Summary of Ethan Watters's Crazy Like Us

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.

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#1 In Hong Kong, the beauty industry outspends every other business sector on advertising. The reporting and photojournalism that appears alongside those ads has a different obsession: telling tales of young women celebrities.

#2 The rise in eating disorders in Asia is due to a complex combination of cultural and cross-cultural influences. The West may be culpable for the rise in eating disorders in Asia, but not for the obvious reasons.

#3 Anorexia has been present in the American culture for decades, but it was only in the past few years that it became more common. Understanding the forces behind this change may help us understand why anorexia has become so common in the West.

#4 In China and Hong Kong, the disorder of anorexia was still unknown. Lee, however, found out that the disorder was extremely rare in these two regions. He suspected that there was something else, some factor that hadn’t been fully considered in the Western literature, that remained absent in these two regions.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Mar 29, 2022
• ISBN: 9781669376460

IRB Media

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Insights on Ethan Watters's Crazy Like Us

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 4

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

In Hong Kong, the beauty industry outspends every other business sector on advertising. The reporting and photojournalism that appears alongside those ads has a different obsession: telling tales of young women celebrities.

#2

The rise in eating disorders in Asia is due to a complex combination of cultural and cross-cultural influences. The West may be culpable for the rise in eating disorders in Asia, but not for the obvious reasons.

#3

Anorexia has been present in the American culture for decades, but it was only in the past few years that it became more common. Understanding the forces behind this change may help us understand why anorexia has become so common in the West.

#4

In China and Hong Kong, the disorder of anorexia was still unknown. Lee, however, found out that the disorder was extremely rare in these two regions. He suspected that there was something else, some factor that hadn’t been fully considered in the Western literature, that remained absent in these two regions.

#5

Lee treated the few anorexic patients he could find in Hong Kong, and he found that they were different from the anorexics he had treated in England. The women in Hong Kong were sad and tired, while the ones in England were emaciated and alert.

#6

Lee was able to diagnose Jiao with an eating disorder, but not anorexia. She did not fear being overweight, and did not believe she was too thin. She did not obsess over food portions, and often went for whole days without eating.

#7

While Lee had training in the West, he was still surprised by the differences between American and Hong Kong anorexia. He knew he would have to understand those differences to understand the disorder.

#8

In 1988, Jiao was admitted to the hospital, and although she gained weight during her stay, she soon dropped