Hong Kong's Shrinking Waist Line

The weight loss craze has taken Hong Kong by storm in the last decade. More money is spent on advertising in the diet industry than in any other industry in Hong Kong. As a result, eating disorders are on the rise and children as young as five want to be thinner

I took my mom to the hospital today where she was scheduled for a routine check up. Upon arrival, she checked in with reception, filled out a form and had her height and weight measured.

This is a familiar routine for anybody who has ever seen a doctor, but what should be a standard procedure, turns out to be an ordeal for many female patients.

In the hour I spent in the waiting room, I noticed a general reluctance by most women to step on the scales. My mom was one of these women. “Oh no, do I have to? I’m so fat,” she pleaded with the nurse. When her weight was read out, she cringed and said: “That’s it. I have to go on a diet.”

Another woman, notabaly slim, remarked: “Don’t tell me (my weight), I don’t want to know.”

But I was particularly bothered when a little girl, no more than five years old, stepped on the scales then looked at her mom and said: “How come I’m so fat? Mom, how come I weigh so much?”

Most women seemed embarrassed or nervous about having their weight taken. What seemed to bother them the most was having their weight read out loud in front of about 100 people in the waiting room. Many giggled or blushed as they stepped off the scale.

On reflection, I should not have found this unusual. Images of slim models and adverts promoting weight loss are ubiquitous in Hong Kong. Women of all ages, and even some men, are flocking in increasing numbers to gyms and slimming salons.
During a casual stroll through Hong Kong’s Central MTR station, I counted a total of 41 adverts. Half were for slimming products or services. Another seven adverts featured slim or thin models.

At Central station, I hopped on the number 13 bus. It is equipped with a powerful air conditioning system and four flat screen televisions which have the same video on a loop, twelve hours a day.

The loop consists of a series of adverts, one of which promotes a belly dancing-weight loss clinic. The clinic is endorsed by a former Miss Hong Kong, who now spends her days battling a non-existent bulge.

That evening, as I lay in bed flicking through the television channels, I happened upon a programme celebrating female entrepreneurs, all of whom had set up successful beauty or diet clinics.

The next programme featured a spa, which specialises in cosmetic acupuncture. Forget surgery, liposuction or face lifts, acupuncture, a 5000 year old tradition, is now being used to promote weight loss, prevent wrinkles and aging.

More than HK$1 billion was spent on slimming advertisements last year. Also, cases of eating disorders are increasingly prevalent in Hong Kong and other developed Asian economies.

Anorexia nervosa and bulimia were once classified as Caucasian conditions because the highest occurrences were among rich and educated Western women. But eating disorders are now spreading to women of all backgrounds in Hong Kong, Japan, Korea and Singapore.

It is difficult to determine whether the spread of Western cultures is responsible for the globalization of eating disorders. Whatever the cause, it is clear that Hong Kong, among many other international cities, is becoming blinded by unrealistic standards of beauty.

I stand at 164 cm and weigh 54 kilos, which according to the Body Mass Index (BMI) is “healthy”. But matters of health, especially among young girls, often come a poor second to fitting into that size zero dress. Despite the constant onslaught of dieting propaganda, I am happy in my size six dress. The only problem is that it's hard to find this size in Hong Kong these days.