Asia's metrosexuals: Mirror, Mirror...
By Ling Liu (Time)
Updated: 2005-10-28 09:04

TVB took a few more risks—but still hedged its bets. It divided 16 gladiators into two camps, a "macho" team and a "debonair" team. Contestants were introduced to the all-female contest judges and the all-female studio audience with videos showing them leaping out of army jeeps and firing weapons while clad in camouflage fatigues and war paint. During the talent competition, some performed martial arts and chin-ups. But one debonair lad roller-skated around the stage singing a French love song, while another contestant made a dress onstage using nothing but a black cloth. Ko, the winner—he of the lime green pants—played a dreamy ballad on the piano.

In the end, the real arbiters of what makes a man beautiful will be those tyrants, the people who moved the goalposts in the first place: wives and girlfriends. Some women say they can tell when men have gone too soft. "I think men should spend one-third of their time and attention on their looks," says Phoenix Lau, a Hong Kong college student. "But Hong Kong guys spend too much time this way," she protests, "more than one third!" Japanese flight attendant Motomi Asano has a higher threshold. "50 to 60% is O.K.," she says matter-of-factly. Asano has learned to accept her fashion-crazed boyfriend as he is, even though he spends twice as much money on clothing as she does. But Asano, too, has her limits. "When I go shopping with him, he is all over the place looking at everything," she says. "I sometimes think, 'For goodness sake!'"

Make no mistake. Once you've exfoliated, there's no going back. "We are living in a day and age when men are supposed to look more attractive," says Park, the Seoul clothing designer. He makes no excuses for paying attention to his appearance. "I've got nothing to hide," he says. "The fact is, women today want men with good skin and good bodies." Guys, remember the old locker-room adage: No vain, no gain.