China has issued a fresh warning against mukbang live streamers and content creators in a bid to clamp down on the country’s food waste.
Last week the Beijing Municipal Administration for Market Regulation imposed 31 new guidelines targeted at influencers, including extreme eaters, whose content promotes ‘fandom culture’ and ‘money worship’, according to The Telegraph.
The term ‘mukbang’ originates from the South Korean word ‘meok-bang’ which means ‘broadcast eating’. Influencers usually spend hours at a time stationed in front of a camera consuming large quantities of food while interacting with an audience.
The controversial videos, which in extreme cases have been linked to death, may be banned by the Chinese Communist Party, putting the countries 15.8million professional live-streamers out of work.
What might have begun as an innovative strategy for creators to boost their online popularity and pockets has quickly snowballed into a dark sub-industry that some experts say glorifies self-harm, and even worse, death.
China has issued a fresh warning against mukbang live streamers and content creators in a bid to clamp down on the country’s food waste (Pictured: Mukbang influencer Park Jung-won, 27, from South Korea)
Just last month, popular live streamer Pan Xiaoting, from China, died while broadcasting a 10-hour food binge on cake, chicken fingers, and seafood to thousands of her followers.
The morbidly obese streamer succumbed to complications from a suspected stomach tear while gorging on 10kg (22lbs) of food, including what appeared to be chocolate cake.
The Beijing Municipal Administration for Market Regulation is also cracking down on videos that are ‘traffic driven’ including ‘fandom worship’ and ‘abnormal aesthetics’ in a bid to restrain ‘effeminate’ culture among men.
The trend has become increasingly extreme, with mukbangers eating larger quantities of often unhealthy food, prompting doctors to warn that more people may die.
Xiaoting is not the first creator who lost their life at a tragically young age as a result of eating for views.
In January 2023, TikTok star Taylor Brice LeJeune (known online as Waffler69), who had some 1.7 million followers on the platform, died from a suspected heart attack.
Taylor, who was just 33-years-old at the time of his death, was known for his quirky food review videos, in which he would consume novelty foods as well as expired groceries, including promotional Addams Family cereal from the 90s.
Large quantities of canned cheeseburgers and a giant Froot Loop were among the foods he consumed online.
Speaking to MailOnline following Taylor’s death, UK general medicine practitioner Dr Zak Uddin said: ‘We are not at the door of an obesity epidemic, we’re well in the epidemic.
‘For us to be therefore glamorising vast calorific consumption or even binge eating is crazy isn’t it? You’re normalising the abnormal.
Last week the Beijing Municipal Administration for Market Regulation imposed 31 new guidelines targeted at influencers, including extreme eaters, whose content promotes ‘fandom culture’ and ‘money worship’ (Pictured: Pan Xiaoting from China, recently died while broadcasting a 10-hour food binge)
Pan Xiaoting had recently suffered bleeding in her stomach caused by the trauma of overeating
‘As a society, we enjoy the abnormal or the obscene. This isn’t a new thing. If it’s a freak show, people will gravitate towards it.’
And last week, it was reported that a South Korean YouTuber with more than 10 million followers revealed she was a victim of the mukbang lifestyle – after claiming she was brutally beaten and forced to film extreme eating videos.
Park Jung-won, 27 – known to her fans as Tzuyang – quickly became an online hit as she filmed herself eating up to 30,000 calories a day.
Clips show staff at restaurants being shocked as the tiny woman packed away dozens of bowls and trays of food with a smile on her face.
But last month, the social media star shocked viewers after admitting that she had been a victim of domestic violence for years – and was extorted for money by her ex-boyfriend. Her lawyers claim this amounted to 4 billion won (£2.3 million).
As reported by Reuters, criminal cases against him were filed – but have since been closed as he took his life.
Fans expressed concerns for what they believed to be bruises in old videos (pictured right), on Tzuyang’s arm. The he social media star later shocked viewers after claiming she was brutally beaten and forced to film extreme eating videos
Another extreme eating content creator who lost their life at a tragically young age was Taylor LeJeune (pictured) who was 33-years-old when he died from a suspected heart attack
In a livestream on July 11, Tzuyang said that her ex hit her body ‘because it would be too obvious in the face’ and recounted the horrific past which lead her to creating her YouTube channel.
Now doctors and medical experts are warning of the extreme dangers associated with mukbangs, while the Chinese government has linked the adoration of such content to an economic slowdown, reported the Telegraph.
It also revealed that China’s president Xi Jinping has clamped down on ‘traffic-driven’ content, like that of cash-boosting and sponsorship-laden viral mukbangs, at a time of high youth unemployment and an unstable property market.
The regulations were imposed in part back in 2020 when China drafted a new anti-food-waste law to allow restaurants to fine diners who can’t finish their meals.
Perhaps the most well-known mukbanger on YouTube is Nicholas Perry – better known as Nikocado Avocado to his 3.8millon YouTube followers
Stores are able to demand extra payment from customers who ‘generate obvious waste’, according to Chinese state media.
The proposed legislation was part of the ‘operation empty plate’, a campaign promoted by President Xi to curb food waste and help citizens form the habit of living thriftily.
Chinese restaurant-goers wasted an estimated 17 to 18million tonnes of food in 2015 – enough to feed 30 to 50million people for an entire year, a 2018 study showed.
Since the nationwide anti-waste movement started four years ago, the country’s 1.4billion citizens have been urged to order fewer dishes and smaller portions while eating out or ordering takeaways.
The draft gives restaurants the right to claim ‘leftover cleaning fees’ from diners who leave food on their table.
It also bans waiters from ‘luring’ and ‘misleading’ diners into ordering too much food. Offending restaurants could be issued a penalty ranging from 1,000 to 10,000 yuan (£109-1,092).
Anti-food-waste slogans must be shown in ‘eye-catching’ places in restaurants and relayed by waiters to their customers orally, the bill stipulates.
Apart from restaurants, video bloggers and producers would face financial penalties for making and streaming clips that promote overeating.
‘[The draft is] to restrict business dining and regulate the business conduct of dining service providers and takeaway platforms,’ announced Xu Anbiao, deputy director of the Legal Work Committee of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress.
It also aims to promote a ‘scientific’ and ‘healthy’ way of living for individuals and families and guide them to make the best possible use of everything, Mr Xu added.
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