About

Chinese TikTok Streamer's Hand Cut Off is a viral video of a Chinese TikToker purportedly getting his hand cut off by a man with a sword or machete during a Douyin (Chinese TikTok) livestream. The incident took place on or around May 23rd, 2023, when a video of the stream was reposted to Twitter and reported on by AsiaOne, including a photograph of the severed hand laying on the ground. The shock media inspired discussions and further videos on TikTok over the following days as the story spread, including clips reacting to the term "Chinese Streamer's Hand Cut Off" trending on the app.

Origin

On May 23rd, 2023, Chinese Twitter^[1] user @whyyoutouzhele posted a video from Douyin (the Chinese version of TikTok) that shows a man with a sword, purportedly named Luo, run up behind two streamers, Shi and Ye, at a coffee shop. Luo slashes at the streamers, they turn to look at him, run off camera and then he swings, cutting off one of the streamer's hands. The hand can be seen flying back into the frame from off-camera (shown below). The post gained over 9,000 likes in two weeks. The incident took place in Xiamen, Fujian.

In a later comment, the Twitter user also shared an image of the streamer's dismembered hand sitting on the pavement (shown below, left, censored). The next day, the user added a police report to the thread, claiming that the sword wielder, suspected to be a man named Luo, got into an argument with the streamers prior to the incident (shown below, right, translated). On May 25th, AsiaOne^[2] then reported on the story.

Spread

The video of the incident went viral online and became the subject of discourse on English-speaking TikTok. On May 25th, 2023, TikToker^[3] @baldnewsnetwork posted a video sharing the story, garnering over 1.1 million views in two weeks (shown below, left). Dexerto reported on the story that day on Twitter,^[4] garnering over 24,500 likes in a similar timeframe.

On May 28th, TikToker^[5] @goofyahhjack0 posted a video meme captioned, "TikTok can't be that bad," then showing several examples of arguably inappropriate trending topics on TikTok, including, "Chinese Streamer's Hand Cut Off," garnering over 59,000 views in a week (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References