Chinese Health is Trending Towards Obesity

China is getting fat and less healthy. It's true.

I first wrote about this problem more than a year ago with my analysis of McDonald's in China. Others have also ventured into this realm.

A USA Today article written more than a year ago, Obesity of China's kids stuns officials, described the shocking changes in Chinese children.

New figures from the Health Ministry show that urban Chinese boys age 6 are 2.5 inches taller and 6.6 pounds heavier on average than Chinese city boys 30 years ago.

The average 6-year-old in Beijing or Shanghai weighs nearly 47 pounds and is 3 feet, 10.5 inches tall, ministry figures show. The average American of the same age weighs just over 50 pounds and also is 3 feet 10.5 inches tall, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Chinese children have a lot of factors working against them in the battle against bad health and obesity:

• Children are traditionally considered more healthy (and better) if they are fatter.
• Due to the 1 child policy, Chinese children are often spoiled by parents and grandparents - meaning more trips to fat-happy places like McD's.
• The demands on a child's academics is such that some kids start going to after school classes when they are as young as the 3rd grade. More classes = No playing outdoors after school.
• When students do have time on their hands, its often spent online playing games like CounterStrike, WoW or chatting on QQ. This not only results in muscle atrophy but also a decreased people-skills ability.
  
• There are very few, if any, outdoor clubs and organizations to join. In the US there are basketball, soccer, football teams, little league, boy & girl scouts. In China ... I've never heard of any.
• When kids get into high school, academics is still the end all be all preparation for the College Entrance Examination (高考）. School sport systems are very rare and active lifestyles really disappear.

Even after kids grow up, there are many other things working against them.

• More meat and dairy products are available due to increased economic development. Many Chinese enjoy strictly eating meat almost exclusively. This is even worse when meat is usually prepared with a solid layer of oil/grease.
• When graduates enter the workforce they usually find white collar jobs. Instead of physical labor, people sit next to their computer day in and day out.
• With more and more cars on the road, people are travel less by foot or bike and more by car.
• It is very difficult to eat healthy.

Due to all of these factors (and others), it is not surprising that Chinese people are getting less healthy and more obese.

I can state from personal experience that this is occurring. My cousin in Harbin is 18 and is starting college next year. He grew up as the "little emperor" and was a cute, chubby kid. My extended family obsessively fed him while focusing stringently on his future academic prospects. He was decent at school, but he was aided with constant help and review classes beginning at age 10.

My cousin never really played any sports nor did he even go out to hang out with friends. (I honestly dont know if he has any friends). The only things he does is stay home, go online, study and eat. The expectations on him by his parents and grandparents are to study. I dont know if he even does chores around the house.

What began as a promising kid is now a rather fat, unmotivated, friendless and people-skills-less person who grew up like many other kids in China. I honestly dont know how he's going to survive in modern society.

Of course, China isn't standing still waiting for this problem to expand. There has been not only government initiatives to step obesity but also private sector developments. Re-examinations of the educational system and parental responsibilites are also occuring.

• Fat camps have popped up all over the country for obese children. TV programs similar to the US "The Biggest Loser" are also appearing on TV.
• Chinese people, while getting more lazy and less active are still relatively more active than counterparts in other countries. The use of public transportation and walking in China helps this cause.
• Chinese people for some reason enjoy climbing up and down mountains as weekend functions of fun. That definitely helps.
• Some more affluent Chinese families are promoting a more healthy and active lifestyle for their kids. This includes more traveling, more exercize and joining clubs
• Basketball is increasingly popular meaning more people are excercizing everyday.
  
• Preventative health is big in China. People often eat vitamins and stay away from pain killers and antibiotics.
• In my opinion, however, the biggest development has been the huge expansion of exercise in cities among the urban population.

Hopefully all of these factors can help the Chinese people develop in a healthy and sustainable way.

Pastic Bags in China Renewed

Ever since June 1st of 2008, just about all Chinese cities have imposed a fee for using plastic bags at 7/11s, Wal-Marts, ect. Bring your own bag, or pay 1RMB (.15 USD) to use ours. That's how the government wants to reduce the amount the white waste and help the environment. (I wrote about it here)

Since this regulation has gone into place, there has been a lot of media coverage on the effects both in China and Internationally. Some have even suggested that China will save almost 37 million barrels of oil per year.

Radio and TV news has interviewed employees of many companies and the situation seems to be the same. Across the board, plastic bag use has decreased by almost 80%! That's incredible.

However, that's not the whole story.... Not in China, atleast.

