Published: February 21st, 2024,
Last updated: May 30th, 2025

At this year’s Spring Festival, young women in China must have once again felt anxious about their bodies at the sight of so much food and may even have refused to partake in the feast. Surveys show that the pressure to be slim is even stronger in China than in the West. The popularity of video and streaming platforms such as Douyin and Xiaohongshu, which propagate almost unattainable female beauty standards, is partly to blame.