But Chen, 28, is not playing to win in the traditional sense, despite China's faltering economy offering little chance of a bonanza for young people.
Instead, she's leveraging the increasing popularity of the lottery among young people in China to build up her follower count -- a gamble that paid off when her fanbase went from a few hundred to more than 45,000 in the space of six months.
Lottery sales in China soared to almost 274 billion yuan in the first half of the year, an increase of more than 50 percent year-on-year, with analysts pointing to a growing economic malaise as a possible explanation.
"I think it may be because it is not easy to make money now, especially when college graduates and unemployed people can't find a suitable job, which makes them grasp onto the idea of getting rich suddenly," Chen, who is based in central Hunan province, told AFP.
Months of disappointing economic data have confirmed China's post-pandemic recovery is slowing, with the risk of prolonged deflation looming.
China announced on Tuesday it would suspend the release of youth unemployment figures, after previous sets of data hit record levels for several months in a row.
Many of Chen's followers are college students, and one-third are under the age of 23, according to their profiles.
"In people's subconscious, the opportunity to get rich through labour is decreasing, so they are more willing to 'take a chance' through the lottery to see if they can get rich overnight through luck," Huang Zhenxing, a professor at Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, told Chinese media Caijing recently.
"It also means that people have little confidence in the current economy."
On Douyin, Chen's fans tune in for the vicarious thrill of seeing her tear through cards, leaving messages under the videos detailing their own luck.
"The possibility of... achieving overnight wealth is small," Chen said matter-of-factly, something made clear to her audience by her repeated failures to win big.
"Basically I'm trying to get popularity... and have more people get to know me and my brand."
- 'Sense of possibility' -
Chen is far from the only influencer to have jumped on the lottery bandwagon.
Videos tagged with scratch card brand "Guaguale" -- "scratch, scratch, happy" -- have been viewed more than 6.7 billion times on Douyin, while there are 120 million views under the topic #Guaguale on Xiaohongshu.
Curtis Cheng, 25, has found himself buying scratch cards more this year and has noticed he is not alone -- at lunch and dinner time, the lottery stand near him is surrounded by young people.
"It's a kind of small lucky feeling," Cheng told AFP. "It's not a big deal if you don't win, it's just a way to spice up your life."
But he said he thought there was also a deeper issue at play related to economic confidence.
"I think it's probably because young people need a sense of possibility," he said. "They need some luck to help them improve their current situation."
Erika Cui, who works in the IT industry, said a scratch card provided a brief second of escape.
"The feeling of not having to think about my bad life because I'm so excited about the moment is much better than winning the lottery or not winning itself!" she said.
"The economy hasn't been very good over the years... the pressure of work and life is quite high, and everyone's mental state is really worrying," the 25-year-old said.
Cui linked the increasing popularity of the lottery to a burgeoning dropout culture that pushes back against China's often intense study and work pressure.
"I feel that it is more of a self-deprecating state of 'life is like this, why don't we play a scratch card for fun, what if I win the lottery?'" she said.
'Very worried': Youth unemployment cause for concern in China
Beijing (AFP) Aug 15, 2023 -
China's government will no longer release youth unemployment statistics, it said Tuesday, but the mood among young people online and on the streets of Beijing left no doubt the situation was dire.
Recently, the figure has hit a record every month, with 21.3 percent of young people jobless in June.
The July data was expected Tuesday but the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said it would no longer release age group-specific unemployment numbers, citing the need to "further improve and optimise labour force survey statistics".
"Translation: Let me find a new statistical method to lower the unemployment rate," wrote one sceptical user on the social media platform Weibo.
"In reality, I don't dare to imagine (what) the unemployment rate must be. (The NBS) can't even make it up," read another comment.
"I don't release (the figures) = no unemployment," wrote one user tagged in the southwestern city of Chongqing.
A hashtag relating to the announcement of the suspension had 190 million views on Weibo on Tuesday afternoon.
On the streets of the capital on Tuesday, college student Li Nuojun told AFP she thought her job prospects were bleak.
"My major in university is in environmental design, but with the rise of AI, I don't have much hope in the design industry," said the 18-year-old.
All her friends were expecting to be unemployed after graduating, she said, though they still had some years of study left.
"I'm very worried," she said. "When thinking about finding a job, I become very anxious, I just don't want to think about it for now."
"Young people do face greater pressure in finding a job, like my cousin and his classmates, they prefer to continue their studies after college," said 35-year-old Guo, an IT worker.
"They are preparing for postgraduate exams, and a lot of them will take civil service exams."
Even for those with jobs, the economic outlook is hostile.
A 29-year-old woman who gave her name as Xue said she had friends who were struggling to change jobs at the moment.
"Some of them kept sending resumes for a month and have had several interviews chances, but the results are not so good," she said.
"The salary they could offer is average and there will be a lot of overtime work. The job market is always a rat race."
Related Links
China News from SinoDaily.com
| Subscribe Free To Our Daily Newsletters |
| Subscribe Free To Our Daily Newsletters |
