From left, Zhang Wen, 24, Yang Ye, 21, Shen Jing, 23, and Xiao Yang, 26, make up the group Qian Jin Zu He, which performs across China, making a point of its members' heft. (The Washington Post | Qian Jin Zu He)

They're Big, but Not Yet Stars
With Humor and Confidence, Chinese Quartet Takes On Bias Against the Obese
By Maureen Fan
Thursday, September 6, 2007

NANJING, China -- On the street, they are often the target of laughter or cruel whispers. Individually, they have all been denied jobs or their parents' praise.

On stage, however, the four members of a singing group known as Qian Jin Zu He are strong and confident, belting out their signature rap song, "So What If I'm Fat," passing out photographs of themselves and signing autographs.

The lead singer, 26-year-old Xiao Yang, is 375 pounds; the others in the group are between about 200 and 300 pounds. Together, they tour the country, performing at nightclubs, paint factories, garment industry conventions and shopping malls.

Their success has been modest, but given the powerful discrimination against the obese in China, Xiao said her discovery by a talent agent has been "like a tree branch saving me in the water."

The story of precisely how Xiao's group came to be is a window onto the challenges of being obese in a country where the ideal form of feminine beauty is delicate, girlish and small-boned. As China has grown more prosperous, the percentage of overweight citizens here has also grown. Still, those who are obese continue to struggle in relative solitude. Only about 7 percent of the population in China is considered obese, compared with 30 percent of the population in the United States.

Not long ago, having overweight children in China was viewed as a sign of prosperity. Even today, grandparents who can remember famines, especially in the late 1950s and early 1960s, tend to spoil and overfeed their grandchildren.

But chubby is no longer in fashion here, and image has become more important than ever. Summer boot camps for the overweight are springing up. In an increasingly competitive market, employers demand height and weight information from job candidates. And in higher education, fitness can now be a reason to reject college applicants, officials say, all other factors being equal.

"Chinese people now have a higher requirement for fashion and healthiness," said Wang Zeqing, a social psychologist who is leading a nationwide project analyzing the psychological health of Chinese. "Being fat, in people's minds, means not trendy and healthy."

Discrimination against the obese is inevitable, Wang said: "It's how society is now. Employers have countless choices. They can easily turn down a fat person and choose a better-looking one."

It was against this backdrop that Xiao struggled to make a life for herself. ( Read more... )

( Text in case you can't see it )

Thanks to hope_persists for this one!

Have you heard about the new FDA-approved over-the-counter weight loss pill called alli?
In case you haven't seen the Daily Show bit or looked at the web site, here is some info about side effects.

You may get:
* gas with oily spotting
* loose stools
* more frequent stools that may be hard to control...

You may feel an urgent need to go to the bathroom. Until you have a sense of any treatment effects, it's probably a smart idea to wear dark pants, and bring a change of clothes with you to work.

From their own website, in their own words.