One Yuan for One Hundred People?

Qiming Liu is adept at conveying profound reflections on society through a light, humorous approach. Red Envelope is no exception. It is a highly engaging work, and may also be the least expensive artwork ever produced anywhere in the world.

In China, a red envelope can be a form of etiquette, a reward, a bribe or an act of sharing. Traditionally known as yasui qian, it consists of money wrapped in red paper and given by elders to children during the Lunar New Year. In the Ming and Qing dynasties, this New Year money was usually presented to children as coins threaded on a red cord. After the establishment of the Republic of China, red paper wrapping became customary. The term now refers more broadly to red paper packets containing money, given as gifts on festive occasions. It can also denote a bonus or a means of offering a bribe.

Today, red envelopes circulate everywhere on WeChat, Weibo, Didi and a variety of e-commerce platforms. For online businesses, distributing them is both an advertising strategy and a commercial trap. The desire to receive something without effort is part of human nature. Businesses often use red envelopes to tempt consumers, turning them into an adversary of rational consumption.

The artist Qiming Liu says: “A red envelope is a benefit: once you receive one, you have received a blessing! How much you get does not matter!” “I put one yuan into an envelope and distributed it to one hundred people. Receiving that one fen is winning the top prize, and everyone who receives an envelope gets an equal amount!” “Once they receive the one fen, almost nobody can spend it. They can only tuck it away. Whenever they see that one fen in the future, they will think of me.”

Using WeChat, China’s largest platform for self-directed communication at the time, Qiming Liu has ingeniously shared one yuan among one hundred people, creating engaging interactions and effects among these participants. The most interesting aspect of the work is the change in feeling as each recipient opens the envelope and confronts the sum of 0.01 yuan. In the sequence of “anticipation—action—surprise (disappointment),” people with differing perceptions and attitudes to life fully expose and express their inner responses in an instant. One yuan imposes a moment of self-examination on one hundred recipients—a moment that may be deeply unpleasant.

Looking across Qiming Liu’s work, it is not difficult to discern the serious, weighty reflections beneath its seemingly playful, witty surface. What can one fen do today? In a Chinese financial environment of soaring prices and steadily rising inflation, every individual is offering an answer of their own.