Top News

Short-video platforms removed Yingying’s accounts on the evening of Sept. 7. Her family had confirmed her death three days earlier in an obituary cited by Jimu News.

Yingying, whose real name was Chen Ziyi, died on Aug. 17. Her parents did not disclose the immediate cause of death.

Just three days earlier, Chen had posted an update showing needle marks on the back of her hand alongside test results indicating that her blood potassium level had fallen to 2.3–2.5 millimoles per liter, well below the normal minimum of 3.5.

She said long nights spent filming and repeatedly inducing vomiting after consuming large quantities of food had left her physically exhausted, according to Theirs.

Chen said the work often required her to consume extraordinary amounts of food during livestream sales. When promoting century eggs, for example, she said she sometimes ate 60 to 70 in a single session.

Although food-content creation could appear glamorous to viewers, she described a much harsher reality behind the camera, including sleepless nights, constant eating and growing health problems. “Making money is important, but health must always come first,” she told followers in one of her final updates.

She died three days later.

Doctors said repeatedly inducing vomiting can cause dangerous losses of potassium, an essential mineral that helps regulate heart and muscle function.

Dr. Liu Hongdie from Chengdu Fifth People’s Hospital explained that vomiting removes both food and digestive fluids before nutrients and electrolytes can be properly absorbed. Because the digestive tract contains significant amounts of potassium, repeated vomiting can cause levels in the bloodstream to fall rapidly.

Severe hypokalemia, or abnormally low blood potassium, can disrupt the heart’s electrical activity and, in extreme cases, trigger life-threatening arrhythmias or cardiac arrest.

Dr. Shen Jun, head of emergency surgery at Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, said prolonged vomiting can worsen potassium loss in several ways.

The loss of stomach acid can alter the body’s acid-base balance, pushing potassium from the bloodstream into cells while encouraging the kidneys to excrete more of it. At the same time, dehydration causes the body to retain sodium and water to maintain blood pressure, which can further increase potassium loss.

Together, these processes can drive potassium levels to dangerously low levels.

Chen’s death has renewed concerns over extreme eating content on Chinese social media, where creators can face pressure to consume unusually large amounts of food to attract viewers or promote products.

She is not the first young food creator to die after years of extreme eating.

In July 2024, 24-year-old Pan Xiaoting collapsed and died during a livestreamed eating session. In March 2022, food vlogger Wenwei Ge died at 32 from multiple-organ failure after prolonged consumption of greasy foods while also receiving dialysis for end-stage kidney disease.

Content creator Paopaolong died suddenly at 29 in 2021 following health complications associated with excessive eating.