30kg Underweight Aspiration Culture Spreads
Deaths Occur Due to Excessive Dieting
The craze for 'weight loss' among young women in China is overheating, raising health concerns. Looking at the 'diet meal certification' posted on social networking services (SNS), a 'bizarre diet' that survives 24 hours on just a few pieces of fruit, coffee, and a container of yogurt is trending. There have even been deaths resulting from overexertion at diet camps.
On the 21st (local time), some netizens posted 'one-day meal certifications' on Chinese SNS platforms such as Weibo and Douyin. Most of those posting certifications are women attempting to lose weight, photographing the amount of food they eat in 24 hours and uploading it online.
Chinese BJ who died after undergoing a strenuous schedule at a Spartan-style diet camp [Image source=Weibo capture]
Looking at the photos, the diet seems far from normal. A tray containing a cup of green tea latte, a handful of fruit, a container of yogurt, and three or four cookies was posted as a certification shot. This photo represents not a single meal but the 'entire day's meals.' In other words, they have to endure the day consuming only this amount of food.
The 'weight competition' is also showing signs of overheating. Most weight certification photos posted on Weibo show weights in the 30 kg range. This is beyond simple underweight and at a level that can pose immediate health risks.
There have also been accidents where people lost their lives attempting excessive weight loss. Last year, a female BJ who entered a 'Spartan-style diet camp' in Shanxi Province, China, showed abnormal symptoms in her body and eventually died, sparking controversy. The Spartan-style diet camp is a Chinese fitness center that uses a high-intensity residential diet program to lose tens of kilograms over several months.
In the same year, a 15-year-old girl who tried to lose weight by drinking only water for 50 days fell into severe malnutrition and respiratory failure and ultimately passed away. The girl reportedly became obsessed with weight loss after receiving verbal abuse from a male student, her first love interest, who said, "I don't like you because you're fat." At the time of her death, her weight was only 24.8 kg.
Meanwhile, the admiration for extreme underweight is not limited to China. In South Korea, a trend called 'Pro-ana' once spread among some teenagers. Pro-ana is a compound word combining the English word 'pro,' meaning support, and 'anorexia,' referring to those who pursue anorexia to achieve a thin body.
Teenagers enthusiastic about Pro-ana are called 'Pro-ana tribes,' and among them, new terms such as 'Bone-thin tribe' and 'Bone-thin human' became popular, meaning 'having a body as thin as bones.'
© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.
