Posted on June 4, 2014

Blonde Brazilian Man Obsessed with South Korea Undergoes 10 Rounds of Surgery to Look ‘More Asian’

Taylor Auerbach, Daily Mail (London), June 2, 2014

A white Brazilian man with blonde hair and blue eyes has taken the extraordinary step of undergoing surgery to look like an Asian.

Xiahn, 25, has a love for ‘K-pop’ and Korean dramas and became obsessed with looking like the locals during his time as an exchange student in the country.

A year at Dongseo University in South Korea gave him the desire to have ‘slanted eyes’ and dark hair.

‘I put my fingers inside the eye and pulled. That was the way I wanted to have my eyes,’ he told Brazilian newspaper Zero Hora.

Xiahn underwent more than 10 operations to get the desired look, spending more than $3000 to look remarkably like a natural-born Asian man.

‘I guess now yes I’m there, I just need to wait for the swelling (to go down) for the end result,’ he said.

‘I was not afraid that something would go wrong, but I was afraid to stay with scarring in the eye and so I did look plastic, but everything worked out. My vision is perfect.

Originally named Max, the only thing hinting at Xiahn’s former appearance is the shape of his nose.

Along with surgery to change the shape of his eyes, Xiahn wears dark eye contacts and dyes his hair black.

Hitting out at criticism, Xiahn said on his Facebook account: ‘Regardless of religion that the person is, whether or not you believe in past lives, you have only this life, you have to be who you wan to be.’

The cultural chameleon has been ‘liked’ thousands of times on Facebook and said he has been fascinated by life in South Korea since he was 19.

He found surgeons in Brazil to carry out the amazing series of surgeries and said while his father supported his choices, his mother was less understanding.

‘For me it is normal to change appearance,’ he said.