"Flash play" becomes popular among urban young people

"I am going shopping after work. Who would like to join me?" During her work break, Xiang Meng, working in a publishing company, sent a message in a QQ group. Soon she received a response from a girl, "I would like to." Then they quickly discussed the shopping and made an agreement through the Internet. After work, the two girls who did not know each other before at all headed straight for Wangfujing and went shopping together until 10 pm.

Qingyue, a Beijing girl, participated in a "freeze program" on June 28, 2008. People just walk freely on the street. When a signal is given, all participants stop and keep still for 3 to 5 minutes. "We wanted to be in contrast with the surrounding pedestrians who were moving, the program was purely for fun," she said. All participants registered for the activity on the Internet, and around 200 participants showed up on that day.

So far on douban.com, 1,898 people have expressed their interest in the activity of "Flash play group: a one-day tour in an unfamiliar city with strangers" launched by Li Xu. 1,036 people have said they are willing to participate in the activity. The rapid popularity of "flash play" was something Li never expected. "It may precisely dovetail with a certain social mentality. Actually, the 'flash play' is pretty much like 'to drown one's sorrows in liquor' or 'to beat scarecrows,' all of which are cathartic methods of expressing emotions. Anyway, to go out for a walk is better than to stay home alone," Li explained.

Why "flash play?" According to the survey, "to relieve pressure" is the primary purpose and this was chosen by 51.1 percent of the respondents; 47.3 percent said they saw the real benefit in "changing the environment to be properly refreshed"; 45.9 percent chose "flash play" in order to "satisfy curiosity;" 31.6 percent chose it because "it is very exciting;" 38.3 percent believed that by joining "flash play" they could make more friends; 26.2% favored it in order to reduce their time spent at home. The rest 12.3 percent expressed "the only reason is to have fun."

"Flash play group:" Loving only strangers?

Yan thought that for strangers going out to have a fun together, character is not an important factor and the key lies in a participant being willing to talk. He added, "When I chat with my college friends, some topics had already been talked about at college and other topics had also been mentioned many times. At last, I wonder how come the topics were limited only to housing, work and gossip. Talking with strangers instead is a refreshing feeling."

"The deepest psychological motivation is simply the need of a companion,"said Sisi, a psychological worker born in the 1980's, to reporters from the China Youth Daily. The established contact and entertainment patterns among familiar friends are hard to change. A "flash play group" just offers many other forms of entertainment. Once joined, a participant will be encouraged to try something he or she had previously not even thought about doing, such as camping and hiking.

31.1 percent surveyed said that as their network of contacts is becoming increasingly small, they have to find companions among strangers; 29.1 percent said that they may be willing to open their hearts to strangers.

Dr. Meng Peixin, a psychologist, analyzes that such relationships with strangers can ease stress, with the condition that the participant, as well as the group, are mentally healthy, because it not only offers a chance of acting as a whole new self, but also allows people to avoid the normal stress they have in daily groups. There is a period of "elegant distance" between group members, enabling them to fully relieve and perhaps reinvent themselves.

"There is a popular saying of 'loving only strangers,' because strangers do not know your"past," so you may temporarily forget your anxieties. Such strangers do not belong to any type of my network of contacts, so it does not matter to say things like 'how I feel about Tom, Dick and Harry,' because they did not know Tom, Dick or Harry," said Sisi.

When asked about the reason"flash play" is so popular, 43 percent said that they wanted to flee a familiar environment to seek something new with strangers in strange cities and 45.0 percent said it is easier for them to feel at ease in front of strangers than in front of acquaintances.

"Flash play" should not emcompass all of someone's social contact, but it should be just the beginning of social contact.

Zhong Gulan, a psychologist at the Psychological Consulting and Research Center at Beijing Normal University, said that in daily social contact, if people have worries and fears, they will often use thick "shells" to conceal them; if they have no intimate friends, they will feel lonely. If these are the reasons for participating in "flash play,"then "flash play" will just be a temporary solution like taking a dose of pain-killer. The fundamental question is how to escape from fears or how to begin to expose their vulnerabilities.