Text |Wu Sanchuan.
Eat for a living, live by vomiting. "The deformed culture of eating and broadcasting, after many fierce brakes, once reined in.
However, according to the rule of law**, the "big stomachs" are back. These streamers are generally online after 11 p.m., promoting products or product placement while "eating and eating".
There is no problem with mukbang itself, but mukbang kidnapped by traffic is very problematic. The reason why the "big stomach king" is always flocked to is that in addition to the psychological compensation of "seeing is equal to eating", to a greater extent, it is the "onlooker mentality" of hunting for curiosity and judging ugliness. So in order to do what they like, some anchors do not hesitate to go sideways, either pursuing "eating more", or "eating strangely" than others, and even the wild animals that are clearly protected by the law dare to think crookedly.
People come and go, all for the sake of profit. In fact, where are there so many "big stomachs" in the world, and many of them are just people who are bent on profit. The logic behind it is actually not complicated: the more fans, the more goods you can bring. As a result, some "don't have enough appetite and edit to make up", and some "gobble up in front of people, and frantically induce vomiting after people", creating all kinds of "illusions" of eating and drinking, which can be said to hurt others and themselves. However, whether it is eaten real or fake, this is an open waste of food. Not to mention, relying on eye-catching goods without a bottom line and using shoddy goods to trick consumers is obviously not a simple moral issue.
At the end of November 2021, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) and four other departments issued the "Anti-Food Waste Work Plan", emphasizing the need to strictly supervise food waste-related information. It is mentioned that radio stations, television stations, and online audio service providers are prohibited from producing, publishing, and disseminating programs or audio information that promote excessive eating, overeating, and other food waste. After three orders and five reaffirmations, the "big stomach king" still came out to reopen, which shows the strength of its "inertia".
In fact, this kind of chaos does not only exist in the mukbang industry. From Brother Yang's apprentice "Yellow of the Traffic Light" to bring goods vulgarly, and was blocked again only three minutes after the rebroadcast, to the blogger "Sister Lin's Meat Sandwich Bun" in order to increase fans, posing for "instant noodles for the hospitalized mother-in-law"** is essentially a deviation and deformation of the traffic monetization logic. In this regard, platforms still need to further strengthen supervision, combining AI, manual review and reporting mechanisms and other methods to prevent "harmful traffic" from leaving room for transmission.
As the saying goes, "it takes seven inches to fight a snake". In March this year, the Cyberspace Administration of China deployed a special action of "Clear and Strict Rectification of the 'Self-Regulation' Chaos", proposing to "use economic means to strengthen self-supervision" and "block its problem traffic and profit-making channels", which is also worth further exploration.
Only food and love can live up to it. "Chinese food culture is broad and profound, and there is a lot to be written about it, but it is a pity that the "big stomachs" want to promote it in such a distorted posture. To resist the trend of sensationalism and reverse the disease of hunting for curiosity and judging ugliness, it is still necessary to reiterate once again: in the matter of eating, elegance will never go out of style.
Author] Gao Wei.
The Southern Review