On the street, they are often the target of laughter or cruel whispers. Individually they have all been denied jobs or their parents' praise. On stage, however, the four members of a singing group known as Qian Jin Zu He are strong and confident, belting out their signature rap song So What If I'm Fat and signing autographs.
The lead singer, 26-year-old Xiao Yang, is 375 pounds; the others in the group are between 200 and 300 pounds. Together, they tour the country, performing at nightclubs, paint factories, garment industry conventions and shopping malls.
Their success has been modest, but given the powerful discrimination against the obese in China, Xiao said her discovery by a talent agent has been "like a tree branch saving me in the water".
The story of precisely how Xiao's group came to be is a window on the challenges of being obese in a country where the ideal form of feminine beauty is delicate, girlish and small-boned. As China has grown more prosperous, the percentage of overweight citizens has also grown. Still, those who are obese continue to struggle in relative solitude. Only about 7 per cent of the population in China is considered obese, compared with 30 per cent of the population in the United States.
Shifting trend
Not long ago, having overweight children in China was viewed as a sign of prosperity. But chubby is no longer in fashion — and image has become more important than ever. Summer boot camps for the overweight are springing up. In an increasingly competitive market, employers demand height and weight information from job candidates. And in higher education, fitness can now be a reason to reject college applicants, officials say, all other factors being equal.
"Chinese people now have a higher requirement for fashion and healthiness," said Wang Zeqing, a social psychologist who is leading a nationwide project analysing the psychological health of Chinese. "Being fat, in people's minds, means not trendy and healthy."
Discrimination against the obese is inevitable, Wang said: "It's how society is. Employers can turn down a fat person and choose a better-looking one."
It was against this backdrop that Xiao struggled to make a life for herself. Growing up in the city of Xuzhou, in the eastern province of Jiangsu, she took weight-loss pills at age five. Her embarrassed parents refused to hold her hand in public and enrolled her on what she recalls as a "devil eating programme", which allowed participants to eat only fruit and drink only water.
Xiao recalled being rejected from three technical schools because of her obesity. She wanted to become a chemistry teacher; though her test scores were not low, she said, officials feared that she would not be able to keep standing in a classroom for 45 minutes at a stretch.
Four years ago, Xiao placed an advertisement in a local newspaper, begging for someone to help her lose weight or find a job. Hu Zhi, a public relations agent based in Nanjing, saw it. He decided to add her to his roster of "special people".
The acts Hu envisioned were not subtle. Already on his roster of special performers were a man who could drag a car with his ear and another who could break glass with his teeth.
"Xiao was educated, so I thought if I could dig out some performing skill, maybe I could help her and she might be a good resource for my company," Hu said.
He gave her DVDs featuring various performers, as well as a coach, and asked her to study dance moves.
Xiao felt uncomfortable at first. Every time she called home, her family asked if she had lost weight. "My obesity has made my parents unhappy. I thought, 'Am I going to use my fat figure to make a living?'" she said.
To build her confidence, Hu tried to find her a boyfriend. He knew that the relentless pressure from her family to lose weight was driven by fears she would never marry. He got the largest newspaper in the city, the Nanjing Evening News, to write up every detail of Xiao's misfortune in a story and seek prospective husbands.
Xiao wasn't serious about marriage. But the story was a big boost to her confidence and drew 200 letters from interested men. It also attracted letters from more than 100 obese women from all over China who had had the same feelings and experiences. They all wanted to be friends with Xiao.
Hu and the newspaper formed a club for the women. That produced enough talented performers to make Hu decide on forming a band. Dozens of people auditioned.
The result was Qian Jin Zu He.
Double meaning
The group's name is a play on words. One meaning refers to a courteous expression for another person's daughter. But no one who sees the band perform can mistake its second meaning: 1,000 jin, a Chinese measurement that would translate to just over 1,000 pounds.
But as Qian Jin Zu He criss-crosses China, the band sometimes meets less welcoming audiences.
"Only a small part of the audience understands us," said Shen Jing, 23 and, at 198 pounds, the lightest member of the group.
"Most of them aren't tolerant. [Some] say, 'You're so fat, you shouldn't step outside and frighten people. You should hide yourselves'."
Through their performances, the group hopes to change stereotypes about the obese, said Zhang Wen, 24, who weighs 209 pounds and is from Tianjin. "Our purpose is to help other girls like us feel better about themselves and to prove our capability in front of others."
