Hunan Province’s Yiyang Launches City-Wide Campus Inspection into Dangerous ‘Suffocation Game’

Photo: Screenshot from Sina Weibo

The education authority in Yiyang city, central China’s Hunan province, has initiated a citywide inspection into a dangerous “choking game” among schoolchildren after a report that a student fainted and screamed while playing it at school. According to China Central Television (CCTV), no similar cases have been reported until Monday, citing local education authority personnel, who added that follow-up work has been arranged to strengthen life education.

According to a parent of a student at a local school, a game known as “dream back to the Tang Dynasty” or “three seconds of death” is popular on campus today and the parent’s child fainted, screamed and vomited in a cold sweat while playing the game and continued to feel dizzy and headache the next day. The parent said that when playing this game, it is almost lucky that the child is alive, CCTV reported.

According to the players’ descriptions, the game involves crouching on the floor against a wall, taking a deep breath, followed by a breath hold, and then having someone else press your chest. The goal is to quickly induce asphyxia and hypoxia.

Other netizens claimed online that several children were hospitalized due to shock after playing the game.

The game is called “dream back to the Tang Dynasty” because players, when they experience suffocation and oxygen deprivation, lose consciousness briefly and may have unusual sensations. Hallucinations can even occur depending on individual physical conditions.

Some Internet users also shared online their “visions and sensations” after playing the game, which are generally bizarre and vary widely. Some described seeing scenes from their childhood, others reported “dream-like landscapes,” and some even felt like they were accessing “past life memories.”

Liu Shaobo, a doctor from the neurosurgery department of the Second People’s Hospital of Hunan Province, told CCTV that the choking game requires chest pressure and breathing restriction, which reduces blood flow to the heart, resulting in reduced blood and oxygen supply to the brain. . In severe cases, players may suffer from loss of consciousness and failure of vital organ functions, which directly threatens the players’ lives.

According to public data, this game originated among teenagers in some regions of Southeast Asia. It was introduced in mainland China in the late 1990s and spread to some primary schools, secondary schools and universities.

In 2004, China’s Ministry of Education took decisive steps to prevent the spread of harmful games, which pose mental and physical risks to young students, after learning about the spread of the suffocating game among students.

Global times