I went to Carefore today to pick up some orange juice. It keeps my energy up and is rich in vitamin C. Honestly, it's an acquired taste. So i'm waiting in line with my medium box of OJ (12.5 RMB) waiting to checkout and I notice the lady in front of me putting her stuff on the checkout belt Little by little, she places her fruits, veggies, frozen food, meat, ect. on the belt.

When the clerk asks her if she would like to purchase a plastic bag, or if she had her own bags, she replied that she didnt need any. However, in my point of view, she didnt have any bags with her (I constantly carry one in my pocket just in case). Instead, she was holding a small roll of still-connected plastic bags in her hand - the ones used for holding fruits and veggies. She then calmly seperates the bags and without any thought, places all of her items in.

This is outrageous! Instead of doing the good thing of bringing her own bag, or thinking to help the enviorment, or even following the basic rules, this lady (kinda grumpy lady) finds away around it by just using the other bags. According to different media reports, while use of the regular plastic bags have drastically fallen, the use of fruit, veggie, rice holding bags have increased almost 10x! The retailers and the markets don't know what to do about it.

While watching this lady do her thing, I also looked around me to see how other people were reacting. Everyone was just minding their own business, talking on the cell and waiting patiently (or sometimes impatiently) in line. No one thought anything wrong was happening.

Maybe in a Chinese culture where "face" 面子 matters, some social pressure would easily solve this problem. Only if someone would actually care.

TIC.

Shenzhen Restaurant Sanitation

When I first moved to Shenzhen almost a year ago, one of the first thing I adjusted to was the food. It is very well known that different areas of China have vastly different cusine... which means that I wasnt initially used to the soups and the seafood.

One of the things I didnt expect to see was a difference in pre-meal practices. In Shenzhen, before any ordering or eating is done, everyone washes their bowls and utensils with tea. The process goes something like this:

• First the hostess pours tea in the customer’s tea cup
• The customer swirls the tea back and forth in the cup so that the tea touches all sides.
• After doing so, the customer pours the tea from the tea cup into the bowl in a process that also passes the tea by the chopsticks and spoon.
• The customer swirls the tea inside the bowl
• He pours the tea into a communal bowl depository, which the hostess takes away and discards.

This process is supposed to help clean the utensils and make them more sanitary to eat from. (I don't know how effective it is.) It is definitely an established tradition that everyone here in Shenzhen participates in.

Recently, there have been increases in the number of restaurants that send their china and utensils out to be sanitized. After cleaning the china with their heavy duty machinery, the sanitizing company then sends the cups and bowls back in convenient and individually wrapped plastic. This is to ensure that all of the materials are clean and sanitary. Restaurants usually charge the customer 1 RMB for this service.

Although many customers do not think this charge is a big deal, the majority of Shenzhen is talking about this outrage. I recently heard talk radio programs condemning this unjust charge. Here’s their argument:

• It is the restaurant’s duty to provide clean and sanitary china and utensils for their patrons.
• Because it is the restaurant’s duty and responsibility, (many believe that) any cost for this should be within the operating cost of the restaurant and should not be directly charged to the consumer.
• If this charge is to be charged to the customer, then it should be done in a fair way. The average cost for a restaurant to perform this sanitation service is only 0.40 RMB. Why are restaurants charging 1 RMB for the service?

This issue has been debated and talked about for the past weeks on the internet and different radio shows. We’ll see what happens. In the meantime, keep a watch out for the nicely packaged china and utensils at a restaurant near you.

I Want Delivery!

I really like my Shenzhen apartment. It is nice, clean and just the right size for me. It has all of the appliances and furniture that I need and even a nice sized gym on the 5^th floor (I live on the 27^th). It is a 10 min walk to the pedestrian-only shopping area (老街) and the bus to work stops immediately outside the building. Oh yea, I almost forgot… check out the view.

My only complaint about my apartment is the lack of restaurants downstairs. There are a couple of mom & pop noodle places but that’s about it. To get any selection of restaurants, I need to walk at least 5-7 minutes away. Most of the time, a 5 min walk in China isn’t a big deal. However, when I’m hung over and don't want to get out of bed (like most Sundays), I just want something, anything.

Solution: Delivery.

Before living here in China, I had thought that delivery did not exist here. I have a lot of family who live in Beijing, Harbin and Shanghai. I have never seen any of them order delivery and/or even have delivery menus. I was pleasantly surprised that it at least exists in Shenzhen. Because labor is so cheap here, many restaurants have a couple of people specifically for delivery purposes in the neighborhood. Although I don't imagine it to be Justin-Timberlake-popular, like it is around the Columbia University campus (oh how I miss eating Chinese Wai Lee) it is still most definitely needed.

