Airdate: Change My Race

I recall watching Big Brother this year as Mikkalya spoke about disliking her Asian heritage, especially her physical appearance. It was something I’d never really thought about before, or recall hearing anyone openly express.

But this week SBS screens a documentary about others who are undergoing surgery in the hope of looking more “western” in appearance.

Likely to be a controversial topic…

From skin bleaching to calf reductions, from extreme eyelid surgeries to jaw-breaking facial contouring, SBS explores those willing and able to radically change their racial appearance.

Change My Race follows the disturbing new trend known as ‘de-racialisation‛ surgery that is seeing Australians go under the knife in the quest to become more Westernised or ‘Aussie looking’.

Chinese-Australian actor, TV presenter and new mother, Anna Choy, takes a personal and highly confronting journey uncovering the growing trend of racial altering cosmetic surgery in Australia and abroad. This is no simple case of nip and tuck, but rather complete image overhauls through long and painful surgeries and medical procedures.

Anna’s journey begins in Australia where the iconic Australian beauty is the tall blonde, beach babe. For Anna, and many Australians like her, this is the unattainable ideal of beauty. Anna’s travels take her to the global capital of cosmetic surgery, Seoul in South Korea where one in five women go under the knife. There in the Gangnam district, she discovers over 500 cosmetic surgery clinics located in the ‘beauty belt’ where people are being transformed from top to toe. She discovers that the desired look is for the western influenced ‘baby face’, big eyes, high-bridged nose, pointed chin and V-lined face.

Tuesday, 3 December at 8.30pm on SBS ONE.