A bunch of banknotes for one “disorderly” experience: Three hours in an East Asian's life | Deep Dive
Text by｜Wang Yuchan
Edited by｜Qiao Qian, Yang Xuan
Source｜36Kr Future Consumption (ID: lslb168)
Cover image source｜IC Photo
On July 25th, Beijing was hit by a heavy rainstorm. Mayday and the audience, bathed in the rain, welcomed the first concert. Lead singer Ashin jokingly referred to the bond with his fans as a "fateful bond."
As Ashin said, "It's hard to grab tickets! It's tiring to deal with the traffic! Especially when you have to get soaked in the heavy rain at the beginning. You tell me, isn't it tiring? This heavy rain falls on you, but it pierces my heart."
But for Bai Ying, a "Mayday fan," this bit of hardship is insignificant because the joy brought by the concert came earlier than the rain. "One or two months before the concert, Beijing had already become a 'Mayday pain city,'" Bai Ying said.
When she passed by Chaoyang Park, there were the "five balls" symbolizing Mayday. When she passed by Liangma River, there was a special route for Mayday fans and a lyrics bridge. During the pop - up event at Xidan Shopping Mall, every store put up a sign saying "Welcome wmls (Mayday fans) to enter the store." Even when walking on the street or taking the subway, many people, young and old, had plush carrots hanging on their bags. It's a derivative IP of Mayday and a secret signal among Mayday fans.
In Bai Ying's words, she felt "the high - concentration joy brought by strangers."
The "five balls" in Chaoyang Park
Sun Yongjia has also been quite happy recently. As a scalper, he has successfully sold the tickets for Mayday's concerts. This year, not all of his ticket sales have gone so smoothly.
He has had many more cases of being stuck with high - priced tickets than last year. The "Zhou, Wang, Tao, Lin" (referring to Jay Chou, Lee Hom Wang, David Tao, and JJ Lin) are no longer the ever - successful myths. Many artists he is not familiar with or thinks are "has - beens" have become new hot targets.
The market is becoming more complex because the ticket - buying crowd is becoming more diverse.
The elderly, minors, employees of large companies, and stay - at - home moms, many "atypical concert - goers" have emerged. Concerts are no longer exclusive to young star - chasers. They also belong to the white - haired elders in the stands and the parents waiting outside the venue for their junior high - school daughters to finish the concert.
Tony, who has been a concert - goer for 11 years, has witnessed the whole process of this form of entertainment evolving from a niche hobby to a popular trend.
"Before the pandemic, I had already attended all the concerts of my favorite stars. When the lockdown was lifted in 2023, I thought the concert market was about to end because there were hardly any concerts. I thought it was a 'watch - one - less - one' situation," Tony said.
With this mindset, he immediately went to Hangzhou to watch Rene Liu's concert. Who would have thought that Rene Liu's tour would last for three years, and the scalped ticket prices quickly soared to a level he couldn't bear. Only then did Tony realize that the concert industry was just starting to boom.
During the same period, the ticketing platform Damai also entered its golden age. In the three fiscal years from 2023 - 2025, its revenues were 228 million, 1.48 billion, and 2.057 billion yuan respectively, a ten - fold increase in three years. Damai became an extremely profitable segment and a platform that audiences both love and hate.
Since it's so hard to grab tickets, there is often a regular scene at concerts. When the artist says "Thank you to Damai platform," the whole audience shouts in unison, "Go bankrupt! Go bankrupt!"
You spend a wad of cash to buy a ticket, scream, sing, clap, and laugh with thousands of strangers for three dreamy hours. Then you leave the venue, endure more or less of a "withdrawal" reaction, and return to your roles as a father, mother, employee, or student.
Is there any other form of contemporary mass entertainment that can immerse you so deeply that you completely break away from your social identity?
In 1922, Austrian writer Stefan Zweig wrote the novel "Twenty - Four Hours in the Life of a Woman," which tells the story of a well - behaved noblewoman who, driven by a momentary passion, suddenly "breaks away" from the rules and abandons all her self - discipline within 24 hours.
