Chinese Internet's reaction to White People Food is how Desi folks look at Western food

Indians will know how their parents pack their food in literal luggage if they are travelling even a little further away from their home and kitchen. Imagine making them eat REAL Western food, not McDonald's burgers and Domino's Pizza in India. 

It seems like the reaction to Western food is about the same in neighbouring China. There has been a curious, VERY random trend going on, on Chinese social media about "White People Food". 

China's reaction to "White People Food":

• People on TikTok to lifestyle-sharing app Xiaohongshu have been sharing their latest fascination, admiration and even disgust at what they are calling "báirén fàn" or White People Food. 
• The meal, a stereotypical image of Western food, mostly popular in some parts of Europe, includes raw or boiled vegetables, an occasional fruit, cheese, bread, eggs, potatoes, spinach or carrots and sometimes a few slices of tomato and a banana. 

• The low-carb meals have caught the attention of the Chinese youth who have largely mixed reactions to the food. 
• Some are sharing pictures of their own White People Food remake, using it as sarcasm to say this is how boring and bland their lives are. 
• Some are calling it the "lunch of suffering". Chinese ex-pats living in Western countries are sharing how their colleagues and peers at school bring their lunch. 

• Others are asking whether the rabbit food that White people eat can even give them any energy. 

Another person said:

• While some have mocked the White People Food, others have come to the defence of the easy meal fixes. 
• Those on diet have especially praised how the White People Food is healthy and low carb unlike Chinese meals which are heavy and make you feel drowsy after lunch (Indians can relate).
• Then, there are others who have praised Western meals for the ease of assembling them. Like Indian food, Chinese food preparations are also labour-intensive and involve a bunch of ingredients.  

• Videos of Western food recipes and quick fixes are also burgeoning on Chinese social media for the youth that is caught up in China's 996 work culture that offers them little to no time to themselves. 
• It has been dubbed "the ideology of putting little effort into eating" and has become popular among young workers.
• Others are also using the less labour-intensive Western meals as a way to reject China's 996 culture (working 9 am to 9 pm 6 days a week) and "laying flat". 

• "Laying flat", meaning doing nothing, not protesting or participating, came up as the youth's way of rejecting China's infamous rat race. 
• On Twitter, the mocking of White People Food got some affirmations and some criticism. While some Twitter users agreed this is what most White people's food looks like, others said it was a stereotype. 
• Those from Italy and Spain said that they do season their food and their food isn't necessarily bland. 
• Others said that the photos that are mostly going viral are of meals that are found in cafeterias. 
• Some also said that the Chinese haven't discovered British or Polish food yet. 

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Indian take on White People's Food:

• Unlike the Chinese, Indians wouldn't necessarily call White People's Food "healthy". Indians don't often see bread made of wheat or maida has healthy eating.    
• This trend among the Chinese is said to have originated with Chinese expats' fascination with "healthy eating" in Europe.
• And processed meats are universally unhealthy. 

On the other hand, before someone picks up White People Food for dieting, they should know that what might be healthy for people in one part of the world, may not translate into healthy for others in another part of the world. A fine example being - milk and wheat. 

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