I sat anxiously in front of the dinner table, ferociously cutting a thin slice of meat into yet smaller pieces on a spotless plate while observing my family members with sheer dismay, who were voraciously overindulging on spoonful after spoonful of yet-to-be-burnt calories, enjoying what for me was the 30 minutes of intolerable agony of every 6pm in the evening.
“That would be 40 Kcal, in addition to the 10 Kcal from that piece of chip that I had to eat to reassure my parents I wasn’t dieting…which would translate to…roughly 15 minutes of jogging in the frosty air. Wait…have I counted in the sip of orange juice from earlier on?”
Fretting and fetishizing over the massive volume of trivial numbers became one of the few activities I relished, which, in addition to taking occasional sips from a can of carbonated soda drink that passed through my scrupulous examination with its “no calories recipe,” helped me to survive through dinner-time ordeals.
“Why aren’t you eating anything, dear?” My mom casts a suspicious yet solicitous glance at my untouched plate.
I knew exactly what I was going to say: that same sentence that served to conceal my unwarranted trepidation over weight gain and my slanted self-image; that same sentence that allowed me to dwell within a bag of skins and bones; that same sentence that kept me restlessly awake and empty-stomached during the long, formidable nights…
“I’m not hungry.”
In recent decades, China has seen a concerning rise in obesity, driven by rapid urbanization, collective growth in socioeconomic status, and more processed foods. Paradoxically, a shifting paradigm of the thin ideal has led to a concurrent upsurge in the prevalence of eating disorders. Decades ago, the concept of eating disorders would be foreign to most Chinese people. However, the widespread portrayal of beauty ideals in contemporary media induces destructive dieting behavior, and its effects are especially prevalent among adolescents.
Therefore, we, four Keystone Academy Junior students, have been taking the initiative to raise awareness and provide an online platform to support those with eating disorders. We are doing this through China Thinks Big, “a research and innovation challenge focusing on social impact and community implementation” subjected towards high school students. In our research process, we formulated an anonymous survey targeted towards Beijing secondary school students (ages 12-18), testing their levels of self-esteem, body positivity index, and knowledge of dieting and eating disorders.
The survey referred to pertinent studies such as the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, and the body-positivity index was self-compiled following research. Some of the notable findings are illustrated below:
Self Esteem
General Happiness on a scale of 1-10: average number of 7.07 (18 scored themselves 5 or lower).
According to our results using the Rosenberg scale, respondents were generally self-confident, affirming the correlation between general happiness and self-esteem. For each question, a majority of respondents leaned towards the positive responses
Body Positivity
Interestingly, respondents are generally self-conscious about their body image, and more than 70% of respondents either felt or strongly felt that their bodies needed improvement.
Although most intentionally engage in activities to satisfy their body image (66.4% agree or strongly agree), only few regret them (25.2%).
47/80 (58.8%) respondents have tried diet methods or engaged in activities to change their self-image.
24% of respondents consider themselves to currently be on a diet.
23% of respondents have either been harmed physically or psychologically from dieting-related activities.
Eating Disorders
66% of respondents either have only heard of or never have heard of eating disorders.
54% of respondents are not aware of someone in their life who has eating disorders.
Our survey shows that eating disorders remain a foreign concept to many despite the high prevalence of body image concerns among secondary students in Beijing, and that is what our China Thinks Big group hopes to change through education.
Currently, our team CerealLovers is crafting a website and mini-film to promote our cause. We encourage you to share your stories or concerns on our website, a supportive sharing platform with an amicable community designed to help those struggling with eating disorders and body image.
To sign up for the website:
- Complete sign up form here.
- Verify your email address
- Follow groups and topics that interest you!
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Graphics: Eugene Yuan
Images: Pexels