The three hours of a concert also bring many people the same experience.
You have to work very hard to relax for three hours
After Tan Huo, an employee of an internet giant, became a fan of the star Tan Jianci, she posted a lot of idol - related content on her WeChat Moments. Many friends thought she had switched jobs to work in an artist's studio.
"I said I did it because I like him. Everyone was very surprised. Did I always give people the impression that I had no interest in the entertainment industry before?" Tan Huo asked rhetorically.
But indeed, everything in her life has changed because of this. During the interview, Tan Huo took out her phone to show her record of 653 consecutive check - ins on Tan Jianci's Weibo super - topic. That phone was a "Samsung concert magic device" she specially bought for over 10,000 yuan to watch Tan Jianci's concert so that she could clearly capture her idol on stage.
Is a phone worth over 10,000 yuan expensive? Actually, the price is about the same as her average cost for a concert. For one concert, she spent 20,000 yuan on a scalped ticket.
Tan Huo has a list that records all her transactions with scalpers. It says that before each concert ticket goes on sale, she has to prepare at least 20,000 - 30,000 yuan to hire multiple ticket - snatching agents to "race" in order to increase her chances of getting a ticket. Depending on the level of the scalper, the single - transaction amount ranges from 3,000 - 5,000 yuan.
But for Tan Jianci's first concert, none of the agents managed to grab a ticket for her. She finally bought an entry ticket for 9,800 yuan.
She made this list because she had dealt with so many people and made so many payments. She was afraid of forgetting to ask the scalpers who failed to get the tickets for a refund. Of course, she also knew clearly that these transactions were not protected by law and there was a risk of being scammed.
"I only do things when I think I can bear the worst - case scenario," Tan Huo said. "I can bear the consequence of losing the 20,000 - 30,000 yuan, but I can't bear the consequence of not being able to attend the concert."
Materials collected by Tan Huo at Tan Jianci's Nanjing concert
For most people in China today, going to a concert is still a relatively "luxurious" form of entertainment.
In 2024, the per - capita disposable income of Chinese residents was 40,000 yuan. The per - capita consumption expenditure was 28,000 yuan, of which "education, culture, and entertainment expenditure" accounted for 11.3%, that is, 3,189 yuan. The lowest - priced public tickets for the mainland concerts of "Zhou, Wang, Tao, Lin" are usually around 400 yuan.
But it's much harder to buy tickets for popular singers without overpaying than to win money from scratch - off tickets. This is why many people have to turn to scalpers.
But once you go through the whole process, you'll find that it's as challenging as the pilgrimage to the West in the classic novel. The screening of consumption ability is just the beginning. What it really tests is your network resources and information - gathering ability. Among scalpers, there are speculators, scammers, as well as big - shots and small - fries. Whether the scalper you find is a big - shot or a small - fry largely determines how much you have to pay.
"How much a scalper can earn depends on his position in the supply chain," Sun Yongjia said.
Sun Yongjia gave an example. For a ticket with an original price of 2,000 yuan, a first - level scalper gets the ticket at the original price, then adds 2,000 yuan and sells it to a second - level scalper for 4,000 yuan. The second - level scalper adds another 500 yuan and sells it to a third - level scalper for 4,500 yuan. The third - level scalper adds 200 yuan and sells it to a fourth - level scalper for 4,700 yuan.
The lower the level of the scalper, the higher the purchase price, the smaller the markup space, and the lower the profit margin.
So, when you find a scalper with a very high asking price, you can think about whether the scalper you found is of a low level. Of course, if the asking price is very low, it's also possible that it's not a big - shot but a scammer. The value of network resources is presented here in real money.
Half of Sun Yongjia's customers come from Douyin and Xiaohongshu. He does Douyin live - streaming to "let people see that I don't look like a scammer." The other half of his customers come from his private customer group and word - of - mouth.
