Anorexia and China

Here we go again. Previous articles on these pages have reported that anorexia has greatly increased in Fiji and Singapore , places where the disorder was unheard of only a few years ago. The latest casualty is China.

A recent front page story in The New York Times (Elisabeth Rosenthal, "China's Chic Waistline: Convex to Concave," December 9, 1999) proclaimed: "Cases of anorexia and bulimia, once virtually unknown in China, have multiplied dramatically in the last five years."

The story described how svelte, young women flock to the Yingdong Sanitary Weight Loss Center to receive electronic fat-burning treatments, a high-tech form of acupressure. According to the article, Yingdong has opened 10 outlets in Beijing since its inception in 1998.

The Times reported the usual culprits at work: ultra-thin models in magazine ads hawking diet pills and weight loss machines; relative affluence (there was a famine in the early 1960's); and a general Westernization of culture (e.g., proliferation of McDonald's and Dunkin Donuts).

The most startling aspect of this development is that it has been almost completely ignored by the media. An exhaustive internet search, including several e-mails to webmasters- a China expert among them- produced precious little. If you have any information on this subject, I would be interested in hearing about it.

The Something-fishy Website briefly discusses the problem. The only other literature uncovered was an article on the approach of traditional Chinese medicine to eating disorders by Norman Kraft, an acupuncturist and herbalist at the Pacific College of Oriental Medicine in San Diego, California. According to Kraft, Eastern-based practitioners, like their Western counterparts, have had mixed results.

But most of China's anorexics do not have access to either. The Times reported that few of the country's doctors treat the illness, and the weight loss industry is "largely unregulated." With a state-controlled press focused on burnishing the Government's international image, the chances of counteracting the pernicious advertising blitz from within appear slim.

I am not of Chinese descent, nor have I ever visited China. However, despite its 50 years of Communist rule, the country has always occupied a special place in my heart. It has influenced much of the world with its philosophy (Confucius), religion (Buddhism, Taoism), inventions (paper, porcelain, gunpowder), engineering (the Great Wall), cuisine, and martial arts (kung fu, tai chi).

Journalists in democratic societies had better wake up. The rise of anorexia in China is not only a huge story: it is a potential humanitarian disaster. With 1.25 billion people, China is the most populous nation on Earth. Beijing alone has over 12.5 million souls, dwarfing New York City by over 50 percent. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, approximately five million Americans suffer from eating disorders. If anorexia and bulimia continue to spread throughout China, that number could be bested in the blink of an eye. How ironic and sad that a country which gave us so much ancient wisdom has, at the dawn of a new millennium, fallen victim to one of the great banes of modern civilization.

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