Every couple of days when I’m walking in and out of my building, I see delivery people bringing food in. As a relatively new resident, without any knowledge of which restaurants deliver, I make an effort to talk to these delivery people and get a menu from them. What’s interesting is that after talking to delivery people on more than 40 different occasions, I have only obtained 1 menu.

Only 1. That’s it.

What are these people doing not carrying menus around when they’re fulfilling an order? I don't understand it. In a selfish sense, I want the added convenience to get some food without getting out of the apartment. But from a business perspective, how can these restaurants not require these people to carry tons of menus on them. This would not only be a good way to market their restaurant, but it would give the non-cooking population somewhere to order from.

Above all, how has any restaurant owners recognized that no one else is doing it and they can almost corner neighborhood market for delivery? My neighborhood has 4 buildings, 26 residential floors in each building and 12 apartments on each floor. Assuming that there are 2 people living in each apartment (a low estimate) the total number of people is 2500 in this building complex alone. Combine the 5 other complexes around me together, and it’s a sizable customer base for a small restaurant.

As a veteran of Columbia University fast food, I can only describe the competition for take-out as a war.

Here are the details:

• Basically all of the restaurants post on online menu websites like dogears.net, menupages.com, so that people can have quick access to their menus.
• Some places even list on services like Campusfood.com where the order can be made directly online, quickly and easily.
• Restaurants advertise on billboards, newspapers, ect.
• Every order has at least 1 menu in the delivery package.
• Some restaurants even use their menu as an invoice/bill for the customer with the ordered items highlighted.
• All delivery people have menus with them at all times. They place these everywhere, especially at the outside door to an apartment building.
• Rivalries and aggressive tactics were used by the 3 local Chinese delivery places. Every time one place made a delivery to a dorm building, they would take all of the other 2 restaurants’ menus and replace them with their own. Talk about cutthroat.

All of these practices in Columbia University and NYC in general are geared to maximize the exposure of the restaurant in a competitive landscape as well as make it convenient for the consumer to order delivery. This is life in a mature marketing environment.

Now if only any Chinese companies can take a hint and figure stuff out, I might be able to order from them instead of going to McDonald’s.

Shenzhen, USA?

I am fortunate that I have a lot of family in Shenzhen who can take care of me when I need family love. I haven't needed to ask my 2nd aunts and uncles for anything major, but it feels good to play some tennis, or have a nice lunch with them a few times a month.

Every time I have food with my relatives and their friends, we always go through the same routine. My aunt usually announces the same things to the group:

• I am an American. Yes. A real American.
• I've lived there since I was very young.
• Although it might seem that my speaking ability is good, I cant read or write at all.
• I'm here as a "intern" at a enterprise based in Hong Kong.
• I graduated from Columbia University.

I then take over attempting to explain that:

• I am NOT an "intern" but a manager in charge of product development department with a lot of responsibilities and in charge of 4 employees
• Although it seems I cant write characters that well, I can type them decently. I have also never had the opportunity to learn the characters and i'm still picking things up everyday. I can read about 50% of the stuff on TV or in the papers.
• Yes. I am American.

The subject usually turn away from me until further along in the meal where I'm always asked the same 2 questions.

1. What food is better, Chinese or Western?
2. Have you become accustomed to living in China?

The answer to the first question is obvious. They're both good and bad. Sometimes I'm in the mood for chicken parm, turkey with mashed potatoes, or a burger and onion rings. Other times I'm in the mood for Chinese bbq, Chinese home style food or dumplings. I even enjoy sushi, tacos and Korean bbq also! And no, steak is not the main food of choice in the US.

My answer to question 2 is more interesting. I've realized that in reality, my life in Shenzhen, China now compared to what it would be in NYC, USA is basically the same. Everyone seems to be amazed at this answer, but to me it’s very apparent. You would go to work during the week and go to the bars during the weekend. That’s life in the US and life in China (from what I’ve experienced).

During this Spring Festival vacation, the similarities are even more resounding. With the mass exodus of migrant labor from the city (I’m assuming at least 4-7 million people left), Shenzhen almost feels like Columbus, Ohio. The traffic flow of the freeways has changed from constant traffic jam and congestion to now feeling like a Sunday afternoon on Route 315 traveling south from Worthington towards Ohio State University. The 东门 shopping area feels like Christmas rush season at the City Center mall (even the sales and the discounts are very similar). The vacation TV-watching and relaxation feels like the boredom of spring break when I was in high school.

Globalization is most definitely taking its effect. It has created a modern life style that is pretty much similar no matter where you go. I have been lucky enough to see it, feel it and experience it in person, not only through my work (by traveling and participating in Chinese manufacturing exporting into the USA) but also my daily life and experiences.

Now if I just found a place in Shenzhen that made a good Chicken Parm…