Fake belly buttons all the rage in China as women seek ‘freedom to dress’ and boost confidence but some raise body image concerns

A new trend for using fake belly buttons, breasts and buttocks among Chinese women has raised concerns about body image issues on mainland social media.

The latest fake body part to take off are fake belly buttons. Similar to temporary tattoos, the adhesive sticker is placed on the stomach a few centimetres above the actual navel, which is obscured, creating the illusion of longer legs that is widely perceived as more attractive, reported news outlet City Link.

On Pinduoduo, one of China’s largest online shopping platforms, the top-selling merchant offers two sheets of 32 navel stickers for less than 4 yuan (55 US cents) and has already taken 4,400 orders, according to the shop’s online sales figures.

The sticker’s popularity is evident among women on the social media platform Xiaohongshu.

“Every summer, I always feel troubled. I really want to wear stylish and sexy outfits, but I’m held back by my body shape – they just don’t look good on me, and I lack the confidence,” said one woman.

“However, these stickers are not easy to drop off; they’re non-reflective and even waterproof. I’m willing to call them the most successful invention of 2023!”

On Douyin, another woman declared: “This isn’t just a fake belly button sticker; it’s a ‘cheating tool’ for bidding farewell to my 50-50 body proportion.”

Many people have also shared tips for making the stickers appear more authentic such as using makeup powder to blend the stickers with the surrounding skin colour.

Fake belly button stickers are not the only beauty-enhancing tools gaining popularity on social media in China; fake breasts, fake buttocks, fake shoulders, fake collarbones and even fake noses are now readily available online.

Fake buttocks supposedly can create a lifted appearance to a person’s backside and enhance the body’s natural curves while fake shoulders can make narrow shoulders look broader, creating the “right-angled shoulder” shape currently popular in fashion and beauty circles online.

However, beneath the excited online discussion among fans of the new generation of fake body parts, concerns have been raised that they may also exacerbate appearance-related anxieties for some women.

“I wonder how these women can still face their true body figures after removing the fake belly button stickers, breast pads, buttock pads, and other enhancements,” observed one critic of the products online.

Fashion and relationship influencer, widely known as Miss Nan, who has more than 2 million followers on Weibo, said that for many women, the products made them feel confident online when presenting themselves in the same way beauty-enhancing apps have been doing for years.

“The more functional these products are, the more popular they become. The underlying psychology here is hard to ignore and the reality is that beauty holds significant importance in people’s lives,” she said.

In response to concerns about appearance-related anxieties and the use of these products, Miss Nan said that most women would undergo what she called a process of “growth”, gaining an increased maturity as they aged and placing less value on physical appearance.

“The joy and praise brought by physical beauty can be irresistible, but as age increases, even the most advanced cosmetic technologies cannot defy time. Women will definitely find other sources of happiness,” she said.