Fat China
How Expanding Waistlines are Changing a Nation
An analysis of the growing problem of obesity in China and its relationship to the nation's changing diet, lifestyle trends and healthcare system.
Imprint: Anthem Press
ISBN 9780857289650 Paperback
(also available in Hardback)
July 2010
| 250 Pages
| 216 x 140mm / 8.5 x 5.5
| PRICE: £16.99 / $29.95 |  |
 |
About This Book
'When Deng Xiaoping said 'To get rich is glorious', he probably didn't realize that getting wealthy would make many Chinese fat... In an informative and entertaining style, French and Crabbe reveal the dark side of China's growing middle-class: a fast increase in obesity-related illnesses such as diabetes. A great read on an important topic.' Andy Rothman, China economist, CLSA Asia-Pacific Markets, Shanghai
'In this remarkably well researched and thought-provoking book, French and Crabbe expose a darker side of globalisation in China… Western multinationalists have submerged the Chinese consumer in a sea of chocolate and ice cream. The consequences for public health are incalculable.' Tim Clissold, China investment specialist and author of ‘Mr China’
'The two authors open our eyes to the global phenomenon of obesity hitting China...the book ‘Fat China’ brilliantly shows this fast and sudden evolution of China, between the past generation and that of today.' www.ma-grande-taille.com
China's economy has boomed, but a potentially disastrous side effect - along with pollution and a growing income gap between urban and rural regions - is the effects obesity will have on the country's fragile healthcare system. Today's overweight in China can look to a mixed future of bright economic hopes for their country, and poor and deteriorating health for themselves. From a situation 20 years ago when diets were limited by food availability, and famine was still a recent memory, China's urban centres have seen alarmingly rising rates of obesity. Throughout the country an estimated 200 million people out of a total population of around 1.3 billion were overweight (over 15%).
Why is this issue so important? Taking into account that the recent period of stable world economic growth has in large part been driven by the availability of cheap labour in China, which produces much of the goods that keep the retail tills ringing elsewhere in the world, the issue of China's rising obesity is an issue of potentially global economic significance. Consider a scenario just a few years down the line, where there are so many overweight urban Chinese, suffering from obesity-related illness, that the government, in order to pay for increased healthcare treatments, has to raise the levels of income and other tax to pay for this huge and continual expense.
Readership:
Given the paucity of information on this subject outside of medical literature, this book will be of use to academics, students and general readers on China in terms of social development, business and policy.
Author Information
Paul French is a founder and the Chief China Representative of Access Asia based in Shanghai. Access Asia specializes in providing information on China's economy and consumer/retail markets. He is the author of a number of books on China's history, development and current society.
As co-founder of Access Asia, Matthew Crabbe has been analysing the consumer economy of China for almost two decades. He has specialist knowledge about the development of China's consumer lifestyles, and the repercussions that such fast change has for Chinese people and society.
Table of Contents
Introduction; Chapter 1 - China Gets on the Scales; Chapter 2 - China's Fat Class; Chapter 3 - Fat City Obesity and Urbanisation; Chapter 4 - Mega-Wok China's Diet From Cabbage to Cuisine; Chapter 5 - Shelves of Fat - Food Retailing in China; Chapter 6 - Fast Fat: The Impact of Fast-Food in China; Chapter 7 - Selling Fat - Promoting Fat in China; Chapter 8 - Little Fat Emperors - Obesity Among China's Children; Chapter 9: The Fat and the Thin - China's Body Image; Chapter 10: China's Fat Clinic The Impact of Obesity on China's Healthcare System; Conclusion: The Future of Fat China - Victims of Their Own Success?; Notes; Acknowledgments; Index
Links
- Financial Times
- CNN
- PBS Newshour
- China Herald
- Award for Best Title for a China Book: “Fat China”
- Fat China: Quand les Chinois courent vers l’obésité à grandes enjambées – www.ma-grande-taille.com
- Welcome to Fat China…A Literally Expanding Market – Paul French and Matthew Crabbe op-ed on ‘Advertising Age’
- Book Review on ‘South China Morning Post’
