The Chinese laugh at the Swiss and our “White People Food”

On Chinese social media, the Chinese amuse themselves with the simple “báirén fàn”. Translated into German, the term is “white people meal”. Central to the trend is a short video on the video platform Xiaohongshu (little red book). In the video, a woman is filmed sitting in a train compartment on an S-Bahn. She eats raw lettuce leaves and ham.

Below the video are hundreds of comments in which users describe similar experiences. For example, one user shared that a co-worker (or colleague, Chinese doesn’t differentiate between genders) only ate a raw bell pepper for lunch, to which another replied that her co-worker ate a raw carrot.

The outrage about the uncooked and unseasoned food of the “whites” seems to be great in China. On Twitter, a user posted some comments. Below is this piece of gold:

On TikTok, user li2dog describes the tasteless food trend. She explains that Chinese eat unspiced meals at work. They do this for health reasons on the one hand, but also to distinguish work from leisure time on the other.

“White People Food” is said to be significantly healthier than traditional Chinese food and easier to digest, but not very tasty either. When you get home from work, can you have something nice to eat to reward yourself for the work.

Some Chinese bloggers have also jumped on the trend. A blogger started the self-experiment, eating raw beans and tomatoes. His response: “It’s lawless and outrageous!” A comment on his blog also agrees: “If such a meal is supposed to prolong life, then what is the meaning of life?”

Another blogger suggested that “white people’s meals” are about feeling guilty and not enjoying the food.

(ears)