TikTok alcohol death: Chinese influencer dies after livestreaming downing several bottles of Baijiu spirit

A social media star has been found dead just hours after his followers witnessed him drink many bottles of extremely strong alcohol on a live video on his page.

The 34-year-old Chinese man, who was known as Sanqiange or Brother Three Thousand on TikTok and Instagram, but whose real name was Wang Moufeng, died earlier this month. His death reportedly came within hours of him filming himself drinking a high quantity of the extremely strong spirit Baijiu on 16 May.

Baijiu, also known as shaojiu, is a colourless Chinese liquor which is known for being a high-strength alcohol which has between 35% and 60% of alcohol by volume. Moufeng had been taking part in a contest with another influencer on the Chinese version of TikTok, Douyin when he ended up drinking several bottles of the spirit. Just 12 hours later, on the morning of 17 May, his family found him dead, according to The Mirror.

Chinese media has reported that Moufeng, who lived in Lianyungang, in Jiangsu province, had been taking part in an online challenge called PK which sees influencers taking part in various battles against each other in order to win gifts and rewards from their viewers. There is, however, also a punishment for the person who does not win, and in this instance it is thought the punishment was to drink the multiple bottles of Baijiu. The video showing Moufeng taking part in the challenge and subsequently drinking the alcohol went viral as it was being filmed but is no longer available to view on the platform. 

A funeral was held for Moufeng on Saturday 20 May, as reported by The Independent. A friend of Moufeng, identified only as Zhao, told local media they had watched him during the livestream, according to LBC. He said: “I don’t know how much he had consumed before I tuned in. But in the latter part of the video, I saw him finish three bottles before starting on a fourth. The PK games ended at around 1am and by 1pm, (when his family found him) he was gone”.

Zhao also said that Moufeng had a history of filming himself drinking alcohol and posting the footage online. Moufeng, who had 44,000 followers, had allegedly also been earlier penalised for posting drinking videos as the app prohibits content that shows drinking, with penalties including warnings and even a ban.

This is not the first time in recent years that social media users have died or been injured after filming themselves drinking and posting those videos online. Earlier this year, students in the US were hospitalised after taking part in a BORG TikTok drinking game which sees people drink a half-gallon of water and a half-gallon of alcohol mixed together. In 2019, another Chinese man named Chu, aged 29, died after he live-streamed himself drinking alcohol in a supermarket in Dalian, Liaoning province. In 2018, another social media user with the online name Dafei died shortly after he recorded himself drinking alcohol and cooking oil.