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.

Rapunzel has let down her hair

Last week I spoke about society’s obsession with hair. Britney Spears made head lines last week by ditching her hair extensions for a new, baldheaded look. Her hair, which she shaved off herself in an L.A. hair salon, is now up for grabs on an internet auction site for USD $1 million.

Time magazine dedicated a small spread to Britney’s more recent antics last week, which range from “her impulsive 55-hour first marriage to her unconventional parenting techniques with her second hubby”, “pantyless cavorting” and finally, her “self-administered buzz”.

This is not the first time that we have seen Hollywood go bald. Demi Moore, Natalie Portman, and Sigourney Weaver have all shaved their heads for the big screen. For their characters, it represented an expression of power and independence, in place of femininity and vulnerability.

Head shaving is neither a recent phenomenon for women. In certain religions such as Buddhism and Christianity, head shaving is a purification process, which symbolizes a rejection of vanity and sexuality, and an acceptance of chastity.

Clearly, Britney Spears has not accepted chastity but it is easy to understand the reasons behind her self-destructive behaviour. At 25, Britney already has two failed marriages and two kids to account for. She has been criticized for being talent-less, a bad mother, fat, and most recently, for losing her mind.

Baring her scalp may be her own backlash against the media. Perhaps it represents a new beginning. But whichever way you look at it, this young girl has let her hair down, in a clear cry for help, and how has the public responded? By selling counterfeit Britney hair on eBay.

"Heading for an inevitable loss"

I once sat in the row above a man who had hair plugs at a Shakespeare play. I can’t remember which play it was because I spent so much time staring at the perfect rows of crop below me.

An article in last week’s FT discussed ‘male pattern baldness’; why it happens and what can be done about it. Treatments include Rogaine, hair transplants and hormone treatments, but sadly, there remains no cure or reversal for baldness.

All this talk of no hair got me thinking about our obsession with hair. We don’t really need it. A hat is a fine replacement for keeping heads warm in the winter, but everybody wants hair, even if they already have it.

Hair extensions are the latest rich girl’s must have. They are strands of synthetic or human hair, glued to your natural hair to add length and volume. They look great and cost a small fortune, but they are costing girls in India even more.

India is the biggest exporter of human hair. Human hair trade is a ruthless business where women and children are often forced to shave their heads as a sacrifice to their gods, or so they are told. Once the hair is collected, the “temple hair” is then coloured and treated, and shipped off to the US and UK for idiots like Paris Hilton.

I understand that balding can be traumatic. I have great sympathy for people who lose their hair due to illness or cancer. But leaving a child bald so that Mrs Beckham and her friends can have more hair is simply unacceptable.