The Evolution of Body Image in China: a Decade of Transformation from 2015 to Today
By James H. Sterling
While tech conferences sanitized their floors, Hainan Coconut Palm Group clung fiercely to its provocative branding playbook. For decades, the heritage beverage maker printed images of voluptuous women in form-fitting yellow tops on its cardboard cartons, running slogans claiming its coconut drink could enlarge breasts. Local market regulators repeatedly hit the company with penalties. In 2019 and again in 2021, state authorities fined the brand between 200,000 and 400,000 yuan for violating advertising laws prohibiting vulgarity and misleading health claims.
Yet Coconut Palm resisted uniform reform. When the company pivoted to Taobao and Douyin livestreams in 2022 and 2023, it cast athletic, curvier female creators to dance while holding beverage cans. The streams racked up tens of millions of views while facing frequent regulatory cutoffs. Facing mounting fatigue from younger viewers, the brand introduced muscle-bound male fitness influencers in muscle tees, a chaotic nod to female gaze dynamics that underscored just how obsolete their single-note, male-focused formula had become.
James Sterling reports on renewable energy developments, climate policy, ecological conservation, and green tech innovations around the globe.
