TitlepageHonorsDepartment

Wesleyan University The Honors College

An Intimate Game: An Ethnography of Game

Companionship

Yihan Lin

Class of 2021

A thesis submitted to the

faculty of Wesleyan University

in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the

Degree of Bachelor of Arts

with Departmental Honors in Anthropology

Middletown, Connecticut April, 2021

Acknowledgment

If someone asks me the question “what is your greatest achievement in life”

ever again in an interview, this thesis would be the first certain answer I ever had.

Although it is nowhere close to my ambitious plan originally conceived when I

was only a naïve college junior, the fact that it is completed against all the

difficulties posed by a global pandemic qualifies it as a little personal miracle.

This thesis is also the culmination of the past eight long years. I am

privileged enough to enjoy the opportunity of studying abroad since the age of 15,

and I am fortunate enough to have supports from countless people. I thank all

teachers and professors I have encountered in this foreign country, for they have

paved the way for my intellectual pursuits. I give my special thanks to Professor

Betsy Traube and Professor Joey Weiss for advising this thesis in the past

academic year.

I am in debt to everyone willing to be interviewed, including all the

companions I know only by their online avatar and BIXIN’s management team,

who granted permission to conduct fieldwork on their platform.

I thank my friends who remained on campus in Fall 2020, especially all of

you living in 34 Lawn and 64 Pearl. Although my work is all about virtual

companionship, I cherish our physical interactions because, without them, I could

not have stayed sane in the solitude of writing.

I thank my parents for everything I have. These pages can never contain all

that you had done for me. You have always supported my decisions

unconditionally and try to provide all sorts of resources that might be helpful. You

have my most sincere gratitude and love.

Yihan Lin

April 20, 2021

Introduction

Winter 2020 was a challenging time. The COVID-19 pandemic had

terrorized all of China and led to a national shut down. Adding to my fear for the

health of my friends and family back home, I realized that potential thesis ideas I

had been incubating for the past year were no longer viable, since in-person field

work in China would be unsafe. Just when I was worrying over everything in my

life, a casual conversation with a friend provided me with some new inspirations.

This friend of mine is a top-ranking gamer who was almost recruited by e-

sport clubs to be a professional player. Although he did not choose to become a

professional gamer, he still turned his talent into profit by coaching others in his

free time. Coaching is an activity commonly seen in competitive multiplayer

online games in which teamwork is required and gaming skill is highly valued.

Professional or highly-skilled amateur gamers are paid to accompany their

customers in these games and help them to improve their success rate and

ranking. Sometimes, these gamers would log into their customers’ accounts and

directly play for them. Such service is usually called boosting. That day, my

friend complained about a bizarre encounter he had with a customer:

“When we just logged into the game, this guy, in his thirties, I guess, told

me: ‘Hey kid, I don’t mind if we win this round or not. I don’t even care about

how good you are. I just want to find someone to play games with me.’ Then he

goes on telling me about how wealthy, but at the same time, how lonely he is. He

was telling me his life story! I was stunned and felt super awkward. I really didn’t

know how to respond, so I just listened and echoed him occasionally with ‘yes’

and ‘sure, man’.” My friend sighed and shrugged.

“Empty, lonely, mid-aged man, huh?” I teased. “Do you get that a lot?”

“Well, some clients are chatty for sure. But he was over the top. I usually

just play the game in silence, you know. He should just look for a girl companion

to satisfy his emotional needs. Why me?”

“Yeah, I wonder about that too,” I said. “Aren’t you, a skilled companion,

more expensive than those emotional companions

?”

No sooner had I made that comment then my head started to spin. Why

did we naturally associate girl gamers with emotional companionship, while

viewing cis-straight males like my friend as valued for their gaming skills, a rarer,

and thus more expensive type of labor, which should not involve responsibility

for solving his customer’s emotional problems? From that moment, I decided that

paid gaming companions, especially women, would be the subject of my thesis.

Starting in summer 2020, I conducted online field research on the largest game

companionship platform in Mainland China called BIXIN. Thanks to the easy

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Emotion/entertainment companion (



) and skill companion (



) are two

labels specifically used by female companions to describe themselves. While emotion companion

is a euphemism for humble gaming skill, skill companion is an assertion of techne in gaming in

addition to companionship.

accessibility of the platform even during a global pandemic, I was able to stay

virtually in my field over the next six months and interview more than a dozen

companions and one company executive via voice call. All of my informants are

referred by acronyms of their online avatars. From the vantage point of this

emergent industry in China, I will explore the gender politics of intimacy,

emotional labor, and skill within the gaming community as they are negotiated

among working companions, corporate interests, state regulations, and public

opinion.

Game Companionship v. Coaching/Boosting

In the English-speaking world, what I call gaming companionship is

sometimes called coaching or boosting. However, rather than using the English

words by which this general category of work is designated, I choose to translate

the Chinese word



(pei wan)–game companionship–literally. The industry

has taken a distinctive shape in mainland China, and I use the lexical distinction

to differentiate it from its Western counterpart.

The key difference here is in the types of labor these service jobs involve

and the workers who perform them. Conventional boosting and coaching in China

are circumscribed within a circle of very devoted gamers, all equipped with full-

on digital gear. The service is usually catered to cis-male gamers and performed

by other cis-male gamers. Like other secondary industries of video games–gold-

farming and gaming guilds, for example–both boosting and game companionship

grow out of the preexisting social connection between players (Zhang & Fung,

2013), but whereas conventional boosting and coaching are all about meritocratic

hierarchy in the world of video gaming, game companionship accentuates human

emotional connection rather than flashy battle records. Therefore, I conceptualize

game companionship as a form of primarily emotional labor.

The transformation of this industry has to do with the increasingly visible

presence of female gamers. Though the world of gaming has always been a

predominantly cis-male space, and a masculinist bias is even more explicit in

competitive online multiplayer games, the unmarked masculine gamer identity

has been challenged repeatedly in recent years. In North America, media scholars

see the notorious #GamerGate as a misogynist backlash against a more diverse

gaming community that renders traditional gamer identity “culturally irrelevant”

(Condis, 2018: 2). With an eye on the public image of gaming, major video game

companies pledged to create a more inclusive and diverse gaming experience. In

China, a similar transformation in the industry is also under way. With the

popularization of smart phones and mobile gaming, video games have become a

much more accessible form of leisure to Chinese people regardless of age or

gender. Now, about half of the Chinese gamer population is constituted by

women

. With its multitude of female players, debate over the toxic/militant

masculine gaming culture has also made its way to a public audience. Female

gamers continuously seek to “make trouble” for the assumed masculinity of the

world of video gaming.

However, the inclusion of women in the gaming world does not

necessarily subvert the dominant gender dynamic. As Judith Butler has observed

in Gender Trouble: “subversive performances always run the risk of becoming

deadening clichés through their repetition and, most importantly, through their

repetition within commodity culture where “subversion” carries market value”

(1999: xxi). Today, we see an increasing number of games designed to appeal to

“female gamers,” advertised for their lack of intense competition and emphasis on

“female-oriented” ascetics. These marketing strategies manufactured a “‘Player

Two’… framing women as consumptive of specific styles and themes” (Chess,

2017: 4). Not only does the market fashion women as a gendered segment, the

service provided by these female gamers is also categorized differently from that

of their male counterparts, as mostly emotional and supportive to the gameplay.

Consequently, the female-dominated industry of game companionship is mostly

considered as a form of emotional work, catered to fulfill a gendered ideology

“circulating in the (male) gamers’ community… that the perceived playability of

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

MobData. (2018). Report on development of China’s game industry in 2018 (in Chinese). http://

www.199it.com/archives/812155.html

10!

a game requires that at least one superficially attractive and entertaining woman

participates” (Liu and Lai, 2020: 9). I see the transformation of this industry as a

strategy of “envelopes,” a means to maintain the magical circle constructed

around the identity of “a gamer” (Phillips, 2020: 14). The disruption brought by

female gamers, and female game coaches is contained by labelling them “gamer

girls,” rendering them “knowable” and thus “containable” within the existing

system of gender (Condis, 2018: 46).

Even though the transformation might have started with the influx of

women companions, the entire industry has been reshaped under the flag of

“companionship.” Many companions I have interviewed suggested that

companionship, or



(pei), is at the center of their job. One male companion

told me: “If all you want is a boost in your ranking, then you should just buy an

account or pay some professional players to play for you. It would save your time,

and it is much cheaper. Why do you even need to be present and play games

yourself at all?” Therefore, even though gaming skill is still a valuable

commodity in this industry, there is a consensus among companions that

companionship is the key commodity in this industry.

However, the involvement of male companions, which could seemingly

subvert the association between companionship labor and femininity, does not

alter the underlying gender ideology in this community. The industry of game

companionship has absorbed these subversions and remapped them onto the

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conventional gender binary. From the moment of my registration, the platform

asked me to choose my gender from the only two choices and it could not be

changed later. After I selected “female,” all of the recommended companions

were men. Even though past studies of cyberspace have also showed that Internet

user could choose to present themselves in a role that feel more “true” than their

actual self (Boellstorff, 2008: 120), BIXIN has extensive measure to ensure the

digital avatar matches the companion’s offline physical appearance and

“biological sex” registered in the national identification system. In addition,

transgender discourse has not really caught on with the Chinese public. None of

my interlocutors seemed to have the possibility of transgender performance in

mind, even though they were all aware that the gender shown on others’ profile

pages might not match their biological sex. During our conversations, I

sometimes hinted at the potential for transgender performances, but they all

thought I was talking about the problem of identity fakery on the Internet. Thus,

considering the cultural context of Mainland China and the normative

heterosexuality and gender binary that are at the very root of this industry, I

would use gender categories in a more conventional sense while remain reflexive

of its implications.

Theoretical Engagements

12!

Game companionship stands at the intersection of game studies and

feminist analyses of emotional labor. Many analysis of emotional service work

are situated in a postindustrial context. Theorists have observed the absorption of

private sphere activities such as child-rearing and intimate life into the realm of

public commerce (Hochschild, 2003: 2). The shift from private to public is

brought by the commodification of emotional and sexual relationships in

contemporary societies (Bernstein 2007). However, despite these changes, the

normative gender ideologies are reproduced in the marketplace, rendering

commercial care work as intrinsically “feminine” and “unskilled” (Koch, 2016:

705). Game companionship is a perfect example of commercialized intimacy. It is

intimate both in a temporal-spatial sense, a proximity enabled by communications

technology, and also in a corporeal sense in that the work conditions the

emotional responses (Hochschild, 1983, 2012: 89) and even daily lifestyle of the

companions (Mankekar and Gupta, 2016: 35). Understood as a form of emotional

service work rather than professional assistance, like coaching, the

commercialized nature of companionship gives customers more weight in

defining the content of the service. Within the community, companions would call

their clients “boss,” which clearly indicates the hierarchical relationship between

the participants. Of course, emotional companionship and professional assistance

(helping the customers to win the game) do not mutually exclude each other, as

companions are often asked to perform both at the same time. However, coaching

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entails a different power dynamic as the coach is the one with professional

knowledge and can thus direct the customer. Companions, by contrast, are

expected to comply with the demands of their “boss,” rather than giving

directions.

The intimate nature and the often unequal power relationship between

companions and their customers give rise to a sexualized image of the industry.

Many customers think the companions would provide “extra services” if they are

paid enough, since they are already selling intimacy for money. I would be lying

if I said the sexualized public image was not what first draw me to the entire

project. In addition, I have found academic investigations into sex work extremely

helpful in conceptualizing the pursuit and the performance of “realness” in this

ephemeral relationship (Bernstein, 2007). However, I have to stress that

companions fiercely reject any association of their own service with sex work,

even though they might accuse other companions of conflating them. On the one

hand, sex work is illegal in China, so these rumors could bring unwanted state

attention and regulation to the platforms. On the other hand, prostitution is still

considered a shameful occupation by the general public, so all the companions I

have interviewed reject this label. In fact, besides the companions, the platform

management is also troubled by game companion’s sexualized image as it enters

the public spotlight. As an ethnographer, I wish to respect the feelings of my

interlocutors and counteract this public perception by tapping into the gendered

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assumptions behind care labor. Therefore, though literatures on sexual commerce

could help frame the project theoretically, I do not draw any substantive parallel

between game companionship and sexual commerce. I believe the participants’

rejection of this stigmatizing image merits our attention more than the

stigmatization itself.

Moreover, some of my interlocutors don’t consider BIXIN, or game

companionship in general, as work. Rather, they see the platform as an alternative

form of social media that allows them to find people who are equally enthusiastic

about gaming. The attitude is partly affected by the blurry boundary between

work and play in gaming industries. When leisure is turned into a form of work by

enterprising individuals, the dichotomy between work and play is challenged.

Besides, with over 50 million registered accounts and 6 million certified

companions, BIXIN has gathered a multitude of users who come to the platform

with different understandings and intentions. A substantial portion of the users see

the monetary transaction as insignificant, compared to the interpersonal

relationship they could acquire on this platform. Such attitude also affects their

spending behavior and working habits on the platform. Thus, while the literatures

on commercialized emotional labor is useful in the structural analysis of the

industry, they don’t provide a sufficient analytical ground on the individual level.

This is where I turn to feminist literatures on the subject of gaming for more

context relevant inspirations.

15!

Throughout the entire project, I use Amanda Phillips’ definition of

“gamer” as the organizing concept. Gamer is not just a person who claims to have

an investment in video gaming. Rather, gamer is “an individual traversing

complicated technological, narrative, ludic, economic, and social systems

simultaneously and at will” (Phillips, 2020: 8) The gamer is bigger than the video

gaming fandom, and the game is also bigger than the compilation of algorithms

and graphic contained on a screen. Or, as Mckenzie Wark explains in her Gamer

Theory, the neoliberal order we live in today is a “gamespace,” and every one of

us is rendered as a gamer, “competing not against enemies of class or faith or

nation but only against other gamers” (2007: 24), dreaming of a meritocratic and

always progressing towards perfection. In this project, everyone is a gamer,

including the companions, the customers, the company, and me, the researcher.

We are all situated in the gendered and classed gamespace, trying to maneuver

our way through the landscape. In addition, the metaphor of the game also

invokes the performative nature of gender and sexuality. Rather than a fixed

category, gender is a never-ending game, with repetitive practices like those that

players have to perform over and over in massive multiplayer online role-playing

games (MMOPRGs) to assert themselves (Condis, 2018: 8).

In Chapter 1, I first lay out the infrastructural design and the strategies of

capital accumulation of BIXIN that help reproduce the normative gender

ideologies in the industry. I will situate my analysis in the larger debate around

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the postindustrial service economy and gender performativity, while attending to

cultural specificities of China. Most importantly, I will focus on the gamified

gender performance on this platform. Companions are required to enact gender

and sexuality in a specific way in order to be rewarded on this platform, and these

performances reinscribe the gendered myth surrounding women gamers,

marginalizing them in the gaming meritocracy but including them as desirable

accessories to the masculine game.

