K-Culture: Dog-like vs Cat-like Faces

K-drama muggles may find it weird that Koreans often compared their beloved actors/actresses’ faces to dogs, cats, and other animal faces. But if you think about it, the resemblance is there. Aside from the physical comparison, they also tend to associate celebrity traits and impressions with animals.

Why Animal Faces?

The curious cat in me searched the whole World Wide Web for a specific answer on why Koreans love complimenting people by comparing them to animals. My search pointed to nothing but I’ll share my theory anyway. I think this ‘habit’ could be related to the ancient Korean way of predicting one’s future using the facial feature – Gwansang (관상).

Similar to palm reading or other forms of fortunetelling, those who practice gwansang assesses a person’s character through their outer appearance. If you’ve watched sageuk dramas, one part of the selection process for the king’s bride is face reading. They use physiognomy to determine the compatibility of the candidate to the king and the royal family. Those face readers say whether someone would bring luck or trouble in the future. There’s even a movie about Gwansang which features Song Kang-ho as a skillful face reader during the Joseon dynasty. It’s a full-length film that revolves around this Korean culture.

So yep, I think this practice may have influenced Korea’s fascination with faces. Gwansang might have lost its popularity to the current generation but its idea of predicting someone’s personality based on their physical appearance remained.

Which Animal Kingdom Do You Stan?

Cats and dogs are the commonly used animals to compare one’s biases’ faces. But there are few more other animals thrown into the picture when talking about this topic. I’ve compiled some of them and their celebrity examples. So, which animal kingdom do you stan?

Dog-like Faces (also known as Puppy Faces):

Just like their animal counterpart, these celebrities are known for having friendly faces. Similar facial features among them are innocent eyes and cheerful smiles.

Cat-like Faces:

Often misunderstood because of their unintentional RBF, these celebrities can look cold on the outside but are bursting with charms on the inside.

Dinosaur-like Faces:

Prominent bone structure is their edge. They might come as intimidating because of their strong looks but they are extremely charming as well.

Fox-like Faces:

They are often delegated to cats or dogs because their features are a combination of the two but fox is the better description for them.

Horse-like Faces:

High noses, muscular torsos, and elegant strides. All of these are the traits of these celebrities that are compared to this enchanting creature.

Bonus:

• Choi Min-ho and Ha yeon-soo are endearing like Squirtle 🐢🐢ㅋㅋㅋ

• Ahn Eun-jin and Kim Dae-myung are adorable doctor bears  🐻🐻