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When I went to Hong Kong this past summer the first thing family and friends said to me was, “Wow, you gained weight; what have you been eating?”

This was contrary to what I have been hearing from people in the United States. People here say, “Don’t tell me you want to lose weight; you’re as skinny as a stick.” As a matter of fact, I weight 97 pounds, and I wear size 0, or maybe size 2. I have never felt that I am big, but walking around on the street in Hong Kong with many stick figures, I couldn’t help but feel chubby in comparison to all those girls.

I used to think that mass media in the United States is bad in passing, based on the value that slim is beautiful, but after I went to Hong Kong, I believe that Hong Kong is much worse. Almost half of the ads in magazines and on billboards and television showcase slimming products and slimming clinics.

Almost all the females in Hong Kong are on a diet, even though they are already underweight. It has become a trend. Women get compliments when they are skinny, therefore, they constantly want to be skinnier because they have been brainwashed by the media to think that slim equals beautiful.

Hong Kong’s economy is bad and people’s salaries are low (the average income is around 9,000 a year). However, women are spending nearly $100 a month on body slimming courses and products

Often, such buyers are underweight, but they want to have the ‘ideal body’ being advertised. The clothing stores in Hong Kong sell tiny clothes that fit the Hong Kong girls. As a result, they are too small for tourists. Deborah, a fourth year UCLA student, visited Hong Kong this past summer. She is of average build according to U.S. standards. She was shopping, and the salesperson said to her, “You are American, huh? I don’t think you will be able to find clothes here. We don’t have anything your size; even the XL stuff won’t fit you.”

The slimming culture of Hong Kong does not only have an impact on young teenage girls – it also affects adults, professionals and children. According to a recent study conducted by the Chinese University of Hong Kong on eating behaviors of adult Chinese women, 92.1 percent of Hong Kong women are concerned about body weight and shape. It also finds that five in every 100 female nurses – professionals who are supposed to know much better than the general public about how to take care of their health – have anorexia or bulimia. The organization Save the Children of Hong Kong organized a school health educational program called “Treasure your Body,” and their studies show that most students’ greatest concern, other than academic achievements, is weight control.

For many Hong Kong people, the standard of slim is being distorted. People of average weight are considered fat and are made fun of. I can’t imagine how women living in Hong Kong deal with people constantly assessing how fat they are. Jamie, a 2002 graduate from University of British Columbia, is considered slim by American standards. She recently moved from Canada back to Hong Kong, but her cruel coworkers told her that she is fat and bulky; they criticized her in her presence. She was unhappy and spent many nights complaining about the slimming culture of Hong Kong.

The obsession with thinness has gone overboard in Hong Kong; it consumes the lives of women. They do not live for themselves; they are constantly trying to get the ideal body shape that the opposite sex and the mass media embrace.

“The messages and signals from boyfriends, peers, commercials, etc., as to what constitutes beauty, restrict many women in their daily lives and endangers the health of those who have rushed to lose weight,” said Tsai Wen-feng, secretary-general of the Association for the Promotion of Women’s Rights.

The slimming culture has been ingrained in the minds of Hong Kong people for a long time, but it has gotten worse over the past few years. It now affects all ages of people. My grandmother and my father used to tell me to eat more, saying I was too skinny. I was shocked when I visited my grandma two weeks ago. When she took me to the grocery store, she bought me vegetables and fruits saying, “You should eat less fattening food; you look chubby.” I never thought that my grandma would give me pressure on this issue; she never had in the past 18 years.

Her mind, like many others, is being distorted. What is wrong with the Hong Kong society?

Lau is a fourth-year communication studies student.

Lau is a forth-year communication studies student