In chapter 2, I will first discuss the sexualized image of game

companionship and the public image management campaigns undertaken by

BIXIN. Their campaign strategy is reinstating the dominance of masculine game,

characterized by its suspension of selected emotional companion services and

professionalization of the industry. In this chapter, my attention is on the

platform and the entrepreneurial interest of the company. Not unlike the

companions, BIXIN is also trapped by the stigmatization of emotional labor that

results from gendered biases, since the reputation has brought state oversights and

interventions to the platform. However, unlike the company managers who are

more capable of responding to restrictions, the companions lack the capital or

means to smoothly navigate this community that both marginalizes them and

capitalizes off their sexuality. That is why, in Chapter 3, I choose to present the

personal narratives of the companions. These are stories of negotiations between

commitments to pleasure in gaming and the misogynistic culture permeating the

17!

community. These are not stories of disruption or liberation. Women companions

play against a set of skewed and ambiguous rules, but most of them choose to

ignore the unfair condition and retain the limited pleasure. I am constantly

frustrated by these stories. Nevertheless, while the structural power of gender,

capital, and, sometimes, the state is difficult to overcome, the multitude of

registered companions in BIXIN, coming from different occupations, economic

backgrounds, age groups, geographic locations, is implicitly disruptive of any

generalizing discourse. While my field experience could not exhaust the

complexity of this industry or this platform alone, I hope the different stories told

by the companions will provide insight into how they struggle, negotiate, and

maneuver in the field of game companionship, and eventually provide openings

for a feminist intervention.

18!

Chapter 1

Like any customer or game companion who wishes to start on this

platform, downloading BIXIN from the App Store was the first official step of my

research. After switching back to my account on the Chinese Apple App Store,

my search for BIXIN generated what I was looking for, followed by other

assorted results: an at-home massage service, a “truth & dare” game for a sexy

night, dating apps, and many other gaming companion platforms. Assuming that

the list is ranked by the degree of similarity to our target app, it is somewhat

amusing that Apple App Store places the massage, which unashamedly appeals to

the erotic image of the massage parlor in its app description, right below BIXIN.

In contrast to its neighbor in the app store, BIXIN’s content description is formal

and professional. It highlights the number of subscribers and registered

companions, considerably higher than that of other competing platforms, and its

partnership with several well-known e-sports clubs.

Click, download. The blue button with a hand gesture making a heart

popped up on the home screen after a few seconds. Now, I finally got to see the

actual platform, the image of which had been mediated by many company

advertisements, public criticisms, and my wild imaginations.

As with any other mobile app today, the first thing required for users was

registration. However, before I could proceed with inputting any other personal

19!

information, the dialog box asked me to choose my gender: are you a boy or a

girl? Above the button was another line that warned: the setting cannot be

changed after the registration. After selecting the cute icon of a girl wearing two

buns and inputting a user name, I scrolled through the numbers to enter my date

of birth. The default date of birth is 18 years before the registration date and one

cannot go lower, but just like any adult website that asks for users’ ages, it relies

on self-reporting.

Finally, the app asks for the games one usually plays. The list consisted of

nine games: at the top are Honors of the King and Game for Peace, the Chinese

adaptation of League of Legends (LoL) and PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds

(PUBG) for mobile phones

, the original LoL, PUBG, and CS: GO, Teamfight

Tactics, Dota 2, Overwatch, and CrossFire. These are the most popular video

games among Chinese gamers in general. Take Honors of the King, for example:

on Chinese New Year, 2020, the number of daily active users had surpassed 100

million, and the daily revenue had hit 2 billion RMB

. Although the sales number

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Both games are owned by Tencent and have undergone substantial modification so they could

be issued under the current state regulation. For example, in Game for Peace, Chinese mobile

version of PUBG, the bleeding scene has been substituted for special light effects and the death

scene has been substituted for surrender. The game has also adopted an anti-terrorist campaign as

its background setting, so gun violence and other military actions could be legitimized, for more

details on state censorship and its influence on Chinese gaming industry, see D. H. Downing. “The

Realities of Virtual Play: Video Games and Their Industry in China.” Media, Culture & Society,

vol. 30, no. 4, SAGE Publications Ltd, July 2008, pp. 515–29. SAGE Journals,

doi:10.1177/0163443708091180.

Sina News, “A New Milestone for Honors of King, Daily Active User Has Surpassed 100

Million” https://finance.sina.com.cn/tech/2020-11-02/doc-iiznctkc9002551.shtml, in Chinese.

20!

was significantly boosted by the mandatory quarantine imposed during the

COVID pandemic, Honors of the King has long been and remains the undisputed

champion cash cow of the Chinese gaming industry. As you can see, most of

these games are either multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) or first/third-

person shooting (FPS/TPS) games, in which “hard skill” and teamwork are highly

valued. Consequently, these are places where game companions are most

commonly seen.

After I chose Honors of the King, which I only learned to play for research

purposes, the homepage revealed itself to me. It roughly divided the screen into

three sections: companion recommendations for newcomers; a shortcut for

different kinds of games supported by the platform; and a story section. The

bottom of the screen allowed users to switch between the homepage, discovery

page, messages, and their own profile pages.

A user who chooses to skip the initial game selection can still find the list

of games on the homepage. Although there are only nine most popular games for

the initial selection, the platform actually supports almost every popular game

with online features that allows players to connect with each other, whether it is

an MMORPG like World of Warcraft or a digital collectible card game like

Hearthstone. There were even sections for Steam users and Nintendo Switch

owners. Besides these big-brand games, the platform also had its own built-in

Gomoku and Connect game.

21!

All companions recommended to me were men. Judging by their profile

photos, which all featured close-ups of their handsome faces, they were all in their

early twenties. They all looked like those influencers online: young, good-

looking, slender, and stylish. For a moment, I thought I was not looking at a game

companion platform, but a social media platform like Tiktok or Instagram. If

those profile pictures reminded me of Tiktok, the story section was an exact

duplicate of those on social media like Tiktok. The two columns of story boxes

featured selfies, short dancing videos, game recordings, snapshots of users’ daily

lives, and every other thing one can see on social media platforms.

Figure 1. BIXIN User Interface

22!

As soon as I opened BIXIN, I realized the platform stands at the nexus of

affect-rich content, interpersonal relationships, various technological

infrastructures, corporate management, strategies of capital accumulation, state

power, gaming culture, and, most importantly, gender and sexuality. Binary

gender and heterosexuality are at the very core of this platform, from the moment

of initial registration. Companionship is the commodity offered by this industry.

The absorption of companionship, once associated with private life, into public

commerce does not change the gendered assumptions around such work. The

heteronormativity that organizes marital and familial relationships is reproduced

in the commercial and predominantly masculine gamer space. Bounded by the

algorithm and other digital infrastructures, companions have to comply with

guidelines provided by the platform infrastructure in order to be rewarded and

stand out among millions of registered companions. Under the economic pressure

to survive in a digital gig economy, I will argue, the real work for these

companions, especially female companions, is to perform normative gender and

sexuality in an authentic way. In the following sections, I will describe the

platform functions, its different services, and state regulations, in that order. The

combination of these entangled forces helps shape the community, the industry,

and the culture of game companionship.

Personal Profile

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After scanning the different sections of the platform, the first thing I did

was to complete my profile page. Although the registration asks for basic

information, one must also provide more detailed information before one can fully

utilize all the functions on the platform. That includes one’s occupation, location,

a profile photo, a short personal statement, and a username other than the

randomly assigned digits. Some of the companions also include a short recording

on their homepages. All information must go through review to ensure that no

state law or platform regulations have been violated, which takes about a week.

Both customers and companions are required to go through the same process. In

fact, every user is a customer and a potential companion by default. One can

apply to be a game companion if one fulfills certain requirements, including, first

and foremost, the completion of one’s personal profile and real-name

authentication. Once the user is authenticated as a companion, a skill section

would be added to her profile page, containing all the games she is certified to

work on. Her ranking, hourly rate, experience, and her reviews would show under

each option. The profile page is also where customers can submit their orders by

simply clicking on the game they want to play. The story timeline follows all the

personal information. Whether or not one is certified as a companion, one can

always post stories on one’s page, though the public channel rarely recommends

posts from non-certified users.

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To me, preparing an appropriate profile picture was the most annoying

step. I did not plan to use my own picture, since I was never fond of the idea of

revealing my face on publicly accessible websites. However, to be certified as a

game companion, a real-person photo that closely features one’s own face is

mandatory. To guide the companions, BIXIN provides an exhaustive list of

inappropriate photos which includes: obstruction of face; group photos; photos of

online influencers; photos with barcode or characters; memes; photos that contain

tattoos, substance, gore, violence, or pornographic contents; cartoon characters;

politically related photos; military uniforms; and national flag (See Figure 2).

Although the censorship might not be as strict as it claims to be, since I have seen

people on the platform using avatars as their profile pictures, I still chose to use a

heavily filtered and beautified selfie like the majority of the companions.

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Figure 2. Photo Requirements

A carefully curated profile page is one of the most important attractions

for companions. Firstly, even though there are various ways for customers and

companions to pair up, the profile page is the gateway where customers can

submit orders. Secondly, the recommendation algorithm prioritizes those who

post stories regularly with topic tags. Once a companion’s story enters the public

channel, their chance of being seen would significantly increase, regardless of

their price or skill level. Indeed, the story section is the most eye-catching section

to any new users. When I was looking for the first group of interviewees, instead

of going with the system recommendation which showed me mostly top-tier male

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companions, I first dived into the public story channel and looked for posts that

caught my interest. Interestingly, while the companion recommendation mostly

shows people of the opposite gender to what the customer has selected, the story

section overwhelmingly consisted of posts from female-identifying companions

of different backgrounds and skill levels. For me, it was the ideal site for

sampling, and for newly certified companions, it is the place for them to promote

themselves and shine.

Moreover, constant digital persona management is essential to

companions if they wish to maintain their often precarious relationships with their

customers. Here, precarity refers to both the temporary interpersonal relationships

contained within the duration of service hours, typical of the online gig economy,

and to the unstable identity of companions. Some long-time companions

acknowledged that they put a lot of effort into managing their pages. The exact

phrase they used was “yíng yè” (), which roughly means managing a

business. Recently, the phrase has been used to describe celebrities who attend

public events, publish new works, or do fanservice… any public performances

that aim at public visibility, and personal income that comes with these

performances. It casts actions as deliberate performances, designed to be put on

display and showcased for instrumental purposes. Such self-management is one

manifestation of the “ideal entrepreneurial self” promoted by a neoliberal

economy. Ilana Gershon (2016) argues that neoliberal subjects are expected to be

27!

flexible and adaptable to a range of work environments, and yet such a resume

might appear “incoherent” in the eyes of employers. Therefore, job-seekers are

required to strategically manage their social appearance, often through curating a

credible online profile, so they can appear authentic and stand out to potential

employers in a crowded marketplace, amidst the flux of information brought by

technological advancement. The need for self-branding is especially important to

those working under unstable economic conditions (Khamis, et al., 2016).

Although the detailed and laborious work of profile management does not count

as part of one’s service time and thus does not generate income directly, it is

integral to one’s labor value on the job market and successful job-seeking. Thus

companions use photos and random snapshots of daily life as documents of

identity. College students might post their homework. An influencer might post

short dancing videos showing off her figure. Gamers might post their game

recording. Besides acting as a reminder of the on-going relationship between

companions and their customers, all of these are carefully curated personas that

affirm the realness of the persons behind their online IDs.

Although Internet users are aware that online performances can differ

from appearance in the physical world in various ways, people still associate

authenticity with resemblance between the physical and the virtual. In the game

companion community, everyone jokes about the possibility of a man pretending

to be a woman by using a voice changer so that he can earn more with the same

28!

gaming skill level. There was also a famous incident where a female game

streamer’s beauty filter malfunctioned and revealed her actual face, very different

from the impression which her voice gave. Putting aside the sexist and gendered

assumptions behind all these jokes, we can still see the pursuit of realness, even

against all of the inauthenticity so often associated with information technology.

Customers expect companions to be their “true selves” online, and the burden of

proof is put on the companions.

One companion I followed identified herself as a college girl who is

studying abroad in the U.K. It is commonly believed that only those who come

from a humble economic background would work as game companions, since the

income this job provides is only desirable compared to other low-paid forms of

hard labor. For someone who is raised in a family affluent enough to send their

child to study abroad, it is an unlikely choice of career. As a result, her identity as

an international student is constantly questioned by her customers. Some even

question the validity of her entire profile. She complained about these accusations

and posted more photos, including her homework in English, as evidence.

Frankly, even as someone who is aware of the complexity of the

authenticity discourse, among hundreds and thousands of companions, I was still

more attracted to those who have a well-established profile page. Through photos,

voice recordings, reviews of their past services, and idiosyncratic posts of daily

life activities, these affect-rich contents foster a vibrant virtual persona that has

29!

some concrete weight to it. As an ethnographer, I feel more confident approaching

companions who are more outspoken on their pages, believing their

expressiveness may translate into their ability and willingness to communicate.

It is no coincidence that this labor of maintaining a public image is

strongly gendered. More so than other virtual personas, when video games are

added to their job description, female gamers carry a heavy burden of proof.

Andrew Zolides (2015) analyzes the cases of two female celebrity gamers who

are always consciously building a professional gamer profile as both their

economic situation and gender identity are in precarity. Marginalized by the larger

“geek masculinity” pervading the gaming industry, female professional gamers

must perform both masculinity and femininity at the same time. On one hand,

they need to prove their ability and dominance over the game played, and on the

other hand, they also need to reaffirm their feminine identity, usually by

displaying sexual attractiveness. Female gamers are still a separate category from

the unmarked male gamers, even though they possess certain qualities usually

attributed to men. They need to be differentiated from other male gamers to be

recognized. Or, as Gershon puts it, one has to be “unique and authentic in the

right way” (2016, 237). Game companions are no doubt influenced by the

overarching gender politics of the gaming industry. Women working as game

companions have to prove that they belong in this community by demonstrating

their skill while also performing their femininity. Unlike professional gamers,

30!

who are assumed to have mastered their craft, companions have to at least show

that they are “engaged.” I remember one of the top-ranking companions once

posted her frayed hands after a day of intense gaming with the caption: “Don’t ask

me if I like gaming or not. Just look at my hand” (see Figure 3).

