Food's disappearing community

In 2014, Chen, a product manager at a Chinese IT company, felt she was losing control over her life. With a love of cooking, she decided to get up early and make breakfast every day to regain control. She posted photos of her breakfasts and recipes on Sina Weibo and WeChat, attracting many followers.

"When I started posting recipes, online food delivery platforms were not as developed. Many people followed me for my recipes," she says.

In 2016, Chen quit working at the IT company and started operating her social media accounts full-time. Before writing Who Decides What to Eat, she published four recipe books.

However, as new media platforms began changing how people found and used recipes, and society's pace accelerated, she observed that fewer people had the patience to read her carefully written recipes or the time to cook.

"In the past, people found the recipes I posted very interesting, so they wanted to try them, but now, if you have a carrot, you search for a recipe that includes carrots," she adds. "The logic is reversed."