7 Responses to Obesity Competition In A Shopping Mall In China

1. Meegs, on April 23rd, 2010 at 9:16 am Said:

   I don’t know if this is meant to mock people, maybe the translation is off and it was really just a plus-sized formal wear fashion show? I absolutely LOVE the wedding gowns.
2. Scott, on April 23rd, 2010 at 9:36 am Said:

   I think this really comes down to culture; China’s attitude to fats and also its fat culture. We don’t know the spirit in which this pageant was held and so we really can’t judge anybody (organisers, participants or the audience) on their motivations. All we can judge is the general concept of beauty pageants (and personally, ditto mo pie, bleh). Is this a beauty pageant set up in a (misguided) spirit of acceptance or of finger-pointing and giggling asides? We have no idea. At the same time, it opens up a discussion of fatness, and even if the focus is wrong (either: fatness and hotness/fatness and humiliation) at least the discussion is there. I’m conflicted.
3. The Fat Kid, on April 23rd, 2010 at 10:47 am Said:

   Maybe the stigma isn’t there??

   I know here I’d never enter an obesity pageant because how embarrassing would that be, it would be set up to ridicule (I can see some terrible CW reality show playing out in my mind)…but maybe there it’s not so much a stigma but just another kind of pageant?
4. Bronwyn, on April 23rd, 2010 at 4:24 pm Said:

   I’ve got a close friend who has spent a lot of time in China and according to her experiences I think that there is definitely something “against” fat there, but then again they’re also more blunt about it and will tell you “You’re too fat” without actually meaning it as the same sort of horrible insult over here (like, you go into a clothing shop and they don’t carry you’re size “You’re too fat for these clothes”)

   I think it’s rather difficult to say, but from what I’ve understood there is pressure to remain small- though not to the extent of what I’ve heard in Japan, where a (different) friend of mine was spending time and caught the flu, went to a doctor, and was told to lose weight because her fat was making her sick (she wasn’t that large either, maybe a size 8?).

   Overall, I don’t like it, but I don’t think it’s any different than the plus size beauty pageants we have here.
5. Kalos, on April 23rd, 2010 at 7:15 pm Said:

   Fat definitely seems to be stigmatized in China (as it is in many parts of Asia), but on the other hand you’re going to see much fewer overweight Asians, and those who are legitimately obese are going to be even rarer than in most parts of the developed world. So a pageant like this, while running counter to the usual beauty standards, is quite a novelty because women of this “order of magnitude” are more scarce in this regoin.

   I can confirm what Bronwyn is saying, that Asians see fatness as a much more objective quality (albeit not necessarily a desirable one) and use it less as an insult.

   I actually have some “mature” ancient Chinese artwork in my house and had to take note that the two people in the painting are rather full-figured. When I pointed this out to my partner, who is Chinese, they explained that the painting dated back from a period following nationwide famine in historical China, and the standard of beauty had changed to idolizing that sort of shape.
6. Bianca, on April 25th, 2010 at 12:19 am Said:

   I clicked through to the pics and it looks like a shopping mall fashion show featuring plus sized gowns.
7. Jackie, on April 25th, 2010 at 3:45 pm Said:

   I think doctors who honestly believe weight is to blame for a virus, should have their liscences taken away.

Subscribe to the comments for this post (RSS)