A Chinese social media influencer died during a livestream after consuming more than seven bottles of baijiu, sometimes known as “Chinese vodka”. The 34-year-old influencer hailed from the Jiangsu province of eastern China and died during a live-streaming contest that began at 1 am on May 16.
The video of the incident has gone viral on Chinese social media platforms and shows the man taking part in the streaming event. In the clip, the man known as “Sanqiange” on Douyin (Chinese TikTok equivalent), has several bottles of baijiu placed in front of him on a desk. He can be seen gulping down these bottles, one after another without pausing or hydrating himself.
He was allegedly involved in an online challenge, called a “PK” against another content creator on the platform. In the challenge, two influencers pit against each other and compete for gifts or rewards from the audience while the loser faces punishment.
According to a BBC report, Sanqiange may have lost three rounds of the contest and was therefore compelled to drink the liquor as punishment.
The livestreamer ended his stream after midnight but was found dead the following afternoon.
“I don’t know how much he had consumed before I tuned in. But in the latter part of the video, I saw him finish three bottles before starting on a fourth,” a friend, identified only as Zhao was quoted as saying by local Chinese media reports.
“The PK games ended at around 1 am and by 1 pm, (when his family found him) he was gone,” he added.
Zhao revealed that Sanqiange had only recently started doing live streams after one of his friends provided a room as the neighbours complained about the noise.
Chinese social media influencers
Notably, a typical bottle of baijiu has alcohol content hovering anywhere between 30 per cent to 60 per cent – meaning drinking it neat could easily cause alcohol poisoning which can be highly lethal.
In the heavily saturated market of social media influencers in China, the live-streamers go to great lengths to greab the eyeballs. Earlier this month, another content creator filmed himself being rescued by firefighters after pretending to be trapped on a rooftop.
Reports state that short video platforms like Douyin have more than one billion active users with the entire industry estimated to be worth $28 billion (199 billion yuan).
(With inputs from agencies)
