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The story
Mala tang (麻辣湯), a Chinese-style soup dish, has drawn growing buzz in recent years thanks to a push from social media and restaurants — but the customers who actually frequent these shops skew heavily female, with men reportedly lukewarm on it at best. On a 5ch thread, all kinds of theories flew back and forth about this “popularity gap.” Some pointed to differences in how receptive people are to advertising, others noted the trend was kicked off by its popularity among K-pop idols, and still others simply said the flavor doesn’t suit their taste — opinions never converged on one answer.
What people said
Sounds like some "low-status man" cope lol
Sounds like the type who thinks he's smart for not falling for stealth marketing
Guess he doesn't realize switching IDs mid-thread like that just makes it more obvious
You should probably get out more
You see the characters for "mala" and think Korea?… What nationality even are you
It's Chinese food…
What I want from a noodle soup isn't some medicinal, good-for-your-body herbal thing
It's not like the flavor is anything new either
You're mixing it up with suan-la-tang (hot and sour soup)
Fading faster than the tapioca boom did
Guess Yaman's in trouble then (Yaman = a well-known mala tang chain)
Ulcerative colitis?
Yeah. Capsaicin's a no-go for me, can't even handle curry
Sichuan peppercorns are probably the worst offender for that
Karimyon's better
You ask "why?" but you haven't replied once since your opening posts.
Did you start a thread on a topic you knew would rack up replies just so you could sit back and compile it?
No need to get so mad about it
Background and Key Points of This Discussion
Mala tang is a soup dish that originated in China, and in Japan it first spread mainly among young women starting in the 2020s, driven by marketing built around its visual impact and framed as “medicinal” and “good for your skin.” In the thread, some pointed out that the spark behind the trend was its popularity among K-pop idols, which appears to be one reason it picked up an image as a “boom for women.” At the same time, comments about the taste itself — like “it’s under-salted” or “there’s nothing novel about it” — suggest differences in flavor preference, not just how the marketing reached people, were also cited as a factor. As seen in the mix-up with the similarly named suan-la-tang (hot and sour soup), there also seems to be a sense that the dish itself still isn’t fully recognized.
※This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Nanademo Jikkyo G) thread “[Question] Mala Tang Was Pushed So Hard in Ads, So Why Didn’t It Catch On With Japanese Men??.”
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