‘You have to be skinny’: body image issues in Hong Kong and social media’s effect on young people tackled in new play

How many hours do you spend on the internet every day?

In Hong Kong, the average person spends nearly seven hours online daily, according to data company Statista – that’s more than a lot of people sleep.

For young people in their teens and twenties, social media is how they interact with the world, from communicating with friends to catching up with the news.

It is now well established that social media can cause body image issues because of the constant comparisons, both conscious and unconscious, that users make based on often unrealistic standards set by other people online.

‘I wanted to do something for the children of Hong Kong.’ So she did

According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, social media companies know about the damage they are causing. The report said Instagram’s own research, presented internally in March 2020, found that 32 per cent of teenage girls polled said that “when they felt bad about their bodies, Instagram made them feel worse”.

Lindsey McAlister, founder of the Hong Kong Youth Arts Foundation (HKYAF), felt the need to highlight the issue of body image because a lot of young people she talked to felt “intense” pressure about their bodies, but found nowhere to talk about it.

This prompted her to write I’mperfect, the third in a trilogy of plays she has created over the last three years about social issues affecting young people, following #Hashtag in 2020 and Only a Girl in 2021.

“I think the pressure on young people today with social media is even more intense,” the director says. “It wasn’t just one body issue. It was actually a number of body issues.”

The production, featuring 35 young actors and dancers, will premiere at the Hong Kong Arts Centre in Wan Chai on November 10.

The drama is about three teenagers – Lexie, Taz and Charlie – who meet online, quickly hit it off and start a private chat, not realising that they also know each other in real life.

In the anonymous online world, each of them lives a perfect life. But offline, all three are confronted with body image issues. When things start to unravel, they realise that being whoever they want to be online can also have real-world consequences.

The soundtrack to I’mperfect features the BTS hit “Dynamite” and other toe-tapping songs to fit the snappy pace of the Instagram and TikTok worlds.

The three lead actresses – Jillian King Chan (Lexie), Creamy So (Taz) and Scotia Edwards (Charlie) – are all secondary school students, picked from 600 candidates in a highly competitive audition.

“There are times where I’m very obsessed with what I’m looking at online and I’m very unconscious of my obsession,” So says. “Obviously we’re all afraid of judgment.”

Hong Kong has a lot of beauty standards, she adds.

“You have to be skinny. You have to look a certain way, you have to look petite and you have to have bright skin. It has always been an issue … but people just haven’t really questioned it.”

While rehearsing the play, the actresses learned a lot about body image issues.

“I didn’t know some people had a wide range of different specific body issues,” Edwards says. “Even if it seems small and you think it’s not very that important, it is something that people will go through.”

McAlister hopes I’mperfect will be a catalyst for conversation and discussion on topics that perhaps young people wouldn’t naturally bring up, and that it can lead to “more diversity” in Hong Kong society.

So says she hopes the play will help people feel like they don’t need to suppress their emotions and insecurities.

“In the future, if they do realise, ‘Oh, I might have an eating disorder,’ do not suppress it and just be accepting of it,” she says.

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I’mperfect, Hong Kong Youth Arts Foundation, Nov 10-11, 7.30pm, Nov 12, 2.30pm and 7.30pm, Shouson Theatre, Hong Kong Arts Centre, Wan Chai.

Ticket prices: HK$300, HK$250* Concessions: HK$260, HK$220* (*Restricted views).

The two-hour play will be performed in English with Chinese subtitles. It includes depictions of individuals who struggle with eating disorders, bullying and gender dysphoria that may be challenging for some viewers. The production will be made available online after the live performances.