in respect to the manual landmark measurement of facial features on desktop computer. However, using Secret Face, I quantified and analyzed the degree of attractiveness of a Korean actress(Tae-Hee, Kim, a famous and beautiful Korean actress) in the standpoint of different racial beauty concept. <Image 4> shows how the degree of the facial attractiveness of Tae-hee Kimis seen differently in each country.
HELIOSⅡ/LOTUSⅡ/HYPERION – Manufacturer: LASEROPTEK(www.laseroptek.com)
I estimated the attractiveness of Kim’s face as a female face and a male face in each country. One has to consider the difference of aesthetic standards between cultures. I would like to explain this difference as a cultural code of attractiveness. Cultural code can be defined as ‘subliminal meaning that people of certain culture bestow on a certain subject (including physical characteristics of an attractive celebrity).’ Without our awareness, cultural codes influence important aspects of our lives including shopping, health, food, pairing preference between men and women, profession and politics, etc. A cultural code may work as a clue to understanding certain human behaviors and modes of living as well as provide fundamental understanding of the market and customers for successful business. Cultural codes can also provide an explanation to why people around the world act differently and why a sports car popular in the US has poor sales in France, etc.8 In other words, understanding the aesthetic standards of each country or ethnicity has great commercial importance.
Geun-seok Jang (Korean actor) and Kara (Korean girl band singer) are more popular in Japan than in Korea. In particular, Hara Goo of Kara was voted as the most beautiful Korean singer in Japan.9 This shows that the aesthetic standards of Japan slightly differ from those of Korea. On the other hand, Korean celebrities that are very popular in Korea often failed to become famous when they try to enter show businesses of other countries. This may be related to the actor’s talents or works, however, I think it has to do with the different standards or perception of beauty between countries and cultures.
Preferred attractive faces differ according to age, nationality, race, and gender. When a certain celebrity’s looks coincide with the people’s cultural code, he or she will enjoy popularity. A research team at Sejong University reported a consistent correlation between celebrities’ looks and their income from endorsements10. Talent agencies should consider the cultural codes of each country before deciding to enter foreign markets.
Many foreigners visit Korea for aesthetic plastic surgeries and the proportion of foreign patients is increasing at private practices. Therefore, it is very important for Korean plastic surgeons to understand and research preferred features and differences in aesthetic expectations of each culture. Applying such research data to clinical practice can help provide satisfactory postoperative outcomes to foreign patients.
Till now, we have discussed the need for research on attractive faces as well as the difference in aesthetic standards according to race, ethnicity, gender and age. In the next article, we will take a closer look at facial beauty aesthetics in terms of individual facial aesthetic subunits of whole face. We will discuss on a topic, “What is beautiful eye and what differences exist among different races” in the upcoming issue..
References
- www.hg-times.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=20099
- www.skyedaily.com/news/news_roung_view.html?ID=7816
- http://news.donga.com/3/all/20140321/61903622/3
- http://ko.wikipedia.org/wiki/%EC%86%8C%EB%85%80%EC%8B%9C%EB%8C%80
- www.soompi.com/2012/12/31/jessica-iu-and-song-hye-gyo-among-others-in-100-worlds-most-beautiful-faces/
- www.skplanet.com/PrRoom/press_view.aspx?seq_num=11
- www.dt.co.kr/contents.html?article_no=2012012002011531747003
- http://supremacy.tistory.com/m/entry/%EC%BB%AC%EC%B2%98%EC%BD%94%EB%93%9C
- http://article.joins.com/news/article/article.asp?total_id=/3693911
- www.yonhapnews.co.kr/bulletin/2014/05/14/0200000000AKR20140514063800005.HTML?from=search
