Now if users search certain keywords such as “eating show” or “competitive eaters” on short video platforms Douyin and Kuaishou, a cautionary message pops up above the search results.

现在，如果用户在短视频平台“抖音”和“快手”上搜索某些关键词，比如“吃播”或“大胃王”，搜索结果上方会弹出一条提醒信息。

“Please cherish food, and keep a reasonable diet,” Kuaishou’s notice reads. Douyin’s message asks people to say “no” to food waste.

快手的通知上写道:“请珍惜食物，保持合理的饮食。”抖音则弹出消息要求人们对食物浪费说“不”。

On Wednesday Chinese state broadcaster CCTV criticised online eating programmes that show participants consuming an excessive volume of food, and even spitting out the food after eating, describing them as “an extreme example of food waste”.

周三，CCTV批评了一些在线吃播节目，这些节目显示参与者食用过量的食物，甚至在吃完后把食物吐出来，称这些节目是“浪费食物的一个极端例子。”

Eating shows, also known as mukbang, originated from South Korea before gaining popularity globally via videos featuring broadcasters consuming a large quantity of food.

吃播，也叫“mukbang”，起源于韩国，后来通过特写主持人吃大量食物的视频在全球流行起来。

The scrutiny comes amid a call by Xi on Tuesday to end the country’s “shocking and distressing” problem of food waste amid a challenging economic environment.

周二，习主席呼吁在这个充满挑战的经济环境下，要结束国内这种“令人震惊和不安的”食物浪费问题，此次审查正是在此背景下进行的。

In response to the criticism, Chinese video platforms were quick to clean up the offending videos. “The platform will penalise food-wasting behaviour when spotted. We call on our users to treasure food,” a representative from Douyin said in a statement.

作为对批评的回应，中国视频平台迅速清理了违规视频。“当有发现，平台将惩罚浪费食物的行为。我们呼吁用户珍惜食物。”

Live-streaming site Douyu told Chinese media that it would actively heed the call by Beijing and step up content reviews of food-related live streams. In a separate statement to the Post, Douyu said it focused on games and that eating shows were not a major part of its platform.”

直播网站斗鱼告诉中国媒体，它将积极响应北京的号召，加强对与食品相关的直播内容的审核。斗鱼在给《邮报》的另一份声明中表示，它专注于游戏，而吃播秀不是其平台的主要部分。

In a poll conducted on social media site Weibo on Thursday, more than 50 per cent of roughly 155,000 respondents said that while they enjoyed watching eating shows or food review programmes they would say “no” to food waste. However, some disagreed with the intervention by the platforms.

周四在社交媒体网站微博上进行的一项民意调查显示，在大约15.5万名受访者中，超过50%的人表示，虽然他们喜欢看吃播或美食点评节目，但会对食物浪费说“不”。然而，一些人不同意平台的干预。

“Why do people care about how much others eat as long as they don’t throw away their food,” one of the most upvoted comments under the poll read. “Grain rationing is outdated – those people didn’t spend your social justice warriors’ money to buy food.”

调查中最受欢迎的一条评论写道:“为什么要关心别人吃多少，只要他们不扔掉食物就好了。”“粮食配给已经过时了——那些人没有花你的社会正义战士的钱去买食物。"

Since last year, the Chinese leadership has repeatedly stressed the importance of food security and assured the public the nation is producing enough to feed its 1.4 billion people. This year, floods ravaged China’s traditional rice production and the coronavirus pandemic disrupted food supply.

自去年以来，中国领导人一再强调粮食安全的重要性，并向公众保证，中国的粮食产量足以养活14亿人口。今年，洪水严重损害了中国的传统水稻生产，冠状病毒大流行影响了粮食供应。