Figure. 3

As the gateway to the entire platform, the profile page is where we see

performances that aim at creating an atmosphere for building authentic and real

interpersonal relationships, the key commodity of this industry. But before

interpersonal relationships can be validated as genuine, the service providers must

first establish themselves as real. Among the participants of this platform, realness

is associated with identity and physical corporeality. However, the lack of

31!

material body in digital space is a constant reminder to online gamers that what

they see might only be an illusion. Although realness is not taken for granted even

in the physical space, it requires more meticulous work in the virtual. Realness in

cyberspace is a conscious Butlerian performative. And a successful performance

is usually excessive, filled with spectacles, sounds, smells… Nevertheless, the

excessive sensory experience of Internet media is in tension with the authenticity

ideal. In pursuit of realness, we have created more and more contents, and yet the

excesses of the sensory experience, ironically, remind us of the constructed nature

of these experiences. As a result, realness is unstable. It requires constant and

repeated performance to be perpetuated.

Moreover, the warrant of realness is more difficult to attain for women, as

they are excluded from the dominant gamer identity. Not only does a female

companion have to prove that she is an actual person who is capable of providing

her customers with genuine human connection, but she also needs to prove that

she is a qualified gamer, an identity which men could achieve with much less

effort. In the case I provided above, the proof of women’s engagement, or what

Pierre Bourdieu (1994) would call “investment”–the stakes and interest one has in

the game–manifested in the most appalling kind of spectacle: bodily damage. The

gamer identity and femininity form a delicate balance that must be maintained

with extra care. Under-performing or over-performing of either aspect could

undermine their worth as game companions and result in a loss in income, since

32!

potential customers expect both technical proficiency and feminine care.

Therefore, authenticity or realness is never secure. Rather, it is a balance, a

process of negotiation, a dialectic.

Match-Making

There are roughly three ways of match-making

between customers and

game companions. The customer could find companions through the public story

channel or system recommendation. Companions can also approach potential

customers directly through private messaging, if they so choose. Or, they can be

manually matched in the Audition Hall.

Based on one’s selection of gender and preferred games, the system would

automatically recommend companions on the homepage. In my case, since I

chose woman for my gender and Honor of Kings as my interest, the system would

show me mostly top-tier male companions specialized in the same game.

Sometimes, newly registered companions would also be featured. Of course, the

system does not prevent one from deliberately choosing companions of the same

gender, and sometimes, I do see a few female companions on my

recommendation list. In fact, during the course of my fieldwork, homo-social

pairings of customers and companions were not uncommon. Male-male pairing is

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Match-Making is my translation. There are many different ways which the platform used to refer

to this action, and the phrases are commonly used to describe establishing heteronormative

relationships.

33!

protected and licensed by pursuit of “hard skills,” acceptable only in a

meritocratic system.

Besides system recommendations, customers can also post their demands

in the Marketplace, and wait for companions to respond. At the same time, once

the user is certified as a companion, she can also find customers and available

orders on her companion page. Available orders are either posted in the

Marketplace or channeled through Audition Halls.

Every day, the companions are given a limited number of chances to

directly interact with customers through private messages. The system provides

a list of users who are currently online. Compared to other methods, this ensures

the visibility of the companion, but it could be vexing to the customers. Every

time I logged into my account, I would receive on average five messages from

random companions, mostly men. As my overall purchase level rose on BIXIN,

the number of uninvited messages also increased.

Even though BIXIN has a set of recommendation algorithms in operation,

the users are given much more freedom in the match-making process. Unlike

online multiplayer games where the system pairs you up with random teammates

and enemies, BIXIN allows users to choose. After all, the key difference between

playing with random strangers and playing with companions, strangers whom one

has selected, is the chance to choose and, to a certain extent, control the outcome.

34!

The freedom of choice, however, also means more labor needed to be performed

by companions and customers.

Before I conducted any interviews or in-depth conversations, I decided to

be a customer for once and see what it feels like to utilize the companionship

service. As it turned out, unlike e-commerce platforms or other online

commission platforms where everything could be solved by clicking a button, a

lot of preparation and communication is needed before clients and companions

can connect on BIXIN. Partly, it is because the two sides need to communicate

about their respective availabilities, especially when the customer is looking for a

specific companion. A lot of companions complained to me about customers

submitting orders without signaling them first. Although they are not obliged to

take every request sent to them, unanswered orders still affect their overall

performance score calculated by the platform. In a post on an online forum, a

companion describes his game companionship life as anxious and stressful: “You

have to stare at your phone all day so that you don’t miss out on an order, that

includes the time when you are eating and shitting. Every second lost is a loss in

your income.” One of my interlocutors also complained: “Some people think we

are like workers in a call center. When someone calls, we have to pick up the

phone within a couple of seconds. It is not like that! I might be online, but I might

not be there. But people would still give you bad reviews for not responding

quickly enough.”

35!

Therefore, many experienced companions would put “message me before

submitting the order!” along with other personal rules, including warnings against

sexual harassment or any inappropriate interaction that violates the code of

conduct, in the picture right after their profile photo. Though not everyone would

follow this etiquette, it is still a helpful guide to newcomers to the community.

Besides, since BIXIN is an independent platform from all the games it

supports, it does not offer an express portal through which the users could connect

directly. Thus, the clients and the companions need to know other’s username and

find each other manually in the game. When I was trying to submit my first order

for Honor of Kings, my companion could not find me on the gaming server

because I had an iPhone while she used an Android system. As someone

relatively new to the game, I didn’t know people using different operating

systems cannot add each other directly in the game. However, since the game is

owned by Tencent, one of the largest Internet technology companies in China,

who also owns WeChat and QQ, the two most popular instant messaging apps

used by almost all Chinese, users can become friends on WeChat and QQ first

and then find each other in the game. All mobile apps in China today require real-

name authentication, and that process is facilitated by the conglomerate of several

Internet technology companies including Tencent. So when one registers for a

gaming account, the app would require the person to link one’s already verified

36!

social media account for expedient authentication. In Tencent’s case, all gaming

accounts must be created via WeChat or QQ.

But not everyone is comfortable with giving up their private messaging

account on this platform. At least, my WeChat is usually reserved for people I

know in daily life. Adding some stranger I just met seconds ago feels like a

breach of my privacy, especially given that WeChat, unlike QQ, has extensive

privacy settings to protect users from publicity.

For the sake of the research,

however, I reluctantly agreed. It took me, on my first order, almost ten minutes to

add my companion in the game. And yet, not all customers, or all companions,

want to go through the same laborious process. Most customers would just ditch

the order and find another companion. Other companions had also rejected me

because we were not on the same server. Those work as full-time game

companions would have multiple accounts ready on each server.

Among all the companions I have interviewed, the attitude towards

extending relationships outside of the platform varies drastically. Some of them

think companionship relationship is only safe when contained to virtual space,

because one could easily block unwanted advances. Women companions are

especially cautious of any invitations to meet offline. However, there are also

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

By this, I mean WeChat accounts and related contents are not publicly available. Unlike

Facebook where people can search for other people’s names, WeChat accounts cannot easily be

found. It is more like a phone number. Unless the information is exchanged in-person, it cannot be

attained.

37!

those who welcome offline relationships with open arms. It is difficult of

generalize what companions think about the difference between offline and online

lives, but the agenda of the platform is much easier to tell. BIXIN wishes users’

online representations to match their actual bodily appearance, which is why it

has such an exhaustive list of requirements for profile photo. However, the

platform discourages offline meetings between users. BIXIN used to provide

offline companionship service based on user’s geographic locations years ago, but

the service has been terminated long ago because it could be easily accused of

soliciting prostitution. In fact, most companions today consider “offline order” to

be a euphemism for prostitution, so any suggestion from the customer would be

considered offensive. The overtly sexualized relationship between heterosexual

pairings of customers and companions is acceptable in the online space, because

physical intercourse could not happen, but it brings dubious legal responsibilities

in the physical world. Therefore, BIXIN wants authenticity in the virtual space by

encouraging the companions to present more of their actual self, and yet it wants

the relationships to be contained in the online world, or better, their platform

alone. It seems paradoxical, but both features are characteristic of the increasingly

“platformtized” Internet culture, where online communities are transformed into

institutions that monetizes connectivity (van Dijck, 2013). The culture of

connectivity demands performance of authenticity, but in order to capitalize off,

38!

and manage, socialites, the connections must be contained within the virtual

border of the app.

The Audition Hall

The “Audition Hall” was nothing I expected it to be.

From my previous conversation with my informants and discussion

threads on online forum, the audition hall is supposed to be “the incarnation of the

lewd male gaze,” a phrase repeatedly used in debates about feminism

. The

customers would demand whatever they want and those companions who are

desperate to get an order would do anything to please their potential customers.

“It’s like the selection of concubines in ancient times.” This is how more

than one of my interlocutors described the order hall to me. Many companions I

interviewed told me: “You know those girls in there. They will do everything so

long as they can win the chance. They speak in those voices so sweet that it

makes you sick, but men like that. They will even moan just to get your

attention.” With that image at the back of my mind, I opened the order hall for the

first time.

After a few seconds of loading, the gentle and calming sound of the host’s

voice flowed into my ear. She quickly but clearly repeated her customer’s

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

As discussion around feminism grew on the Chinese Internet, some phrases like “male gaze” or

“patriarchal society” have become part of the daily vocabularies. Therefore, these catch phrases

have appeared repeatedly in related discussions.

39!

requirements. “Honor of Kings, girl, ios system, VX (the shorthand for Wechat)

server, Master (ranking) and above, is that right?” She verified with the customer.

“Right.” The customer typed in the public channel.

“Then I will submit the order for you. There will be three rounds of

auditions by default. The order is sent, please wait for a few seconds.”

I took the time to glance over the chat room. At the top, there were the

virtual seats of the host and the customer. The host is moderator of the room,

responsible for channeling orders. Below them, there were eight empty spots

reserved for the companions for auditions. The public chat channel occupied the

lower half of the screen. Upon my entry, it automatically posted the ground rules

for the chat room: “people under the age of 18 are not encouraged to use the chat

room; the cost for jumping the queue is 999 diamonds and the cost to jump the

line again is double the price; please see the announcement for detailed rules of

the chat room.”

40!

Figure 4. Audition Hall Chat Room

“Now I will present the first round of audition,” The host announced, and

eight photos popped up in the once vacant audition seats, “Please remember to

make your introduction succinct. All contents must be game related, and please no

‘edge ball’ behavior. mic number 1 please go.”

A sweet but light voice took over: “Thank you, host! Hi, here is mic

number 1. I have a Grand Master rank account on the VX server. I play mid-lane

and support, but I can also play the ADC (Attack Damage Carry) if needed. I’m

funny, easy, and talkative. Hope we can have a great time together! Mic 2 please

go.” Then the rest of the companions followed suit. They first politely thank the

one before them and then introduce their level of gaming skill, ranks, and

41!

positions one by one. At the end, they would call on the next in line. Each

audition usually takes around 15 to 30 seconds. After the last speaker, the host

asks if the customer has found anyone they like. After three rounds of auditions or

whenever the customer finds a companion to their liking (they rarely left without

selecting a companion), the customer submits the order right on-site, before both

the customer and their preferred companion leave the room.

To a certain extent the “concubine selection,” a metaphor which seems to

be shared among companions and customers regardless of their gender, is apt.

The companions are put on display. They have to present their training and their

voices in order to win over the “emperor,” who on this platform is called “boss”

老板

(láo bãn). Though everyone could use the audition hall to find whichever

companions they wish to find, male customers are the primary clients in these

audition halls, and they are mostly there to seek female companion.

Nevertheless, the audition process did not strike me as lewd. Rather, it was

very formalized and professional, like any other group job interview. Although it

could not be conveyed in the translations of conversations above, language used

by companions is heavily coded, with excessive use of shorthands, since they

have to present their expert credentials within a very short time. The gaming-

related esoteric speech itself is itself a form of expertise that requires learning.

Gamer slang varies drastically across different games, consoles, and sub-

communities, and the usage of these gaming jargons is a sign of belonging and

42!

identity (Ensslin, 2012: 65). Beside gamer slangs, there are also words usages

specific to the platform. For example, since technically, people can find each

other on BIXIN but make exchange transactions through other means to avoid

handling fees–20% of each transaction–to prevent such action and secure

company’s profit, “WeChat” and “QQ” are sensitive words on the platform. The

censor algorithm would automatically detect the usage of these two words, since

they might suggest off-platform transactions. However, as I have discussed above,

users have to reference these two apps, since the game servers are divided along

the two applications. Therefore, on the platform, people would refer to WeChat as

“vx” and QQ as “手 q” to avoid censorship. The same rule applies to the audition

halls. Once in a while, I heard newly registered companions enter the competition

and stutter on every word during their little introduction or use banned phrases.

Long-time companions have a script that they have already memorized, so they

could repeat it with ease.

Polite turn-taking is another characteristic of the etiquette of the hall. Each

companion would address the one before and after her in the line. I believe it is

partly for efficiency, so that the next person can take over seamlessly, but it is

undoubtedly also a form of pleasantry, even though it is highly formalized.

In addition, all participants in the chat rooms are under constant

surveillance, so any violation of code of conduct can be reported. Hosts of the

chat room are employed by BIXIN or guilds that are closely related to the

43!

platform executives. Even though their income from the platform is mostly

dependent on virtual gifting in the chat room, they are expected to maintain order

within the room. The hosts would remind everyone of the ground rules from time

to time, and would warn them specifically against “edge ball behaviors.” The

Chinese phrase

擦球

(cā biān qiú), which can be translated as “edge ball” or

“touch ball”, is a sports term that originally refers to behaviors that have dubious

legality or have made use of legal loopholes. In the context of these chat rooms,

“edge ball behavior” refers to any hint of sexual or intimate expression, including

moaning. Chat room hosts would report user violations to the platform

management and that might result in a ban on the violator’s account.

Though audition hall hosts would usually remind companions of the code

of conduct, violations are commonly committed by customers. Unlike

companions, who are more cautious in their behavior, customers often display a

nonchalant attitude towards the rules. Sometimes, they are simply ignorant of the

regulations. For example, profanities, even the more colloquial and casual ones,

are prohibited in these chat rooms. When a customer uses profane words out of

habit, hosts would advise against the usage of such language. However, not

everyone would comply with these warnings, and when a customer takes a more

defiant attitude, the regulatory power of the host is limited.

I have encountered such situations more than once during my fieldwork.

