With 600 followers on Weibo, she was just another ordinary student in Nanjing. Then her life changed overnight when she won ¥100 million in a promotion that would bring her 1.14 million followers and within a few years, endless debt and depression.
“I will be 30 years old next year, but I have no money and no job.” These were the words posted online earlier this month by the former Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics (NUAA) student who goes by the name Xin Xiaodai (信小呆). Just 3 years ago, she had won a total of ¥100 million in gifts in the debut of the Alipay promotion, “China Koi Global Free Single Package”.
After she learned that she won the prize, Xin made a Weibo post on 7 October, 2018, saying, “Am I not going to work for the second half of my life??” Afterwards, she recalled her mood at the time, saying, “The brain is blank; I vaguely feel that I don’t have to worry for the rest of my life.”
But all that glitters is not gold. As Xin was all too soon to find out. She had won a so-called “ultra-luxury” gift package provided by Alipay together with more than 200 partners. The package comprised food coupons, movie coupons, air tickets, attraction tickets, and beauty and electronic products from 14 countries all over the world. And much more.
But the winner need bear the cost of redeeming the prizes themself. And that’s where Xin started running into trouble, reported The World Journal on 18 June.
Most of the coupons had a validity of just 1 year. Xin felt she had no choice but to set off on a round-the-world trip to redeem them all. She quit the job in IT she had found after graduating and turned herself into an internet celebrity. Advertisements on her Weibo feed began selling for ¥100,000.
During the trip, Xin discovered some of the hotels were only to provide 1-day of free accommodation. Other prizes were a luxury cruise for a few days, but Xin needed to pay the travel costs before and after the trip out of her own pocket.
On a cruise to Alaska, Xin had maxed out her credit card and could not afford to disembark. But the choicest of all the misleading ultra-luxury gifts was that promoted as “Go to the USA to learn to fly a plane”. In actual fact, the award was only the tuition fee for a 3-month course. Food, housing, transportation and living costs were left up to Xin.
Little wonder that she quickly went through her ¥200,000 of savings.
Xin later said that most of her travels were spent looking at flowers and that she could often only sleep for 2 to 3 hours. Her body could not withstand the intensity of travel; she frequently fell ill.
Bringing the story up to date, Xin has now made her comeback and hopes to set the record straight.
Revealing how difficult it has been to return to the workplace after spending all his savings, Xin admitted she was suffering from depression. “Detecting depression is a wake-up call. I started to change the way I look at life, forget about those flashy experiences, and do something truly meaningful.” Xin said in a recent video. She also said she hoped that through her experience and reflection, she would be able to help some people to realise the true price of fame.
She has also recently managed to qualify as a teacher.
But it is always difficult to hide from the past. On 9 June, Tmall announced their winners in a similar promotion. Top place went to a girl from Zhumadian in Henan Province. Speaking with media, she said that she didn’t want her peaceful life to be broken, she would not quit her job and that she did not want to be “the second little fool”.
