Wellness Culture and the Myth of "Natural" Beauty with Ling Ling Huang

Cultural Fetishization

Ling Ling Huang discusses the fetishization and appropriation of Asian cultures in the wellness industry. She recalls working with traditional Chinese medicine practitioners and feeling a sense of doubt about the respectfulness of their practices. This experience influenced her novel, where the protagonist lacks a name to symbolize the invisibility caused by fetishization.

As soon as you fetishize someone, they become not their singular selves as a person, but they become part of a group that you already have ideas about, and you just project all of that onto them.

--- Ling Ling Huang

Huang also notes the shift in interest towards traditional Chinese medicine during the pandemic, highlighting the industry's fluctuating focus 1.

   

Industry Reflections

Reflecting on her time in the wellness industry, Ling Ling Huang reveals how it tested her eating disorder recovery. She describes the industry's focus on perfection and restrictive diets, which mirrored her past struggles with disordered eating. This environment pressured her to conform to harmful practices without critical thinking.

I was drinking the kool aid in other ways, putting things in my body, on my skin that were not only completely unnecessary, but were probably harmful.

--- Ling Ling Huang

Huang emphasizes the importance of being on guard against such influences, which can easily lead to detrimental health choices 2.

   

The Wellness Trap

Ling Ling Huang discusses the allure of wellness products as a substitute for healthcare, despite their potential harm. She recounts her adverse reactions to various supplements and the misleading marketing tactics that promote them. This rhetoric often masks the lack of accountability for negative effects on consumers.

If your symptoms get worse with chronic illnesses and stuff, they'll be like, oh, it's natural to have worse pain at first.

--- Ling Ling Huang

Huang highlights how such language teaches people not to trust their bodies, perpetuating harmful practices 3.

   

Influence on Readers

Ling Ling Huang reflects on how her book has influenced readers to reconsider their decisions regarding beauty standards. She shares a story of a high school student who, after reading her book, decided to rethink undergoing eyelid surgery. This feedback is meaningful to her as she wrote the book she wished she had read in her youth.

Reading it was making them really reconsider, and they were going to take more time to think about whether or not it was something they wanted to do.

--- Ling Ling Huang

Huang emphasizes the importance of critical thinking and how her work aims to provide that perspective to younger audiences 4.