About this blog

Hello, my name is Sam Lever and I am 19 and currently on a placement working as a model for Mission Model Management in Hong Kong. The placement is for 2/3 months and during this time I thought it would be a good idea to capture my experiences and stories in this blog, and to also comment on my perspective of the place. I have always been fascinated by the similarities and differences of different cultures and I think the region of Hong Kong is especially interesting because of the mix of traditional chinese heritage and European colonial history that has shaped such an intriguing region. I am also interested in the issue of how Hong Kong copes with a population density of over 18000 people per square mile and the strains that this puts on services such as transport. Finally I want to see how this region has adapted from under capitalist colonial rule to communist rule and whether the change has made any noticeable difference. I hope you enjoy reading my blog as much as I enjoy writing it.

Thursday, 15 August 2013

Obesity

Obesity in China is not something you would necessarily expect. Just 45 years ago millions of people faced starvation from Chairman Mao's 'Great Leap Forward'. Now China faces a much bigger problem- obesity. The obesity rate in China is gradually increasing each year because of globalisation and an increase in Western diet such as fast food.

Hong Kong is even worse than China because it is more open to globalisation and western influence. Consequently I have noticed that many children (and some young adults) are obese or definiteley fat, a characteristic that is not common in Asia because of the typical Asian diet. However diet has changed rapidly, there are now 177 McDonald's restaurants which ranks Hong Kong 18th in the world for most number of McDonald's restaurants. There is literally a McDonald's, a KFC or a Subway on every street corner in Hong Kong and they are always full of people.

It is yet another example of how Hong Kong is a westernised city and has really become more Americanized not only through architecture, free market economics and capitalism but through lifestyle such as fast food.

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