You Don’t Need $225,000 Worth of Plastic Surgery to Celebrate Shakespeare

Earlier this month, 34-year old author Zhang Yiyi made waves when he revealed he’d spent over $225,000 to look more like his favorite author, William Shakespeare. (You can see how close he got here.) Yiyi is no stranger to publicity stunts: his past efforts have included proposing to famous TV personalities via newspaper articles, and writing controversial pieces to ignite media reactions. But this one seems to come from a more genuine place—the author, who idolized and identified with Shakespeare in his youth, underwent 10 operations in 10 months and blew his entire savings on the procedures just to pay homage

Of course, Yiyi wasn’t just re-sculpting his face for his own pleasure; he had a greater purpose in mind. By looking more like Shakespeare, he hopes his face will serve as a living tribute, reminding people to keep Shakespeare’s memory alive. (Most of the staff here had totally forgotten about Shakespeare, but seeing his face reminded us all to re-read his greatest Spark Notes.)

Of course, there are many different ways to honor William Shakespeare. If you want to celebrate the Bard's Birthday (April 23rd!) in style, but don’t want to drop $225k in plastic surgery fees, you can throw an instant party with our Shakespeare Soiree Printable Party Kits.