In a minor case, the client would deliberately repeat the curse word he just spoke

44!

as a joke, while the host would just repeat the same warning. One morning, I was

listening to the audition hall like a radio channel while having my coffee, when a

customer requested a girl with a “



” (diá) voice. In Chinese, the word refers to

the voice or the demeanor when a woman “

撒

” (sā jiāo), another word that does

not have a direct English translation. “

撒

” is similar to flirting in that it is an

action intended to attract and manipulate men, a tactic particular to women and

children. While one can flirt by displaying sexual attractiveness in various ways,

“

撒

” shows weakness in physical strength or emotional vulnerability. It is a

specific style of flirting or way of asking for favors that flatters male dominance

of the subject, wishing his good mood could make him more accommodating. “

撒



” and “



” are associated with cuteness, a hot commodity on this platform. In

the Marketplace, one can always see orders requesting someone who knows how

to “

撒

.” As Boyle and Kao nicely put it in The Retro-Futurism of Cuteness,

cuteness implies: “softness, roundness, infancy, femininity, helplessness,

vulnerability, harmlessness, play, enjoyment, awkwardness, neediness, intimacy,

homeliness, and simplicity. At the same time, cuteness is cheapness,

manipulation, delay, repetition, hierarchy, immaturity, frivolity, refusal, tantrum,

and dependence” (Boyle and Kao, 2017: 17). In addition, given the tension

between femininity and gaming meritocracy, the performance of weakness could

further discredit women companions’ competence as gamers. Therefore, while the

word is often used as a neutral description, it is now viewed as stigmatizing

45!

among many, especially women. When the male customer asked for someone

with a “



” voice, the host immediately refused to use this adjective. “Sir, I

cannot use ‘



,’ it is against our regulation. I can substitute it with sweet, though.”

The customer, however, was insistent: “Can you just tell them when they

arrive on site?” Apparently, the customer thought the host only rejected him so as

not to violate the regulations on record, since the orders she submits for her

customers are recorded on file, while her speech in the chat room is faced with

less censorship.

“Sorry, I can’t. People have different interpretations of the word. It could

be viewed as a derogatory term, so I cannot use it,” said the host, politely

rejecting his request. “I will substitute sweet for it.” The customer was apparently

unsatisfied with the response: “What’s wrong with it? Other hosts could use the

word, how come you can’t?”

The host had no other choice but to repeat herself: “Like I said, it could be

seen as a derogatory term, so I can’t. Sorry. I have sent the order. Please wait for

the companions to arrive.” The customer grumbled, but remained silent during the

wait time. However, when companions finally arrived and the host was repeating

the requirements, he interrupted and shouted out his initial demand. The poor host

could only repeat her warning again and tried to push the procedure along. In the

end, the customer left without hiring a companion. After listening to the

46!

confrontation between the host and the customer, two companions tried to make

their sweet voices a selling point during their introductions.

Although the power dynamic in the audition hall does not strike me as

one-sided, is still clearly tilted in favor of the customers. Hosts, acting as

surrogates of the management, have the duty to maintain order, and yet they don’t

have any executive power. Their income as hosts is solely dependent on gifts

from their audiences, so no one would risk antagonizing a customer. Their work,

after all, is part of the companionship experience. I once encountered a newly-

registered customer who wandered into the audition hall, without even knowing

how to submit an order or how to recharge his account. The man also seemed to

be very unfamiliar with smartphone operation in general. The host patiently

guided him through the entire process over the phone. Along with the companions

waiting to be auditioned, the entire event took more than 10 minutes, but no one

complained. As a result, a host’s warning might be heeded by companions, but it

is ineffective when delivered to rogue customers. Even though transgressive

conduct can get a customer banned from the platform, companions and hosts are

reluctant to report customers’ violation.

Stuck in between are the companions. Any violation might get their

qualification revoked. They have to attract customers within the limited time and

space allowed by the platform regulation. The use of esoteric speech, trained

voices like those of professional voice actors, and sometimes, speech tailored for

47!

customers with specific requirements, all of these are performances of desirable

gamer femininity, essential for successfully securing an order. In contrast, men

rely mostly on assertions of skill, which could be easily proved by their rankings

and battle records. Superior voice qualities and gentle attitude are bonuses that

help attract female consumers rather than other male customers.

While excessive sensory experience is a helpful tool used to create

realness, a good performance is also contained at the same time. In Temporarily

Yours (2007), Elizabeth Bernstein coins the word “bounded authenticity,” as a

response to the paradox between problematized street prostitution and gradually

normalized consumption of other forms of sexual services. By encapsulating

sexual experience in market exchange and untangling sexual consumption from

the private and the domestic sphere, discourse on sexuality today is more

compatible with the neo-liberal individualism (130). Although, game

companionship is not a form of sex work, as I have stressed, the kind of intimate

relationship it provides has a resemblance to what Bernstein would call “girlfriend

experience” in sex work–an authentic interpersonal relationship prized in public

market space (126). I would suggests that in game companionship, the boundary

is not only the public marketplace, but the experience is also limited to each

platform, as we now have multiple digital selves on different platforms. Like me,

many customers and some companions are not willing to offer their private digital

information on BIXIN. Similarly, BIXIN, for the company’s profit, would prefer

48!

that its users not use other platforms where they can also connect and make

transactions. Owned by different companies and created as products with perks so

they could generate profits, each online platform is designed for a specific kind of

connectivity: anonymous, invite-only, industry-specific, and so on As a result, our

digital selves are fragmented. However, such fragmentation does not make us

incomplete. On the contrary, it allows us to perform better in each separate space

and community. That is also why breaking down such boundaries could be

devastating to those who are part of this industry. From my interviews and online

forums, many companions say that they are reluctant to charge their long-time

customers who they think of as friends. It is also common for companions to get

into “messy conditions” with their customer because they are “too close.” I will

further elaborate on these personal situation in the following chapters.

In addition to the boundary drawn around each online platform, the

regulatory power of capital–and the state, of course–which often times

undermines the affective experience, also help to define what is acceptable in the

digital space. Coming back to the idea of “edge ball,” a companion’s using sex to

win over a potential customer is considered an unfair advantage. People,

especially fellow companions, look down on these behaviors and often talk about

them with disdain. Men see these approaches as “natural” advantages enjoyed

only by women, which supposedly makes them more competitive in the

marketplace than men. For women, these performances further marginalize the

49!

entire female gamer collective, rendering them as “playthings” rather than

“players.” Moreover, on the one hand, they blame those who perform explicit

sexuality for the sexualized and stigmatized public image of the industry which all

women companions have to endure. On the other hand, because commercial

prostitution violates state regulation, these performances could jeopardize the

entire industry and their livelihood if the state should catch the wind and decide to

intervene. With the heavy hand of the Chinese state in mind, sets of regulations

are enforced by the platform management as an effort to “clean up” the platform

for the consumers, who don’t share the same responsibility as companions, to

safely indulge in authentic human companionship for purchase.

Pricing and Virtual Gifting

The price for game companionship is usually counted by rounds. The

lowest rate is 5 RMB (0.77 USD) per round. The average is about 9 RMB (1.49

USD). Each round of the game lasts roughly 20-30 minutes. Of course, the length

of each round can vary dramatically depending on the companion. A highly

skilled player can shorten the playtime to roughly 10 minutes and therefore have a

higher hourly rate. That is to say that they have to focus on the work entirely

during that length of time, without taking a break. It is impossible for a player to

have successive orders lined up perfectly. As I mentioned earlier, a lot of work is

needed before companions and their customers can connect, and that time is not

50!

counted towards the service time. According to BIXIN’s official report of 2020,

the average monthly income for full-time companions is around 7905 RMB

(~1223 USD)

. It is in fact a decent income if one does not live in a top-tier

Chinese city. To give those who do not know much about the standard of living in

China a more concrete sense: it is equal to the monthly income of a local senior

civil servant.

To quickly do the math: if one works every day for 30 days without taking

a break, one has to play 27 to 28 sets of games every day. Speaking from personal

experience, even though that is possible, it would be extremely tiring. And if we

take into consideration that top-level companions could earn around 20,000 RMB

per month, we can deduce that fixed rate from each round of game is not the sole

source of income for these companions. In fact, gifts are the primary source of

income for companions, as tips are for waiters and waitresses, if they wish to

make a living from gaming.

Similar to live-streaming platforms for gaming in China today, virtual

gifting is the main profit strategy for game companionships. Resemblances

between live streaming and game companionship are not surprising inasmuch as

both come from the gaming culture. In fact, BIXIN has its own streaming

platform alongside its game companionship platform, and one can also watch

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My resource from the BIXIN management team told me that full-time companion is defined by

the average work time one spends on the platform. Therefore, the full-time companions might

have a formal day job in addition to their work as companion.

51!

game streaming on the BIXIN app. Many full-time companions also have their

own live-streaming channels, since streaming viewership help expand their

potential customer pool, and gifts received during streaming are an extra source of

income.

In previous fandom studies scholars have pointed out that fandom is where

people see the online commodity culture and gift economy converge, where the

identity of consumer and producer blurs. Fans are always in negotiation with

corporate owners who have copyrights over the media product, and the act of gift-

giving usually has a calculative dimension, aiming for either social or economic

benefits (Pearson 2020, Scott 2009). In their essay, “Virtual gifting on China’s

live streaming platforms: hijacking the online gift economy,” Zhang, Xiang, and

Hao (2019) focus on how corporations take over the gift-giving culture within the

fan community and turns it into an effective model for profit maximization and

capital accumulation. Although gift-giving has always been an incorporated fan

practice, Zhang, Xiang, and Hao claim that within the live-streaming community,

it was a mostly a voluntary show of gratitude to those who contributed to the

publicly accessible resources. However, as the internet is increasingly

“platformtized” by large corporations, the participatory culture has been

transformed into the economy of connectivity. Connection itself has become a

commodity. And in order to generate more profit beyond the fixed subscription

fee, the mechanism of gift-giving is gamified. Both companions and customers

52!

are aware that gift is in fact a necessary investment, disenchanted from the

“voluntary and disinterested” ideology of gift-giving.

As two secondary industries to video gaming, game companionship and

live-streaming share a similar profit strategy, except the economy of connectivity

is more explicit in the case of game companionship. Even though gifting is

gamified, most live-streaming services remain free to the general public. One

does not have to pay an entry fee to watch these shows. Companionship, however,

require the customer to pay for the basic hourly rate. The incorporated “gift

economy” becomes a bonus, for both the companion and the company, to their

baseline income. In BIXIN’s case, it takes 20% whenever the companions

withdraw earnings from their accounts.

BIXIN also adopts gamified features to stimulate spending. Users of

different spending levels are given badges to wear next to their names. The

algorithm would also recommend customers with high rank to more companions.

In addition to badges, there is also a mechanism called “title sponsor,” similar to

the title sponsor people usually see at sports events and clubs, only it usually

individual behavior rather than corporate actions. Customers can pay a substantial

price to put their names on the companion, and the companion would prioritize

the order from this particular customer. There are also different levels of

sponsorships that require less spending. A companion can be hired for a period of

time during which the companion would not take any other order. For the

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customer, it is a way to claim ownership and show off their through conspicuous

expenditure . While title sponsorship can also be found on live-streaming

platforms, such exclusive sponsorship is rather uncommon. Usually, highest-

paying sponsors can have executive power in a streamer’s fan community, but

they don’t have power to ask the streamer to stop streaming for the general public.

The relationship between companions and their customers can be even more

exclusive than that between streamers and their audience, and thus, more like a

conventional property that can be owned exclusively.

As part of the effort for gamification, these virtual gifts are also very rich

in sensory effects. First of all, the gifts themselves are given excessive visual

designs. When a large number of gifts are sent by the same customer, there are

even more excessive visual effects displayed on the screen. In chat rooms like the

audition halls, the effects are a stimulus for all spectators that incites spending,

but during the private exchange between individual companions and their

customers, gifts do not have the same effect since it could not be seen by others.

Thus, companions have to share the gifts received on the story section located on

the profile page.

“Gift is why the story section exists,” one of my interlocutors concludes,

“people will post those gifts they receive from their boss, and those are the kind of

posts you see most upvotes. When other companions see this, they desire the

same thing and ask their boss for extra gifts. For the companions, posting those

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extravagant gift lists, concrete signs of customer appreciation, is a good means of

self- promotion. Other potential customers would wonder what is so special about

this companion that people would spend so much money on. So they will also

request the same companion. And it is also courtesy to mention your boss in the

post. Other companions would also approach the generous boss directly.”

Similarly, when the companion is sponsored for the day, she would also announce

that in her post.

Sociologists and anthropologists have explored the transposition of

emotional life from the domestic sphere to public commerce and the invasion of

intimate, familial life by utilitarian and Taylorized logic over the past decades

(Hochschild 2001, 2003). Interpersonal relationships and emotional exchange,

once associated with kinship, once regarded as outside the market, are gradually

disentangled from domesticity and now bear no antagonism to public commerce

(Bernstein, 2007: 5). Even the supposedly community-building, ideally

disinterested gift economy is transformed into the site of capital accumulation,

even more effective than its original model. I believe the absorption of gift

economy into the market goes hand in hand with an increasing incorporation of

human relationship. As Bernstein suggests, the emotional companionship

exchanged in the commercial marketplace is not fake but rather packaged and

commodified, since the logic of relationality has changed in a “postmodern”

world. A gamified gift system does not render virtual gifts as insincere. The gifts

55!

are still objects that symbolize social ties between companions and their

customers. As my interlocutor has suggested, the gift is inherently social. Still

bearing a resemblance to what Mauss would call “the spirit of the gift” (1967

[1925]: 8-9), the exchange need to be shared and seen within the community for it

to be meaningful. And yet, since human relationship in the game companionship

is already commodified, the circulation of gifts is now openly packaged for profit

maximization, fully compatible with the accumulation of capital.

Companion Certification

Upon registration, everyone is a customer and a potential companion.

When I first downloaded BIXIN, I used my Nintendo Switch account to apply for

companion status. The first step is to upload one’s profile as proof of

qualification. The screenshot would later be posted on one’s skill page so every

potential client can see it. Besides the gaming account name and ranking, the

picture cannot contain any other personal information. Next, I’m asked to provide

a brief introduction and a short recording of my voice that aim at attracting

customers. Lastly, my profile picture has to go through another round of scrutiny

to ensure its compliance with the regulation.

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Figure 5. Companion Application

So long as the user can fulfill some requirements, she can apply to be a

companion, or, should I correct my language, a

大神

. On BIXIN, companions are

not called companions, instead, the platform has given them another title:

大神

(dà shén). “

大

” means “big” or “great,” while “

神

” means “god” or “divine.” The

phrase has no directly religious meaning, but is an Internet slang for someone

whose excellence at a certain craft has already exceeded the humanly possible

realm. While the user community generally still use the word companions, or the

cute version

陪陪

–the character for companionship repeated twice, the BIXIN

management prefers their own title and has a detailed definition for it in the user

help page:

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[大神 ] have a deep understanding of a certain game or a certain

skill, and have a certain level of proficiency; [they are] good at

communicating with others, willing to use their own free time,

through online platforms, provide companionship, coaching,

tutoring, and specialized assistance to other users. [It is] a

professional identity that earns commission fees legally and

reasonably.

