First emerging early last week, China’s latest selfie trend has women comparing their waistlines to a standard sheet of A4 paper. The trend has become such a big deal across the country that even celebrities are getting in on the “A4 paper waist”.
As seen in the above gallery, a number of Chinese actresses and performers are taking a crack at the meme, including: Mabel Yuan, Men actress Zhang Li, Beijing Youth actress Wang Likun, Yip Man actress Lynn Hung, Hi Dulala actress Stephy Qi, actress Monica Mu, Hong Kong performer Niki Chow LaiKei, and actress Tong Yao.
And as celebrities Cao Yingxin and Gao Lu demonstrate, the meme has evolved well beyond posing with a sheet of A4 paper at the waist:
And while some women are still doing it the old-fashioned way, they’re no longer concerned with holding an actual sheet of A4:
You can also use both methods:
If you’re wondering how young Chinese girls are responding to their role models in trying to fulfill unrealistic beauty standards, the situation is not good:
But as with many memes, once they achieve mainstream popularity, the skewering quickly follows:
The “A4 paper waist” meme has even found a way to get political. Here’s a post from the Communist Youth Party of Fujian Committee demonstrating how close the ties are between Taiwan and mainland China: “Homesickness is (not so bad) when you’re just an A4 sheet of paper away“:
The A4 paper waist meme is just the latest in a string of online tests Chinese women perform as a way to meet stringent beauty standards.
So far, we’ve seen women reach behind their backs to touch their own belly buttons as well as folding their hands behind their backs to demonstrate their flexibility; placing a roll of coins on their collar bone to show their thinness; groping their own breasts from behind their backs and the underboob pencil trick in order to show that their breasts are large enough.
