Photo: Screenshot from Sina Weibo

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. As of Monday, no similar cases have been reported, according to China Central Television (CCTV), citing local education authority staff, who added that follow-up work has been arranged to strengthen life education.

According to a parent of a student from a local school, a game known called "dream back to Tang Dynasty" or "three seconds of death" has been popular on campus these days and the parent's child fainted, screamed, and broke out in a cold sweat while playing the game and continued to feel dizzy with a headache the next day. The parent said that playing this game, it's almost a luck that that the child is alive, CCTV reported.

According to players' descriptions, the game involves crouching on the ground against a wall, deep breathing followed by breath-holding, and then having someone else press on their chest. The goal is to quickly induce asphyxiation 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 Tang Dynasty" because as players experience asphyxiation and oxygen deprivation, they briefly lose consciousness and may have unusual sensations. Hallucinations may even occur depending on individual physical conditions.

Some netizens also shared online their "visions and sensations" after playing the game, which are generally bizarre and vary greatly. Some described seeing childhood scenes, others reported "dreamlike landscapes," and some even felt they accessed "memories of a past life."

Liu Shaobo, a doctor from the neurosurgery department of Hunan Province No.2 People's Hospital, told CCTV that the choking game requires chest pressure and breath restriction, which reduces blood flowing back to the heart, resulting in reduced blood and oxygen flow to the brain. In severe cases, the players can suffer from loss of consciousness and failure of vital organ functions, directly threatening players' lives.

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

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

Global Times