乡约

罗马假日

Warhammer 40,000 tie-in draws young donors, shows power of pop culture in public welfare_我的网站

无耻家庭

一 |     记者 赵丽杰报道            为进一步激发党员干部群众参与基层党建、乡村治理、志愿服务的积极性,营造和谐文明的社会氛围,从去年年底,绥中县加碑岩乡张杖子村开展了文明积分兑换活动。           近日,走进张杖子村积分兑换超市,货架摆放的洗衣液、洗洁精、毛巾、油等日常生活用品排列整齐,村民们拿着文明积分卡前来兑换物品,一分钱不花就能得到生活用品,获得了看得见、摸得着的真实惠。    

A blood donor poses together with a cosplayer dressed as a Sister of Battle from Warhammer 40,000. Photo: Official account of the Shanghai Blood Center
    A blood donor poses together with a cosplayer dressed as a Sister of Battle from Warhammer 40,000. Photo: Official account of the Shanghai Blood CenterFor a few hours, the Shanghai Blood Center looked more like a fan convention than a medical facility.
Cosplayers in brightly colored power armor, carrying replica weapons, posed in front of displays featuring quotations and insignia from Warhammer 40,000, which is regarded as one of the world's best-known miniature wargames. Fans gathered around them for photos, creating the atmosphere of a franchise meet-up.
But the visitors had not come simply to meet fellow enthusiasts. Many had traveled from across China to roll up their sleeves and donate blood, drawn by the chance to take home a Warhammer-themed model.
The unlikely crossover reflects a broader effort by Chinese blood centers and public welfare organizations to reach young people in a language they recognize. By collaborating with popular international and domestic franchises, these organizations are making traditionally solemn causes more accessible - and, in this case, turning online enthusiasm into first-time blood donations.
Toys for life
From July 24 to August 2, the Shanghai Blood Center held a campaign allowing people who donated whole blood at designated sites to enter a prize draw for Warhammer 40,000-themed figures and models.
The prizes ranged from giant 1:18-scale Knight Titans - towering war machines in the franchise's fictional universe - and Primarchs, its superhuman military leaders, to standard Space Marine figures.
A Warhammer 40,000-themed model display at the Wonder Festival 2023 Beijing File photo: VCG
    A Warhammer 40,000-themed model display at the Wonder Festival 2023 Beijing File photo: VCGThe crossover quickly became a topic of discussion online. According to the center, posts related to the campaign drew millions of views on Chinese social media platforms Weibo and Xiaohongshu (rednote) within three days, alongside a surge in user-generated posts and shares.
At three designated blood donation sites, the combined number of donors reached 256 in a single day, said the center.
The response was particularly notable because Shanghai had experienced consecutive days of high temperatures, which reduced pedestrian traffic and affected street-based blood collection.
With some models distributed faster than expected, the center held another round of the campaign on August 8 and 9.
The campaign appears to have reached the audience it was designed to attract. Zhu, 25, who donated blood in Shanghai on August 1, told the Global Times that his interest in Warhammer was the main reason he joined the campaign.
"I had never donated blood before taking part in this event," Zhu said.
Zhu lives outside Shanghai, as did many participants he met at the site. Some had traveled from the neighboring provinces, while others came from even farther away, largely because of the Warhammer models.
"Close to half of the donors on site that day were giving blood for the first time, and they were also Warhammer fans," Zhu said.
The campaign was neither an isolated experiment nor the center's first attempt to use pop culture to engage potential donors. According to the Xinhua News Agency, the Shanghai Blood Center began exploring IP collaborations in 2014 and has more than a decade of experience in such campaigns.
Pop culture for public good
China's voluntary blood donation rate has reached 11.4 donors per 1,000 people, Gao Guangming, deputy head of the Department of Medical Emergency Response under the National Health Commission, said at a press conference in June 2025.
"Over the past two years, voluntary blood donations have declined globally due to multiple factors. In China, the accelerating aging of the population, changes in lifestyles, and overlapping challenges in publicity, organization and mobilization have left the imbalance between blood supply and demand relatively pronounced," Gao said.
"Clinical demand continues to rise, while seasonal, regional and blood-type-specific shortages persist," Gao said.
As people aged 35 and under constitute the majority of blood donors, attracting more young people is crucial to sustaining voluntary blood donation.
"Using designer toys and popular products can make blood donation more approachable, increase its visibility and recognition among young people, and help remove psychological barriers," Zhang Yiwu, a professor at Peking University with an expertise in cultural studies, told the Global Times on Wednesday.
Young people are highly active on social media and more willing to share their experiences, meaning their participation can encourage others to follow, Zhang said. Attracting younger generations is therefore essential to the long-term development of public welfare causes, he noted.
Blood donation is not the only field in which Chinese organizations are using popular franchises to broaden public participation.
In March, One Foundation again collaborated with Twinkle Twinkle, a popular character owned by Chinese toy company Pop Mart, to raise awareness of the needs of people requiring special support. Volunteers and children with autism took part in an art activity at Pop Mart City Park in Beijing.
The Pokémon franchise also appeared in a ByteDance public welfare campaign in 2025, which called for greater attention to the treatment and rehabilitation of children with cleft lips and palates, according to Chinese media reports.
Yet the campaign's success also raises a longer-term question: whether enthusiasm generated by prizes can be converted into regular voluntary donations.
"If there are more Warhammer-related charity campaigns in the future, fans will continue to follow them with enthusiasm, and I would also consider participating again," Zhu said. "However, without rewards or other incentives, the actual participation rate may not be very high."
A Shanghai Blood Center staff member acknowledged the same challenge. "A themed event can quickly increase the number of blood donors, but the long-term security of a city's blood supply ultimately depends on a stable community of voluntary donors," said the staff member, according to Xinhua.
The lasting value of an IP collaboration, therefore, lies not simply in the immediate increase in donor numbers, but in whether it gives first-time donors a positive reason to return.
"The real significance of IP collaborations is to give young people an opportunity to walk into a blood donation site," Xinhua noted. "Through standardized services and a positive experience, they can develop an understanding of and identification with voluntary blood donation, ultimately moving from 'one-time campaign participants' to 'long-term contributors to public welfare.'"

二 |            据了解,张杖子村文明积分兑换活动将乡村治理各项事务转化为数量化指标,对村民日常行为进行评价形成积分,采取文明加分、负面减分的原则,通过1积分折兑5毛钱、一季度一审核、两季度一公布、半年一兑换的方式推进运行。活动资金由村集体经济收入按比例支出。自活动开展以来,激发了群众参与基层治理的热情,全村环境卫生持续好转,乐于助人等好事层出不穷,群众获得感、幸福感进一步提升。近年来,张杖子村以新时代文明实践站为平台,成立党员活动室及志愿服务队,通过文明积分开展“十星文明户”“最美家庭”评选活动,引导群众讲文明、树新风,走出了一条共建共治共享的乡村治理新路子。

Current article:http://www.shangfochengcongshuaizhuang.buzz/list_ewor6/hid.html

Published on:12:15:38


------分隔线----------------------------