A couple of years back, when I first moved here and first
started with this blog, I wrote a post titled Those Fat Chinese. I’m going to
pick up on that subject again, mainly as a part of what I would normally write
about what is the same, what has changed and what is downright new upon my
return to Wuhan.
Egads! Has it been years that I’ve been here? I’m afraid it
has… How time flies!!
Last year, well… last school year, before I left for the
States I had noted in passing, and remarked to Gary and some other friends how
much bigger the Chinese people are getting. Not just in height, which mainly
seems to afflict the boys, but also in girth.
Since coming back from the States, I am noticing it more and
more. Young ladies with muffin tops over-swelling their waistlines, poochy
bellies, entrenched bra lines, larger posteriors, chunkier thighs. Men with
moon faces and size XL shirts that still do not quite conceal or cover
expanding waistlines. Little kids aren’t exempt from the weight gain, either.
I’ve seen some downright pudgy kids since I’ve been back.
Don’t get me wrong: overwhelmingly, Chinese are still svelte
and trim, and the population as a whole has a long way to go before obesity is
declared a national epidemic here. I’ve only seen a handful of people who could
be considered obese, and none that would be called morbidly obese.
-
Remember, for the smaller Asian frame, a weight gain of 30Lbs
would make them obese.
How did this happen?
I don’t think fast food is wholly to blame. Not that there
isn’t a proliferation of McDonalds’ or
KFC – I dare you, at any time of the day or night (because some restaurants
have now gone to 24 hour service) to find an empty McDonald’s in China and, for
that matter dare you to try to find an empty table at a McDonalds’. While we’re
at it, let’s throw in Pizza Hut, Dairy Queen, Papa John’s, and all of the other
imported fast food joints that do brisk business over here.
No, I don’t think fast food is wholly to blame and I’m not
pointing the finger at Coca Cola, Pepsi and all of the other sugary drinks
here, although the Chinese consume them by the liter. To be perfectly fair, the
Chinese have their own sugary drinks: ready to drink teas, juices and their
version of Gatorade, just to name a few.
First, I believe to blame is that the Chinese government is
now pushing people to eat more wheat-based products, claiming that rice is not
that healthy. How strange! This civilization alternately thrived and survived
on a rice-based diet for centuries, and now the government says rice is not
healthy? Nevertheless, people are following the advice to eat more wheat. It
shows.
Prepared foods are another distinctive area to blame.
Whereas traditionally, cooking fresh veggies with just a little meat and served
with rice was the norm, nowadays there is so much more variety to the Chinese
diet. No matter what size supermarket, even those on The Street and in the Over
the Wall community offer a variety of frozen, prepared foods that only need a
few minutes in the microwave. Instant noodles and vacuum packed meats, loaded
with preservatives crowd store aisles. People buy them up. Convenience is
everything. It is all a part of the new age lifestyle…
New age lifestyle? The capitalist lifestyle as a whole. What
do I mean by that?
Traditionally, Chinese life was very physical: lift that
bale, tote that barge type stuff. It was common for children to walk for miles
to school and for people to trudge for hours to get to their work assignment.
Scurrying here and there on the orders of the commune leader, the police and
even chairman Mao and his direct subordinates was also physically demanding.
Add to that a lack of food and you have a pat solution to keeping a population
underweight (and nearly dead).
Not until very recently has life become comfortable for the
Chinese. Only in the last twenty years or so have they not only had an excess
of money but an excess of leisure time.
Nowadays the affluent city Chinese spends a lot of time in
front of a computer, either at work or at home. While out and about the status
flaunters flock to Starbucks with SmartPhone, I-phone or some other device that
will do everything but cook a bowl of noodles in hand, and spend a leisurely
afternoon just sitting and networking or otherwise entertaining themselves. And
let’s not forget video games for the youngsters.
Used to be, people could get their exercise running for a
bus, or fighting to get on the bus, or fighting for a seat on the bus, or
standing on a bus, but now, as the city and the need for more transportation
grows, so the infrastructure grows. One hardly has to wait but a minute before
another bus comes along. Several bus routes parallel each other so, if a bus
577 is too crowded for your taste you can always catch a bus 805 (which is a
nicer bus line, anyway). Or you could just jump in a cab.
The proliferation of taxis and POVs also contribute to the
expanding waistline effect. As recently as 10 years ago in Wuhan, parking a car
somewhere was not a problem because hardly anyone had a car. Now you’re lucky
if you can get anywhere, for all the cars and resulting traffic. If you’re in a
car, good luck finding a parking spot. Of course most places, from restaurants
to shopping malls offer valet parking for free, so you don’t have to worry
about parking your car in the ‘lower 40’ and having to walk to your
destination.
And it’s not just cars and taxis, either. Hardly anyone
rides a bike that you have to pedal anymore. A battery powered scooter costs
only a few thousand Yuan and the jump in the electrical bill is minimal…
especially if you can plug into someone else’s meter or socket. Also, you don’t
have to pass a road test or get a license to pilot an electric scooter on the
roadways. If you want a gas powered one you will have to register it, but that
is only a couple hundred Yuan and, with the Chinese attitude getting more and
more aggressive and individualistic, people are opting for those more powerful
conveyances.
All of these transportation options mean that the Chinese
are walking less, moving less and, by association, carrying less.
Why carry a 50Lbs bale of cloth if you can strap it onto the
back of a scooter? Why pull a handcart bearing a 100-kilo load of vegetables to
the farmer’s market if you can get a motorized trike to do the heavy work? Why
carry your groceries when there are wheeled carts that you only need to pull
behind you? Why carry your child everywhere when there are now strollers to
accommodate kids up to 4 years old?
Yes, strollers have started to make it big over here. That
is unfortunate because they, and those wheeled grocery carts take up so much
room on already crowded buses. You can imagine, I’m sure…
In the evenings,
after a quick cleanup from a prepared food dinner, people park themselves in
front of the TV that now offers over 100 channels of everything from game shows
to ‘reality’ TV, with a liberal sprinkling of movies and soap operas. They
snack, they sit, they…
They get bigger, just like any other human being all over
the world whose life is mostly sedentary, and who spends their time taking in
high calorie food and drink.
Unfortunately, being fat is considered good in Chinese
culture. It is a sign of health and affluence. But how long before ‘fat’
becomes ‘unhealthy’? How long before the government declares an obesity
epidemic? How long before the combined effects of fast/prepared foods and
sedentary life actually endangers longevity here? How long before we start
seeing more and more people suffer from weight related health issues? How long
before Chinese fingers are too fat to punch phone keys to order McDonalds’ or
KFC delivered to their front door? (Over here, several fast food restaurants,
as well as traditional eateries deliver).
I’m really worried. I saw a drive thru McDonalds’ in Hanyang
the other day. Can other restaurants be far behind?
Yes, the Chinese are getting bigger. That is not just my
estimation, either. The most damning evidence of this trend came the other day,
while I was strolling through a shopping mall. Usually I don’t try to buy
anything because everything is too small for me. But…
Look! What a nice blouse! Why… it looks like it could fit
me!
And it did.
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