Peiwan: the cruel optimism of China’s online ‘play companions’

ABSTRACT

In late capitalism, the whole of society metamorphoses into an articulation of production and social relations turn into the relations of production (Tronti 2013 [1962]), leading to increasingly diffuse distinctions between leisure and work. China’s immense e-sports industry supports related platforms such as Bixin, where users can hire online peiwans (play companions). These peiwans chat with players during gameplay, praising them for their victories, and (especially for male peiwans) demonstrate better gameplay techniques. As a form of ‘cruel optimism’ (Berlant 2011), however, such companionship promises fun and seemingly easy money, but it remains untenable in the long run because it takes a heavy toll on the peiwans’ physical and mental well-being. Bixin lightens this burden by informing peiwans of how it ranks their online fame. This revelation suggests that algorithms can be known and knowable if the company aspires to a short-term boost in revenues, but peiwans ultimately highlight the uncertainties that continue to plague China’s e-sports industry.

KEYWORDS:

• Peiwan
• cruel optimism
• play companions
• affective labor
• online gaming
• China

Acknowledgements

The author gratefully acknowledges funding support from National Social Science Fund of China (No. 19BSH094). The author thanks Chris K. K. Tan and JCE reviewers for valuable feedback at various stages of this research and Shuyu Wang, Yating Xu, Wenjing Li, Zhenyu Han, Xingxuan Li, Tianyi You, and Xiaoyang Liu for excellent research assistance.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by the National Office for Philosophy and Social Sciences of China: [Grant Number 19BSH094].

Notes on contributors

Miao Li

Miao Li is a Professor in the Department of Sociology at Shandong University, Jinan, China. Her research interests include youth culture, education and new media, class formation, social mobility, and qualitative research methodology. She is the author of a book entitled Citizenship Education and Migrant Youth in China: Pathways to the Urban Underclass (Routledge, 2017). Her research articles appear in the China Quarterly, Journal of Research on Technology in Education, Citizenship Studies, and Information, Communication & Society.