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China Is Going Crazy For 'Ice Crunch' Videos Of People Chewing Ice Blocks

China Is Going Crazy For 'Ice Crunch' Videos Of People Chewing Ice Blocks

This cool new trend is also a good way to earn a bit of lolly if enough people are watching.

Tom Wood

Tom Wood

Right, you're probably well aware by now that the internet can be a strange and disturbing place. There's a lot of very bizarre and sometimes terrifying shit that happens online.

Luckily for us, this particular craze comes from the bizarre but mostly harmless part of the internet.

Bloggers and Vloggers in China have been posting loads of videos online of themselves crunching through elaborate blocks of ice and chewing on the ice.

It's the latest trend in China - eating crunchy ice - and some of the videos have got millions of views.

Like this video:

Apparently people get a kick out of the sounds that are made when someone crunches the ice between their teeth, as well as seeing the ornate shapes that the ice has been moulded into.

The ice blocks are usually coloured and have been frozen into shapes like a giant orange fish, a heart, and a butterfly.

Live streaming is huge business in China (is there anything in a country of more than a billion people that isn't huge business?) and the market is apparently worth an estimated £3.1 billion ($4.4 billion) which four times as much as it was worth in 2015.

China's market has evolved to meet the demands of people wanting to become famous online and there are now courses at colleges that teach students to become vloggers.

As you've seen, the ways to do this are varied. You can show off your weird talent, you could sing or dance (the old fashioned way) or you could crunch some ice up. Anything goes, basically.

They earn money from tips and virtual money that is given to them by the people who watch their videos as well as a commission that comes from the video site based upon how mnay people watch the video and how many clicks it gets.

And boy do they get some clicks. A 10-second clip of a woman eating a goldfish made of ice can get millions of views.

Some of the live streaming hosts can earn up to one million yuan (£114,000) every month, according to Tai Zi, the live streaming director of Tunshou Entertainment.

'Ice Crunch'.
Twitter / CGTN

However, people often go too far in their quest to become the next big thing online. Just recently a 26 year old vlogger climbed to the top of a skyscraper and fell to his death trying to film himself doing pull-ups on the top.

Probably better off sticking to chewing the ice cubes, mate.

Featured Image Credit: YouTube

Topics: Viral, World News, Weird, China, YouTube