Chinese people's craze for koi fish, which represents good luck in fengshui, has driven millions to repost koi-related tweets in hopes of attaining wealth and better health.
"Xinxiaodai," a 26-year-old IT engineer based in Beijing, recently became the "national koi" after winning an online lottery, which gives her prizes sponsored by the Alipay mobile payment system.
"Does it mean I don't have to work the rest of my life?" she said on Sina Weibo after learning of her win on Sunday.
The Weibo tweet has been reposted nearly 800,000 times as of press time, with most netizens hoping to borrow some luck from "Xinxiaodai."
Among her prizes from over 150 Chinese and overseas companies are a night at Trump Tower, two round-trip tickets to Africa and an eight-day Alaska cruise.
In China and Japan, people have a long history of keeping koi, which they believe could bring good luck.
The tradition continues on the internet, as "reposting koi" has become a trend on Weibo.
One of the most popular Weibo accounts, "King of Koi," has more than 15.7 million followers. The account's most trending Weibo tweet, "follow and repost this koi picture, something good must happen within one month," has been reposted more than 9 million times.
"What if it works?" said a netizen from North China's Hebei Province, who randomly reposts koi. "It does no harm."
Reposting koi is a way of releasing pressure, regardless of whether they seriously repost or take it as a joke, Jiang Haisheng, head of the Journalism and Communication Department at the Shandong University of Political Science and Law, told the Global Times on Monday.
"But good wishes should be based on hard work instead of online reposts and fantasy," Jiang noted.
