Shedding blood for their loves

FLOWERS, watches, fashion accessories and books are common gifts for men given by their girlfriends in China.

Young Chinese women have recently found a unique and more dedicated way of expressing their feelings.

They gave their blood.

In recent weeks, blood pendants were selling like hot cakes on e-commerce platforms.

The item, slightly smaller than a glass marble, is priced at between 18 yuan (RM11) and 50 yuan (RM31) where buyers could fill the vial with their blood and give it as a present to their boyfriends.

Each pendant comes with a string, which could be used as a necklace or bracelet.

Sellers are coming up with creative marketing “strategies” to promote these pendants.

At first, they link the product to a superstitious belief that female blood could ward off bad energy and evil spirits for their loved ones.

They then try to convince potential buyers into believing that such pendant could turn them into heroines by protecting their men with blood.

According to the sellers, such gift could prove their true love to the men. It did not take a lot of convincing to get young women to buy this product.

An e-shop managed to sell 100,000 pieces so far and another had a sale record of more than 32,000 units. A dozen others sold a few thousand pieces each.

Some sellers also gave away free gifts which included a lancet, a dropper and plasters for the blood drawing process.

What worried the public was that some people took it to the extreme by cutting their wrist or arms with a blade in a desperate attempt to draw blood after failing numerous times using the lancet.

They also uploaded videos to show the process on popular video-sharing sites.

In one video, one woman tried to prick her fingers a few times and yet failed to draw even a drop of blood.

Some men, meanwhile, proudly showed off what their lovers did for them.

One woman said her boyfriend cried upon receiving the gift.

In the e-shops’ comment sections, a buyer wrote that she had to prick three fingers to fill the vial with one anonymous writer replying that she ought to prick deeper.

Another buyer commented that the lancet was too small, so she used a blade to cut her arms a few times during which she accidentally knocked over the bottle and had to start all over again.

An undergraduate buyer wrote that she just hoped that her boyfriend would stay safe and lead a smooth life.

Some buyers had complained that their blood dried up before they could fill the vial. So they kept repeating the procedure to make sure the blood was “fresh”.

A netizen in chiding such practice said young women should take care of their body.

“Why take the trouble and be so cruel to yourself?” she asked.

“Please take care of your body and don’t be stupid, ” another wrote.

The local media reported that “blood present” is not a new trend in China.

In 2006, there were reports of couples keeping their blood in a bottle and giving it to their loved ones, but at that time the practice was not commercialised and only took place among isolated groups.

“When it is commercialised with irresponsible businessmen encouraging the practice, we could not stay silent any more, ” wrote a netizen.

Last Tuesday, the Chinese Communist Youth League criticised such unhealthy trend on its official Weibo account – the Chinese version of Twitter.

“Consecration, blood-filled container, love token, amulet... ward off bad lucks or mishaps? Please wake up, apart from exposing to infection risk, there is no evil to be blocked, ” it wrote.

Sellers immediately got the message and quietly removed the products from their shelves the following day.

A check on Taobao, the world’s largest e-commerce site operated by AliBaba Group, found that some stores were still selling the products, but with a different approach.

This time, the sellers have suggested items like primary teeth and baby hair to be kept inside the vial as good luck charms.

The free gifts have also been changed to decorative accessories.

Medical experts have warmed that inappropriate blood drawing techniques and mistreated wounds could lead to infections which could be fatal.

Furthermore, they did not know if the lancets were sanitised and produced by genuine manufacturers.