Nearly a century after fighting off famine, China is grappling with the other end of the scale. More than a quarter of its adult population is now classified as overweight or obese.
The intersection of China’s burgeoning middle class and the emergence of Western fast food franchises hunting for new markets has added a very real strain on the country’s healthcare system.
One in five children are now seriously overweight. So, the government is taking action.
Increasing incomes have allowed households to spend more on food, and urbanisation has made it much easier for families to access better health care and education.
In response to a progressively unhealthy lifestyle festering within its cities, the central government has introduced a plan called Healthy China 2030. Its aim is to make China healthy again in just 13 years.
Mukbang
In the months before the global coronavirus pandemic, Beijing's restaurants were booming and so was a niche online trend.
Twenty-five-year-old Minnie is the star of her own web series where millions of people watch her dine, online.
This practice, imported from South Korea, is called Mukbang. The literal translation: "Eating Broadcast" and it’s hugely popular in China and could be fueling an unhealthy relationship with food.
The format is simple, professional eaters devour enormous amounts of food in front of the camera to attract the largest possible online audience.
Could an online trend be fueling China's unhealthy relationship with food? Source: Dateline
“Hi, it's Minnie, and here's my dinner: eight bowls of beef rice! I have five different types in front of me. In fact, I've ordered all of the restaurant's beef rice,” Minnie says to a camera.
Four million Chinese people tune in to watch her live - ten million in replays. Her fans are often single young adults, lonely and missing companionship.
“My job is to eat while being filmed live. It’s my job. I get to have fun every day as I eat.”
Fitness boot camps
Weight loss boot camps have become a last resort for parents of overweight children in the country. In Shenzhen, in south east China, 15 year-old Dushuai is having a last supper before he is sent to one of the camps in the region.
Dushuai has been overweight since he was six - and has been enrolled in a fitness camp for the obese youth. His father is taking him to a restaurant one last time before the grueling weeks ahead.
“Last year, I stayed for 40 days and lost 20 kilos. Then it was the Chinese New Year, I went back home for the holidays and I gained back all the weight that I had lost.”
Some overweight Chinese youths are sent to military style fitness boot camps. Source: Dateline
The program runs like a military bootcamp and the trainers are former soldiers.
Uniforms, marching, the children aged 12 to 16 are immediately put to work and their schedule is gruelling.
“It will be exhausting, but I really have no choice. I absolutely have to lose weight.”
A healthier China
Childhood obesity is on the rise around the world, and the World Health Organisation has called it "one of the most serious public health challenges of the 21st century."
COVID-19 has shifted China's health care focus, but could the pandemic make China's obesity crisis worse?
All around the world lockdown has led to an increase in sedentary screen time, and comfort eating - but in China, fitness app use is up 93 percent and more people are cooking healthier meals at home.
In 2019 experts predicted that China would have a staggering 48 million obese people by 2025.
It's too early to say how COVID-19 will impact that number, but if China continues to focus on weight loss rather than prevention, it's a prognosis that could come true.
