The women who are posting the pictures showing just the lower half of their breast have been using all kinds of objects in their selfies.
These include pens and pencils which are believed to be used in the original posts, but quickly moved on to makeup brushes, chopsticks, bottles of body lotion, red roses and even plastic water bottles, in a bid to show they are ‘true women.’
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There has been a huge response on Weibo to the pictures, with mixed reactions.
One user named ‘Er Bi Bu Shi Ji Pin’ wrote with the hashtag #carrypenunderbreast: ‘What exactly is the standard of being a proper girl? Recently, people in Japan invented a new standard, that is – to hold a pen under your breast. Only when you can do that are you a real girl.’
‘Dao Yu ii’ said: ‘I don’t believe this.’
One disappointed user name ‘Ai Tian Yi Sheng’ wrote: ‘I can’t do it, does it mean I’m not a woman?’
A proud user named ‘Bin Chun Hu Die Fei’, who posted pictures to show she can hold a pen under her breast, said: ‘I can’t touch my belly button from my back, nor can I hold an egg on my collarbone, that means I’m a fat person. Luckily, this trend saved me.’
However, there has been no scientific proof behind the claim so far.
The new craze is just one of many bizarre online trends to come out of China recently.
One popular craze involved women posting pictures of themselves with coins on their collar bones to test their figure – they claimed the more coins you can hold, the better your figure is.
In June 2015, a huge trend was ‘the belly button test,’ a simple test to show how good your figure is. Women posted selfies to show that they could touch their belly button by reaching around their backs.
Then topping that, in September came another internet challenge that asked female participants to touch their breasts from behind their backs, and post pictures to prove they are buxom.
By the 17th of that month, the trending topic had attracted more than 54 million views and 39,000 comments on Weibo.