South Korea, which last year overtook Brazil as the plastic surgery capital of the world, is now home to the highest number of cosmetic procedures performed per capita.

　　And for one young writer, the country&aposs extreme emphasis on appearance and immersion in western celebrity culture was so overwhelming that she decided to move back to America.

　　In an essay for Buzzfeed, Ashley Perez, who identifies as Cuban, Filipino and Korean-American, reveals how during a year teaching English to fourth-graders in Daegu, she was ridiculed for her &aposvery big&apos U.S. size 8 body, &apostoo dark&apos skin tone, and &aposplain face&apos features.

　　&aposIn my case, I was too tall, too fat, and too dark — traits that are not typically considered beautiful by Korean standards,&apos she wrote. &aposIn many ways, being partially Korean actually made my experience more difficult than that of my foreign white friends.&apos

　　Recently it was revealed that in South Korea, double eyelid surgery, which creates the Caucasian crease many Asian women do not naturally have, has become as common as going to the dentist.

　　Going behind the scenes of Seoul Fashion Week for Vice magazine&aposs online series Fashion Week Internationale, host Charlet Duboc last year uncovered the country&aposs quest for a stereotypical vision of a western face - something Miss Perez is now very familiar with.

　　Miss Perez&aposs experiences at school stood out in particular. She recalls watching a fellow teacher &aposstarve herself&apos on a diet of black beans, grapes, and weight-loss shakes, and says high school students were handed leaflets advertizing plastic surgery outside the school gates.

　　Even among the younger students, she says, there was a bullying incident that lt a child sobbing because she had been branded &aposThe Mayor of Africa&apos for having slightly darker skin than her peers.

　　While she described her experience as &aposlargely positive,&apos she said that ultimately, the year was &apossoul-crushing&apos.

　　Sales assistants in make-up stores would tell her that her skin was too dark for the products available, she reveals.

　　And fitting into the vast arrays of &aposcheap, trendy clothing,&apos Miss Perez found it impossible - and confidence-crushing - to find anything that fit her because the single &aposfree size&apos option was far too small.

　　&aposWhereas in the United States I’m smaller than the average woman — size 8 bottoms, medium tops, and a size 8.5 shoe — in Korea, I truly felt like a whale,&apos she wrote.

　　Indeed, in a bid to change their looks, 20per cent of women between the ages of 19 and 49 in Seoul, the country&aposs capital city, admitted they had gone under the knife.

　　According to the International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons, the most popular surgical procedures include double eyelid surgery, lipoplasty - which uses high-frequency sound waves to eliminate fat - and nose jobs.

　　&aposI think South Korea has a very rigorous and narrow dinition of beauty because we’re an ethnically homogenous society and everyone looks pretty much the same, said Joo Kwon, the founder of JK Plastic Surgery Center - one of the country&aposs largest clinics.

　　Tired of living in a culture she &aposliterally couldn’t fit into,&apos Miss Perez decided not to re-sign her teaching contract for another year and return to America.

　　She admits, sadly, that she was &apossick of feeling of ugly in a country that was once home to my ancestors.&apos

　　据英国《每日邮报》6月3日报道，韩国去年超越巴西成为世界整形中心，如今韩国是世界上人均整形次数最多的国家。

　　一位名叫阿什丽•佩雷斯的年轻作家，自称是美籍古巴-菲律宾-韩国裔，因受不了韩国过分重视外表和沉溺于西方明星文化，毅然决定放弃在韩国的教书工作，回到美国。

　　20多岁的佩雷斯说，尽管自己有着韩国女孩一样的圆圆脸蛋儿，高颧骨，但韩国的文化是，每个人都力求长得一样，而自己外表的不同让自己显得“格格不入”。

　　“我太高，太胖，太黑，完全不符合韩国人美的标准。”

　　她回忆说，见到一位同事只进食黑豆，葡萄和减肥饮料进行“绝食瘦身”;高中校门口就有人散发整形广告传单。她还说，曾见到一个小学生哭泣，仅仅因为皮肤比同学黑一点点，被同学授予“非洲市长”的绰号。

　　实际上，在韩国首都首尔，19到49岁的女性有20%承认曾为了改变相貌做过整形手术。

　　韩国JK整形中心的创始人赵权说：“我认为韩国对美的理解机械且狭隘，因为我们是单一种族社会，而且每个人看上去长得一样。”

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