"Smoking makes it hard to find a partner": Anti-smoking meme goes viral in China

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At a university in northwest China's Shaanxi Province, memes against smoking are taking the campus -- and Chinese social media -- by storm using a fresh and humorous approach.

"You won't find a girlfriend if you smoke," reads a slogan at the Xi'an Traffic Engineering Institute.

The meme "You cannot find a girlfriend if you smoke" can be seen on campus, which also went viral on Chinese social media. /VCG Photo

By doing this, the institute hopes to help students make more health-conscious choices as opposed to directly forcing them to give up smoking, according to university professor Zuo Chenxi.

Another meme with a cute cat saying "What is our slogan? Banning smoking!" is seen on campus./Photo via Weibo

The university then uploaded some memes on China's Twitter-like Weibo, garnering praise and outbursts of online delight at the campaign's creativity.

Chen Xiaonan (pseudonym), a sophomore at the university and one of the memes' designers, said that it was just a joke.

"There are so many great benefits to giving up smoking," she said. "Besides, for students who are single now, maybe they could find their boyfriend/girlfriend soon after they quit."

Six students took charge of designing the campaign, reworking memes and slogans that were already popular online.

"If we educate them with more acceptable ways of not smoking, the effect might be better than just ban," Chen told The Paper.

"I think smoking really makes it hard for some people to find their partner," commented @Xiaozhuzhouzi.

"We should focus on the middle school students and help them get away from smoking since some of them are just motivated by curiosity from peer pressure," noted @Xinyiyuanqingyishi. "After the age of 25, the rising pressure might drive them to start smoking."

Men smoking cigarettes in front of an office building in Shanghai /VCG Photo

As the world's largest tobacco producer and consumer, China is home to over 300 million smokers, of which half of the men are regular smokers, and as many as two thirds of Chinese men start smoking at a young age, according to estimates from the World Health Organization.

Various measures have been used in the past to regulate and control tobacco use in public spaces in the country. In major cities like Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen, various laws against indoor smoking have been introduced.