Videos posted on the young influencer’s account showing her running and weight-lifting were shared heavily on Chinese social media and also appeared in various state media outlets following her death late last month. State media outlets said that the influencer’s family had received “compensation” from the weight loss camp in Shaanxi, but did not say how much. In China, as in much of Asia and the rest of the world, social media is awash with unhealthy and unrealistic trends promoting extreme weight loss. One notorious recent social media trend in China involved women posing behind vertical sheets of printer paper to prove their waists were so thin they could not be seen either side. Zhou’s death has also increased scrutiny of the social media influencer industry more generally.

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Persons: Cuihua, Zhou –, ”, Zhou’s Organizations: Hong Kong CNN, China National Radio, CNN, China News Service, Television Administration, Ministry of Culture, Global, Weibo Locations: Hong Kong, China, Shaanxi, Shaanxi province, Asia, Tourism