China’s entertainment authorities have issued sweeping regulations targeting beauty filters and heavy makeup in the country’s massive influencer industry.
The Chinese Entertainment Industry Association’s recent directive prohibits influencers from using excessive beauty enhancements, inducing consumer spending, or engaging in ranking comparisons that encourage viewers to compete financially for attention.
The regulations arrive amid growing public outcry over deceptive practices where influencers use sophisticated lighting setups, digital filters, and makeup to dramatically alter their appearance. Videos circulating online show the stark contrast when technical glitches cause filters to malfunction mid-broadcast, revealing middle-aged women behind carefully constructed goddess personas.
One tutorial demonstrates the elaborate process: multiple angle lights, digital face-shaping tools that transform round faces into oval shapes, pink chin lighting, and overhead illumination all combine to create an entirely different person on screen.
While officially framed as consumer protection, the crackdown appears more directly tied to concerns about how these platforms funnel money away from traditional economic channels. The industry has become a lucrative enterprise where emotional manipulation generates massive revenue.
Cases documented by lawyers reveal elderly men spending life savings on virtual relationships: one 62-year-old farmer depleted 500,000 yuan, then borrowed an additional 100,000 yuan to maintain his status as a top gifter. Another man spent over 300,000 yuan across a year for a influencer who was simultaneously dating four other men, each contributing similar amounts.
These exchanges operate within a deliberately designed system. Industry insiders report that streamer companies explicitly instruct their talent to only accept gifts through official platforms rather than private transfers, ensuring the money flows through legally protected channels where it gets divided between platforms and agencies, making refunds nearly impossible.
With unemployment rising and traditional career paths offering diminishing returns, the industry has attracted over 500,000 university students seeking income opportunities that vastly exceed entry-level professional salaries. This phenomenon reflects a fundamental shift where quick financial returns through appearance-based work increasingly appears more rational than years of education and conventional employment.
The gold digger culture extends beyond digital platforms into offline matchmaking markets. Reports indicate dowries have increased tenfold over the past decade, with some families demanding 250,000 to 300,000 yuan, creating financial barriers that have led to widespread resistance among prospective grooms. Men increasingly refuse even minimal dating expenses when they perceive relationships as purely transactional.
Industry observers note that women previously successful in monetizing attention through platforms or relationships are finding their income sources drying up as disposable income disappears. The gold digger business model that flourished during China’s economic expansion is collapsing as the wealth that sustained it evaporates.
Critics argue the government’s sudden interest in regulating appearance-based industries stems less from ethical concerns than from the need to redirect capital toward state priorities.
With real estate markets in crisis and consumer spending weak, authorities view money flowing into virtual gifts as unproductive capital that generates minimal tax revenue and cannot be easily channeled into infrastructure or manufacturing.