Below, the platform lists the requirements for some of the most popular games.

These requirements, from the perspective of experienced gamers, are not

demanding. Nevertheless, the requirements differentiate between male and female

companions. Take LoL for example; while male gamers must have Master ranking

or above, female gamers only need a Platinum ranking to apply.

The same

differential requirements apply to Honor of Kings’ players. The level of skill

required has a substantial impact. In Honor of Kings, for example, while Platinum

rank plays by a more casual rule, Master rank has to follow formal competition

rules during the hero selection process. On average, it also takes longer to rise

from Platinum rank to Master than to achieve Platinum. As someone who is new

to MOBA games but familiar with the general logics of video games, I could rise

to Platinum rank within days, but after that, advancement becomes significantly

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Rankings from low to high: Iron, Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Diamond, Master, Grand

Master, and Challenger.

58!

slower because the average game-time per round is longer and the confrontation is

much more intense. Moreover, after the application of the official pick-and-ban

rules, players are required to master more heroes and positions.

The requirements from BIXIN are overtly gendered. By lowering the

requirements for female gamers, particularly the requirements for highly

masculine games like MOBA and FPS, the platform leaves masculine as the

unmarked gamer identity intact. Women can become part of the community, but

they cannot be as good. Siryu Chen (2016) views the gaming culture, especially

MOBA games, as a “field of masculinity,” where male Chinese college students

negotiate dominant and subordinate forms of masculinity, which subsequently

determines their social position. On one hand, gamers are seen as inferior to the

dominant form of masculinity usually defined by wealth and the resources it gives

access to, including women. Gamers themselves are even aware of the stigma

around them. On the other hand, gamer identity could also become a dominant

form of masculinity when most men in the community participate in the activity

and use it as a space for homosociality, as was traditionally the case with

organized sports. Chen argues that the gamer masculinity is partly constructed

through excluding and denigrating women and those who lack the interest or the

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

During Pick-and-Ban, usually called P&B, two teams would alternate banning heroes until 3

heroes are banned by each team. Then, two teams would select heroes alternately, and no

overlapping selections. With P&B, players have to master more positions and heroes since there is

a chance that their favorite hero is banned or picked by others.

59!

skill to play games (2016: 249). Taking up the struggle between two forms of

masculinity negotiated in the field of video gaming, I want to argue that within

the gaming subfield, where everyone is a gamer, gamer masculinity is not so

stigmatized even though men might still aspire to the conventional dominant

masculinity. The ability to master the game and out-perform female gamers is the

primary manifestation of masculinity for the customers, as well as the male

companions. That is why many male customers seem to be unconcerned with the

level of gaming skill of their female companions. Some of them even prefer a

lesser-skilled female companion whom they can out-perform. However, affirming

their masculinity through gaming is not enough. Male gamers still wish to

perform traits associated with conventional dominant masculinity like

companionship from women. So, they are willing to pay women for making

themselves available and providing emotional companionship.

BIXIN divides workers as well as consumers into male and female, based

on hegemonic norms of gender and sexuality (Liu and Lai, 2020). A lowered

standard for women workers implies that they lack the capacity to perform

“masculine skills.” Instead, the platform is looking for something else from these

women, whether it is their sexual attractiveness or emotional companionship. As a

comment on a forum asserts: “If you are playing video games with a girl, you

must not be looking for her skill, but that ‘something else.’” Therefore, while

female companions need to prove their belonging to the larger gaming

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community, they are, in fact, asked to perform an inferior version of the

unmarked, masculine gamer, supplemented by an explicitly feminine

performance, with high-pitched voices and a deferential attitude. Women

companions provide a foil against which male customers can assert themselves by

superior skill or sexual conquest, so that the real gamer–men, of course–remains

undisturbed.

While the necessity for female companions to temper performance of skill

with hyper-feminine performance is inscribed in the platform design of BIXIN,

the negative public perception of the gaming world as immoral and recent state

intervention in the industry are the results of the fantasy of heterosexual pleasure

which burdens female companions, usually manifest in the form of sexual

harassment. Sexualized images of gaming companionship and the phenomenon of

sexual harassment pose problems for BIXIN, as they put the legality as well as the

morality of companionship work in question. Many measures have being taken in

response to governmental oversight, including but not limited to stringent

censorship of speech and user behavior and public relation campaigns to manage

the company’s image, which I explore in the next chapter.

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Chapter 2

During my preliminary research, an online op-ed column on Zhihu, the

largest question-and-answer forum in China, caught my attention. It contained

two essays. The first one, “Will Girl Game Companions Really Do ‘Sexy Things’

with You?”

, is provocatively titled to attract the reader's attention; at least, it

successfully attracted mine. However, contrary to what its title suggests, the essay

takes a nuanced position. Though the author does not deny that sex work occurs

under the cover of game companionship and acknowledges that sexual innuendo

has been widely used in the e-sport industry for promotion, most companions, she

asserts, do not engage in sex work. At the end of the essay, she calls for more

respect for female game companions. The essay was posted on July 16th, 2018. A

week later, on the 26th, the same author posted a second essay, “Game

Companionship = Sex Work? Let’s Hear What These Four Companions Have to

Say”

. Her tone in this piece is more serious. Apparently, publication of the first

essay had not won female companions the respect she believed they deserved.

The comment on the first essay that got most upvotes reads: “Excuse me my

bluntness, but I think those who claim that they don’t accept sexual harassment or

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

https://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/32263166, article in Chinese.

https://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/40649736, article in Chinese.

62!

refuse to provide special service are just not paid enough.” By the time the second

essay was published, the comment already had 1491 upvotes.

Apparently in response to such dismissive comments, the second one took

an ethnographic approach. The author interviewed four companions, two men and

two women, and faithfully transcribed their responses. To some of them, game

companionship is a side job that gives them a way to achieve their professional e-

sport player dream. For others, it is an escape from tedious white collar work that

allows them to make money while doing something they enjoy. And for all of

them, game companionship is first and foremost a job which workers should be

able to perform without experiencing discrimination or stigmatization.

The author’s ethnographic methodology drew me, as I was planning to

conduct ethnographic research on the same platform, so I took the reactions to the

second article very seriously and read through every single one of them. This

time, the comments were less derogatory towards companions, but more critical

towards the methodology the author used. To be specific, these readers believed

that the interviews do not reflect the true condition of the industry because the

samples are skewed:

“Interviewing the top-tier companions only gives people an illusion of

what this work really is.”

“The article only shows the best part of this work.”

63!

“I believe even if these people are engaged in sex work, they won’t tell the

author.”

And the most hostile comment of all: “A brothel also has singers and

dancers who don’t offer sex, but it does not change the function of a brothel.”

As she stated at the beginning of the article, the author was not trying to

deny that sex work goes on underneath the cover of game companionship. Rather,

her intervention was intended to debunk the assumption that game companionship

is a form of sex work. And yet, judging by the comment section, it was another

failed attempt at persuasion.

Although the attack is mostly centered on methodology, the comments

still reflect unshaken beliefs in an essentialized binary gender, heterosexual

sexuality, and exclusion of women as skilled players. Another commenter writes:

“After all, if you truly want to find a game companion, you will want to find a

guy. A guy must have some schemes in mind, if he hangs out with a girl. After

that, everything just happens naturally.” Female gamers are mostly seen as

inferior players, especially in MOBA games, but, at the same time, their

companionship is desirable to men. As Tingting Liu and Zishan Lai (2020: 8)

suggest, this gender ideology generates two seemingly contradictory discourses

among male Chinese gamers: on one hand, male gamers fear the involvement of

female gamers whose “incompetence” might threaten men’s success; on the other

hand, it is considered “a fun and indispensable part of the game” for male gamers

64!

to lead and instruct women. Women’s involvement in video gaming is seen as

supplemental, “eye candy,” to the “hardcore” realm. And game companionship is

the incorporated manifestation of this ideology.

In addition, the assumption that women players would “deliberately trade

their physical beauty and sexuality for the help of their male counterparts” (9)

sexualized the entire industry. From the companies’ point of view, the sexual

fantasies offered could be an attraction to male gamers. In fact, it is still a major

advertisement strategy used by the many game companionship platforms and

agencies today. However, BIXIN desperately wants to lose its reputation as a

provider of a sexualized service. Besides tight regulation of pornographic content

on the platform, BIXIN has spent a lot of effort in advertising to establish a

different public image. In fact, the Zhihu article I just discussed is part of the

campaign. The commercial interest involved is another point of criticism in the

comment section. The most important reason why BIXIN wants to shake off this

public image is governmental oversight. BIXIN now has more than 6 million

registered companions and 50 million users

, and rumor has it that the company

is en route to be publicly listed on the stock exchange. However, popularity

sometimes draws unwanted attention. With the rapid rise of different kinds of

digital media, the Chinese state is especially concerned over the circulation of

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

BIXIN official annual report, 2020. (In Chinese). The article is published on BIXIN’s official

WeChat account.

65!

pornographic material online in recent years. Inevitably, the notoriety of game

companionship attracted the watchful eyes of the state.

This chapter is an investigation into BIXIN’s campaign to reconfigure its

image in the face of stigmatization of companionship work. Unlike other newly

arising Internet industry, the task is especially difficult for BIXIN since

companionship is structurally associated with domesticity and intimacy. Thus its

business is devalorized and potentially sexualized. Instead of challenging the

gender ideology that contribute to this bias, BIXIN’s strategy has been to reclaim

masculine dominance of the game through suspending other emotional

companion services and “professionalization” of gaming companionship.

Game Companionship - Gaming = Voice-Chat Companionship

Game companionship is not the only service provided by BIXIN. A

substantial portion of this platform consists of voice chat companionship.

Companions and customers don’t have to connect via a game. Rather, they can

just simply chat with each other online.

Then you might ask: “If pure voice-chat is available, then does gaming

matter at all in this context?” In fact, I asked myself the same question repeatedly

during the field work, until I realized that voice-chat companionship and game

companionship are not two isolated products. Instead, they are created in relation

66!

to each other. But before proceeding to their interconnectedness, let us first see

what this service entails.

The voice-chat service can further be divided into chatting and singing.

Commissions for voice chat are much like commissions for game companions.

One can find companions who are certified for the service, post requirements in

Marketplace, or go to the “voice actor section” in audition halls. The only

difference is that in these audition halls, the customer can specify the voice type

desired in a companion–e.g. young, mature, high-pitched, or gentle–unlike the

game section which prioritizes rankings and battle records.

The music, or singing service is slightly different. Although customers can

request good singers for voice chat service, there are separated rooms for singing

services. Other than the audition hall, there are several chat rooms designed for

these services, and they operate more like a radio station or live stream channels.

Instead of matchmaking, these channels have multiple hosts, all exceptional

singers managed by guilds or the platform, waiting for customers to submit orders

in their channel. The customer can request these hosts to sing specific songs by

sending gifts. For an additional charge, the customer can also “sponsor” the entire

room for a period of time, during which they can require all hosts to perform

whatever music they request.

This phenomenon is in fact the remnant of online karaoke culture that first

appeared in an instant voice chat application called YY. Before 2010, most games

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didn't have an in-game voice chat function. Gaming guilds and other devoted

gamers had to use a supporting application for communication. YY was first

popularized in the MMORPG community. During that time, almost all World of

Warcraft gamers would have their YY account numbers attached to their gaming

avatars. Its voice chat function further produced more idiosyncratic forms of

online sociality, including online karaoke where people could enter a specific

channel and sing with each other. Other than singing, people also used YY as a

platform to operate low-budget radio channels. An earlier version of game

companionship also emerged on YY. At the beginning, these activities were

mostly not commercial, but they were gradually incorporated. In fact, there are

still small-scale companion agencies operating on voice-chat apps like YY and

Discord. Therefore, it is no coincidence that BIXIN inherited and commodified

the different sub-cultures coming out of YY and other instant voice message

applications.

Tracing the genealogy of these online communities shows that voice chat,

online karaoke, and gaming companionship have always co-existed. In fact, they

are all forms of secondary industries of communication technology, or video

gaming, to be specific, that are first commercialized by entrepreneurially

resourceful participants. Socialite consumers are turned into mechanisms of

capital accumulation and become part of the production process (Zhang & Fung,

2013).

68!

Moreover, besides their shared origin with gaming companionship, these

services are also managed in relation to game companionship. On the surface,

pure voice chat service does not exist in BIXIN

. Although there is a built-in

voice chat function, it is not currently available. Instead, all voice chat services

operate under the name of Gomoku and Connect, two built-in mini games. This is

because recently BIXIN’s fast growing user population has caught the attention of

the state. In June, 2020, the state media openly criticized BIXIN for its lack of

regulation of pornographic contents. BIXIN responded swiftly by deleting

hundreds of accounts that repeatedly violated regulations and implemented even

more strict censorship. Several functions like “virtual girlfriend” and “wake-up-

call service,” which had been part of the voice chat services, were also terminated.

The mini games are now codenames and cover-ups deployed to legitimize the

often eroticized companion work.

As the largest game companionship platform in Mainland China, BIXIN

has tremendous influence on the industry and the companions working in it.

However, in China, the state can be a much more powerful force that shapes the

economic sphere, and its interests do not always align with capital. Even though

BIXIN holds a significant share of the market, state intervention could still easily

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

During my field work in Summer 2020, the voice-chat service was suspended immediately after

receiving warnings from the state media. The service has now been restored after several months

of system upgrade which can now monitor conversations between users and detect potential

violations. “Virtual girlfriend” and “wake-up-call” are suspended indefinitely.

69!

undermine all its past efforts, if the company does not comply with Internet

regulations. Take the industry of live-stream, which became popular a few years

before game companionship: many popular platforms were shut-down or received

a heavy blow to their business when the Chinese state decided to regulate the

entire industry. Some companions see the state intervention in Summer 2020 as a

repetition of what happed to live-stream platforms. They believe only those

platforms willing to enforce more censorship, even at the expense of their

revenue, will eventually survive under the heavy hand of the state. Interestingly,

most companions I interviewed maintain a relatively positive attitude regarding

these interventions. They claim the state action as a form of recognition that could

eventually transform and normalize the industry. In this view, practices such as

providing customers with borderline sex work will disappear, along with the over-

sexualized image of the industry. To these companions, the intervention of the

state is justified, protecting them from the charges of prostitution and

discouraging sexual exploitation by customers.

