From Caucasian to Asian

The truth behind Oli London’s race transition.

By: BB 9.1

Photo: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/oli-london-apologizes-surgeries-appear-bts-star-jimin-rcna45677

Thousands of women around the world have had cosmetic procedures done to look like Kylie Jenner or Kim Kardashian. However, in recent years, an influencer named Oli London has been on trending articles and headlines across the world for their surgical ‘transition’ to look like their favorite singer, Jimin from BTS. The biggest concern surrounding their new transition is that London is British and Jimin is Korean, causing extreme controversy on where to draw the line between an innocent change and their recent stating that they “identify as Korean.” Many internet users, including people of color, have spoken out against them. Who is Oli London, why are they so controversial, and may they actually be faking it?

Oli London first rose to fame in late 2019 after being featured on the popular YouTube series called Hooked on the Look from the channel Barcroft TV for spending more than $150,000 on cosmetic surgeries to look like Jimin has resulted in extreme amounts of backlash online for appropriating Asian and Korean culture and media. In early 2021 Oli London was brought back into relevance after they announced their final look which involved a procedure to slant their eyes to look more Korean. London has halted their surgical transformation after being confronted online on Doctor Phil. Apart from that, many large influencers like YouTuber Sherliza Moé has mocked them for going through hundreds of various surgeries and spending more than a hundred thousand dollars on them, but forgetting the most obvious thing: the eyes. On June 2021 they posted a video directly addressed to Doctor Phil about his new eyes.

Apart from revealing their new eyes they have come out as a ‘transracial,’ saying “transracial is a thing! I invented it! You can be transgender as you can be transracial,” to which many people have pointed out as false since people of different races still identify with genders. London’s transition isn’t the same as regular cosmetic changes and not even like other race/nationality related traits. They aren’t trying to look Swedish or German or another kind of white which means how they choose to change themselves is completely dependent on race related stereotypes about East Asians. “I identify as Korean, and I do look Korean, now I do feel Korean; I don’t identify as British so please don’t refer to me on any media as British because I identify as Korean.”

Apart from that they have also come out with they/them pronouns stating “my pronouns are They/Them Korean/Jimin” which has sparked extreme controversy all over social media. They have also made other posts on twitter surrounding their new Transition such as a Korean flag replaced with rainbow colors.

By all means, London is not the first person to transition race. Many people have had various race changing procedures before but it would be wrong to talk about his rise to fame without mentioning the ridicule that got them there in the first place. Many social media users have compared Oli London with the Cart Titan in the anime Attack on Titan for their incredibly misshapen face as a result of his many surgeries which makes him look more alien than Asian.

So, let’s talk about what went wrong.

Oli London had gone through many procedures in the hopes of changing their face enough to fit these characteristics, but to no avail. A lot of people had found this problematic as Oli London had changed their facial features according to stereotypical Asian features in an exaggerated manner, all for the purpose of being able to identify as ‘Korean.’

For many people reading, this may be a big joke but to many people of color including myself this is incredibly harmful. They has publicly opened doors for other people considering or participating in race changes or Asian fishing which allows white people to perpetuate ancient cartoonish stereotypes about Asians and Asian American minority races who have experienced discrimination and had harmful stereotypical statements made based on their race. For many people of color this isn’t just a kind gesture of ‘cultural appreciation’ or a simple equal exchange because the long history of fighting for equal rights and for people to change their races just because it’s ‘cutesy’ or ‘aesthetic’ because people are genuinely unknowledgeable about this issue because whether people appreciate this or not. Hopefully we can stop giving them attention so we can stop more people from doing this.