Comm 606; Qualitative methods: Mass Communication Research
Abstract
The core objective of this lofty research paper is to find out how the Korean media has influenced the Chinese medical tourism, and to trace the reasoning as to why tourists prefer Korea for cosmetic surgery. The research was conducted by a qualitative with semi-structured in-depth interviews: eight face-to-face interviews and one online interview via instant messenger. The core finding was that Korean media triggers Chinese people to be interested in cosmetic surgery. Afterward, Chinese people extended the research about the cosmetic surgery through a variety of resources. This paper sends an alert message for Chinese people to grasp the magnitude of the cosmetic surgery problem.
Keywords: Korean big wave, Korean media, Chinese medical tourism, cosmetic surgery, perception of beauty
Introduction
Over the past decade, the number of cosmetic surgeries in China has increased dramatically. According to the International Society of Cosmetic Plastic Surgery (ISCP), China was the top three country consuming cosmetic surgery among 25 countries in 2011 (2011, p.4). This result shows how much China has taken an extensive portion of the cosmetic surgery in the world.
Before the cosmetic surgery boom, the Korean popular cultural contents have become immensely popular in China. Many Chinese people tended to mimic the Korean fashion, make-up, and even plastic surgery of the Korean celebrities (Shim, 2006, p.53). The Korea Tourism Organization (KTO) revealed that Chinese medical tourisms in Korea has increased 32 times from 2007 to 2014 (Yun, 2014, p.1). Thus, the researcher asserts the premise that there is a vital link between cosmetic surgery in Chinese and Korean media. In the Yu’s study (2012, p.84), results showed many Chinese tourists may be influenced by the Korean Wave.
The self-discrepancy theory can explain the phenomenon. According to Higgins (1986, p.6), if there is gap between the ideal model and actual level, people tend to fill out the gap by following their ideal. Also, in this process, dissatisfaction will be occurred (Higgins, 1987, p. 336).
Research Questions
(1) How has the perception of cosmetic surgery in China developed as a result of the influence of the Korean media?
(2) Why do Chinese people choose to go to Korea for cosmetic surgery operations even though there are other Asian countries around China?
Methodology
The researcher recruited the nine participants through word-of-mouth by using snowball sampling to seek the right participants experienced cosmetic surgery. According to Francis’s study (2010), "What is an adequate sample size," he explicated that having around ten interviewees is appropriate for the study. The research was conducted as a semi-structured in-depth interview, which combined face-to-face interview (n=8) and online interview via the WeChat instant messenger (n=1). Since the topic was sensitive, the researcher determined only use the one-and-one in-depth interview in a comfortable place (e.g., private lounge with a comfy sofa), so that people could talk about their stories openly. All the interviewees were Chinese students between 22 to 26 years old (Mean=24). The reason why the researcher selected the common college age was that it was found that college women generally have favorable attitudes toward cosmetic surgery from the previous research by Sarwer et al. (2005). The interview took over 45 minutes and was conducted with a voice recorder and later notes were filed.
Sample interview questions
1. Have you ever had cosmetic surgery? If so, where was it done?
2. If not, have you ever thought about having cosmetic surgery? For what reasons?
3. Do you think people who have cosmetic surgery are always happy with the results? Why do you think so?
4. What do you know about the dangers of cosmetic surgery?
5. If yes, even though you know the side effect, are you still willing to do cosmetic surgery? Why? Why not?
6. which mass media did you motivate to desire the cosmetic surgery most?
7. After watching those mass media you mentioned, were you ever envious of the woman in the media?
8. After watching those mass media you mentioned, how did your perceptions of cosmetic surgery change?
9. After watching those mass media you mentioned, would you change the perceptions of Korean medical tourism? Would you like to go to Korea to have cosmetic surgery?
10. If you had a chance to have a participant in the Korean cosmetic surgery reality show, would you be willing to participate? Why?
Data Analysis
The structural coding was used in Nvivo 11. The rationale of the analysis was to see how Chinese people have changed their perceptions of cosmetic surgery of the following in chronological order: what make them more interested in cosmetic surgery, why they chose to go to Korea, and how they think this phenomenon influences the young Chinese generation. In these categories, the researcher extracted the key sentences and code frequency from the transcription (Namey et al., 2008).
Results
The researcher attempted to find the procedure of changing the Chinese perception of cosmetic surgery, influenced by the Korean media. In the results, the predominant finding was that the Korean media was the first trigger to attraction cosmetic surgery for Chinese people among the interviewees. The Korean media certainly affects the perception of cosmetic surgery for Chinese. Then, in order to put an interest into practice, they started to collect extra data or information by using a variety of paths such as the internet, interaction with people, and media.
For this procedure, although there were many Chinese hospitals in China, they decided to go to Korea for cosmetic surgery operations because of the following three reasons: (1) A better Chinese economy, (2) Territorial proximity, and (3) Trust in the ability of Korean surgery technology. Among these three reasons, the trust in the ability of the surgery technology was mentioned most.
Conclusion:
The researcher aimed to find the cause of the phenomena of Chinese tourist visiting Korea for cosmetic surgery operations and the correlations between the Korean media and Chinese media tourism. Thus, through the research, the researcher sheds light on the influence of the Korean media to Chinese cosmetic surgery. The ‘Korean Big Wave' did not link to cosmetic surgery directly, but surely the Korean media triggered these changes of perception of cosmetic surgery in China. If the trends of cosmetic surgery industry in China continue like this, the negative impacts will also be caused in the near future. The worst case of the botched cosmetic surgery procedures was dead. Thus, regarding many risks and side effects, the Chinese surgery boom should be stopped. Otherwise, it could be followed the events that happened in Korea several years ago before the similar Chinese cosmetic surgery boom.
Limitation:
Due to limitations of recruiting on campus, the researcher was hard to find the person who had a Korean medical tour experience. Thus, eight out of nine interviewees did not have the experience; which went to Korea to operate cosmetic surgery. In the future study, the interviewees should be recruited by the person who has had a Korean medical tour experience, in order to see more detailed implications.
References
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Higgins, E. Tory (1987), Self-Discrepancy: A Theory Relating Self and Affect, Psychological Review
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International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ISAPS) (2011). International Survey on Aesthetic/cosmetic Procedures performed in 2011. Retrieved from https://www.isaps.org/Media/Default/global-statistics/ISAPS-Results-Procedures-2011.pdf
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Sarwer, D. B., Cash, T. F., Magee, L., Williams, E. F., Thompson, J. K., Roehrig, M., et al.(2005). Female college students and cosmetic surgery: An investigation ofexperiences, attitudes, and body image.Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery,115, 931–938.
Shim, D. (2006). Hybridity and the rise of Korean popular culture in Asia. Media, culture & society, 28(1), 25-44.
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