In fact, this perspective is echoed by BIXIN’s management. I was

fortunate enough to made personal contact with a company executive. Although

we could never arrange a phone-interview, since he said he was not at liberty to

reveal much information, he shared with me many interview articles published on

different media outlets as an official response from the company. Most of these

interviews come from a business point of view and discuss the economic potential

70!

of this new industry, with no reference to gendered labor. However, they still

provide excellent material for textual analysis of BIXIN’s official promotional

narrative. When I asked how BIXIN countered the recent state intervention, he

shared with me another article that detailed numbers of measures BIXIN took

since Summer 2020. The first on the list is teenager protection, which is the

pretext used by the state to legitimize mass online surveillance and censorship.

Although the platform would ask users’ age during registration, birthday

information must be verified through identity authentication. As I mentioned in

the previous chapter, real-name authentication made possible by a nation-wide

standard ID system must be performed if the user would like to utilize all the

functions offered. Around Fall 2020, BIXIN upgraded their system from ID

number authentication to facial recognition. Paired with the teenager detection

system built by Tencent, who owns most mobile games and its vast user

information, the platform claims to be capable of intercepting more than 90% of

teenager consumption and requests. In addition, BIXIN has also assembled a

censorship team of more than 400 people, which can process 30 millions

messages per day. The investment in security and content censorship is

considered necessary by the management team. The article states: “The swift

development of the industry demands the company pay more attention to security

and teenage protection. With the rapidly changing Internet environment,

behaviors that violates regulations are also changing. If we want a long-lasting

71!

development in this newly arising industry, we must maintain our principle,

explicate our attitude on censorship, and be responsible for regulating user’s

behavior, building and reinforcing our mechanisms to combat these violations.”

Although censorship and content regulation are state initiatives, the cost

and the responsibility are put on individual platforms. I was not able to discover

whether BIXIN’s management team consider this as an unwanted burden, since

my contact never deviated from the official response that welcomes state

intervention and oversight, but my brief exchange with him confirmed that the

management does not see state action in an entirely negative light. With past

examples including the live-streaming industry, I believe BIXIN had already

anticipated state intervention, judging by how swiftly the platform responded to

the criticism. In fact, around two years before, BIXIN had already suspended its

offline companionship service because of its explicit association with sex work

and the difficulty of regulating it. The platform has been working at cleaning up

its over-sexualized image for years, and the recent state intervention was

inevitable as the industry expands. Whether the platform likes it or not,

establishing a more rigid regulatory system is necessary for its future

development.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

https://www.36kr.com/p/871831650907522, article in Chinese.

72!

However, I would argue, game-companionship companies are faced with

even greater structural difficulties than live-stream platforms when it comes to

content regulation. Especially when it unfolds in a conventionally masculine

domain, the work of companionship and emotional labor resembles reproductive

labor, and, as a result, it is easily feminized and stigmatized (Koch, 2016: 706).

Even though, as I mentioned in the previous chapter, intimacy and emotional care

are gradually decoupled from the familial setting in the neoliberal economy,

which China is a part of, the kind of recreational sexuality (Bernstein, 2007: 4)

described in these academic literatures based in European or American experience

is not widely accepted by the Chinese public. Therefore, the line separating game

companionship from illicit sexual commerce is very thin. Furthermore, the

heterosexual sociality that has been built into the very structure of the industry

also has erotic implications. I believe that is why, instead of regulating some of its

more intimate services, BIXIN has decided to cut them off entirely. Thus, the

state, as opposed to capital, is the key player here in deciding what is or is not

legitimate work.

Professionalization of Game Companionship

Collaborating with the Standardization Administration of China, BIXIN

helped introduce a state-sanctioned certificate for “e-sport companion-coach.”

One can now take a test, which includes a written section, an oral section, and a

73!

simulated skill test, to be certified as a companion. Companions with official

certification can be featured in the recommendation algorithm.

BIXIN has always been preoccupied with the legitimacy of gaming

companionship as a profession, since video gaming as a whole has always been

cast as leisure rather than work. In public discourse, gaming, like so many other

mass media, is often associated with addiction, a vice to which young people are

seen as particularly susceptible. Video gaming addiction correction is still a big

business in China today (Bax, 2015). However, with the rising popularity of e-

sport among the younger generation, gaming is now seen in a more positive light.

Although not everyone can be a professional gamer who fights in global

competitions, many people with adequate gaming skill can make a living as

companions. This is the dream which BIXIN sells to young gamers. State-

sanctioned certification is another step towards legitimization of gaming as a

profession.

As a part of the gig economy, game companionship is characterized by

informality–at once precarious and relatively unregulated labor. Without

insurance or any guarantee of minimum income, game companionship can be

extremely profitable for some but worthless or exploitative for others, and

therefore, especially from the perspective of the older generation, many of whom

had assigned professions from the Planned Economy, it is not seen as a true career

(Cao 2020). Even among companions, anxiety over insecure working conditions

74!

is prevalent. Many of them were confronted by their parents about their career

choice. BIXIN is well aware of these concerns. On their official WeChat Account,

BIXIN promotes gaming companionship as “the first paycheck for young

people.” This campaign strategy specifically targets high school graduates who

have just entered the workforce or higher education. On the one hand, the work of

companionship seems very enticing compared to other jobs available to people

with only high school or lower level education. To college students, on the other

hand, being a companion in their free time is a good way to earn extra pocket

money. Catering the work to young people frames the informal nature of game

companionship as the advantage. The absence of a work contract becomes

freedom and a low threshold for entry. Temporary hiring relationships become

flexibility. All of these features define the working conditions as seemingly

desirable for young enterprising workers.

Game companions are what Tsugio Makimoto and David Manners would

call “digital nomads”: “a new generation of location-independent freelancers...

[who] can decide freely when and where to work... as long as they have their

laptop [or smartphone] with them and access to a good internet connection”

(Müller, 2016). However, while the “Deleuzo!Guattarian” image of a nomad

suggests possibilities for emancipation from or revolution against the existing

order, and the media often portrays the nomad as an alternative to the capitalist

worker, these workers are increasingly “institutionalised, corporatised and

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professionalised, as the forces of capitalism are constantly seeking to re!conquer

the territories of the nomad” (Aroles et al., 2020). Digital nomads often work

without social protection or economic security, while their practices are managed

and predetermined by algorithms and other digital infrastructures put in place by

Internet companies. Game companions are driven by incentives like virtual gifts

and performance scores based on which BIXIN calculates its recommendation

algorithm. Far from having liberating potential, with the help of digital

advancement, including big data algorithm, the market has reabsorbed the nomads

as an even more disposable workforce as they are not bound by any legal

contracts or responsibilities.

Therefore, though having no formal or secure employment, digital nomads

and other workers of the gig economy, including game companions, have become

“mainstream” under digital capitalism. Their precarious working condition has

not only be recognized and accepted in the labor market, but is also promoted by

Internet companies as a desirable style of life.

Professionalization is not only a way to recruit more workers into the labor

force, it is also a narrative strategy used to normalize the industry and safeguard

the platform from the accusation of illicit sexual commerce. In a way, the force of

market demand for these services becomes the justification of the work. Several

companions I interviewed expressed a similar opinion that the expanding service

economy has seen the creation of multiplying professions, and game

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companionship is only one of them. A companion who has worked on the

platform over four years concludes: “That is the trend of the market and the flow

of the world. You will see more and more types of emotional companionships in

the future because people need them.”

“E-Sport Biosphere”

Another strategy utilized by BIXIN to professionalize its workforce is

through collaborating with professional gaming clubs. The platform has signed

contracts with several renowned e-sport clubs in Mainland China, and opened

“training camps” under their name. These celebrity players and sports clubs

portray the platform as a passage towards professional sportsmanship. For the e-

sport clubs, the companionship platform brings not only an abundant stock of

skilled players aspiring to professional gaming, it also brings potential fans and

audience to the players.

Of course, the collaboration is not for propaganda purpose only.

Professional e-sport gamers have a rather short professional life. Much like

conventional athletes, high-intensity practices on a daily basis would cause sports

injuries like tendonitis that could end one’s professional life if not treated

properly. Many world-class gamers have had surgeries on their hands or wrists. In

China, most professional players only have high-school or lower education level,

since most of them start their professional life as teens, so even if they can sign

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sky-high multi-year contracts that match those of NBA players, their livelihood

after professional gaming is still a problem. Some gamers transition to coaching

or online streaming, but many lack the conversational skill or charisma required.

Therefore, game companionship serves as a “parachute”–which is the name given

to this collaboration project by BIXIN executives–that helps safely land these

professional gamers back in post-professional life, allowing them to continuously

sell their expertise in gaming.

On their official WeChat account, BIXIN proudly announced its

collaboration with 14 top e-sport clubs. In the same article, the head manager of

Edward Gaming International (EDG), the first Chinese e-sport club that has won

an international championship, contends that BIXIN is a crucial part of the “e-

sport biosphere,” and the collaboration would further help professionalize and

mainstream the e-sport industry

. Professionalization is not only a preoccupation

of game companionship but for all video-game related secondary industry.

Although professional e-sport has occupied the public spotlight and helps

legitimize gaming as form of work, those who can play in international

competitions are only the selected few. Most video-game-playing is still

considered as leisure, even though these gamers might aspires to professional

sportsmanship. Game companionship fills the gap and provides work opportunity

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

“No.1 in e-sport club collaboration! What does it feels like to lead the industry?”, article

published on BIXIN’s official WeChat account, article in Chinese.

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for the adequately skilled majority, and thus further helps e-sport become a

mainstream occupation. Therefore, the absorption of game companionship into

professional e-sports industry does help form a “biosphere” where talent can

circulate more smoothly, and people with different skill level can find their

positions in the larger industry.

While the collaboration does have functional concerns, it also repositions

game companionship in the market. Instead of emotional companionship based on

heterosexual sociality which is structurally imbedded in the platform, BIXIN’s

new narrative works to reunite the community under the shared interest in

gaming, especially competitive e-sport. Repositioning the community around

gaming meritocracy and “hardcore” skill sustains the gamer identity as success-

driven, goal-oriented, and inherently masculine. Maybe, the phrase “game

companionship,” is inherently contradictory. On one hand, companionship is

usually considered as feminine and non-competitive. Yet on the other hand, the

culture of gaming is all about conventionally masculine interests in competition,

calculation, and winning. Maybe that is why in order to combat the sexualized

stigma that comes from feminized companionship, BIXIN presents the

masculinized version of gaming as the dominant narrative within the industry.

Confronted by the game of gender, the platform exhibits a typical gamer attitude

described by Condis: “Gamers look for games in every system they encounter,

including systems of gender and sexuality and the various hierarchies of power

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built thereon. Thus the field of gendered and sexualized (and racialized and

classed) identities becomes one of many playing fields, a space to be inhabited

strategically. For gamers, gender identity is a contest that can be won” (2018: 5).

BIXIN is well aware of its influence over the entire industry and knows that its

actions could set an example for anyone that comes after, and yet they choose to

sustain, even further reinscribe, the embedded gender hierarchy on which the

industry is built on. When I asked the company executive why the app asks me to

choose my gender during registration, he responded that my choice determines the

recommendation algorithm so people could be paired with heterosexual

companions. Instead of challenging the assumed heterosexual sociality

contributing to gaming’s eroticized public image or the hierarchy of labor that

undervalues companionship work due to its association with domesticity and

femininity, BIXIN aligns itself with the ideal gamer identity, mastering the rules

so that it could play the game of gender more smoothly.

BIXIN plays the game on a structural level and complies to the rules of

gender ideology. It is, at the same time, a gamer and a game designer. The

companions, then play the game set by BIXIN. Navigating the landscape that

marginalizes them and capitalizes off their sexuality at the same time, the women

working on the platform not only have to follow the rules of gamified gender

performance in order to be rewarded, but they are also situated in the wider social

context which sees their involvement as unavoidably intimate and discretely

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sexual. The sexualized image of the industry poses difficulties for both the

company and the companions. While the company is mostly concerned over their

future development and profit, the companions are the subject of stigmatization

who have to bear the accusations of immorality. BIXIN’s campaign might help

the company overcome the image, but it does nothing to changes the hostile and

exploitative landscape in which these female gamers reside. Therefore, in the next

chapter, I come back to the female companions, who face the complex interplay

of corporate interest, state ideological apparatuses, and social criticisms. How

they negotiate pleasure and work in this space is the story I want to tell.

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Chapter 3

WS is the first companion I interviewed. She is also the first companion I

commissioned on BIXIN, who formally introduced me to the world of game

companionship. Before conducting any in-depth conversations, I thought it was

best for me to at least try using the service. She is one of the many companions I

picked out after scrolling through the story section, because she is very outspoken

online. Also, we both love anime. This shared passion, in addition to gaming, was

what really pushed me to choose her as my first companion.

To accommodate the time difference between the U.S. and h China, I

logged in around 11 PM Eastern Time, which is 11 in the morning in China, and

approached her after confirming she was available at that moment. Even though I

thought I was more than prepared as a customer, having spent days researching on

the app, it still took me more than ten minutes to find her in the game because we

use two different operating systems and my profile, as it turned out, was not

completely set up. She patiently guided me through the procedures and kicked off

the conversation as soon as I entered the game waiting room.

“Hi. I saw on your profile page that you are here to write your thesis?”

I was surprised that she took the time to look over my profile and actually

paid attention to my short introduction. “Ah… yes. But this is not part of the

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official research yet. To be honest, this is my first order, and I just want to see

what it is like.”

“Okay, I was going to say if you want to interview me now, I am totally

for it because this is super cool! How did you come up with the topic?” She

started the game as she spoke.

“Well, I have a friend who is a game companion. A guy. And one day…

oh, wait, I should tell you first that I only know how to play support or tank, so

leave those two positions for me please!”

“No problem, I got you! I also just finished writing my thesis. I major in

Chinese painting, and all I got to talk about was the strokes of this particular

painter. I wish I could have written something so interesting as yours. Are you a

Sociology major?”

“Anthropology to be more precise. It’s not a major commonly seen in

China, but what we do is pretty close to Sociology. So you are an art student…” I

trailed off as the battle became more heated and I could no longer afford to

multitask. The marksman I was supposed to protect was under siege by the

surprise attack of our opponents, so I rushed to rescue him while trying to get

myself out of the mess alive as well.

“Need help?” At the same time, the system announced her first kill.

“Yeah… I… ah, we are out.” My mind finally assembled all the words

together. “We have to go back… can you support our line for a sec?”

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“On it!” Apparently, she did not need my strategic reminder. As she

rushed to my line, she picked up the conversation and started to complain about

all the shenanigans she had to go through for her thesis defense. The COVID-

situation was not helpful to a graduating college senior.

