Chinese Man Donates Family’s Life Savings to Female Streamer

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Key Takeaways

  • A Chinese man drained his family’s savings in order to donate them to a streamer.
  • After being cut off by his family, the man turned to theft, stealing around $316,000 worth of copper materials and sustaining himself on steamed buns in order to keep donating as much as possible.
  • The man turned himself in after local police began investigating the thefts. He confessed to donating approximately $550,000 in total, all in hopes that the unidentified streamer would call him “brother.”

As a seasoned gamer who has witnessed the rise and fall of countless gaming communities, I must admit that this story left me utterly astounded. The lengths to which this Chinese man went to gain recognition from an online streamer is beyond anything I’ve ever experienced in my virtual adventures.

It’s said that a man from China allegedly used up his family’s savings and turned to criminal activities, all in the hope of continuing to donate money to a female streamer he became fixated on. Certain news outlets in the Eastern region have characterized this peculiar incident as evidence of the increasing issue of streaming obsession.

Leading Twitch content creators have been earning thousands of dollars hourly, as confirmed by early 2022 reports, and a Statista study in August 2024 indicates the streaming market has continued to expand since then. Nowadays, many popular streaming platforms incorporate built-in donation features, with most taking a portion of the transaction fees.

The widespread practice of donating money to streamers has recently attracted some public scrutiny in China, following reports that a man with the surname Hong, based out of Ningbo in Zhejiang province, drained his family’s savings in order to support a content creator that he became obsessed with. As reported by The Star, Hong donated more than 4 million yuan—the equivalent of over $552,000—to an unidentified female streamer over the course of 2024. Roughly 40% of that figure was taken from his family’s savings accounts, from which he was eventually cut off, as per the same source.

Chinese Man Admits to 40 Thefts Motivated by Streamer Obsession

Following the limitation of his access to family funds, it’s been reported that Hong resorted to stealing copper and selling it at waste recycling centers. This was allegedly possible due to his occupation in the hardware industry, where he handled daily deliveries of various materials. He was apprehended after a factory nearby noticed a significant shortage of materials, reporting the matter to Hengjie police on October 15. It’s uncertain if local authorities finished their investigation following the incident, as Hong voluntarily surrendered himself soon after it began. He confessed to committing approximately 40 thefts between May and October 2024, with the stolen materials totaling around 2.3 million yuan (roughly $316,000).

Copper Thief Wanted the Streamer He Was Obsessed With to Call Him ‘Brother’

In regards to the reasons leading to his decline, Hong clarified that he had no intention of meeting the streamer personally. Instead, all he yearned for was to hear her address him as ‘brother.’ As his fixation peaked, Hong confessed that he restricted his diet to steamed buns solely to continue donating generously to the streamer.

I didn’t want to meet her; I just wanted to hear her call me “brother.”

Approximately 1 million yuan (around $138,000) that Hong had stolen from a factory through copper material theft has been traced back and restored to its rightful owner. It’s uncertain at this time whether the streamer he was infatuated with returned any portion of this amount directly or if it was recovered prior to his donation plans.

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2024-11-30 14:03