By Lu Yan
Liu Jingyang, a 28-year-old bank clerk living in Beijing, loves watching food shows on live-streaming platforms after a long day at work, feeling that viewing the vloggers eating is very relaxing at bedtime. “It’s a very healing process to just think about nothing while watching people eat all that colorful and inviting food and seeing their overreactions as they enjoy it,” Liu told Beijing Review. She said she is also curious about how people can eat more than 10 times what she can.
However, some of these big eaters have recently been caught “fake eating,” vomiting after pretending to have eaten, leading to much food waste. They immediately came under fire from the public. The anger was fueled because many critics are aware that approximately one in nine people in the world are starving, based on statistics from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
In addition, food-wasting food shows are misleading because they go against the value of thriftiness, Cheng Shengkui, a researcher at the Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, told state broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV). “They’re disrespectful to both food and health,” Liu said.
Before gaining popularity in China in about 2014, food shows were already big hits in countries such as the Republic of Korea and Japan.
During these live-streams, vloggers eat loads of food while interacting with their audiences. Some also make videos and upload them to video-sharing platforms like YouTube and China’s Bilibili.
The mouth-watering treats and extravagant meals are the main reasons for viewer attraction, according to a paper published in 2018 in Today’s Massmedia, a Chinese academic journal.
Some people, especially women on diet, satisfy their hunger for food watching the shows. Some vloggers are slim but can eat a huge amount of food within the given time, making many curious about how they manage to do it.
The big eaters’ income mainly comes from advertisement revenue, donations or tips by viewers, sales of commodities or commissions from other affiliated programs. Famous broadcasters can earn more than $1 million a year.
But as the market became more lucrative, some people who can’t really eat a huge amount of food but still wanted to grab the money from audiences and advertisers, began to resort to fake eating.
With more media reports exposing dishonest acts and food waste, the industry has had to undergo reform. Several live-streaming platforms have announced that they would strengthen scrutiny of food shows, while some live-streamers voiced opposition to food waste and advocated thriftiness.
Wang Sixin, a professor at the Beijing-based Communication University of China, said food shows should promote healthy eating habits and a sound dining culture.
According to a report released by FAO, the global volume of food waste is estimated at 1.6 billion tons of “primary product equivalents,” with the loss of edible food amounting to 1.3 billion tons.
At banquets where people gather to celebrate birthdays, graduations, promotions or other milestones, there is still a grievous amount of food waste, Cheng said.
“I used to be afraid that if I ordered only a few dishes or packed the leftovers when I treated friends or colleagues at a restaurant, they would think I was being cheap,” Zhang Jie, a 31-year-old business consultant in Beijing, said.
– The Daily Mail-Beijing
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