“Thinspo” in Chinese Social Media: Skinny is Beautiful

Can your waist fit behind a sheet of A4 paper? In 2016, a Chinese internet challenge known as #A4Waist became popularized on the social media app Weibo. Disguised as a fitness challenge, the A4 Waist fad hundreds of millions of clicks and encouraged women to upload content of themselves comparing their waist sizes to an A4 paper, a paper that is no wider than 24-25 inches. Participants of the challenge who were able to completely hide their waists behind this narrow piece of A4 paper were considered thin and beautiful by Chinese netizens. 

Because the average waist size for women spans around 38.7 inches, it was no surprise that many netizens were horrified at the implications of this alleged fitness challenge. Yet Weibo continued circulating this trend as a whimsical internet fad, selectively ignoring the fact that viral Chinese body challenges not only perpetuate severely unrealistic and unhealthy beauty standards, but also directly contribute to a spike in eating disorders. 

“Image taken as a screengrab from VICE, ‘Thinspo’ in China is Going Too Far (0:25)”

Although the preposterous #A4Waist trend received international attention and criticisms, the internet’s outrage was not enough to halt Weibo from introducing more dangerous social media challenges. In the same year, the collarbone coin challenge entered the spotlight as participants boasted their thin upper bodies by balancing stacks of coins within the concaves of their collarbone. Recently, purchasing children’s clothing from UNIQLO also rose to attention as a Chinese internet fad, and women were expected to be able to fit into kids-sized clothing to be considered trendy. Once again, these Chinese social media challenges were serving as vehicles that delivered toxic body standards to the vulnerable and impressionable minds of young East Asian women, forcing them to succumb to the idea that their physical appearances (in this case: their thinness) are a direct representation of their social worth. 

“Image taken as a screengrab from VICE, ‘Thinspo’ in China is Going Too Far (0:19)”

Nine months ago, VICE News released a YouTube special entitled, “‘Thinspo’ in China is Going Too Far.” The bite-sized documentary follows the journeys of three young Chinese women and how their usages of Chinese social media has affected their personal lives and self-images. Though each woman shared a different harrowing story, the underlying theme of their anecdotes laid in the fact that each woman believed that their increased social media usages had a direct correlation with their own negative body images. According to a study conducted by He Jinbo of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, this negative perception of social media has become more universal, and he claims that “the more time a teenager spends on social media, the more likely the teen would be dissatisfied with his or her body.” 

As the internet continues to develop and Chinese social media figures become more influential, the fad of being thin has exponentially grown in prominence on various Chinese social media platforms. In the VICE special, Popo, a 25 year old health and wellness influencer, recalled the beginnings of her descent into anorexia, an eating disorder that she claims was caused by surfing the internet and being exposed to an excessive amount of Chinese “thinspo” and diet culture. While constantly viewing skinny, and even underweight, celebrities and influencers on her social media apps, Popo was unknowingly subjected to colossal amounts of subliminal messages pressuring her to lose weight to become beautiful and thin for China’s societal standards. The health influencer candidly shared how her social media consumption fueled her obsession to obtain the “perfect body,” and eventually also normalized her own unhealthy body weight when she dropped 50 pounds within two years. 

Today, “thinspo” still remains an overwhelmingly popular category of content on Chinese social media apps. As an avid user of both American and Chinese social media, I have always noticed that Chinese apps like Xiaohongshu (XHS) specifically lack in portraying diverse body shapes and sizes on their platforms. While XHS allows its users to choose specific genres of content that one is interested in browsing, I have realized that because my specific interests lay in the fashion and beauty categories, all of the influencers pushed to my explore page are conventionally “skinny” or “thin,” solidifying the notion that China’s beauty standards remain regressive in terms of inclusivity (pictured below). This lack of progression in Chinese social media only becomes more glaringly transparent when compared to the diversity portrayed on American social media apps, such as Instagram. While the fashion and beauty content I view on Instagram is extremely inclusive in promoting models and influencers of all body sizes, my XHS explore page clings onto a singular, thin body image, failing to recognize that skinny should not be standard. 

Image Courtesy of Xiaohongshu, user Kate Zheng