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Three days after coming up with
the idea of setting up a stall, Huang
and her friends stood by the street
of Jiangnanxi, a business district in
Guangzhou, Guangdong province.
Huang makes about RMB ¥250
(US $38.78) a day in total, involving
100 to 150 participants per day on
average. “We didn’t expect so many
people would be interested. From 8:00
p.m. to 10:30 p.m. every day, none of
us have taken a rest,” she adds.
Huang and her friends also initi-
ated an online version. People leave
their contacts to Huang through pri-
vate messages on RED, and Huang
then writes a note for each of them
and drops it into a blind box.
According to Huang’s observation, Participants leaving their WeChat accounts in a blind box.
most of the participants are female (Photo courtesy of Huang Shiwen)
college students, while male partici-
pants are at the age of 25 on average.
Huang thinks some of the par- munication at the Chinese University ally driven, the blind box’s rule is de-
ticipants do have the expectation of of Hong Kong, believes that young signed to have WeChat ID as the only
finding partners through blind box- people’s desire of meeting new people information, thus resulting in partici-
es. “Everyone understands that the and the “luck by chance” principle of pants’ lower level of purposefulness,”
chance is rare,” she says. the game are the two factors that make Chan adds.
“But it’s still good to have one more Blind Box for Love popular. In one of his research papers pub-
friend for your contact lists and gives “Young people do have the desire lished in 2020, Chan looked into
likes to your posts on WeChat even to make their peer circle bigger, which multiple uses of Momo, a Chinese
relationship does not work out,” she has motivated the development of dating application. He suggested that
adds. dating technology,” says Chan, who informants demonstrated dislike to-
A New Option researches online dating applications wards strong “mudixing” (目的性,
Chan Lik Sam, associate professor and interpersonal communication. purposefulness) when using dating
at the School of Journalism and Com- “While dating technology is visu- apps.
Chan also holds the view that
“ young people in China seem to be
unwilling to date “in any form”, which
The blind box’s rule is designed to have also contributes to the popularity of
Blind Box for Love.
WeChat ID as the only information, thus * Names changed at interviewees’

resulting in participants’ lower level of request.
purposefulness. Edited by Lynne Rao

Sub-edited by Vivian Cao
”