Departures of note

Chen Ziyi, known online as Yingying, was a Chinese social media creator who built a following of more than a million users through mukbang live streams in which she consumed enormous quantities of food. She rose to prominence in the popular format that records creators eating large amounts on camera, and her broadcasts drew a substantial dedicated audience across Chinese social platforms. In her final weeks she had revealed to followers that she had been hospitalised after her potassium levels dropped sharply, and confessed that she regularly induced vomiting and used laxatives after eating to avoid gaining weight.

She died on 17 August 2026, reportedly of cardiac arrest related to severely low potassium, with doctors attributing the collapse to a combination of her induced vomiting, laxative misuse and underlying heart problems. The 24-year-old had complained of the pressure to eat ever larger amounts to stay relevant in the mukbang space. Her death was announced only in early September, weeks after it occurred, and was widely reported in the Chinese and international press.