Julie Chen To Plastic Surgery Critics: ‘Guess What? I Still Look Chinese’

Julie Chen doesn’t really get all the criticism she received after revealing her decision to get plastic surgery on her eyes to allegedly make her look “less Asian.” Clearly, she argues, it didn’t work too well.

Really, this is a story about jumping to conclusions. Last Wednesday, The Talk co-host revealed that she had undergone plastic surgery years ago when she was just getting started at a local news network. The surgery was a response to a comment from her news director that she’d never make it to the anchor desk because of her “Asian eyes.”

The surgery made her eyes “bigger” so that she could look “more alert,” and Chen admitted that she struggled with the decision. “I struggle with, ‘Wow. Did I give in to the man in doing this?'” she said.

Though her comments inspire something closer to sympathy around our water cooler, many critics accused Chen of conforming to racist standards of beauty and forsaking her heritage.

On Monday’s episode of The Talk, she hit back at her critics with a quick one-two:

“I wasn’t surprised that there would be haters judging me for what I did. What was hurtful was that the hateful comments that I read where people were judging me were people within my own community. It was comments like, ‘Way to give in to the Western standards of beauty.’ ‘You’re denying your heritage. You’re trying to look less Asian.’ Guess what? I don’t look less Chinese! I’m not fooling anybody here. That’s number one.

“Number two: half of us Asians are born with the double-eyelid. My mother was born with it. My father has one lid that was creased, one lid that didn’t get its crease until he hit his late teens. I have one sister born with the creases, one sister born without it, so it wasn’t denying my heritage.”

She also clarified in People magazine that her surgery wasn’t about race but about expression.

“The goal was to simply have bigger eyes so the camera didn’t make me look sleepy, bored, angry or disinterested in my interviews. The goal was to look, in my opinion, more alert and more interested on camera for my work/career.”

Now, it’s possible that this is all just a ploy to drum up ratings, as Jezebel believes. It’s equally possible that Julie Chen is just telling the truth: That her reasons were cosmetic, discrimination was a peripheral factor, but that she wasn’t trying to hide or soften her heritage. But we think her surprise at the criticism betrays a bit of naivety.

In either case, Julie Chen is going to talk more about her plastic surgeries today, so tune in.