Cyber wishing well

"Our generation is faced with tons of pressure from work, study and other things in life, and we need an outlet that is a bit away from reality yet also quite accessible to most of us, and making wishes online seems to be an ideal method for our spiritual well-being," said Echo Wang, an English teacher at a middle school in Ningbo, Zhejiang province.

Being a teacher in charge of a class of 46 students means increased responsibility, extended working hours and unexpected evening calls. Wang, 25, recalled a call from a protective parent at past 10 pm one evening who was desperately anxious about the new seating arrangement in class.

"Bob is a problem student," the mother said. "Please don't let him sit next to my son."

It turned out that Bob, (not the child's real name), had behavioral issues and would hurt others on some occasions, and had poked her son's arm with scissors in the past.

The mother's tone was understandably distressed as she recounted numerous conflicts involving Bob, warning that his large stature of 1.7 meters could pose a threat to everyone in the class.

After trying to educate Bob to behave at school to no avail, Wang's only recourse was to assign a seat for Bob at the back of the class.

Yet there are also many heartwarming interactions between Wang and her students that make her feel that it's all worth it. She recalled a boy in her class who had poor English handwriting but who would make timely corrections every time he received the teacher's feedback.

Once, after he handed in a messy dictation sheet, Wang left a comment saying, "Your handwriting is too sloppy that recognizing it makes my eyes hurt."

After the next dictation, Wang found a small bottle of eye drops stuck to his dictation book. "It's for you, Ms Wang," the message said.

Wang's getaway from the piling workload is to make wishes in the livestream room of her idol, a League of Legends esports player.

She enjoys his gameplay due to his resilience in the face of challenges and his ability to lead his team with exceptional skills.

The player livestreams on Bilibili and reads some of the scrolling danmu (bullet comments) such as "Can you wish for my work to go smoothly, early holidays and more bonuses?".

With time, the fans turned the screen into a wishing well, leaving their wishes and dreams, hoping their idol could see them and read them out loud.

"This has virtually become a cultural norm within the fan circle, and we jokingly call him 'wish boy' because he reads almost all the wishes made by fans," Wang said.

"Whether the wish comes true or not is not really important." For Wang, making a wish in her idol's livestream room is a temporary escape from reality, a reminder not to be shackled by the mundane but to embrace the numerous possibilities life offers.