As I got to learn more about her personal life and her plans for the year to

come, I found it was very difficult to keep up my train of thought and react to her

words during a heated confrontation in the digital space. Often, I would get too

distracted by the battle and forget entirely whatever she had last said. And yet,

that never left us in awkward silence. WS could always find a new topic or just

pick up where she left off, while gracefully performing a “quadra kill.” Our

conversation had taken a turn from our student life to our favorite games and

anime. Compared to her, I was much more clumsy both at playing and

conversing. Not only did I leave some of her questions unanswered, I even started

to cut her off in the middle of the sentence.

After playing several rounds of normal battle, it is became clear to me that

her skill is way beyond her current level and that of any teammates or opponents

we were randomly paired with. Her performance alone could almost determine

the outcome of the game. Players from the other team even posted in the public

channel, praising her skill. Therefore, when she suggested that we switch to a

more intense ranked battle, I agreed, even though I knew that would further

consume my limited attention and expose my more limited skill. Inevitably, our

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conversation shifted from our life outside of the game to the battle in which we

were engaged.

Later, she told me that she has played in provincial tournaments,

specialized in mid-lane mage, a position that not only requires skill, but also a

strategic mind. In addition, she was also a game streamer for years, before work

from college started piling up. I was utterly surprised. I knew she was good, but I

never imagined myself hitting the jackpot and finding a semi-professional player

for my first order. So I asked her to coach me during the battle, and she gladly

accepted.

Frankly, I never really liked MOBA games because of their misogynistic

reputation. I had always been a single-player console game player so I didn’t have

to deal with others in this community. I only started playing Honor of Kings for

research purposes, since it is the most popular game in China and where most

game companionship is seen. Though I am a quick learner who is familiar with

how games work in general, instinct alone is not enough. To readers who are not

familiar with MOBA games, it is important to know that even though the

knowledge of general rules of the game might get a player started, there is still

much to learn if you want to master the game. For example, each hero has a

unique quirk or ability, and each set of games has ten different heroes. Besides

knowing how to operate their own heroes, players must also know how to

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cooperate with four teammates and how to counter five other heroes on the

enemy’s team. Practical mastery requires a long-time investment in the game.

WS analyzed the quirks of my hero, and calculated how I should

cooperate with this specific set of teammates, and especially with her hero. She

also directed my actions during the game so we could perform a combo attack

together, and helped me figure out an in-game setting that greatly improved my

performance.

Maybe because I was no longer nervous after hours of conversing, or

maybe the conversation had become more game-related so I was not as distracted

as I was before, the conversation became easier and more relaxed. It almost felt

like I was playing party games with my friends. As we played, we bantered, told

jokes, or complained about our teammates or opponents. The only difference

might be that she was much more patient with my mistakes than my friends would

have been. For the purpose of coaching, she would point them out and lecture me,

but she never complained. Her exceptional skills and coaching ensured us a

winning streak. For me, they were also the most exciting rounds of games I had

ever played since I started. Time passed quickly when we were in the zone. The

next time I checked the clock, it was already 3 in the morning on the east coast. I

lost count of the rounds of games we had played, but it was at least three times

more than the original order I had purchased. I reassured her that I would make up

for the extra order, but she seemed unconcerned.

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“I really need to go to sleep.” I said, “It was nice playing with you.”

“Yeah, I need sleep too...” she replied.

“Wait, what…?!” I couldn’t believe what I just heard. I deliberately chose

to submit an order at night in U.S. time so I won’t disrupt anyone’s sleep time in

China. “Isn’t it supposed to be 3 in the afternoon for you?”

“I keep a reversed schedule. I usually take orders from 12 in the evening

to 5 or 6 in the morning. I sleep from 11 to 6, and get up for dinner.”

“That is a very messed up schedule!”

She explained: “Well, it’s not like people would play games in the

morning while they are working, right? Most of us [companions] work at night.

To be honest, when you texted me, I was about to go to sleep. If you weren't a

girl, I would not take the order at all.”

In the previous chapters, my analysis centered on the structural designs of

the platform and the overarching gender ideologies that are shaping the entire

industry and public opinions around it. In this chapter, I wish to come back to the

companions and tell their stories as they are the “players” in the field. However, I

have to warn my readers: if you are expecting to hear stories of feminist resistance

against the misogynistic gaming culture, then you will be disappointed. These are

rather stories of frustrations, negotiations, and reconciliations.

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Coming back to Amanda Phillips’ Gamer Trouble (2020) where she

conceptualizes “trouble” in relation to gaming, while playing game is all about

finding the trouble and neutralizing it, there is distinction between a good kind of

trouble that is contained within the sphere of the game, and a bad kind that breaks

down the magical circle around gaming, like network lag and program bugs (16).

For Phillips, the politics of glitches is a powerful feminist intervention that

disrupts and ungrounds the discourse of identity and authenticity. However, the

glitch does not exclusively affect those privileged gamers who are protected by

the magical circle. For some gamers, glitch is a trouble one has to just “put up

with,” because of the limited resource one has to solve the problem. For example,

although the network lag might significantly reduce the pleasure of gaming, not

everyone could afford a better bandwidth or a more advanced equipment. Despite

the frustration one might experience, the fun people get out of gaming alone or

with others still propels them to participate in this activity, while trying their best

to ignore the unpleasant experiences. The gaming experience of women or anyone

who fall outside of the conventional gamer identity is a constant negotiation with

these frustrations. Phillips concludes: “it is important to recognize that different

gamers have different proclivities towards and capacities for responding. For

individuals who continuously navigate structures that erase their visibility in the

world, certain types of trouble, like a protagonist avatar who does not match the

player's own identity, are not particularly disruptive. Other types, like coordinated

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harassment campaigns increase their vulnerability in a wider context of everyday

oppression” (2020: 16-17).

During the months of my field work, I had to constantly remind myself

that not everyone I interviewed has the same privilege I enjoy. Even though I

could also be identified as a “gamer girl”, like these companions, I am an upper-

class Chinese woman who can afford to live and study in a foreign country and

who chooses to play console games which are much more expensive than mobile

games in order to avoid the toxic culture of the mobile MOBA community

. So,

while this chapter tells the story of female companions, it is also about myself as a

queer women and a researcher, navigating in a community that assumes so much

about gender and sexuality. I could really relate to what Phillips said about being

politically responsible as a gamer: “staying woke is particularly exhausting when

you are also committed to pleasure, which is necessary to live a full life and

ultimately the purpose of social justice activism: to provide full lives to those who

are prevented from living them by cultural and institutional injustices” (2020: 3).

On one hand, I am fascinated by this industry because of the vantage point it

provides on gender and sexuality in gaming. And I enjoyed talking and playing

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Gaming consoles have only officially enter the Chinese market for five years. Before that,

console players have to purchase the equipment and games from sellers oversea or through a grey

market. A significant portion of console games is still exchanged on this grey market today

because of the heavy censorship and very limited access legally permitted by the state. Thus,

living outside of China means that I could purchase these games quite easily. That is a privilege

many Chinese gamers don’t have.

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with the companions who were willing to engage with me. However, on the other

hand, I observed aspects of the gaming phenomenon that made me uncomfortable.

Although frustration is usually considered a passive rather than an active

response, I believe it holds political significance, since “bad feelings expose

precisely when and where the disruption of power occurs” (2020: 16). Thus, my

goal is to faithfully transcribe the stories told by these companions, including the

emotions they expressed and my reactions, as they are openings for possible

disruptions.

Having Fun

Despite BIXIN’s effort at portraying game companionship as a formal

occupation, most companions I have interviewed work part-time. Even those

working as full-time companions usually see the job as a temporary or transitional

arrangement. Considered as merely a side job (or not even a job), the attitudes

these companions brought to their work vary drastically.

Much like WS, CJ is a college student who loves gaming in her free time.

She was first introduced to Honor of Kings by her boyfriend, who hoped she

would stop nagging him when he was playing video games, if they could share

this hobby. Coached first by her boyfriend, CJ was hooked on the game

immediately. However, CJ’s boyfriend then lost his interest in Kings and decide

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to play another game with his male friends, leaving CJ alone without a stable

playmate.

“I first told him I was going to be a game companion as a joke. I said to

my boyfriend: ‘if you are not going to play with me, I will go to game

companions. There are more than enough skilled boys who can help me improve

my rank’ Surprisingly, he didn’t mind at all! So, I became a game companion.

People are always surprised when they hear I have a boyfriend who is okay with

me being a companion. They ask me if my boyfriend would get jealous if I hang

out with other guys online, but I am entirely open with my boyfriend with what

happens while being a companion.”

I first found CJ in the public story section where she responded to a tagged

question: “Should anyone in a stable relationship work as a companion?” CJ

posted her discussion with her boyfriend on how money does drive people to

betray their partners. Because of the eroticized public image and stigmatization,

game companionship is usually not considered to be a suitable job for people with

stable relationships. The majority of the answers under this tag assert that

intimacy is unavoidable between companions and their customers, so if one wants

to remain loyal to one’s partner, game companion is not an ideal occupation. CJ’s

post has many upvotes and comments. Many people praise her candid

conversation with her boyfriend and her boyfriend’s open attitude towards her

choice of job.

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I was more perplexed by the fact that she chooses to be a companion,

rather than a customer. CJ responded: “I am killing two bird with one stone. I can

earn some money and I can find people who are willing to play with me. But

honestly, I’m not in this for money. The income is too insignificant. I just want to

find people who can play with me whenever I wish. I just have to turn on my

service availability, and then find someone who is also looking for companionship

as well.”

To accommodate part-time companions, BIXIN allows the companions to

temporarily suspend their service. When the service is turned off, the companion

cannot be found in the commission system, so one won’t receive any order when

they are not available, since delayed response could affect the companion’s

performance score. The flexibility offered by the platform is prized by

companions like CJ, since they can negotiate their own hours, which also makes

game companionship less “work-like.” CJ contends: “It is all one and the same to

me. I also play Kings together with my roommates. When my boyfriend is not too

busy playing Hearthstone, he will also team up with me. When none of them is

available, I will go to BIXIN and find a boss who is willing to “carry me”

. I play

mostly supporting heroes. I need someone to bring me along so I can raise in

rank. And gaming is more fun when you have someone to talk to.”

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It means to help her to improve her rank. “Carry” implies that the one being carried don’t have

to work as much.

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The majority of the companions I talked to claim that being a game

companion is, first and foremost, fun. Most of them are college students or have a

formal day job. Companionship work is seen as a relief from the stresses of

studying and boring jobs and a chance to meet different kinds of people in the

virtual space. Earning some extra money along the way also “doesn’t hurt.” Even

the more professional gamers like WS expressed a similar attitude: “I love talking

to people and listen to what they do, what they see, and what they think. There are

people living a very different life than mine, and I would like to know what it is

like.” As an anthropology student, I can relate to her excitement. Although we

work in very different disciplines, the underlying force driving us is the curiosity

we have about other people and their lives.

In addition, WS believes her companionship can provide valuable

emotional fulfillment that ordinary work does not provide. She explains her work

in terms of Maslow's hierarchy of human needs, in which the five-tiers ranked

from bottom to top are: physiological, safety, love and belonging, esteem, and

self-actualization (Maslow, 1943). WS places her work on the third tier, “love and

belonging,” while most people’s life could only fulfill the second-lowest level,

“safety.” She contends: “most people are too exhausted by their day job which is

just enough for them to sustain their life that they don’t have time or energy to

curate interpersonal relationships with others. I can provide them with expedient

‘love and belonging.’ Of course, real life relationship is better, but my

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companionship is better than nothing.” In fact, a few companions brought up

Maslow's hierarchy of needs in our conversation as it is a popular psychology

concept among Chinese public in recent years.

As a secondary industry of video gaming, game companionship is a site of

convergence of work and play, production and consumption, commerce and

community. The negotiation between work and play is clear in these companions’

narratives. Past scholarly work on the subject “has largely revolved around the

‘exploitation or empowerment’ dilemma…[and] most studies have been

conducted in the context of a Western “post-Fordist” economy, assuming either a

universalistic argument in which human beings share common needs and

motivational structures, or that the rest of the world is too busy engaging in

outsourced “material labor” and building basic telecommunication infrastructure

to concern itself with “immaterial production” and consumer labor” (Zhang and

Fung, 2013). Instead of the empowerment/exploitation binary, Zhang and Fung, in

their investigation into Chinese gaming guilds, suggest that the secondary

industry is where labor and capital are being negotiated on both institutional and

subjective levels, “[t]he negotiations both result from and constitute a re-

imagining of the value of the affective labor of consumers in the digital economy”

(2013).

In my conversations with the companions, I noticed that they don’t define

work in terms of monetary exchange. Getting paid by the customers does not

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constitute “work.” Rather, it is the emotional disposition produced and reproduced

by the job that defines the work they perform. Even though the association of

emotional companionship with domesticity puts it in the lower tier of labor

hierarchy, WS, and many companions consider their work to have superior value

because of the social relationship it produces, which places it above or beyond

conventional work. The work of game companionship fits perfectly with Michael

Hardt’s definition of affective labor which, through the manipulation of affect,

produces “social networks, forms of community, biopower” (Hardt, 1999: 96).

While companionship is mostly virtual, it is nevertheless a corporeal, embodied

experience that requires proximity (both in an emotional sense and in a temporal-

spatial sense, enabled by communication technology). Beside the close

relationship between companions and their customers, the work also intimately

affects companions’ bodies, including their daily routines–e.g. WS’s reversed

schedule–and emotional responses (Mankekar and Gupta, 2016: 35).

However, I also want to take these companions’ understanding of

companionship as “not work” seriously, inasmuch as the attitude influences their

work practices. A couple of companions told me that they would give away free

companionship to their long-time customers from time to time. “It is not entirely a

calculative move to ensure my bosses don’t go away,” one companion concludes.

“I have known some of them for too long. I even have intimate knowledge of

them. Sometimes, I almost see them as friends, and you don’t charge a friend for

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companionship, though my customer would give me some payment voluntarily.

Also, if I have a really good conversation with a customer, I won’t charge him for

extended hours because I also enjoy our time together.” Indeed, for some

companions, BIXIN is more like a social media platform. One of the few male

companions I interviewed told me that he would spend his BIXIN income right

back on other companions: “Sometimes, I do this out of empathy. I know being a

companion could be hard, and I don’t need this money that much. So I would just

give orders randomly to other companions for free. This might be an opportunity

for me to make friends as well, which is much more valuable than the little money

I gave away.” In fact, it is not uncommon for companions to spend their income

earned on BIXIN on commissioning other companions. Although I don’t have

data on how common the practice is, I have personally encountered some

companions in the chat room commissioning others and talking about their jobs.

