New York City's IMAGE, peeled like an onion

NYC24.com, in its fifth issue, shows how New York City is obsessed with image - both personal and public.

Our reporters uncovered the places where perception and reality conflict. We probed the boundary between where a person's image ends and where his or her identity begins.

We caught New Yorkers stealing glances at themselves in plate glass windows and half-empty subway cars. We watched them pluck the most healthful-looking products from grocery shelves and apply makeup before begging for a job. We listened to they way they cheered for presidential hopefuls and examined foreign lands and unfamiliar cultures.

In 11 stories, our reporters uncovered the places where perception and reality conflict. We probed the boundary between where a person's image ends and where his or her identity begins.

As the issue unfolded over the last month, we began to see the world as a series of images cascading, one behind the other, layers of an infinitely complex onion that as reporters, we had pledged to peel.

We canvassed Staten Island, lost tapes of DMC of Run DMC rapping against domestic violence and for NYC24, gawked at hot pants, flirted with getting a Mohawk, learned how to scrum and nearly fainted while filming eye surgery.

We hope you enjoy digging beneath the image of NYC.

Lisa Biagiotti, Executive Editor & Lizzie Stark, Managing Editor
nyc24image@gmail.com

New Slant on Asian Eyelid Surgery Debate

Asian Eyelid surgery is the most popular and fastest-growing cosmetic surgery in northeast Asia — and among Asian-Americans. The surgery adds a crease and makes the eyes look bigger by slicing the eyelid open and fusing the muscle with the skin.

But the procedure has been sensationalized in the media. For example, a Dr. Phil's episode, "Change My Face, Change My Race," claims that Asians are trying to “erase” their ethnic identity.

Almost half of all northeast Asians are born with an eyelid fold, which has long been considered more beautiful in Asia, according to Dr. Edward Kwak, a plastic surgeon.

Doctors and patients say they’re simply improving physical appearances, and that many Americans don’t understand a surgery that is commonplace among young women in South Korea and growing in China and Japan. If done well, meaning that the eye looks proportional to the patient’s face, the surgery is no more extreme than nose jobs or breast implants, some said.

"Asian Eyelid Surgery Sparks Debate" by Karen Zraick is a multimedia story that appears in the Image issue of nyc24.com. The story also goes into the operating room to document the 30-minute procedure with Dr. Edmund Kwan, who has offices in Manhattan and Flushing. (Warning: Graphic content)