Shanghai (AFP)

Barely 28 kilograms weight, hair loss: at the height of his anorexia, Zhang Qinwen was close to death.

She now wants to raise awareness among her compatriots with the first exhibition in China devoted to eating disorders.

"I knew I was seriously ill. But I didn't dare go see the doctor," the 23-year-old told AFP, who at the time could barely walk and had impaired vision. disease.

If eating disorders (anorexia, bulimia, overeating ...) can strike anyone, studies highlight that adolescents and young women are among the most vulnerable.

“I was influenced by everything I saw on the internet and didn't think highly of myself,” said Zhang Qinwen, who had finished in intensive care.

"I never thought I was perfect enough."

The recognition of eating disorders, sometimes perceived in China as a phenomenon from abroad, is relatively recent in the country.

Suddenly, support structures are lacking.

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"You can talk to a lot of people, to counselors or to non-specialized hospitals. But they will not necessarily know how to identify the disease or how to help," explains Zhang Qinwen.

She hopes to raise awareness through her exhibition in Shanghai.

On the program: paintings of a teenage girl in tears, medicine boxes thrown on the floor or the word "KILL" ("KILL") projected on a white wall.

- "Plump" -

No national statistics exist on eating disorders.

But hospitals in large cities have recorded an increase in demand for treatment over the past 20 years.

A Shanghai clinic specializing in mental pathologies says it treated 591 cases in 2018, against ... three in 2002.

Similar phenomenon in a Beijing hospital, quoted by the China Daily newspaper: from 2002 to 2012, the number of patients rose from around 20 to more than 180, pushing the establishment to open an ad hoc service.

“When my parents were young, being plump was a way of showing that we came from a wealthy family,” says Xie Feitong, a 21-year-old student who visits the exhibition.

Radical change in recent decades: the increase in living standards has led to "an obsession with weight loss", underlined in a recent article the English-speaking public television CGTN.

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Internet, especially since the advent of social networks, also contributes in China as elsewhere to the diffusion of a stereotypical image of the "ideal" woman with the thin body - which can complex many Internet users.

Online challenges, where girls compete for thinness through photos, can encourage self-hatred.

Especially in China, where beauty is strongly associated with a slim body.

- The #MeToo influence -

The Shanghai exhibition intends to respond to these stereotypes, in particular with a parody of marriage by young women who thus celebrate the acceptance of their bodies.

"We always believed that we had a body full of flaws," explains Zhang Qinwen, wedding veil on the head.

"With this fictitious wedding we're organizing today, we want to show that we really love each other the way we are."

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Many visitors find themselves in Zhang Qinwen's story, her extreme weight loss, her distress and her isolation.

Some tell AFP that they have been mocked or even harassed by their comrades for not being thin enough, white enough or pretty enough.

Anorexia is not new to China.

But the problem has only really been in the media for a year or two.

For Xie Feitong, it is the global #MeToo movement that has pushed women to speak out more on these subjects and has helped to counter the traditional canons of beauty.

"I have dark skin and I am chubby. In short, the opposite of the ideal which requires to have a fair complexion, to be young and thin", summarizes the student, who has experienced anorexia from 13 years old, then a period of hospitalization.

"During my recovery, I realized that having beautiful colors, a strong body and a strong heart is ultimately the most important."

© 2021 AFP