"High - net - worth customers will introduce more high - net - worth customers to me. A customer who drives a Maserati won't introduce a customer who drives an Alto to me," Sun Yongjia said.
Tan Huo is not a Maserati - driving customer. The three hours of the concert are just a reward for her hard work at the internet giant and her struggle to buy tickets. In her opinion, the joy makes all the efforts worthwhile.
The three hours of the concert pass by very quickly. Tan Huo always realizes that her face is sore from smiling when the concert ends. Moreover, this unparalleled joy doesn't end immediately when she leaves the venue because she will watch the concert videos after she gets home.
When watching the videos, she feels like she has amnesia. Although she hardly looked at her phone and didn't get distracted during the three hours, trying hard to remember every moment, a lot of information is quickly lost after leaving the venue. Tan Huo wants to hold on to that joy and experience it over and over again until the next time she returns.
Three hours of living for oneself, not as a parent or a child
Tan Huo always smiles at the concert. She only cried once.
At that time, Tan Jianci handed the microphone to a 70 - year - old grandma in the audience. She said, "Tan Jianci, I'll always love you! I'll always support you!"
The use of the word "love" shocked Tan Huo. "I think I don't even have the courage to express my love in public. That 70 - year - old grandma is a retired worker. The discipline her generation received is different from ours. I really admire her enthusiasm, her generosity, and her frankness," Tan Huo said.
The grandma was about the same age as Tan Huo's grandmother. Hearing this elder express her true feelings made Tan Huo shed tears.
The "grandma fans" in Tan Jianci's super - topic
It's easy to imagine the efforts an elderly person has to make to sit with a group of young people at a concert with such a high ticket - grabbing difficulty. Of course, more elderly people are blocked by these difficulties.
This year, Nicole took her parents to watch Phoenix Legend's concert. Her mother is a long - time fan of Phoenix Legend, starting from the time they appeared on Avenue of Stars. This was her first time to watch their live performance.
"On the day of the concert, I kept observing them. There were many young people at the concert. The young people always stood up, so my parents had to stand up too. But they didn't have enough stamina and sat down after standing up a few times. They kept waving their glow sticks, singing along, and frantically recording videos to send to relatives and friends, and also posted on their WeChat Moments, Douyin, and Kuaishou accounts," Nicole said.
Nicole's mother's WeChat Moments
On the way back after the concert, Nicole's mother talked non - stop. "My mother knows the life stories of Phoenix Legend like the back of her hand. She kept telling me their story of going from workers to singers." That day, Nicole learned a lot of things she didn't know before, including the singers' stories and her mother's story.
After the concert that day, her mother told Nicole that she was quite famous for singing in her hometown when she was young and was almost selected by the art troupe. But because Nicole's grandfather was old - fashioned and thought that singing and performing were not good occupations, he cut off her path.
"My mother said this was the biggest regret in her life," Nicole also remembered when she was very young, the family's CD player often played the songs of Yang Yuying and Han Baoyi. Her mother sang along while mopping the floor, and her face was radiant. At that time, her mother was so young, just like Nicole today.
Her mother's performance shocked Nicole and made her think that she should take her parents out more often. In the days after the concert, her mother kept saying, "I feel like I'm 10 years younger! I'll be happy thinking about those three hours for many years to come."
Yifan also sent an elder to a concert. This year, she helped her father grab a 680 - yuan grand - stand ticket for Dao Lang's concert.
"I'm not reluctant to buy a 1,680 - yuan or 1,380 - yuan inner - field ticket for my father. It's because I know that if I buy a too - expensive ticket, he'll have a psychological burden," Yifan said. "If I buy a 680 - yuan ticket for him, he'll go to the concert happily without complaining. But if I buy a 1,680 - yuan ticket, although I'll be happy, it may not be the best for him."
After coming out of the concert venue, Yifan's father proudly showed her the video he recorded while singing along. He said that outside the venue, he saw many Dao Lang fans of his age, and they started singing in chorus even before entering the venue - this is a characteristic of their generation.
"In recent years