China's latest social media trend mocks bland Western lunches using the hashtag 'White People Food'
27 June 2023, 10:20 | Updated: 27 June 2023, 10:34
Bland Western lunches have become the subject of international social media mocking, with the hashtag #WhitePeopleFood trending across Chinese social media.
Poking fun at the flavourless lunchboxes found across Europe and the United States, the trend sweeping China's heavily censored internet takes aim at a variety of staples including microwaved soup, boiled eggs, carrot sticks and crackers.
With one internet user describing the trend as a means of “learn what it feels like to be dead”, the mocking continues to sweep a number of microblogging platforms including Weibo.
The trend is believed to have started on Chinese lifestyle app Xiaohongshu when a passenger on a Swiss train was captured putting mustard onto lettuce leaves before pairing with cold cuts of meat.
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Posted by graduate Huang Jinglan, the video was accompanied by the caption “white people food” and led to the term being adopted by thousands of Chinese social media users living abroad.
Huang, 29, told the Washington Post: “Having too much of it can drain the soul and human warmth out of you”.
Highlighting the necessity of hot sauce to liven up bland lunches, she mockingly notes an unspoken rule that dictates “white people food” should not be shared “because we shall not punish others with our self-torture”.
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The trending hashtag's popularity spawned from the stark contrast between Western diets and those of Asian countries including China.
Spices, flavours and precise cooking techniques are commonplace in Chinese lunchboxes, with many internet users embracing #WhitePeopleFood to highlight the overt simplicity.
Sandwiches and soups have long been a staple among urban professionals in Western nations.
Recent years have seen China’s upwardly mobile middle classes increasingly adopt Western diets in line with the dawn of regular international travel.
It also comes as a welcome change of pace from the labour intensive cooking involved in many popular Asian cuisines.
Speaking of the trend, social media user Dr Candise - who has 1.3 million followes on TikTok - notes that "because Chinese meals are full of high-carb staples like rice, buns, and noodles, Chinese always feel sluggish after lunch and need a nap.
"But white people meal is full of protein and vitamin, so Westerners eat less but still (seem to be) full of energy in the afternoon," she writes.
One search of the hashtag brings up immaculately sliced ham on single slices of bread, thinly sliced carrot sticks wrapped in cheese slices and open cans of tuna with a single tomato.
Even avocado on toast is in the firing line, with lacklustre photography bolstering the trend's popularity.
It's safe to say British lunchbox favourite Dairylea Lunchables also make an appearance.
