韓國男士的"花樣美男"之路
In the male-dominated society of South Korea, men who apply makeup every morning are fast becoming as commonplace as men in other places who shave every morning.
在男性佔社會主導地位的韓國，男士每天早上化妝正迅速變成一件平常事，就如同其他國家的男士每天早上剃鬚一樣。Two years of compulsory military service and centuries of Confucian culture have imbued South Korean men with a traditional sense of masculinity. But many are beginning to embrace a new version of handsome.
由於受兩年的兵役的影響和幾百年來儒家文化的薰陶，韓國男士被灌輸了傳統的男子漢觀念。然而如今很多人開始接受了對於英俊的新定義。In the late 1990s, South Korea lifted a ban on Japanese products, including comics, which idolized beautiful men who were less masculine than tradition expected. They had softer looks with small and slender facial features. Men like them were called “flower men” and appeared in Korean dramas and movies.
上世紀九十年代末，韓國解禁了漫畫等日本舶來品。日本漫畫中十分推崇那些比傳統男性形象更爲陰柔的美男子。他們的五官小巧纖細，面容柔美。這樣的男子被稱爲“花樣美男”，在韓國影視劇中頻頻亮相。
Today, TV commercials in the country feature attractive male superstars with heavy makeup. The mainstream media advocate perfect skin as a necessity for finding a job and a wife.
如今在韓國，電視廣告中常常出現畫着濃妝的魅力男星。主流媒體也一直宣傳無暇肌膚是求職和成家的必要條件。“My skin wasn’t bad, but the media constantly sends the message that skin is one of the most important things, so I wanted to take care of it,” 27-year-old Kim John-hoon, who works in the technology industry, told AP.
27歲的金正勳在科技行業工作，他在接受美聯社採訪時表示：“我的皮膚不差，但媒體不斷傳遞這樣一個信息，皮膚是頭等大事之一，所以我想打理一下。”The country accounted for nearly 21 percent of global men’s cosmetics sales last year, totaling $495.5 million (3.08 billion yuan), according to Euromonitor International, a market research firm. That makes South Korea the largest market for men’s cosmetics.
據歐睿信息諮詢公司的一項調查顯示，去年，韓國男性化妝品市場銷售額爲4.955億美元（合30.8億人民幣），約佔全球男性化妝品銷量的21%。韓國也因此成爲全球最大的男性化妝品市場。But many men use makeup not because they want to appear more feminine, but because they want a more crisp, clean look in order to get ahead in the country’s competitive job environment.
而許多男士之所以使用化妝品並不是爲了讓自己看上去女性化，而是希望擁有更乾淨利落的形象，以便在韓國競爭激烈的職場中拔得頭籌。Lim Jung-shik, from South Korea’s largest cosmetics company Amore Pacific, estimates that 20 percent of young men now occasionally wear some kind of foundation. But he says this doesn’t conflict with South Korea’s macho, competitive culture.
林正植供職於韓國最大的化妝品公司——愛茉莉太平洋集團。他估計現在20%的年輕男士會偶爾擦些粉底。但他也表示，這與崇尚陽剛和競爭的韓國文化並不相悖。“In the West, if a guy wore makeup or a group of men walked into a makeup store, people might think they were gay. But here in South Korea, things are different,” he told the BBC in an interview. “A few years ago, there was an advert which said, ‘Your appearance is also your strategy,’ meaning that grooming yourself is a reflection of your competency, part of your value as a complete package.”
“在西方，如果一位男士化了妝或者一羣男人走進化妝品店，人們會懷疑他們是同性戀。但在韓國卻不同。”他在接受BBC採訪時表示：“幾年前，有個廣告曾這樣說：‘外表也是制勝策略’，意思是說修飾自己是自身能力的體現，同時也是整體價值的一部分。”South Korea is a deeply competitive place with some of the longest working hours in the developed world. Competition for jobs at big-name companies is fierce. Youth unemployment is twice the national average, according to the BBC.
韓國是個競爭十分激烈的國度，也是工作時間較長的發達國家之一。據BBC報道，在韓國大公司找工作競爭十分殘酷，青年失業率是全國平均水平的兩倍。In South Korea, appearances play an important role in getting jobs. All applications require photos and some employers even ask a professional face reader to join the interview process. Based on physiognomy, which assesses a person’s character from their external appearance, they ensure the company doesn’t hire unsuitable candidates, according to a recent report by ABC News.
在韓國求職，相貌起到很大的作用。所有的求職申請都必須附上照片，一些用人單位甚至會在面試過程中請來專業的面部分析師。美國廣播公司最新一則報道稱，根據面相學，這些公司可以從外貌來判斷一個人的性格，以確保公司不會僱傭一些不合適的面試者。“For the younger people, it’s a matter of survival,” Park Jin-won, vice president of Doosan Industrial Vehicle, told ABC News. “So when I interview future employees, I do keep in mind looks. Qualifications are basic and the real competitiveness is how you manage to be presentable.”
“對於年輕人來說，這事關生存。”韓國斗山產業車輛株式會社副社長樸金文在接受美國廣播公司採訪時說道：“所以當我面試未來的僱員時，我一定會把相貌銘記在心。資歷是首要的，但是真正的競爭力在於你如何打造一個良好的形象。”
