![]() Research focused on identifying the unique or particular features of society that increased risk for young women, and thus an enormous body of literature emerged documenting the pernicious effects of the ultra-thin beauty ideal that was marketed to young women not only as the epitome of female beauty, but furthermore, as an attainable ideal towards which all women should aspire. Early conceptualizations of EDs characterized them as afflictions primarily affecting wealthy, white, educated, young women in industrialized Western nations. During the twentieth century, the study of EDs expanded to include a wider range of pathology, but it continued to be heavily concentrated in Western countries and in those countries with significant populations of European descent.Ĭultural factors are essential to understanding the ways societies describe, diagnose and treat health conditions, and in the case of EDs, dramatic increases in prevalence began in the West during the mid-to-late 1960s in the wake of the counter-culture movement, and they continued to rise throughout the ensuing decades of the twentieth century. In 1873, Sir William Gull in England and Charles Lasegue in France first described the “morbid mental state” of anorexia nervosa (AN) based on their clinical experience in the late nineteenth century, thus anchoring the modern study of eating disorders (EDs) in a specific cultural and historical context which has informed, but also limited, our understanding of these pathologies to this day. Taking into account both the historical influence of Western culture and the more contemporary effects of Asian industrialization and urbanization, key distinctions among respective Asian cultures expands our understanding of the development and expression of EDs globally. Further, our review of eating disorders in Asia suggests that an understanding of the diversity and distinctiveness of the individual countries and cultures that comprise ‘Asia’ is crucial to understanding the emergence and rise of EDs across this vast region, suggesting that eating disorders are not culture-bound or culture-specific, but rather culture-reactive. While the Westernization literature represents a historical anchor in our understanding of EDs in Asia, we propose that this analysis is incomplete in that societal change in the form of industrialization and urbanization occurring independently from, or in tandem with, “Western” influence are critical factors contributing to the rise of EDs in Asia. Much of the discussion of EDs in non-Western societies is predicated upon the assumption that an increase in EDs is the by-product of “Westernization”, the term used to describe the process by which increased cultural contact with the West results in the transmission of so-called ‘Western’ ideas and cultural norms to a non-Western culture. By identifying where EDs are emerging in the region, and by examining their particular expression, our aim is to explicate a fuller story of the relationship between culture and eating disorders. ![]() Building upon previous work describing the rise of EDs among cultures in transition, we contextualize the emergence of EDs in Asia by locating this development within the broader discourse about the processes of change that have radically transformed Asian societies over the last three decades. Once concentrated among adolescent Caucasian females in high-income Western countries, today, eating disorders (EDs) are truly global.
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