If you thought Lady Gaga’s dress made entirely of raw meat or Miley Cyrus’ twerking fiasco were the strangest things you could see in a performance, the following may give you pause for thought. In China, a highly accomplished plastic surgeon is turning his life’s work into performance art by conducting real plastic surgeries in front of a live audience.
An article in the Global Times interviewed Han Xiao, who calls himself “the one who performs plastic operations.” In it, Xiao reveals that he has always been an avid supporter of the arts and considers his role as a surgeon an extension of this passion. The philosophy that drives him is a desire for bodily expression without the suppression of society and the mind.
In his show, “Power of Body: Han Xiao’s Scalpels,” he “performed” a double eyelid surgery and breast augmentation on patients in front of an audience. But his most recent and most shocking performance was on himself! Xiao gave himself a hair transplant with the help of two mirrors and localized anesthetic. After one man cut off a lock of hair, Xiao sewed it to his forehead. In another procedure, he injected hyaluronic acid in his nose in the belief that a low nasal bridge leads to bad luck.
And while Xiao is proud of his own brand of performance art, it has drawn the ire of some. Many art critics have sharply criticized his work, failing to see the art in his surgeries. Nevertheless, Xiao isn’t deterred and enjoys the freedom it offers. “The most important thing is that it captures people’s attention and causes profound consideration,” he said. “Choosing art is choosing a lifestyle.”