In the previous chapters, I have engaged with literature on emotional

work. While these theoretical engagement have helped me tremendously in

conceptualizing game companionship as an occupation, I found that users’

practices do not always align with my expectation. With its multitude of users,

BIXIN has also attracted many people who utilize the platform as a way to meet

new people, rather than a means to earn money. Therefore, I am drawn to Zhang

and Fung’s argument that the secondary industry of video gaming is a site where

the value of labor and capital is being negotiated (2013). Companions are

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constantly negotiating and defining the significance of their work and it is not

always defined by their hourly rate. Some companions come to their job hoping to

establish a friendship, a romantic relationship, or just a sense of personal triumph

when they perform a combo with their customer in the game.

Of course, let’s not forget all of these interactions occur on a platform

which takes a cut in every transaction between users. Both affective and

emotional experience is not isolated from commercial interest. In fact, the

business is lucrative for the company to take on exactly because interpersonal

companionship is a desirable commodity, especially during a global pandemic.

The ideology circulated among companions that earning some extra money

“doesn’t hurt” also reflects the interpenetration of capital and affect. For example,

when seeking playmates, CJ chose to be a companion rather than a client. The

interactive digital technology promoted by neoliberal economy and its

“biopolitical mode of governing” also helps shape the enterprising individual and

consumer-laborers (Ong, 2006: 6). The combined power of affective experience

and monetary rewards is cherished by companions and keeps them in the

community.

The Glitches

Despite heavy regulations on pornographic contents, female companions

experience sexual harassment on a regular basis. Indeed, BIXIN has invested a lot

97!

in censoring and regulating user behavior. The management team can respond

swiftly to complaints and reports. Obscene harassments like sending “dick pics”

or offensive insults can result in suspension of a user’s account or other forms of

punishment. Most forms of sexual harassment, however, are categorized as

“unwanted advances,” and thus too “minor” for the platforms or the companions

to react against.

Although BIXIN’s recent campaign to improve its public image has been

effective, the sexual innuendo promoted by the larger industry and the public

perception of stigma still loom over the entire community. Many male gamers see

gaming companionship as a pathway to an eventual romantic or sexual

relationship. Tingting Liu and Zishan Lai have also observed that the social

functions in MOBA games are interpreted by male gamers as a warrant to

approach female strangers online with romantic or sexual intentions: “as a matter

of fact, there is so much sexual harassment reported in the game community that

the game system now reminds female players to exercise caution when setting up

their profiles and to consider rejecting friend requests from strangers” (2020: 10).

Game companions, however, don’t have the privilege to “exercise caution,” since

interacting with strangers is part of their job description, and there is no way for

them to avoid these unwanted advances without losing a customer.

Whenever I mentioned the over-sexualized image of the profession, the

companions I talked to would indignantly marginalize the acknowledged

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offenders. “I hate when people comment on something without having any

experience or knowledge about it," WS said to me. "These people probably have

never tried to commission a game companion before, I believe. Because if they

had, they will know that is not the case! These people are just projecting their own

disgusting desire on others.” She also attributed the constant sexual harassment

she encounters to this image: “People come to me with this impression that I

might get intimate with them or provide them with special service, so even if they

don’t have a malicious intention, they would make advances to me. Even if it

doesn’t work. Do you know ‘zhixun,’ the streamer?”

“No I don't know him. I don't watch live-streaming. It’s not really my

thing,” I replied.

“Well, he is a pretty famous streamer and he would find companions to

play with him during his show and broadcast the whole thing. At the end of every

round of the game, he would ask the companion to give him a ‘cool and

refreshing’ photo. It is a thing now, lots of people watched his channel and come

to us asking the same thing. I don’t get angry with them anymore. I just tell them:

sorry, I come from a conservative family so I don’t have photos like that.” The

exact Chinese word for “cool and refreshing” is

 

(qīng liáng). A “cool and

refreshing photo” is basically asking the companions to dress in revealing clothes,

as if they were dressing for a hot summer day. It is subtle way of asking

something that is anything but subtle.

99!

No doubt flirting is a technique used by many female companions,

especially those who are economically successful or wish to make a living out of

the service they provide. They act as if they are romantically or even sexually

interested in their clients to provoke a sense of intimacy and closeness. For some

male customers, flirtatious actions are expected and required. In the order system,

where all certified companions can see commissions posted by customers, I have

observed a tendency for male-identifying customers to request “someone who

knows how to flirt.” In audition halls, the companions would even use “knowing

how to flirt” as a selling point.

BIXIN’s campaign against underground sexual exchanges or pornographic

content has not extended to this culture of flirting, which could seemingly

undermine its effort at cleaning up the industry’s sexualized image. I believe the

tolerance of flirting reflects recognition that desire for sexual or romantic

intimacy is driving the consumption of male customers. In Nightwork, Anne

Allison elucidates the contradiction between Japanese hostesses’ flirtatious action

and rules against any sexual intercourse between hostesses and their clients.

Allison argues: “the sexual service of hostesses operates as a [Freudian] fetish. It

is both a presence (the implied promise of sexual access) and an absence (the

denial of access), and the simultaneity of these two operations is what makes it a

valuable commodity” (1994: 21). Exactly because sexual climax defined by

100!

release is unattainable, the customers keeps come back with the hope that the

dream could one day become true.

In addition, flirting is a gendered labor activity that is expected to be

performed by female companions if they want to remain valuable in the gaming

community. It comes back to the underlying assumption that excludes women

from the gaming meritocracy. If the male customers are not looking for skill in

female companions, then they must be looking for other services, worthy of their

money. Flirtatious behavior that makes men feel sexually competent and desirable

is no doubt regarded as valuable.

However, while most companions I encountered don’t mind exchanging

some banter or flirtatious jokes with their customers, many customers, especially

men, cannot differentiate between playful flirting and unwanted advances, such as

asking the companion for a revealing photo during their first meeting. Long-term

companions would put up some notes on the picture next to their profile picture.

The first line is always warning against harassment. One companions wrote

something that really made me laugh: “Don’t tell me you are in love with me on

the third day we met. Do you even believe in that?”

This culture of flirting casts unwanted advances from customers as

unavoidable and impossible to regulate. Although I was not able to observe

companions on the job due to technical difficulties, I watched some videos of

zhixun, the streamer who would commission female companions on his streaming

101!

channel, as an alternative means to see how companions interact with their

customers. The streamer would not ask the companions to send him photos at the

beginning; instead, he would first exchange flirtatious banter with them. If a

companion responded to the innuendoes with an equally inviting attitude, he

would further push his agenda and ask for photos or an opportunity for video

chatting. Not everyone would agree to send photos at the beginning. In fact, most

companions would try to direct the conversation in another direction. However,

the streamer would demand the same thing later on in the game, using different

excuses like the mistakes a companion made during the game. The casual

conversations lay groundworks for more direct demands for intimacy. If the

companion rejects them, the request could be understood as harmless ribaldry,

rather than a transgression of privacy. Rendered as sexual humor, sexual

harassment is trivialized, even normalized among male customers, while female

companions who have to endure the harassment don’t feel justified to report each

and every violation.

Frankly, watching the interactions between the streamer, zhixun, and the

companions he commissioned was the most unpleasant part of my field work.

First of all, the streamer would post companions’ photos publicly, without their

knowledge, let alone their consent. Secondly, he would comment, often

disparagingly, on the companion’s body image, and the body shaming is usually

echoed by the predominantly male viewers in his channel. What made me most

102!

uncomfortable, however, were the female companions. Even when they found out

that their photos were being leaked for a public viewership, most of them didn’t

seem to be offended in the slightest. Some companions even offered more service,

including changing to a more revealing outfit, in exchange for more followers on

their companionship account.

It made me mentally scream, seeing these

companions comply to the men’s demands, and there were so many times I

wanted to just close the video. Many other women I have interviewed, draw their

lines and block their harassers. They would emphasize repeatedly that they won’t

extend their relationships with their customers to the off-line world. They refuse

to have overly intimate relationships with their customers. They claim they are

different from other women. In fact, some part-time companions would see any

advances as harassment. CJ left BIXIN after several months because she did not

feel respected by most people she encountered. I guess these videos are where I

choose to draw my line. As a feminist, choosing not to point fingers at other

women is a political and strategic move. As a researcher, I choose to respect other

women’s choices to capitalize on their own sexuality. But, as a woman, I cannot

bury away the spontaneous emotion I felt watching these videos.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I should mention that the streamer don’t use BIXIN. Instead, he is using less known platforms

and agencies to commission companions. My interlocutors who has worked on different platforms

before concludes that BIXIN’s strict regulation has been effective in preventing borderline sexual

services, and compared to other platforms, harassment is much less seen on BIXIN.

103!

To a certain extent, I think these women and I are all negotiating the fun

and the bad feelings in the often unfair game we consent to play. One either

endures the difficulties and makes do with rewards, or leaves the game.

Marginalized by the dominant gamer identity, women are constantly navigating a

hostile landscape. Much as in the video games themselves, effort, strategic mind,

and hard work are usually required if we wish to “ace the game. During my first

session with WS, she not only exhibits techne in gaming, but also exceptional

conversational and relational capabilities. For the companions, every client is a

unique puzzle to solve. Some customers come for the gaming experience, some

come for good conversation, and some come with malicious intentions. Figuring

out the needs of each one of them is the key to maintaining a long-lasting

relationship. Those customers who hope to become enamored with the

companions, then, are the “boss battles.” While they can be a handful for the

companions, playing with these men is also potentially lucrative. Companions

keep them at arms-length, not so far that they lose interest, but also not so close

that the companions themselves could be hurt. However, to these women, game

companionship is never a well-designed game that balances difficulties and joy.

Rather, it is often a skewed game that burdens women with impossible tasks or

poses unsolvable constraints like hardware failure, a “bad game” by Phillips’

definition (2020: 16).

104!

Game companionship is not a story of the “feminist killjoys.” I might be

the only killjoy in this story, an anthropology student who comes and interrogates

everything she encountered. However, while the pervasive misogyny renders me a

vulnerable observer, I can take analytical pleasure in elucidating its operation,

which helps me emotionally distance myself from the mess. I have the privilege to

disentangle myself from this community and its culture. Instead of killing the

compromised and gendered joy achievable in this community, female companions

choose to make the most out of it, even if that means complying with the sexist

regime. However, that does not mean they are not aware of the structural power at

play. In fact, they are constantly frustrated by misogynist culture which

undervalues their worth as gamers and positions them as targets of endless

harassment. I believe they would love to participate in a fair game, if there were

one. The fact that WS would take my commission even if that further disrupts her

schedule suggests that these women feel safer and can thus have more fun with

other women. CJ was also extra excited when I paid her compensation in virtual

gifts and posted a screenshot as a commemoration of having her first “woman

boss.” I believe the discomfort felt facing harassment and the excitement female

gamers experience when they are respected alone are powerful. Even if they don’t

look for troubles, the troubles will confront them in this game of gender and

performance.

105!

An Open World

I am reluctant to title this chapter “conclusion,” because I don’t think I can

give any definitive answers to the questions posed by this industry, this platform,

or any of these companions I worked with for only several months. As a newly

formed industry, game companionship is undergoing a rapid transformation. Even

during the short duration of my field work, BIXIN has updated and reconfigured

its app, in response to state intervention in Summer 2020. However, some

foundational features have not changed. Users still have to select their gender

upon registration, the system still prioritizes heterosexual pairing, and women still

have a lower standard for companion certification. Normative heterosexuality and

binary gender are still the basic assumption on which the industry is built on.

Nevertheless, much has also changed. Voice-chat companionship is restored with

an AI voice recognition system that can detect word usages that violates platform

regulation. In addition, the image of game companionship among the general

public has been improved, even though it has only been less than three years since

the publication of the Zhihu article, which I discussed in the beginning of the

second chapter. BIXIN’s campaign effort has born fruits, but most importantly,

the Covid-19 pandemic has completely changed the world of entertainment. With

the deadly and highly-contagious virus, people have to seek out human

connections without physical proximity, which now might be a threat to one’s

106!

health. Virtual intimacy, like that provided in game companionship, has become a

necessary substitute for conventional relationality that is currently difficult to

attain. No doubt the new norms of the post-pandemic world will continue to

challenge our way of life, and game companionship, along with other forms of

commodified virtual relationship, will become more and more common in our

life. Therefore, it is too early to draw any conclusion, and this is why I titled these

closing observations “An Open World”.

“Open World” is also a popular mechanic of video games deployed in many

high-budget and critically-acclaimed games in recent years. Unlike the

conventional gameplay which is linear and goal-driven, open world game gives

more autonomy to players and even rewards actions of exploration and

manipulation of the given world settings. In Coming of Age in Second Life, Tom

Boellstorff (2008: 22-23) contends that online sociality should not be conflated

with entertainment, and, consequently, the virtual world where sociality is formed

should not be reduced to games, the mere production for entertainment. However,

the genre of open world games challenges this distinction as it invites players to

foster relationships with other gamers, sometimes even non-playable characters,

as an essential part of the game. In addition, the penetration of market logic in

private sphere, including intimacy and sexuality, has rendered sociality as

recreational and thus bears little difference to entertainment (Bernstein, 2007).

107!

The distinction between “player” and “gamer” today might not be so significant

as Boellstorff once suggested.

I find the idea of an open world game powerful against the concept of

“gamespace” that helps me organize this project. Mckenzie Wark (2007), Megan

Condis (2018), and Amanda Phillips (2020) have employed the game metaphor

with a rather critical attitude. To them, the gamer, or the gamer attitude, does not

challenge the existing structure, but approaches it as a game to be won, and thus

trivializes structural inequalities and reinforces dominant ideologies. In chapter

two and three, BIXIN’s public image management campaign and female

companions’ reluctant toleration of sexual harassment are examples of such

passive gamer attitude. That female companions choose to participate in a game

that is stacked against them is especially disturbing. As a woman, I found it

difficult to resolve the tension between their choice and my distaste, even though I

am aware of the privilege I enjoy. The idea of an open world, however, can help

us jump out of the binary of empowerment and disempowerment.

An open world is never truly “open.” Although the technological

advancement in gaming gears allows more saving space and process capacity

which enabled the bloom of open-world games in the past couple of years, the

current computing power would never let the user “do anything.” The map is

limited. The skill set is predetermined. And there is always a main story line for

the players to follow. However, these constraints do not stop gamers from coming

108!

up with new ways to enjoy the game. Even in the more structured video games,

there are always players who discover new routines which the developers never

imagined during the design process. Although a perfect open world is ideally the

recreation of the physical world which we now reside in, our world is also not

without rules. Our world has classed, gendered, and racialized hierarchies. Any

subversion of the normative ideology could be absorbed and remapped onto the

existing structures once it is routinized. I am not suggesting that resistance is

futile or unimportant. However, the heterogeneity of each repetition and the

occasional slippage from the dominant ideologies are already potential openings

for further disruption and interventions. Finding ways to survive and to some

degree thrive within power-laden space is a tactic which should not be

disregarded or undermined.

109!

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