50 yuan a spin, a chest harness and 1.9 million views: the Chinese streamer who lets viewers spin her chair nonstop, and why people compare it to 'Black Mirror'

The latest livestream craze comes from China. Streamer Fanqie Jiang Ye (番茄酱耶) broadcasts strapped by a chest harness into a red motorized gaming chair, a stuffed animal in her lap, and every donation of about 50 yuan, roughly $7.50, sends the chair through a full rotation. When payments arrive back to back, the spins stack up and she spends long stretches whirling almost without a break.

The clips jumped from Chinese social media to X and TikTok, boosted by accounts such as Complex and NEXTA; a single post about the endless spinning passed 1.9 million views. In the replies, laughter sits alongside concern about the physical toll: some liken it to a centrifuge or pilot training, while others recall the 'Black Mirror' episode 'Common People', in which a man earns money by hurting himself on a livestream for paying viewers, though the real case is far milder.

What is unknown: reports do not name the platform she streams on or explain the hardware, the software linking donations to the motor, or whether she can pause the chair. There is also no public information about her age or real name, and no sign the feature has been pulled. The phenomenon sums up a trend: pay-to-interact streaming, in which the audience buys physical control over the person on screen.