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Unexpected Popularity She spotted the trend of Blind Box
One of the Blind Box for Love ac- for Love activities on RED, a Chinese
tivities that Zhang and Pan joined was social media platform where users
held by Huang Shiwen, who operates share their life experience, on August
a blind box stall and prepares blind 24, 2021. She was inspired by the idea
boxes for participants together with so she started her own stall.
her two friends. “We have multiple channels to
Huang, a 20-year-old student ma- meet friends nowadays, but the blind
joring in economics at the University box seems purer to me compared to
of Washington in the U.S., has been online dating applications. No extra
staying at home in Guangzhou for on- information needed. It is all about
line study because of the pandemic. luck,” she says.

“

We have multiple channels to meet

friends nowadays, but the blind box

seems purer to me compared to online

dating applications.

”
Posts about Blind Box for Love
on RED, a social media platform
in China where users share their
life experience.

Katrina Pan*, who is a 19-year-
old university student in Nanyang,
Guangdong province, left two notes
with her contact in a blind box activ-
ity on September 1, 2021.
“I wanted to see what kind of peo-
ple I would meet by luck, out of curi-
osity. But it largely depends on what
the participants are like,” Pan says.
Blind Box for Love has two catego-
ries with one for heterosexual lovers
and another for homosexual group.
As a member of LGBTQ+ commu-
nity, Pan was contacted by two girls.
However, she only chatted once
with them upon adding on WeChat,
with no further interactions. Pan is
disappointed and thinks that she will Huang Shiwen (middle) and her friends standing behind
not try the blind box again. "There are their blind box stall.
too many uncertainties," she says. (Photo courtesy of Huang Shiwen)